Influence of inflammatory pathway markers on oxidative stress induced by cold stress in intestine of quails.

The cold temperature reduces the immunity and re-production activities of the poultry. This study aimed to investigate the effects of acute and chronic cold exposure on the regulation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) expression in the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum of quails. In this study, 96 15-d-old male quails were randomly allocated into 12 groups (eight each group) for exposure to acute (up to 12h) and chronic (up to 20 days) cold stress (12 ± 1°C). Antioxidative function was examined by superoxide dismutase (SOD) and oxidative damage was examined by malondialdehyde (MDA) detection. qRT-PCR was performed to analyze expression of NF-κB and TNF-α, and DNA sequencing was performed to analyze PCR products. The data showed that under cold stress, the SOD level decreased, and the MDA level had the tendency to increase in duodenum, jejunum and ileum of quails, while the mRNA expression of NF-κB increased and TNF-α decreased in duodenum, jejunum and ileum of quails. The data from the current study indicated that both acute and chronic cold stresses were able to induce inflammatory responses in the duodenum, jejunum and ileum, which might be due to the cold-damaged intestinal oxidative stress.