Dietary L-arginine supplementation during early gestation of gilts affects conceptuses development

• Published in: Theriogenology 2019-12, Vol.140, p.62-71
• Main Authors: Costa, Karine Assis, Saraiva, Alysson, Guimarães, José Domingos, Marques, Daniele Botelho Diniz, Machado-Neves, Mariana, Barbosa, Lívia Maria Reis, Villadiego, Faider Alberto Castaño, Veroneze, Renata, Oliveira, Letícia Fernanda de, Garcia, Ingrid Soares, Teixeira, Susana Amaral, Guimarães, Simone Eliza Facioni
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Apoptosis - drug effects; Apoptosis - genetics; Apoptosis genes; Arginine - administration & dosage; Arginine - therapeutic use; Developmental genes; Dietary Supplements; Fetal Development - drug effects; Gene Expression Profiling; Litter Size - drug effects; Mortality rate; Nutrigenomics; Phenotype; Pre-natal growth; Swine - growth & development; Time Factors
• ISSN: 0093-691X; 1879-3231
• DOI: 10.1016/j.theriogenology.2019.08.018

l-arginine supplementation of sows has led to improvement of reproductive performance, but the mechanisms responsible for the positive effects of arginine during gestation on conceptuses survival and development are still poorly understood. Thus, we aimed to evaluate effects of 1.0% l-arginine supplementation (ARG) on phenotypic traits of commercial gilts, embryos and fetuses, concentration of gilts’ blood metabolites, expression of developmental and cellular apoptosis genes in conceptuses of 25 and 35 days. At 25 days, IGF1 gene was more expressed in embryos from ARG than in embryos from control gilts (CON) (P = 0.05). At this same gestational age, ARG embryos tended to be heavier compared to CON (P = 0.07) and ARG gilts showed a trend to have a greater arginine concentration in blood plasma (P = 0.06). However, at 35 days of gestation, arginine concentration in blood plasma of ARG gilts tended to be lower compared to CON (P = 0.06) and ARG fetuses showed smaller cephalic-caudal length (P = 0.05). These results indicate that duration of supplementation is determinant for arginine effects, not only on the females performance but also on the conceptuses, since supplementation upregulated IGF1 expression at 25 days, in addition to the reduction of cephalic-caudal length of 35-day fetuses. •We compared phenotypic traits among pregnant gilts supplement with 1.0% l-arginine and not supplemented gilts.•We analyzed phenotypic traits in embryos/fetuses from gilts supplemented or not supplemented with l-arginine.•We sought to understand the influence of L-arginine supplementation in the expression of developmental genes and apoptotic genes.•We analyzed the effect of L-arginine supplementation in metabolites like amino acids, hormones and urea in gilts blood concentration.•We discussed some important events and modifications that occurs during the embryos and fetuses development, treated or not treated with L-arginine.