Dietary L-citrulline supplementation modulates nitric oxide synthesis and anti-oxidant status of laying hens during summer season.

BACKGROUND

L-citrulline (L-Cit), a non-protein amino acid, has been implicated in several physiological functions including anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, and hypothermic roles, however, there is a paucity of information with regards to its potential in poultry production.

METHODS

This study was designed to investigate the effects of dietary L-Cit supplementation on the production performance, nitric oxide production, and antioxidant status of laying hens during summer period. Hy-Line Brown laying hens ( = 288, 34 weeks old) were allotted to four treatment, 6 replicates of 12 chickens each. Dietary treatments of control (basal diets), 0.25%, 0.50% and 1.00% L-Cit supplementation were fed to chickens for eight (8) weeks. Production performance, free amino acid profiles, nitric oxide production, and antioxidant properties were measured. Blood samples were collected at the 4 and 8 weeks of the experiment.

RESULTS

Air temperature monitoring indicated an average daily minimum and maximum temperatures of 25.02 °C and 31.01 °C respectively. Dietary supplementation with L-Cit did not influence ( > 0.05) the production performance, and rectal temperature of laying hens. Egg shape index was increased ( < 0.05) with increasing levels of L-Cit. Serum-free content of arginine, citrulline, ornithine, tryptophan, histidine, GABA, and cystathionine were elevated, but taurine declined with L-Cit diets. Plasma nitric oxide (NO) concentration was highest at 1% L-Cit. Likewise, nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity for total NOS (tNOS) and inducible NOS (iNOS) were upregulated with increasing L-Cit levels, although, tNOS was not affected at the 4 week. Anti-oxidant enzymes including catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were increased with L-Cit supplementation, however, SOD activity was unchanged at 4 week, while total anti-oxidant capacity increased at the 8 week. L-Cit supplementation attenuated the extent of lipid peroxidation, and also inhibited glutathione peroxidase activity.

CONCLUSION

Dietary L-Cit supplementation modulated systemic arginine metabolism, nitric oxide synthesis, antioxidant defense system, and increased the egg shape index of laying hens during the summer season. 1% L-Cit supplementation proved most effective in potentiating these effects and may be adopted for feed formulation strategies.