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Valine supplementation during late pregnancy in gilts increases colostral protein synthesis through stimulating mTOR signaling pathway in mammary cells

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Abstract

Mammary gland development during late pregnancy in sows is a major factor affecting the composition of colostrum and milk and the pre-weaning growth of piglets, while valine is essential for protein and nitrogen metabolism in mammary gland of sow. However, the effects of valine and its underlying mechanism on mammary gland development during late pregnancy are still unclear. Here, we hypothesized that dosage of dietary valine during late pregnancy will affect protein synthesis of colostrum in gilts. The results showed that supplementation of valine during late pregnancy significantly increased content of protein (P < 0.01), fat (P = 0.02) and solids-non-fat (P = 0.04) in colostrum. Our in vitro study also confirmed that valine supplementation increased protein synthesis and cell proliferation in porcine mammary epithelial cells (PMEC). Furthermore, these changes were associated with elevated phosphorylation levels of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and ribosomal protein S6 kinase (S6) and eukaryotic initiation factor 4E-binding protein-1 (4EBP1) in valine-supplemented cells, which could be effectively blocked by the antagonists of mTOR. These findings indicated that valine enhanced mammary gland development and protein synthesis in colostrum via the mTOR signaling pathway. These results, using an in vivo and in vitro model, helped to understand the beneficial effects of dietary valine supplementation on gilts.

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Abbreviations

PMEC:

Porcine mammary epithelial cell

BCAA:

Branched-chain amino acid

mTOR:

Mammalian target of rapamycin

S6:

Ribosomal protein S6 kinase

4EBP1:

4E-binding protein 1

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank W. Bruce Currie (Emeritus Professor, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY) for his help in preparation of this manuscript. The present study was supported by China Agriculture Research System (CARS-35), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 31201814), Operating Funds for Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Breeding and Nutrition (2014B030301054), Supporting Program for Guangdong Agricultural Research and Development Center of Livestock and Poultry Healthy Breeding, the Hundred Outstanding Talents Training Program at Guangdong Province, China.

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Author notes

  1. Long Che and Mengmeng Xu contributed equally to the work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Animal Disease-Resistance Nutrition and Feed Science, Ministry of Agriculture, Chengdu, China

    Long Che, Mengmeng Xu & De Wu

  2. Institute of Animal Nutrition, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, China

    Long Che, Mengmeng Xu & De Wu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Breeding, Guangzhou, China

    Long Che, Mengmeng Xu, Kaiguo Gao, Li Wang, Xuefen Yang, Xiaolu Wen, Hao Xiao & Zongyong Jiang

  4. Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science in South China, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou, China

    Long Che, Mengmeng Xu, Kaiguo Gao, Li Wang, Xuefen Yang, Xiaolu Wen, Hao Xiao & Zongyong Jiang

  5. Guangdong Public Laboratory of Animal Breeding and Nutrition, Guangzhou, China

    Long Che, Mengmeng Xu, Kaiguo Gao, Li Wang, Xuefen Yang, Xiaolu Wen, Hao Xiao & Zongyong Jiang

  6. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Breeding and Nutrition, Guangzhou, China

    Long Che, Mengmeng Xu, Kaiguo Gao, Li Wang, Xuefen Yang, Xiaolu Wen, Hao Xiao & Zongyong Jiang

  7. Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No.1 Dafeng Street, Wushan Rd, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Long Che, Mengmeng Xu, Kaiguo Gao, Li Wang, Xuefen Yang, Xiaolu Wen, Hao Xiao & Zongyong Jiang

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  1. Long Che
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  2. Mengmeng Xu
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  4. Li Wang
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  9. De Wu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zongyong Jiang or De Wu.

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All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Ethical standards

All experimental procedures followed the current law regarding animal protection (Ethic Approval Code: 5YXK2016-0165) and were approved by the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals prepared by the Animal Care and Use Committee of Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

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Che, L., Xu, M., Gao, K. et al. Valine supplementation during late pregnancy in gilts increases colostral protein synthesis through stimulating mTOR signaling pathway in mammary cells. Amino Acids 51, 1547–1559 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-019-02790-7

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