Dietary arginine stimulates humoral and cell-mediated immunity in chickens vaccinated and challenged against hydropericardium syndrome virus

Abstract

The effects of dietary supplement of arginine on protective humoral and cell-mediated immune responses of broiler chicks vaccinated and challenged against hydropericardium syndrome virus (HPSV) were investigated and compared with those of 2 reference drugs (cyclophosphamide and cyclosporine). Percentage ratios of lymphoid organs (bursa, spleen, and thymus) to BW, postvaccination and challenge serum antibody responses to HPSV, cutaneous basophil hypersensitivity reaction, peripheral lymphoproliferation, postchallenge detection of HPSV in the tissues of infected birds, and ability of chicks to resist virulent HPSV challenge were the parameters utilized to determine the effects of arginine on protective immune responses of chicks. A total of 600 chicks were used in this study. Arginine-supplemented chicks showed significant (P < 0.05) stimulation of lymphoproliferation and cutaneous basophil hypersensitivity reactions compared with untreated control chicks. Similarly, significantly higher body and lymphoid organ weights were (P < 0.05) recorded in arginine-supplemented chicks compared with untreated control chicks. The highest survival rate was recorded in arginine-supplemented HPS-vaccinated chicks compared with immune-suppressed (cyclophosphamide- and cyclosporine-treated and HPS-vaccinated chicks) and untreated unvaccinated control chicks after virulent HPSV challenges. Postchallenge tissue samples from arginine-supplemented and HPS-vaccinated chicks yielded negligible HPSV detections by virus isolation in cell culture or PCR method, or both, compared with untreated control chicks. Thus, it was concluded that dietary supplementation of arginine had beneficial effects on humoral and cell-mediated immune responses of broiler chicks against HPSV.

Effect of arginine or glutamine supplementation on production, organ weights, interferon gamma, interleukin 6 and antibody titre of broilers

“…Tayade et al (2006) showed that Arg supplementation increased protection against infectious bursal disease virus challenge, showing the beneficial effect of this amino acid on immune functions. A similar observation has been reported by Munir et al (2009) both for the humoral and the cellular immune response.…”

Dietary L-arginine supplementation reduces abdominal fat content by modulating lipid metabolism in broiler chickens

“…However, there were no significant differences between L-Arg supplementation at levels of 0.25% and 1.00%. FAS is an essential enzyme in the final step of the lipogenic pathway (Pitel et al, 1998) and the liver is the most important vital organ for fatty acid synthesis in avian species, in which almost 85% of the fat accumulated by growing birds is produced in the liver (Molette et al, 2012). Therefore, we estimated the FAS mRNA expression in the liver as a biomarker of fatty acid synthesis.…”

“…L-Arg is a precursor required for the biosynthesis of many molecules, including proteins, nitric oxide, creatine, ornithine, glutamate, polyamines, proline, glutamine, agmatine and dimethylarginine, hence it has multiple physiological functions in poultry (Khajali and Wideman, 2010). Experimental studies have shown that L-Arg supplementation alleviated oxidative stress and improved the antioxidant capacity (Atakisi et al, 2009), attenuated pulmonary hypertension syndrome, reduced ascites mortality (Tan et al, 2006), and enhanced innate, cellular and humoral immune responses in broiler chickens (Tayade et al, 2006;Munir et al, 2009).…”

The effect of arginine dietary supplementation in broiler breeder hens on offspring humoral and cell-mediated immune responses

“…Under adverse conditions of different nature and magnitude, environmental challenges during the first weeks after hatching can cause varying degrees of immunosuppression in broiler chickens (Munir et al, 2009).…”