Transport stress induces heart damage in newly hatched chicks via blocking the cytoprotective heat shock response and augmenting nitric oxide production

Abstract

Transport stress affects the animal's metabolism and psychological state. As a pro-survival pathway, the heat shock response (HSR) protects healthy cells from stressors. However, it is unclear whether the HSR plays a role in transport stress-induced heart damage. To evaluate the effects of transport stress on heart damage and HSR protection, newly hatched chicks were treated with transport stress for 2 h, 4 h and 8 h. Transport stress caused decreases in body weight and increases in serum creatine kinase (CK) activity, nitric oxide (NO) content in heart tissue, cardiac nitric oxide syntheses (NOS) activity and NOS isoforms transcription. The mRNA expression of heat shock factors (HSFs, including HSF1-3) and heat shock proteins (HSPs, including HSP25, HSP40, HSP47, HSP60, HSP70, HSP90 and HSP110) in the heart of 2 h transport-treated chicks was upregulated. After 8 h of transport stress in chicks, the transcription levels of the same HSPs and HSF2 were reduced in the heart. It was also found that the changes in the HSP60, HSP70 and HSP90 protein levels had similar tendencies. These results suggested that transport stress augmented NO generation through enhancing the activity of NOS and the transcription of NOS isoforms. Therefore, this study provides new evidence that transport stress induces heart damage in the newly hatched chicks by blocking the cytoprotective HSR and augmenting NO production.

The role of N6-methyladenosine RNA methylation in the heat stress response of sheep (Ovis aries)

“…The HSPs are highly conservative proteins that protect organs such as the liver, heart, and kidney from injuries caused by stress (Li et al 2018;Sun et al 2018;Wang et al 2018). Under stress conditions, the expression of HSPs increases, which prevents the accumulation of intracellular denatured proteins and facilitates their repair, thus increasing the resistance of cells.…”

Dietary live yeast supplementation alleviates transport‐stress‐impaired meat quality of broilers through maintaining muscle energy metabolism and antioxidant status

“…Transport stress is a complex stress which is usually combined with other stressors like catching, uploading and offloading of birds into vehicles without food and water 1 . Transport stress has been considered as one of the important factors influencing broiler physiological and metabolic changes 1 and meat quality 2,3 .…”

“…Transport stress is a complex stress which is usually combined with other stressors like catching, uploading and offloading of birds into vehicles without food and water 1 . Transport stress has been considered as one of the important factors influencing broiler physiological and metabolic changes 1 and meat quality 2,3 . The entire poultry production system includes a series of phases and the meat quality is related with postmortem modifications including pre‐slaughter period, slaughter and processing 4 .…”

Stress Associated with Simulated Transport, Changes Serum Biochemistry, Postmortem Muscle Metabolism, and Meat Quality of Broilers

“…Transportation, combined with feed withdrawal and catching, altered the expression of hepatic genes associated with nutrient metabolism, cellular control, and immune function of broiler chickens [ 11 ]. Moreover, transport stress also results in higher chicken mortality and live weight loss [ 12 , 13 ]. Transportation stress increases endogenous microbial contamination of broilers, and this aggravates the microbial risk for the consumer of poultry meat [ 14 ].…”