Osteocalcin and Its Potential Functions for Preventing Fatty Liver Hemorrhagic Syndrome in Poultry

Abstract

Osteocalcin (OCN) is synthesized and secreted by differentiating osteoblasts. In addition to its role in bone, OCN acts as a hormone in the pancreas, liver, muscle, fat, and other organs to regulate multiple pathophysiological processes including glucose homeostasis and adipic acid metabolism. Fat metabolic disorder, such as excessive fat buildup, is related to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in humans. Similarly, fatty liver hemorrhage syndrome (FLHS) is a metabolic disease in laying hens, resulting from lipid accumulation in hepatocytes. FLHS affects hen health with significant impact on poultry egg production. Many studies have proposed that OCN has protective function in mammalian NAFLD, but its function in chicken FLHS and related mechanism have not been completely clarified. Recently, we have revealed that OCN prevents laying hens from FLHS through regulating the JNK pathway, and some pathways related to the disease progression have been identified through both in vivo and vitro investigations. In this view, we discussed the current findings for predicting the strategy for using OCN to prevent or reduce FLHS impact on poultry production.

Berberine alleviates high-energy and low-protein diet-induced fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome in laying hens: insights from microbiome and metabolomics

“…Our previous research corroborated that, having successfully replicated the FLHS pathological model using such dietetic parameters ( Zhuang et al, 2019 ). However, the pathogenesis of FLHS remains inadequately elucidated; it bears considerable resemblance to metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease ( NAFLD ) in humans, with excessive hepatic lipid deposition constituting a common pathological hallmark between the 2 diseases ( Tu et al, 2023 ). Therefore, this similarity suggests that the FLHS in laying hens may serve as a perfect model to investigate the underlying mechanisms of NAFLD and hepatic steatosis in human populations.…”