ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2006, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (3): 305-308.doi:

• 研究简报 • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Diet Supplementation of Zinc Affects MT mRNA Expression in Laying Hens

LI Fa-di;ZHANG Jun-xia;NI Ying-dong; ZHAO Ru-qian;HAO Zheng-li;LANG Xia;LIU Jian-bin   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science & Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070,China; 2.Key Laboratory of Animal Physiology and Biochemistry, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
  • Received:1900-01-01 Revised:1900-01-01 Online:2006-03-25 Published:2006-03-25

Abstract: The present experiment was conducted to determine the changes of hepatic and renal metallothionein mRNAs expression in response to different levels of zinc supplementation in ISA laying hens . The laying hens were divided into the groups of control, treatment 1 (60 mg/kg ) and treatment 2 (180 mg/kg) at 18 weeks of age and sacrificed after 10 weeks for tissue sampling. The levels of mRNA expression were quantified with RT-PCR, using β-actin as an internal standard. The results showed that zinc supplementation at 60 mg/kg, but not 180 mg/kg, significantly increased the hepatic MT mRNA level compared with the control (P<0.05). Additionally, the level of renal MT mRNA expression was significantly higher in 60 mg/kg compared with that in 180 mg/kg group (P<0.05), although no significant differences were observed between control and either of the two treatment groups. The results suggest that lower level of zinc supplementation significantly upregulate MT gene expression in the liver and kidney of the laying hens.