l‐Arginine supplementation of gilts during early gestation modulates energy sensitive pathways in pig conceptuses

Abstract

Dietary l‐arginine (ARG) supplementation has been studied as a nutritional strategy to improve reproductive performance of pregnant sows, since arginine is a conditionally essential amino acid. However, reports addressing the molecular mechanisms that mediate supplementation effects on embryos and fetuses development are still scarce. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the effects of 1.0% ARG supplementation of commercial pregnant gilts on genes and proteins from energy metabolism and antioxidant defense pathways in embryos and fetuses. We also analyzed the global transcriptome profile of 25‐ and 35‐day‐old conceptuses. At Day 25, we observed a lower abundance of phospho‐AMP‐activated protein kinase (phospho‐AMPK) protein and downregulation of oxidative phosphorylation system genes in ARG embryos. On the other hand, ARG fetuses showed greater expression of MLST8 and lower expression of MTOR genes, in addition to lower abundance of phospho‐AMPK and phospho‐mammalian target of rapamycin (phospho‐mTOR) proteins. Transcriptome analysis at Day 35 did not present differentially expressed genes. For the antioxidant defense pathway, no differences were found between CON and ARG conceptuses, only trends. In general, supplementation of gilts with 1.0% ARG during early gestation affects energy sensitive pathways in 25‐ and 35‐day conceptuses; however, no effects of supplementation were found on the antioxidative defense pathway in 25‐day embryos.

Latest Advances in Sow Nutrition during Early Gestation

“…At day 35 however, embryos from dams supplemented with arginine were smaller. In a different paper by the same authors [66], arginine differentially regulated expression of embryonic genes involved in energy metabolism and in the mTOR pathways at day 25 of gestation, whereas at day 35, these effects were not observed. Collectively, these new findings point to the effects of arginine fed to the dam on embryo development and gene expression in addition to the effects described in earlier work on placental capacity.…”

Non-Targeted Metabolomic Study of Fetal Growth Restriction

“…We analyzed the pathways of different metabolites and found that the metabolites mainly belonged to protein digestion and absorption; glyoxylic acid and dicarboxylic acid metabolism; alanine, glutamic acid and proline metabolism; and glucose metabolism. These metabolic pathway disorders may be involved in the occurrence and development of fetal growth restriction [ 21 ].…”

Transcription Landscape of the Early Developmental Biology in Pigs

“…The present study is part of a whole experiment initially designed to understand the effects of maternal dietary L-arginine supplementation on pig embryos at 25 days old and fetuses at 35 days old [ 12 , 13 ], as well as compare organogenesis. Particularly, in the current study, we describe the transcriptional changes that occur during the development stages instead of the effects of L-arginine supplementation.…”