Metabolism of Imidazole Dipeptides, Taurine, Branched-Chain Amino Acids, and Polyamines of the Breast Muscle Are Affected by Post-Hatch Development in Chickens

Association of amino acids and parameters of bone metabolism with endothelial dysfunction and vasculopathic changes in limited systemic sclerosis

Objectives

Pathways contributing to endothelial dysfunction in patients with limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis (lcSSc) are largely unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate potential associations of amino acids and parameters of bone metabolism with endothelial dysfunction and vasculopathy-related changes in patients with lcSSc and early-stage vasculopathy.

Methods

Amino acids, calciotropic parameters, including 25-hydroxyvitamin D and parathyroid hormone (PTH), and bone turnover parameters, including osteocalcin and N-terminal peptide of procollagen-3 (P3NP), were measured in 38 lcSSc patients and 38 controls. Endothelial dysfunction was assessed by biochemical parameters, pulse-wave analysis, flow-mediated and nitroglycerine-mediated dilation. Additionally, vasculopathy-related and SSc-specific clinical changes including capillaroscopic, skin, renal, pulmonary, gastrointestinal and periodontal parameters were recorded.

Results

No significant differences in amino acids, calciotropic and bone turnover parameters were observed between lcSSc patients and controls. In patients with lcSSc, several significant correlations were found between selected amino acids, parameters of endothelial dysfunction, vasculopathy-related and SSc-specific clinical changes (all with p < 0.05). In addition, significant correlations were observed between PTH and 25-hydroxyvitamin D with homoarginine, and between osteocalcin, PTH and P3NP with modified Rodnan skin score and selected periodontal parameters (all with p < 0.05). Vitamin D deficiency defined as 25-hydroxyvitamin D < 20 ng/ml was associated with the presence of puffy finger (p = 0.046) and early pattern (p = 0.040).

Conclusion

Selected amino acids may affect endothelial function and may be associated to vasculopathy-related and clinical changes in lcSSc patients, while the association with parameters of bone metabolism seems to be minor.

Dietary Supplementation with Putrescine Improves Growth Performance and Meat Quality of Wenchang Chickens

This study was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with putrescine on the growth performance and meat quality of chickens. A total of 480 eighty-day-old female Wenchang chickens were randomly assigned into four groups, with 8 replications per group and 15 animals per replicate. The chickens in the control group (Con) were fed a basal diet; the 3 experimental groups were fed a basal diet with 0.01%, 0.03%, and 0.05% putrescine, respectively. The experiment lasted for 40 days. The results showed that dietary supplementation with 0.05% putrescine increased (p < 0.05) the final body weight and average daily weight gain, and decreased the ratio of feed intake to the body weight gain of Wenchang chickens. Dietary supplementation with putrescine decreased the concentrations of putrescine, spermidine, and spermine in serum (p < 0.05). The contents of methionine, phenylalanine, lysine, aspartic acid, tyrosine, total essential amino acids, and total amino acids in breast muscle were higher (p < 0.05) in 0.03% and 0.05% groups than those in Con group. However, the contents of undecanoic acid, lauric acid, tridecanoic acid, myristic acid, pentadecanoic acid, arachidic acid, docosanoic acid, tricosanic acid, lignoceric acid, erucic acid, cis-11,14,17-eicosatrienoate, linoleic acid, and total n-6 monounsaturated fatty acids in breast muscle were lower (p < 0.05) in 0.03% and 0.05% groups than those in Con group. In addition, putrescine supplementation decreased (p < 0.05) the ratio of n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in breast meat. Overall, dietary supplementation with 0.05% putrescine enhanced the growth performance and meat quality of Wenchang chickens.

Untargeted Metabolomics Reveals the Effect of Selective Breeding on the Quality of Chicken Meat

The selection for improved body weight is an effective approach in animal breeding. Guangxi Partridge chickens have differentiated into two lines under selective breeding, which include line S and line D that have shown statistically significant differences in body weight. However, the meat quality analysis in our study indicated that the quality of breast and thigh muscles in line S chickens changed, which included increased values of L*, b*, and drip loss and decreased a* value, pH, and shear force in skeletal muscles. To illuminate the effect of selection on skeletal muscles, LC-MS/MS metabolomics was performed to explore differentiated metabolites in divergent tissues from the two chicken lines. The results of principal component analysis and orthogonal projection to latent structures discriminant analysis suggested that metabolites of different groups were separated, which suggested that selective breeding certainly affected metabolism of skeletal muscles. KEGG analysis identified that valine, leucine, and isoleucine biosynthesis, glycerophospholipid metabolism, and glutathione metabolism noteworthily changed in breast muscle. Amino sugars and nucleotide sugar metabolism, ascorbate and aldarate metabolism, the pentose phosphate pathway, pentose and glucuronate interconversions, fructose and mannose metabolism, and glycerophospholipid metabolism were remarkedly identified in thigh muscle. These screened pathways suggested oxidative stress in breast and thigh muscles, which corresponded with our previous results. Therefore, this study determined that glycerophospholipid metabolism conservatively functioned in muscle flavor and development but exhibited different anti-oxidative patterns in different skeletal muscles. Overall, the present study identified several differentiated metabolites and pathways for exploring differences in meat quality between different broiler populations.