Effect of Dietary Folic Acid Supplementation on Growth Performance and Hepatic Protein Metabolism in Early-Weaned Intrauterine Growth Retardation Piglets

Abstract

To investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with folic acid on growth performance, hepatic protein metabolism and serum biochemical indices of early-weaned intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) piglets, 24 male (Duroc×(Landrace×Yorkshire)) weaned (14-d-old) IUGR piglets were randomly divided into 3 treatments with 8 replicates of 1 piglet per replicate. The piglets in each treatment were fed basal diet supplementation with either 0 (control), 5 and 10 mg kg−1folic acid. The trial lasted for 21 d. Dietary folic acid supplementation reduced average daily feed intake (ADFI) (P0.05). Serum folic acid concentration increased (P0.01). Enhanced serum urine nitrogen (SUN) and diminished serum total protein (TP) as well as liver TP content were observed in 10 mg kg−1 folic acid group (P<0.05). Furthermore, the relative mRNA expressions of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and mammalian target of rapamycin (m-TOR) in liver were respectively tended to reduce (P=0.06) and significantly downregulated (P<0.05) in 10 mg kg−1 group, in compared with 5 mg kg−1 group. However, when compared with control group, folic acid supplementation had no significant effect on the mRNA abundance of IGF-1 and m-TOR. The results indicated that supplementation with 10 mg kg−1 folic acid impaired growth performance and hepatic protein metabolism of early-weaned IUGR piglets while 5 mg kg−1 folic acid enriched diet exerted limited positive effects.

Keywords

• folic acid
• growth performance
• protein metabolism
• intrauterine growth retardation
• piglet