Vitamin E supplementation alleviates the oxidative stress induced by dexamethasone treatment and improves meat quality in broiler chickens

Abstract

In the present study, the effects of long-term exogenous glucocorticoids administration and dietary supplementation of alpha-tocopheryl acetate on the induction of lipid peroxidation in skeletal muscle were investigated. Male broiler chicks were randomly assigned to 2 diet treatments: the basal diet supplemented with 20 (low level of vitamin E) or 200 (high level of vitamin E) mg of vitamin E (as DL-alpha-tocopheryl acetate)/kg of diet. At 35 d of age, the chickens in each dietary treatment were randomly divided into 3 groups of 30 chickens and subjected to the following treatments: daily s.c. injection of dexamethasone (DEX, 2 mg/kg of BW) for 6 d, sham injection of saline (control), or the sham-treated pair-fed control that maintained the same feed intake as DEX treatment (pair-control). The results showed that the growth of chickens was suppressed by DEX, whereas it was improved by the high level of vitamin E treatment. The DEX treatment resulted in augmented plasma concentrations of TBA reacting substances. Muscle TBA reacting substances levels were higher in DEX chickens at both 24- and 48-h time points postslaughter. Vitamin E supplementation suppressed the formation of lipid peroxidation in both plasma and skeletal muscle tissues. Muscle activity of superoxide dismutase was significantly increased by DEX treatment in both musculus pectoralis major and musculus biceps femoris and maintained as such during the initial 48 h postmortem. The result of the present study indicated that DEX treatment increased the saturation level of skeletal muscle fatty acids. These results suggest that vitamin E supplementation was favorable for the performance of broiler chickens by alleviating the oxidative stress induced by DEX treatment.

Growth performance, intestinal morphology, and meat quality in relation to alpha-lipoic acid associated with vitamin C and E in broiler chickens under tropical conditions

“…These results suggest that breast and leg meat from the broilers that drank liquid antioxidants might have electron donors to neutralize free radicals, which is in agreement with results of a previous study (Jung et al, 2010). Many studies reported that chickens reared at a high temperatures had increased TBARS in plasma, organs, and carcass (Lin et al, 2000;Mahmoud and Edens, 2003;Gao et al, 2010). The supplementation of antioxidants prevented lipid oxidation in chicken meat that decreased TBARS value, which is a consequence of oxidant stress (Jung et al, 2010;Cortinas et al, 2005).…”

“…E might improve lipid stability and reduce lipid oxidation in chicken meat (Cortinas et al, 2005). Gao et al (2010) demonstrated that the high level of vit. E was effective for the performance of broilers by reducing oxidative stress.…”

Influence of Chronic Dexamethasone Administration on Reproductive Parameters and Semen Traits in Male of Japanese Quail

“…Using DEX as an artificial stress caused deterioration in most reproductive and physiological performance of birds such as male domestic fowls (Eid et al, 2006), laying quails (Aengwanich and Chinrasri, 2003) and pigeons (Westerhof et al, 1996). As shown recently, DEX administration produces large amounts of reactive species and is suggested to induce oxidative stress after treatment of broiler (Gao et al, 2010) and laying hens (El-Habbak et al, 2005;Eid et al, 2008). Many researches have been provided important information about how birds are affected by the elevated plasma corticosterone levels that occur during chronic stress (Calandreau et al, 2011;Gao et al, 2010;Lin et al, 2004).…”

Carcass and meat quality traits of chickens fed diets concurrently supplemented with vitamins C and E under constant heat stress

“…The National Research Council (1994) recommends that 10 mg of vitamin E/kg of diet be supplemented in basal diets of broiler chickens; however, levels 20 to 25 times higher have been used in the finisher phase (Barreto et al, 1999). Positive effects of diet supplementation with high levels of vitamin E (100 to 200 mg/kg) have been described on meat quality of chickens exposed to oxidative stress (Sahin et al, 2001;Gao et al, 2010), but growth performance was not always improved (Niu et al, 2009;Hazigawa et al, 2013).…”