Effect of Organic and Inorganic Dietary Selenium Supplementation on Gene Expression in Oviduct Tissues and, Antioxidant Capacity of Laying Hens

Abstract

Some functional genes were investigated for their involvement in egg (eggshell biomineralization) formation and selenoproteins in the oviduct and liver of laying hens fed different organic and inorganic selenium source. A total of 24 hens were selected randomly from the four treatments and slaughter. Uteri and liver tissue samples were collected from hens during the active growth phase of calcification (15 - 20 h post-ovulation) for RT-PCR. The basal diets supplemented with 0.3mg/kg of different organic Se sources and sodium selenite upregulate uterine and selenoproteins mRNA levels. This research reaps the advantage of tissue sampling from specialized segments of the oviduct that consecutively form different egg components. Expression of OC-17 and OC-116, and OC-17 were significantly higher in the uterus and magnum of laying hens, respectively. Their higher expression was observed with organic Se (bacterial selenoprotein or Se-yeast) fed-hens. The results may postulate the efficacy of organic Se in enhancing the expression of functional genes involved in the egg (eggshell biomineralization) formation and selenoproteins compared to inorganic and non-Se supplemented hens. This study proposed the efficacy of bacterial selenoprotein in the upregulation of the uterine genes and hepatic selenoproteins in laying hens.