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. 2023 Jan 3:101:skad368.
doi: 10.1093/jas/skad368.

Effect of Pseudostellaria heterophylla polysaccharide on the growth and liver metabolism of chicks

Yange Yu  1   2 , Zhaoyan Zhu  1   2 , Mengxia Ding  1   2 , Bingxin Wang  1   2 , Yujie Guo  2   3 , Yadong Tian  2   1 , Ruirui Jiang  2   1 , Guirong Sun  2   1 , Ruili Han  2   1 , Xiangtao Kang  2   1 , Fengbin Yan  1   2
Affiliations

Effect of Pseudostellaria heterophylla polysaccharide on the growth and liver metabolism of chicks

Yange Yu et al. J Anim Sci. .

Abstract

In this study, the effects of Pseudostellaria heterophylla polysaccharide (PHP) on the growth, development, and liver metabolism of chicks were investigated by feeding chicks diets. Four hundred 7-d-old Gushi roosters were selected and randomly divided into four groups, labeled A, B, C, and D. Group A was fed the basal diet, and Groups B, C, and D were fed 100, 200, and 400 mg PHP per kilogram of basal diet, respectively. At 14, 21, 28 and 35 d of age, five chicks were randomly selected from each group to collect samples for index detection. The results showed that compared with Group A, there were significant reduction in average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed-to-weight ratio (F/G) at 14, 21, and 28 d (P < 0.05), significant increase in average daily gain (ADG) at 21, 28 d (P < 0.05), significantly increased levels of total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), insulin (INS), thyroxine (T3), growth hormone (GH) at 14, 28 d (P < 0.05), significantly decreased levels of glucose (GLU), total cholesterol (TC), glucagon (GC), and triglyceride (TG) at 28 d in Group C (P < 0.05). There were significantly increased levels of TP, ALB at 14, 21 d (P < 0.05), significantly increased level of TP at 35 d (P < 0.05), significantly increased level of GH at 28 d (P < 0.05), significantly decreased levels of GLU, GC at 28 d (P < 0.05), significant reduction in F/G at 14, 21 d in Groups B and D (P < 0.05). Based on the above results, the livers from chicks in Groups A and C at 28 d were selected for transcriptome sequencing. The sequencing results showed that significantly differentially expressed genes (SDEGs) were enriched in growth and development, oxidative phosphorylation, the PPAR signaling pathway and the lipid metabolism pathway. All these results revealed that the addition of 200 mg/kg PHP in the diet promoted the growth and development, lipid metabolism and energy metabolism of chicks, inhibit inflammation and tumor development, and improve the function of the liver.

Keywords: Pseudostellaria heterophylla polysaccharide; chicks; growth and development; liver metabolism.

Plain language summary

In order to explore the possibility of Pseudostellaria heterophylla polysaccharide (PHP) as green and healthy feed additive, we evaluated the effects of PHP on the growth, development and liver metabolism of chicks by feeding chicks diets in this study. The results revealed that the addition of 200 mg/kg PHP in the diet promoted the growth and development, lipid metabolism and energy metabolism in chicks and improved liver function. PHP may be a potential natural and safe feed additive applied in poultry production.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Effect of PHP on the average daily intake of chicks. The x-axis is the age of the chicks and the y-axis is the average daily feed intake.a,b,c Means of different superscripts within the same day of age differ significantly (P < 0.05).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Effect of PHP on the average daily weight gain of chicks. The x-axis is the age of the chicks and the y-axis is the average daily weight gain, a,b,c Means of different superscripts within the same day of age differ significantly (P < 0.05).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Effect of PHP on the feed-to-weight ratio of chicks. The x-axis is the age of the chicks and the y-axis is the ratio of average daily feed intake to average daily weight gain, a,b,c,d Means of different superscripts within the same day of age differ significantly (P < 0.05).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Volcano map of the differentially expressed genes between the AS group and the CS group of the livers. The significantly differentially expressed genes (SDEGs) are shown as green (down) and red (up) dots, and blue dots indicate a lack of significance. The horizontal black line indicates the suggestive significance thresholds of differentially expressed genes at P < 0.05; the vertical black lines indicate the threshold of log2fold change ≥ 0. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article).
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Top 30 GO-enriched entries of differential genes. The X-axis indicates GO entries enriched for SDEGs, and the Y-axis is the −log10Padj.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Top 20 enriched KEGG pathways of the SDEGs of the AS group and CS group. The X-axis shows the rich factor, the Y-axis shows the KEGG pathway. The colour of the dot represents the Padj, and the size of the dot represents the number of DEGs enriched in the reference pathway.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
qRT-PCR validation of the RNA-seq results. (A) RNA-seq results; (B) qRT-PCR results. The Pink column is the AS group, and the green column is the CS group. * indicates P < 0.05. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article).
Figure 8.
Figure 8.
PPI diagram of the differentially expressed genes. The connection between proteins indicates that they interact, and the confidence interval is greater than 0.4.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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