Dietary L-arginine supplementation enhances porcine β-defensins gene expression in some tissues of weaned pigs

The present study was mainly conducted to test the hypothesis that dietary L-arginine supplementation regulates gene expression of beta-defensins in some tissues of weaned pigs. Thirty crossbred piglets weaned at 21 days of age were allotted to 1 of 3 diets supplemented with 0.0, 0.5 and 1.0% L-arginine (10 pigs/treatment). Pigs consumed the diets for 7 d. On d 7, 6 pigs from each treatment were randomly killed, and the tissue and blood samples were collected. Compared with control pigs, dietary L-arginine supplementation did not affect the growth performance and serum concentrations of IgA, IgG, IgM, IL-l beta, IL-2 and INF-alpha (P> 0.05), but dietary supplementation with 0.5% L-arginine reduced serum urea concentration (P< 0.05). Additionally, dietary L-arginine supplementation significantly increased porcine beta-defensin-1 gene expression of tongue, porcine beta-defensin-3 gene expression of ileum and inguinal lymph node, and porcine beta-defensin-2 gene expression of oral epithelium, tongue, ileum and inguinal lymph node (P <0.05). These results suggest that dietary supplementation with 1-arginine enhances gene expressions of porcine p-defensins in some tissues of weaned pigs. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.