Effects of dietary supplementation of different levels of vitamin B₁₂ on the liver metabolism of laying hens

Abstract

BACKGROUND Vitamin B12 plays an important role in lipid, protein, carbohydrate and nucleic acid metabolism. We investigated the effect of supplementing layers’ diets with different vitamin B12 levels on liver metabolism using a liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry‐based metabolomic approach to observe and analyse wide‐target metabolomics in the liver. RESULTS We assigned hens to three groups, namely blank control group without vitamin B12 diet (BCG), normal control group with 25 μg kg−1 vitamin B12 (NCG) and vitamin B12 supplement group I with 100 μg kg−1 vitamin (VBSG I). The VBSG I group layers had higher (P < 0.05) vitamin B12 concentration than those from other groups. The egg yolk vitamin B12 concentration increased (P < 0.01) with the increasing vitamin B12 dietary supplemental level. Between the NCG versus BCG, VBSG I versus BCG, and VBSG I versus NCG groups, 11, 20 and 11 metabolites were significantly changed, respectively. The KEGG pathway of vitamin B6 metabolism was significantly impacted in the NCG layers than those from BCG; seven and five pathways were significantly impacted in the VBSG I layers compared with those from BCG and NCG, including pyrimidine metabolism, vitamin B6 metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism, etc. CONCLUSION We concluded that 25 μg kg−1 vitamin B12 supplementation in corn–soybean meal‐based layer diet increased the egg yolk vitamin B12 concentration and impacted the vitamin B6 metabolic pathway, and 100 μg kg−1 of it increased the egg yolk and liver vitamin B12 concentrations and impacted vitamin B6, lipid, nucleic acid and amino acid metabolic pathways. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.