Dietary SOD-rich melon on hepatic gene expression of antioxidant proteins in piglets and broilers

The aim of the study was to assess the effects of a SOD-rich feed supplement derived from melon (Melofeed®, Lallemand, France), on hepatic gene expression of antioxidant proteins in piglets and broilers. Two trials were set up: trial 1 involved 6 piglets per treatment that were selected at the end of a larger trial after the administration of: (1) basal diet (C); (2) basal diet plus Melofeed®(MPC; 30 g/ton of complete feed) for 29 days after weaning, and subjected or not to an intramuscular LPS challenge to mimic a chronic inflammation. Trial 2 considered 12 chickens per treatment at the end of the grower phase (day 24) selected from 4 experimental groups receiving a corn-soybean meal based diets supplemented with 0 g/ton (C), 30 g/ton (MPC1), 15 g/ton (MPC2), 15 g/ton (MPC3) of Melofeed® during the starter phase (0-10 d) and the same basal diet for C, MPC1 and MPC2 during the grower phase (11-24 d) or supplemented with 15 g/ton (MPC3) of Melofeed®. Liver tissue samples were collected immediately after euthanization and analysed for GPX1, CAT and SOD1 expression. The relative expression levels were assessed using a standard curve and normalised to internal control genes. n-fold change relative to control were then analysed by MIXED procedure of SAS. The dietary treatment did not significantly affect liver gene expression of GPX1 and SOD1 in piglets, while MPC tended to enhance expression of CAT (P=0.08). CAT was upregulated also in MPC3 chicken’s liver (P=0.02) and SOD1 tended to be more expressed than C (P=0.06). These results could support an improvement of the antioxidant effect, since SODs and catalase are transcriptionally regulated by the same transcription factors in a coordinated antioxidant effort. The research was funded by Lallemand SAS and Piano Sviluppo Ricerca 2015 Linea 2 Azione B UNIMI.