Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Toxicant Monitoring and Toxicology, Collage of Animal Science and Technology, Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, Tongliao, China.
Department of Forage Nutrition and Chemistry, College of Animal Husbandry Biotechnology, National Agricultural University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl). 2022 Mar;106(2):429-440. doi: 10.1111/jpn.13631. Epub 2021 Sep 27.
Ferulic acid (FA) is one of a common ingredients in Chinese herbal medicine. FA has the interesting property of promoting growth and improving meat quality in livestock, but the mechanism is not understood. This study evaluated both safety and mechanism of efficacy in zebrafish model. At 15 μg/mL or above, FA led to pericardial oedema and delayed growth in zebrafish embryos. Dietary FA promoted growth and feed assimilation in male adult zebrafish. Genes related to myogenic development (myod1, myog and myf5) were significantly upregulated by FA and muscle fibre width in skeletal muscle was increased. At 20 µg/g, FA significantly increased number of goblet cells in zebrafish intestinal tissue, and gut microbiota composition also changed. Based on 16s rRNA gene sequences, 20 μg/g FA decreased Firmicutes and increased Bacteroides. 20 μg/g FA also stimulated the expression of PPAR-α, a gene associated with fat metabolism, and decreased the expression of PPAR-β and PPAR-γ. These gene expression changes were beneficial to fatty acid synthesis and metabolism and decreased fat deposition. Our overall results indicated that FA can be a safe growth promotor in fish particularly in skeletal muscles.
阿魏酸（FA）是中草药中的常见成分之一。FA 具有促进牲畜生长和改善肉质的有趣特性，但作用机制尚不清楚。本研究在斑马鱼模型中评估了 FA 的安全性和功效机制。在 15μg/mL 或以上浓度时，FA 会导致斑马鱼胚胎的心包水肿和生长迟缓。FA 可促进雄性成年斑马鱼的生长和饲料同化。FA 显著上调了与肌生成发育相关的基因（myod1、myog 和 myf5），并增加了骨骼肌中的肌纤维宽度。在 20μg/g 时，FA 可显著增加斑马鱼肠道组织中的杯状细胞数量，同时改变肠道微生物群落组成。根据 16s rRNA 基因序列，20μg/g FA 减少了厚壁菌门，增加了拟杆菌门。20μg/g FA 还刺激了与脂肪代谢相关的基因 PPAR-α 的表达，并降低了 PPAR-β 和 PPAR-γ 的表达。这些基因表达的变化有利于脂肪酸的合成和代谢，减少脂肪沉积。我们的研究结果表明，FA 可作为鱼类特别是骨骼肌的安全生长促进剂。
