Palm oil protects α-linolenic acid from rumen biohydrogenation and muscle oxidation in cashmere goat kids

Background

In ruminants, dietary C18:3n-3 can be lost through biohydrogenation in the rumen; and C18:3n-3 that by-passes the rumen still can be lost through oxidation in muscle, theoretically reducing the deposition of C18:3n-3, the substrate for synthesis of poly-unsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LCPUFA) in muscle. In vitro studies have shown that rumen hydrogenation of C18:3n-3 is reduced by supplementation with palm oil (rich in cis-9 C18:1). In addition, in hepatocytes, studies with neonatal rats have shown that cis-9 C18:1 inhibits the oxidation of C18:3n-3. It therefore seems likely that palm oil could reduce both rumen biohydrogenation of C18:3n-3 and muscle oxidation of C18:3n-3. The present experiment tested whether the addition of palm oil to a linseed oil supplement for goat kids would prevent the losses of C18:3n-3 and thus improve the FA composition in two muscles, Longissimus dorsi and Biceps femoris. To investigate the processes involved, we studied the rumen bacterial communities and measured the mRNA expression of genes related to lipid metabolism in Longissimus dorsi. Sixty 4-month-old castrated male Albas white cashmere kids were randomly allocated among three dietary treatments. All three diets contained the same ingredients in the same proportions, but differed in their fat additives: palm oil (PMO), linseed oil (LSO) or mixed oil (MIX; 2 parts linseed oil plus 1 part palm oil on a weight basis).

Results

Compared with the LSO diet, the MIX diet decreased the relative abuandance of Pseudobutyrivibrio, a bacterial species that is positively related to the proportional loss rate of dietary C18:3n-3 and that has been reported to generate the ATP required for biohydrogenation (reflecting a decrease in the abundance of rumen bacteria that hydrogenate C18:3n-3 in MIX kids). In muscle, the MIX diet increased concentrations of C18:3n-3, C20:5n-3, C22:6n-3, and n-3 LCPUFA, and thus decreased the n-6/n-3 ratio; decreased the mRNA expression of CPT1β (a gene associated with fatty acid oxidation) and increased the mRNA expression of FADS1 and FADS2 (genes associated with n-3 LCPUFA synthesis), compared with the LSO diet. Interestingly, compared to Longissimus dorsi, Biceps femoris had greater concentrations of PUFA, greater ratios of unsaturated fatty acids/saturated fatty acids (U/S), and poly-unsaturated fatty acids/saturated fatty acids (P/S), but a lesser concentration of saturated fatty acids (SFA).

Conclusions

In cashmere goat kids, a combination of linseed and palm oils in the diet increases the muscle concentration of n-3 LCPUFA, apparently by decreasing the relative abundance of rumen bacteria that are positively related to the proportional loss rate of dietary C18:3n-3, by inhibiting mRNA expression of genes related to C18:3n-3 oxidation in muscle, and by up-regulating mRNA expression of genes related to n-3 LCPUFA synthesis in muscle, especially in Longissimus dorsi.

Adipose Tissue Modification through Feeding Strategies and Their Implication on Adipogenesis and Adipose Tissue Metabolism in Ruminants

Dietary recommendations by health authorities have been advising of the importance of diminishing saturated fatty acids (SFA) consumption and replacing them by polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), particularly omega-3. Therefore, there have been efforts to enhance food fatty acid profiles, helping them to meet human nutritional recommendations. Ruminant meat is the major dietary conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) source, but it also contains SFA at relatively high proportions, deriving from ruminal biohydrogenation of PUFA. Additionally, lipid metabolism in ruminants may differ from other species. Recent research has aimed to modify the fatty acid profile of meat, and other animal products. This review summarizes dietary strategies based on the n-3 PUFA supplementation of ruminant diets and their effects on meat fatty acid composition. Additionally, the role of n-3 PUFA in adipose tissue (AT) development and in the expression of key genes involved in adipogenesis and lipid metabolism is discussed. It has been demonstrated that linseed supplementation leads to an increase in α-linolenic acid (ALA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), but not in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), whilst fish oil and algae increase DHA content. Dietary PUFA can alter AT adiposity and modulate lipid metabolism genes expression, although further research is required to clarify the underlying mechanism.

Performance of fluorescence spectroscopy for beef meat authentication: Effect of excitation mode and discriminant algorithms

This study evaluated the performance of classical front face (FFFS) and synchronous (SFS) fluorescence spectroscopy combined with Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLSDA), Support Vector Machine associated with PLS (PLS-SVM) and Principal Components Analysis (PCA-SVM) to discriminate three beef muscles (Longissimus thoracis, Rectus abdominis and Semitendinosus). For the FFFS, 5 excitation wavelengths were investigated, while 6 offsets were studied for SFS. Globally, the results showed a good discrimination between muscles with Recall and Precision between 47.82 and 94.34% and Error ranging from 6.03 to 32.39%. For the FFFS, the PLS-SVM with the 382nm excitation wavelength gave the best discrimination results (Recall, Precision and Error of 94.34%, 89.53% and 6.03% respectively). For SFS, when performing discrimination of the three muscles, the 120nm offset gave the highest Recall and Precision (from 57.66% to 94.99%) and the lowest Error values (from 6.78 to 8.66%) whatever the algorithm (PLSDA, PLS-SVM and PCA-SVM).

