Molecular mechanisms of growth depression in broiler chickens (Gallus Gallus domesticus) mediated by immune stress: a hepatic proteome study

Abstract

Background Immunological stress decreases feed intake, suppresses growth and induces economic losses. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. Label-free liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC-MS) proteomics techniques were employed to investigate effects of immune stress on the hepatic proteome changes of Arbor Acres broilers (Gallus Gallus domesticus) challenged with Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Results Proteomic analysis indicated that 111 proteins were differentially expressed in the liver of broiler chickens from the immune stress group. Of these, 28 proteins were down-regulated, and 83 proteins were up-regulated in the immune stress group. Enrichment analysis showed that immune stress upregulated the expression of hepatic proteins involved in defense function, amino acid catabolism, ion transport, wound healing, and hormone secretion. Furthermore, immune stress increased valine, leucine and isoleucine degradation pathways. Conclusion The data suggests that growth depression of broiler chickens induced by immune stress is triggered by hepatic proteome alterations, and provides a new insight into the mechanism by which immune challenge impairs poultry production.

Hepatic transcriptomics and metabolomics indicated pathways associated with immune stress of broilers induced by lipopolysaccharide

“…High stocking density, contaminated feed, inappropriate management, temperature extremes, and pathogen challenges have a cumulative impact on poultry behavior and physiology, thus leading to the loss of immune homeostasis and triggering immune stress ( Liu et al, 2015 ; Li et al, 2018 ; Bi et al, 2019 ). Broilers with immune stress show decline of growth performance, causing severe economic losses ( Zheng et al, 2021 ).…”

A genome-wide screen for resilient responses in growing pigs

“…This suggests that ∆BW not only reflects differences in BW 28 , but also differences in the animals’ ability to maintain a steady growth rate, in spite of the vaccine challenge. Immune responses have been described as the main pathways associated with changes in growth in chicken and pigs undergoing a lipopolysaccharide challenge [ 35 , 37 ]. Similarly, in our experiment, the genomic regions associated with ∆BW included several genes that are directly involved in triggering an immune response (Table 1 ).…”

“…Vaccine challenges have been used to study variability in immune and production performance of livestock species and to predict their future response to infectious outbreaks [31][32][33][34]. In a period of immune stress, animals redirect nutrients that are destined for muscle synthesis and growth to the immune system to support increased functionality [35]. In this situation, haptoglobin production is initiated due to a rise in cytokine levels by monocytes and other tissue macrophages in response to injury [36].…”

Effect of Immune Stress on Growth Performance and Immune Functions of Livestock: Mechanisms and Prevention

“…In protein metabolism, IS increases skeletal muscle protein degradation rate, reduces skeletal muscle protein deposition, speeds up peripheral protein decomposition, enhances liver degradation of valine, leucine and isoleucine, and produces a large amount of liver acute phase protein (APP). In addition, the induction of inflammatory cytokines upregulates the expression of liver proteins involved in immune defense function, amino acid catabolism, ion transport, wound healing, and hormone secretion [ 92 , 99 ].…”