Selenium Mitigates Ammonia-Induced Neurotoxicity by Suppressing Apoptosis, Immune Imbalance, and Gut Microbiota-Driven Metabolic Disturbance in Fattening Pigs

Abstract

Ammonia could be regarded as one detrimental pollutant with an acrid smell in livestock sheds. So far, the pig breeding industry became the main source of atmospheric ammonia. Previous literature demonstrated that excessive ammonia inhalation might cause a series of physiological damage to multiple organs. Unfortunately, the toxicity mechanisms of gaseous ammonia to the porcine nervous system need further research to elucidate. Selenium (Se) involves in many essential physiological processes and has a mitigative effect on the exogenous toxicant. There were scant references that corroborated whether organic Se could intervene in the underlying toxicity of ammonia to the hypothalamus. In the present study, multi-omics tools, ethology, and molecular biological techniques were performed to clarify the detailed mechanisms of relaxation effects of L-selenomethionine on ammonia poisoning. Our results showed that ammonia inhalation caused the clinical symptoms and the increment of positive apoptosis rate in the hypothalamus with the dysfunction of mitochondrial dynamics factors, while obvious mitochondria structure defects were observed. In parallel, the inflammation medium levels and gut microbes-driven metabolism function were altered to mediate the neurotoxicity in fattening pigs through the initiation of inflammation development. Interestingly, L-selenomethionine could attenuate ammonia toxicity by activating the PI3K/Akt/PPAR-γ pathway to inhibit the mitochondria-mediated apoptosis process, blocking the abnormal immune response and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species in the nucleus. Meanwhile, Se could enhance the production performance of fattening sows. Taken together, our study verified the novel hypothesis for the toxicity identification of aerial ammonia and provided a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of occupational poisoning. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12011-022-03434-w.

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“…Choi et al [70] also found an increase in lateral lying pigs exposed to 15.35 ppm NH3 during summer. Exposure to high atmospheric NH3 increases NH3 level in the blood [58], leading to NH3 poisoning in which the secretion of excitatory neurotransmitters is inhibited making the animals less active [71]. Additionally, lying behavior has been linked to the health conditions of the animals.…”

Music with Different Tones Affects the Development of Brain Nerves in Mice in Early Life through BDNF and Its Downstream Pathways

“…After using enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL) chromogenic solution (Beyotime, Beijing, China) to treat the strip, chemical imaging system (Syngene G: box chemi XX9, UK) was used to detect the signal bands. Image J 18.0 software (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA) was used to measure the relative gray values [62,63]. The calculation formula was as follows:…”