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Effects of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on Growth, Intestinal Barrier, Oxidative Status and Mineral Deposition in 21-Day-Old Broiler Chicks

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Abstract

This experiment was to study the effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) on growth, intestinal barrier, oxidative status, and mineral deposition. In total, 256 one-day-old chicks were randomly allotted to 4 dietary groups and fed with basal diet plus 80 mg/kg ZnSO4 (ZnSO4 group) or plus 40, 80, and 160 mg/kg ZnO-NPs, respectively, for 21 days. Compared with the ZnSO4 group, dietary 40, 80, and 160 mg/kg ZnO-NPs did not alter growth (average daily gain, body weight, and gain to feed ratio), and serum activities of glutamic-pyruvic transaminase, alkaline phosphatase and glutamic oxalacetic transaminase (P > 0.05). However, dietary 80 and 160 mg/kg ZnO-NPs linearly decreased serum D-lactate content and diamine oxidase activity (P < 0.01). Moreover, 80 mg/kg ZnO-NPs enhanced zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) mRNA expression in jejunal mucosa (P = 0.02). Dietary ZnO-NPs increased total antioxidant capacity activity (P = 0.01), and 80 mg/kg ZnO-NPs decreased malondialdehyde content in jejunal mucosa as compared to the ZnSO4 group (P = 0.02). In contrast, dietary ZnO-NPs did not alter mRNA expressions of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione S-transferase, heme oxygennase-1 (HO-1) and NAD (P)H: quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) (P > 0.05). No significant difference was found in selected mineral concentrations (Mn, Cu, Fe and Zn) in the liver among ZnSO4 and 3 ZnO-NP groups (P > 0.05). However, 160 mg/kg ZnO-NPs increased fecal contents of Zn, Fe and Cu (P < 0.01), but did not affect fecal Mn level (P > 0.05). Therefore, results suggested that ZnO-NPs could be an additive to enhance the intestinal barrier and antioxidant capacity of broiler chicks, whereas the inclusion of 80 mg/kg would be more efficient.

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Data and materials availability

The data and materials of this study will be made available on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks for the help of Liren Ding (College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University) in dealing with samples for the analysis of mineral concentrations.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31972598).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science and Technology, National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Centre of Animal Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Jiaqi Zhang, Caiyun Yu, Zhihua Li, Jian Li, Yueping Chen, Tian Wang & Chao Wang

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  1. Jiaqi Zhang
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  2. Caiyun Yu
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  3. Zhihua Li
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  4. Jian Li
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Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: C.W. and T.W.; performed: J.Z. (Jiaqi Zhang), C.Y., C.W., Z.L. and J.L.; analyzed the data: J.Z. (Jiaqi Zhang) and C.W.; contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: J.Z. (Jiaqi Zhang), C.W. and Y.C. and wrote the manuscript: J.Z. and C.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chao Wang.

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This experiment was approved and carried out under the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Nanjing Agricultural University (Jiangsu, China). The number of the ethics committee-approved protocol for the animal study is SYXK-2019–00017.

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Zhang, J., Yu, C., Li, Z. et al. Effects of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on Growth, Intestinal Barrier, Oxidative Status and Mineral Deposition in 21-Day-Old Broiler Chicks. Biol Trace Elem Res 200, 1826–1834 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-021-02771-6

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