miR-187-5p/apaf-1 axis was involved in oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis caused by ammonia via mitochondrial pathway in chicken livers.

Ammonia (NH), a toxic gas, is an important cause of atmospheric haze and one of the main pollutants in air environment of poultry houses, threatening the health of human beings and poultry. However, little is known about the effect of NH on liver apoptotic damage. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis caused by NH in chicken livers and whether miR-187-5p/apaf-1 axis was involved in this mechanism. Here we duplicated NH poisoning model of chickens for fattening to study the ultrastructure of chicken livers, apoptosis rate, oxidative stress indexes, miR-187-5p, and apoptosis-related genes. Obvious apoptotic characteristics of liver tissues exposed to excess NH were observed, and the apoptosis rate increased. Excess NH decreased the activities of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and increased the content of malondialdehyde (MDA), suggesting that oxidative stress occurred. miR-187-5p decreased, and apoptotic protease activating factor-1 (apaf-1) increased, indicating that excess NH dysregulated miR-187-5p/apaf-1 axis. The expression of tumor protein p53 (p53), Bcl-2 associated X protein (Bax), Bcl-2 homologous antagonist/killer (Bak), Cytochrome-c (Cyt-c), Caspase-9, Caspase-8, and Caspase-3 was promoted, and the expression of B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) was inhibited, resulting in apoptosis. Moreover, oxidative stress indexes, miR-187-5p, and apoptosis-related genes changed in dose- and time-dependent manner. Altogether, miR-187-5p/apaf-1 axis participated in oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis caused by NH via mitochondrial pathway in the livers of chickens for fattening. This study may provide new ideas to study the mechanism of liver apoptotic damage induced by NH exposure.