Increased fatty acid β‐oxidation as a possible mechanism for fat‐reducing effect of betaine in broilers

Abstract

Two hundred and forty 1-day-old male Arbor Acres broiler chickens were randomly assigned to five dietary treatments with six replicates of eight chickens per replicate cage for a 42-day feeding trial. Broiler chickens were fed a basal diet supplemented with 0 (control), 250, 500, 750 or 1000 mg/kg betaine, respectively. Growth performance was not affected by betaine. Incremental levels of betaine decreased the absolute and relative weight of abdominal fat (linear P < 0.05, quadratic P < 0.01), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) (linear P < 0.05), and increased concentration of nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) (linear P = 0.038, quadratic P = 0.003) in serum of broilers. Moreover, incremental levels of betaine increased linearly (P < 0.05) the proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα), the carnitine palmitoyl transferase-I (CPT-I) and 3-hydroxyacyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase (HADH) messenger RNA (mRNA) expression, but decreased linearly (P < 0.05) the fatty acid synthase (FAS) and 3-hydroxyl-3-methylglutaryl-CoA (HMGR) mRNA expression in liver of broilers. In conclusion, this study indicated that betaine supplementation did not affect growth performance of broilers, but was effective in reducing abdominal fat deposition in a dose-dependent manner, which was probably caused by combinations of a decrease in fatty acid synthesis and an increase in β-oxidation.

In ovo injection of betaine alleviates corticosterone-induced fatty liver in chickens through epigenetic modifications

“…In this study, we found that prenatal betaine treatment was able to prevent CORT-induced down-regulation of genes involved in fatty acids β-oxidation, such as PPARα and CPT1α . This is in line with previous reports that betaine alleviates hepatic lipid accumulation via enhancing fatty acid oxidation, with activated expression of PPARα and CPT1α genes3041. Our findings together with others indicate that enhanced hepatic β-oxidation of fatty acids contributes, largely, to the liver protection effects of betaine.…”

Effects of dietary supplementation with betaine on muscle growth, muscle amino acid contents and meat quality in Cherry Valley ducks

“…Incremental breast muscle yield may be due to increasing muscle protein deposition induced by betaine (Zhan et al, ). In terms of fat deposition, our data showed that betaine supplementation linearly decreased the subcutaneous fat thickness and abdominal fat yield of ducks, which was consistent with the results in ducks (Wang et al, ), broilers (Leng et al, ) and pigs (Huanga et al, ). This may be due to the fact that betaine supplementation inhibits the activities of lipogenesis‐related enzymes such as acetylcoenzyme A carboxylase, fatty acid synthase and their mRNA expression (Huanga et al, ; Xing et al, ) and promotes fatty acid β‐oxidation (Leng et al, ).…”

“…These results were consistent with the finding of Wang et al (), who reported that diet supplemented with 500 mg/kg betaine did not affect the body weight and feed conversion ratio, but increased breast muscle yield of meat ducks at 41 days of age. Similar results were also reported in broilers that betaine supplementation did not affect the growth performance (Leng et al, ; Xing, Kang, & Jiang, ), but increased breast muscle yield (Rao, Raju, Panda, Saharia, & Sunder, ; Zhan, Li, Xu, & Zhao, ). Incremental breast muscle yield may be due to increasing muscle protein deposition induced by betaine (Zhan et al, ).…”

Fetal betaine exposure modulates hypothalamic expression of cholesterol metabolic genes in offspring cockerels with modification of promoter DNA methylation

“…Serum lipid is necessary index on lipid metabolism. In present research, we found that decreased concentration of total cholesterol and HDL-C in betaine-treated group, which was agreed with the other reported findings in chicken ( Dixon et al., 2016 , Leng et al., 2016 ). Cholesterol is synthesized de novo from acetyl CoA in the brain.…”