Effect of Glucose Supplementation on Apoptosis in the of Chickens Raised under Thermoneutral or Heat Stress Environment.

Reduced feed intake during heat stress (HS) disrupts glucose homeostasis, thereby resulting in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and triggering apoptosis in chickens. We hypothesize that glucose supplementation could reduce apoptosis in chickens raised under HS. This study comprised 456 28-day-old broiler chickens randomly assigned to four treatment combinations under glucose supplementation and HS. The treatments were TN, TN, HS, and HS with two glucose levels (0% and 6%) and two temperature levels (25 °C (thermoneutral-TN) and 35 °C (8.00 AM to 8.00 PM, (HS)). After 7 days post-HS, the blood glucose level for the HS group was higher than for TN, TN, and HS. We studied the mRNA expression of genes and caspase-3 activity in the four experimental groups. The expressions of , , , and increased during HS regardless of glucose supplementation, while and increased only under HS with glucose supplementation. We show that under TN conditions, glucose supplementation led to a significant increase in cellular apoptosis in the () . However, under HS with glucose, the level of apoptosis was similar to that of chickens raised under TN conditions with no glucose supplementation. The utility of glucose to curtail apoptosis under HS should be tested under other intense models of HS.