Li Siping, Liu Xin, Lin Tingting, Ren Yuanhao, Zhang Dong, Jiang Keji
Key Laboratory of Inland Saline-Alkaline Aquaculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Shanghai 200090, China.
Wenchang Innovation Research Center, Fengjiawan Modern Fishery Industry Park, Wenchang 571300, China.
Biology (Basel). 2025 Jun 25;14(7):767. doi: 10.3390/biology14070767.
Seahorse ( spp.) is popular in the markets of traditional Chinese medicine, aquarium, and curio. In order to protect wild stocks and still meet the market demand, China attempted the large-scale cultivation of seahorses in the early 21st century and achieved it in the 2010s. However, in recent years, two new issues have gradually emerged in Chinese seahorse cultivation. One is that the juveniles are prone to disease during diet conversion, and the other is that the reproductive performance of broodstocks is significantly reduced. With the aim to provide some measures that can alleviate these issues, in the present study, we used lined seahorse (, a species widely cultured in China) as the experimental subject and polysaccharides (APSs) as the immunostimulant to test whether APSs could improve the immune-health status and reproductive performance of seahorses. The measured indices for reproductive performance included ovarian lipid content, assessment time required before mating for paired male and female seahorses, mating success rate, brood size, and newborn body height. The results showed that for juveniles during diet conversion, their body weight, survival rate, plasma immunocytokine contents (interleukin-2, interferon-α, and immunoglobulin M), and alpha diversity indices (Simpson and Pielou's-e) of the intestinal microbiota were significantly higher than those of the control group after dietary APSs. For broodstocks, compared with the control group, the expression of lipid substances in the ovary was significantly upregulated, the assessment time was significantly shortened, and the body height of their newborns was significantly increased in the APS group. These results demonstrate that APSs could indeed improve the immune-health status and reproductive performance of seahorses, providing guidance for addressing existing issues in seahorse cultivation.
海马（属）在中药、水族和古玩市场很受欢迎。为了保护野生种群并仍满足市场需求，中国在21世纪初尝试大规模养殖海马，并在2010年代取得成功。然而，近年来，中国海马养殖逐渐出现了两个新问题。一个是幼鱼在食性转换期间容易患病，另一个是亲鱼的繁殖性能显著下降。为了提供一些可以缓解这些问题的措施，在本研究中，我们以条纹海马（在中国广泛养殖的一种海马）为实验对象，以多糖（APSs）作为免疫刺激剂，来测试APSs是否能改善海马的免疫健康状况和繁殖性能。繁殖性能的测量指标包括卵巢脂质含量、配对的雌雄海马交配前所需的评估时间、交配成功率、育雏规模和新生幼体体长。结果表明，对于食性转换期的幼鱼，在日粮中添加APSs后，它们的体重、存活率、血浆免疫细胞因子含量（白细胞介素-2、干扰素-α和免疫球蛋白M）以及肠道微生物群的α多样性指数（辛普森指数和皮洛均匀度指数）均显著高于对照组。对于亲鱼，与对照组相比，APS组卵巢中脂质物质的表达显著上调，评估时间显著缩短，其新生幼体的体长显著增加。这些结果表明，APSs确实可以改善海马的免疫健康状况和繁殖性能，为解决海马养殖中的现有问题提供了指导。
