Effects Of Artemisia Argyi Ethanol Extract On Immune And Antioxidative Function Of Broilers

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of Artemisia Argyi ethanol extract(AAEE)on growth performance,immune and antioxidant indexes in liver,spleen and small intestine of broilers,and to explore the signaling pathways of immune and antioxidant effects of AAEE.AAEE freeze-dried powder was extracted from the aboveground part of Artemisia argyi with ethanol as the extraction solvent.Using randomized block design,a total of 240(1 day old)Arbor Acres(AA)chickens were selected and randomly divided into 5 diet treatment groups with 6 replicates and 8 birds(half male and female)per replicate.The five kinds of diets were formulated by adding,respectively,0(control),250,500,750 and 1 000 mg/kg AAEE in basal diet.The trial period was 42 d.The results were listed as follows:1.With the increase of AAEE supplemental level,body weight had a linear increasing trend(P=0.094),while total feed intake had a linear(P=0.071)or quadratic(P=0.075)decreasing trend,indicating that AAEE supplementation in diets was beneficial to promoting growth performance of broilers.2.With the increase of AAEE supplemental level,the contents of anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-2 and IL-4 in spleen and small intestine were significantly increased in a linear or quadratic mode(P<0.01);the content of pro-inflammatory factor IL-1β in liver,spleen and small intestine was decreased quadratically(P<0.05);the content of pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 in liver and small intestine was significantly decreased in a quadratic mode(P<0.05);and there was a significant linear increase in immunoglobulin content in liver,spleen and small intestine(P<0.05).In addition,AAEE supplementation could improve the immune function of broilers by inhibiting MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway and down-regulating the gene expressions of related factors such as TLR4,My D88,MAPK/(P38,JNK,ERK),NF-κB/(P65,P50),IL-1β and IL-6.3.With the increase of AAEE supplemental level,T-AOC showed a significant linear(P<0.05)or extremely significant quadratic(P<0.01)increase in liver,spleen and small intestine;the content of MDA in spleen and small intestine was significantly decreased in a quadratic mode(P<0.01);the activity of GSH-Px in liver,spleen and small intestine showed a significant quadratic increase(P<0.05);the activities of T-SOD and CAT in spleen and small intestine were linearly increased(P<0.05).In addition,the addition of AAEE could enhance the antioxidant function of broilers by activating AMPK/Nrf2 signaling pathway and up-regulating the gene expressions of AMPK-α1,Nrf2,HO-1,GPX7,SOD and CAT.