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Dietary l-glutamine supplementation improves pregnancy outcome in mice infected with type-2 porcine circovirus

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Abstract

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) causes reproductive failure in swine. As glutamine can enhance immune function in animals, this study was conducted with mice to test the hypothesis that dietary glutamine supplementation will improve pregnancy outcome in PCV2-infected dams. Beginning on day 0 of gestation, mice were fed a standard diet supplemented with 1.0% l-glutamine or 1.22% l-alanine (isonitrogenous control). All mice were infected with PCV2 (2000 TCID50) on day 10 of gestation. On day 17 of gestation, six mice from each group were euthanized to obtain maternal tissues and fetuses for hematology and histopathology tests. The remaining mice continued to receive their respective diets supplemented with 1.0% l-glutamine or 1.22% l-alanine through lactation. The PCV2 virus was present in maternal samples (serum and lung) of most mice in the control group but was not detected in the glutamine-supplemented mice. Dietary glutamine supplementation reduced abortion, decreased fetal deaths, and enhanced neonatal survival. The glutamine treatment also reduced concentrations of interleukin-6, while increasing concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-α and C-reactive protein, in the maternal serum of mice. Furthermore, glutamine supplementation attenuated microscopic lesions in maternal tissues (lung, spleen, and liver). Collectively, these results indicate that dietary glutamine supplementation is beneficial for ameliorating reproductive failure in virus-infected mice. The findings support the notion that gestating dams require adequate amounts of dietary glutamine for the optimal survival and growth of embryos, fetuses, and neonates, and have important implications for nutritional support of mammals (including swine and humans) during gestation and lactation.

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Abbreviations

CRP:

C-Reactive protein

IL-1β:

Interleukin-1β

IL-6:

Interleukin-6

PCV2:

Porcine circovirus type 2

qPCR:

Quantitative polymerase chain reaction

TNF-α:

Tumor necrosis factor-α

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Acknowledgments

This research was jointly supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31110103909, 30901041, 30972167, 30901040, 30928018, 30972156, 30871801, 30828024, 30828025, 30771558 and 30700581), National Basic Research Project (No. 2009CB118800), the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams, the Thousand-People-Talent program at China Agricultural University, Ministry of Science and Technology of People’s Republic of China (No. (2010GB2D200322), Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 10JJ2028), and Texas AgriLife Research (No. 8200).

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The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Healthy Breeding of Livestock and Poultry, Key Laboratory for Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Hunan Engineering and Research Center of Animal and Poultry Science, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, 410125, Hunan, China

    Wenkai Ren, Miaomiao Wu, Gang Liu, Teijun Li, Yulong Yin & Guoyao Wu

  2. College of Veterinary Medicine, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, Hunan, China

    Wei Luo & Xinglong Yu

  3. College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, Hunan, China

    Wenkai Ren & Jun Fang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    Guoyao Wu

  5. Department of Animal Science, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA

    Guoyao Wu

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  1. Wenkai Ren
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  2. Wei Luo
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  3. Miaomiao Wu
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Correspondence to Yulong Yin.

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Ren, W., Luo, W., Wu, M. et al. Dietary l-glutamine supplementation improves pregnancy outcome in mice infected with type-2 porcine circovirus. Amino Acids 45, 479–488 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-011-1134-5

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