Intestinal amino acid and peptide transporters in broiler are modulated by dietary amino acids and protein.

This study evaluated the effect of three levels of digestible amino acids (DAA; 100, 107 and 114% of Cobb recommendations) on mRNA abundance of peptide (PepT1) and amino acid (AA) transporters in 480-day-old broilers during prestarter period. Jejunal mRNA levels of the PepT1 and bAT increased as DAA level increased from 100 to 114%. The expression of CAT1 mRNA in the jejunum was higher in birds fed 100% DAA diet. The transport systems BAT and yLAT1 were not affected by the dietary treatments. These results demonstrated that dietary content of protein and DAA differentially affected the expression of intestinal peptide and AA transporters to modulate absorption of peptide and AA in broilers.