How Muscle Structure and Composition Influence Meat and Flesh Quality

Skeletal muscle consists of several tissues, such as muscle fibers and connective and adipose tissues. This review aims to describe the features of these various muscle components and their relationships with the technological, nutritional, and sensory properties of meat/flesh from different livestock and fish species. Thus, the contractile and metabolic types, size and number of muscle fibers, the content, composition and distribution of the connective tissue, and the content and lipid composition of intramuscular fat play a role in the determination of meat/flesh appearance, color, tenderness, juiciness, flavor, and technological value. Interestingly, the biochemical and structural characteristics of muscle fibers, intramuscular connective tissue, and intramuscular fat appear to play independent role, which suggests that the properties of these various muscle components can be independently modulated by genetics or environmental factors to achieve production efficiency and improve meat/flesh quality.

The scope for manipulating the polyunsaturated fatty acid content of beef: a review

Since 1950, links between intake of saturated fatty acids and heart disease have led to recommendations to limit consumption of saturated fatty acid-rich foods, including beef. Over this time, changes in food consumption patterns in several countries including Canada and the USA have not led to improvements in health. Instead, the incidence of obesity, type II diabetes and associated diseases have reached epidemic proportions owing in part to replacement of dietary fat with refined carbohydrates. Despite the content of saturated fatty acids in beef, it is also rich in heart healthy cis-monounsaturated fatty acids, and can be an important source of long-chain omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids in populations where little or no oily fish is consumed. Beef also contains polyunsaturated fatty acid biohydrogenation products, including vaccenic and rumenic acids, which have been shown to have anticarcinogenic and hypolipidemic properties in cell culture and animal models. Beef can be enriched with these beneficial fatty acids through manipulation of beef cattle diets, which is now more important than ever because of increasing public understanding of the relationships between diet and health. The present review examines recommendations for beef in human diets, the need to recognize the complex nature of beef fat, how cattle diets and management can alter the fatty acid composition of beef, and to what extent content claims are currently possible for beef fatty acids.

New approach to improve the calibration of main fatty acids by near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy in ruminant meat

This study aims to investigate alternative near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) strategies for predicting beef polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) composition, which have a great nutritional interest, and are actually poorly predicted by NIRS. We compared the results of NIRS models for predicting fatty acids (FA) of beef meat by using two databases: a beef database including 143 beef samples, and a ruminant database including 76 lamb and 143 beef samples. For all the FA, particularly for PUFA, the coefficient of determination of cross-validation (R2CV) and the residual predictive deviation (RPD) of models increased when the ruminant muscle samples database was used instead of the beef muscle database. The R2CV values for the linoleic acid, total conjugated linoleic acid and total PUFA increased from 0.44, 0.79 and 0.59 to 0.68, 0.9, 0.8, respectively, and RPD values for these FA increased from 1.33, 2.14, 1.54 to 1.76, 3.11 and 2.24, respectively. RPD above 2.5 indicates calibration model is considered as acceptable for analytical purposes. The use of a universal equation for ruminant meats to predict FA composition seems to be an encouraging strategy.

Recent developments in lipid metabolism in ruminants – the role of fat in maintaining animal health and performance

Optimising farm animal performance has long been the key focus of worldwide livestock production research. Advances in the understanding of metabolism/phenotype associations have outlined the central role of the lipid metabolism of farm animals for economically relevant phenotypic traits, such as animal health (immune status, fertility/reproductive capacity, adaptability/metabolic flexibility, robustness, well being) and performance aspects (meat/milk quality and quantity) and have led to an extensive exploitation of lipid metabolism manipulation strategies (e.g. tailored nutritional regimes, alimentary/intravenous fat supplementation, rumen-protected fat feeding, hormone application). This contribution gives an overview of established concepts to tailor animals’ lipid metabolism and highlights novel strategies to expand these application-oriented approaches via improved analysis tools, omics-approaches, cell model systems and systems biology methods.

A grass-based diet favours muscle n-3 long-chain PUFA deposition without modifying gene expression of proteins involved in their synthesis or uptake in Charolais steers

N-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LCPUFA) are subject of growing interest as they are of particular relevance for meat quality and human health. However, their content in the muscles of cattle is generally low probably as the complex result of their biosynthesis from dietary n-3 PUFA in the muscle and/or in other tissues/organs and of their subsequent uptake by the muscle. In view of this, this study aimed at understanding whether the changes in the muscle n-3 LCPUFA content, depending on the diet (maize silage v. grass) or the muscle type (Rectus abdominis, RA v. Semitendinosus, ST) in 12 Charolais steers, were related to variations in the gene expression of proteins involved in n-3 LCPUFA biosynthesis or cellular uptake. Tissue fatty acid composition was analysed by gas-liquid chromatography and mRNA abundance of proteins by quantitative real-time PCR. The grass-based diet resulted in a 2.3-fold (P < 0.0002) increase in both RA and ST n-3 LCPUFA content compared with the maize silage-based diet, whereas no difference in the expression of genes involved in n-3 LCPUFA biosynthesis and uptake was observed between diets. ST exhibited a 1.5-fold higher n-3 LCPUFA content than RA (P < 0.003), whereas the gene expression of proteins involved in n-3 LCPUFA biosynthesis and uptake was 1.3- to 18-fold higher in RA than in ST (P < 0.05). In conclusion, diet- or muscle type-dependent changes in the muscle n-3 LCPUFA content of Charolais steers did not seem to be mediated by the gene expression regulation of proteins involved in the biosynthesis or uptake of these fatty acids.