Tissue turnover in ovine muscles and lipids as recorded by multiple (H, C, O, S) stable isotope ratios

• Published in: Food chemistry 2011, Vol.124 (1), p.291-297
• Main Authors: Harrison, Sabine M., Schmidt, Olaf, Moloney, Aidan P., Kelly, Simon D., Rossmann, Andreas, Schellenberg, Antje, Camin, Federica, Perini, Matteo, Hoogewerff, Jurian, Monahan, Frank J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: animal physiology; body fat; Carbon; diet; drinking water; energy intake; feed rations; fractionation; Hydrogen; intramuscular fat; IRMS; Isotopic clock; Lamb; lamb feeding; lamb meat; lambs; Lipid; marbling; Meat; methodology; Muscle; nutrient partitioning; Oxygen; prediction; skeletal muscle; Stable isotopes; sulfur; Sulphur; tissue turnover
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2010.06.035

Multiple stable isotope ratios (δ 2H, δ 13C, δ 18O and δ 34S) were measured in muscle, muscle lipids and lipid fractions collected from 28 lambs, subjected to a diet-switch and raised on two energy allowances (EAs), to determine tissue turnover and diet-tissue fractionation. The diet-muscle fractionations prior to the diet-switch were estimated to be −44.0‰, +1.9‰ and 0‰ for H, C and S, respectively, while the drinking water was demonstrated to be the main source of muscle O and thus δ 18O variation. The diet-intra-muscular lipid fractionations prior to the diet-switch were estimated to be −172.7‰, −1.3‰ and −11.5‰ for H, C and O, respectively. The C half-lives of muscle were determined to be 75.7 and 91.6 days for animals receiving the high and low EA, respectively. Extracting temporally resolved pre-slaughter dietary information from meat by analysing bulk muscle, muscle lipids and muscle lipid fractions appeared to be not practicable due to possible incomplete turnover of lipids.