Ginsenoside Rg3 Ameliorates Stress of Broiler Chicks Induced by Escherichia coli Lipopolysaccharide

Abstract

In broiler chicks, Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide is a prominent cause for inflammatory damage and loss of immune homeostasis in broiler chicks. Ginsenosides have been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. However, it has not been demonstrated that ginsenosides protect broiler chicks against stress induced by Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide challenge. The aim of this is to investigate the protective effect of ginsenosides Rg1, Re, and Rg3 on Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide-induced stress. Our results showed that Rg3 ameliorated growth inhibition and fever, as well as decreased the production of stress-related hormones in broilers with stress. The protective effect of Rg3 on the stressed chicks may be largely mediated by regulating inflammatory response and oxidative damage. Moreover, real-time quantitative-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) results demonstrated that Rg3 upregulated mRNA expression of mTOR, HO-1, and SOD-1. These results suggested that ginsenoside Rg3 and ginsenoside products contains Rg3 deserve further study for the control of immunological stress and inflammation in broiler chicks.

Serum metabolomics reveal pathways associated with protective effect of ginsenoside Rg3 on immune stress

“…Furthermore, the downstream metabolites of HO-1, such as bilirubin and CO could promote generation of eNOS and inhibit iNOS induced NO production ( Otterbein et al, 2000 ; Wang et al, 2004 ; Idelman et al, 2015 ). This is consistent with our previous observation on inflammatory response and oxidative stress ( Bi et al, 2022 ). Leucine may act as a potential agent in reducing body temperature and confer thermotolerance in broiler chicks ( Han et al, 2017 ).…”

“…In the present study, KEGG pathway analysis revealed that metabolites were significantly involved in the BCAA metabolism and mTOR signaling pathway. Consistently, upregulating mRNA expression of mTOR in Rg3 group was demonstrated in liver of broiler chicks, suggesting that the protective effect of Rg3 on stress may be related to regulation of mTOR ( Bi et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Our previous study demonstrated that ginsenoside Rg3 improved the growth performance, shortened the duration of fever and the maximum body temperature, and decreased the serum CORT and ACTH, as well as inhibited the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory mediators and reduced the oxidative damage in broilers with stress challenged by LPS ( Bi et al, 2022 ). The protective effect of Rg3 might be mediated by upregulation of mRNA expression of mTOR, SOD-1 , and HO-1 ( Bi et al, 2022 ). In this study, using LC-MS profiling, 17 different metabolites were identified in the comparison Model vs. Control, which were related to oxidative stress, inflammation and degradation of protein and lipid.…”

“…The influenced metabolic pathway was set as a pathway impact value ≥ 0.25 or P < 0.05. Correlation analysis between serum metabolites and clinical parameters ( Bi et al, 2022 ) was performed using Spearman's rank correlation, and P value < 0.05 was considered as significantly associated metabolites. The correlation heatmap was generated using R program “heatmap” package and then was visualized by Cytoscape (Version 3.2.1) ( Mateo-Otero et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Ginsenoside Rg3 is one of the main constituents extracted from Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer and has been demonstrated to effectively relieve inflammation and oxidative damage ( Shi et al, 2020 ; Gao et al, 2021 ). Our previous study has demonstrated that Rg3 can ameliorate immune stress by inhibiting inflammatory responses, reducing oxidative stress and upregulating mRNA expression of mTOR, SOD-1 , and HO-1 ( Bi et al, 2022 ). As metabolomics has served a dominant role in investigating pathogenesis and identifying potential drug targets, it is increasingly used to explore changes of small-molecule metabolites in biological systems in mammals and birds ( Shao et al, 2018 ; Li et al, 2019 ).…”