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Amino Acids and Immune Functions

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Nutritional and Physiological Functions of Amino Acids in Pigs

Abstract

In modern, high-density production systems, swine are challenged by pathogenic microorganisms—bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can cause infectious disease or pathology, especially for neonatal and weaned piglets (Yong-Gang et al. 2012). In these latter, immune system is not well developed in the first 4 weeks of life (Yang and Schultz 1986). Amino acids have been demonstrated to play important roles in immune responses by regulating (1) the activation of T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, natural killer cells, and macrophages; (2) cellular redox state, gene expression, and lymphocyte proliferation; and (3) the production of antibodies, cytokines, and other cytotoxic substances (Li et al. 2007a, b; Kim et al. 2007). A number of studies have showed that dietary specific amino acids supplementation to pigs with malnutrition and infectious diseases enhance the immune status, thereby reducing morbidity and mortality (Ewaschuk et al. 2011; Johnsona et al. 2006; Liu et al. 2005, 2008; Han et al. 2008; Tan et al. 2009; Wenkai et al. 2012a, b). In this chapter, functions of amino acids in regulating the immune system and the amino acids requirements of immune system are described, in the hope of providing great promise in improving health and preventing infectious diseases in animals and humans.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Bie Tan & Yulong Yin

  2. The Key Laboratory of Food Science of Ministry of Education and Department of Food Science and Engineering, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330047, P.R. China

    Mingyong Xie

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  1. Bie Tan
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  2. Mingyong Xie
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Correspondence to Yulong Yin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. for Agronomic Research, National Institute, rue Claude Bernard 16, Paris, 75005, French S.Territ

    Francois Blachier

  2. TAMU 2471, College Station, 77843-2471, USA

    Guoyao Wu

  3. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Hunan Engineering and Research Center of Animal and Poultry, Hunan, 410125, Hunan, China, People's Republic

    Yulong Yin

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Tan, B., Xie, M., Yin, Y. (2013). Amino Acids and Immune Functions. In: Blachier, F., Wu, G., Yin, Y. (eds) Nutritional and Physiological Functions of Amino Acids in Pigs. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1328-8_12

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