Transplacental effects of maternal feeding with high fat diets on lipid exchange and response of the splenic lymphoid system in mice offspring exposed to low doses of carcinogen

Effects of dietary supplementation with rice bran oil on the growth performance, blood parameters, and immune response of broiler chickens

Background

The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of rice bran oil (RBO) on growth performance, blood parameter, and immune response in broiler chickens.

Methods

A total of 240 1-d-old ROSS 308 male broilers were randomly allotted to 4 dietary treatments with six replicated pens consisting of ten chicks. The basal diet was formulated to be adequate in energy and nutrients. Three additional diets were prepared by adding 5, 10 or 20 g/kg of RBO to the basal diet. The experimental diets were fed on an ad libitum basis to the birds during 35 d.

Results

Results indicated that increasing inclusion level of RBO in diets improved BW gain (linear and quadratic, P < 0.01), improve feed conversion ratio (linear, P < 0.05) of birds during 0 to 35 d. There was no effect of inclusion level of RBO in diets on feed intake of birds. There was no effect of inclusion level of RBO in diets on erythrocytes of birds. However, heterophil, lymphocyte, and monocytes increased (linear and quadratic, P < 0.01) with inclusion level of RBO in diets increased. Feeding the diets containing increasing amount of RBO to birds increased (linear, P < 0.01) the concentrations of total cholesterol. Increasing inclusion level of RBO in diets increased concentrations of IgG (linear, P < 0.01). There was no effect of inclusion level of RBO in diets on concentrations of IgM.

Conclusions

These results suggest that dietary RBO may be used functional ingredient to improve growth performance, total cholesterol in serum, and immune response of birds.

Increased immune response in mice consuming rice bran oil

BACKGROUND

Polyunsaturated fatty acids play a key role in a number of biological functions. Rice bran oil (RBO) is rich in linoleic acid, an essential n-6 fatty acid. n-6 fatty acids are said to have proinflammatory effects as a result of an increase in n-6 fatty acid-derived eicosanoids. RBO is also rich in gamma-oryzanol, a compound from the unsaponifiable fraction, with antioxidant properties.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this work is to examine the effect of RBO-and/or gamma-oryzanol-enriched diets on the regulation of the immune response.

METHODS

4 week-old Balb/C mice were fed diets enriched with either RBO or high oleic-sunflower oil (HOSO), for one month. Serum samples, bone marrow-derived macrophages and lymphocytes from the spleen were collected.

RESULTS

Compared to HOSO, our results show that RBO modulates the immune system by enhancing B-lymphocyte proliferation (6842 +/- 2959 vs 10073 +/- 4186 cpm; HOSO vs RBO; n = 10 per group) and TH1-type cytokines such as IL-2 (55.85 +/- 18.2 vs 101.7 +/- 21.6 pg/ml) or TNF-alpha (49.12 +/- 18.6 vs 184.9 +/- 46.2 pg/ml; HOSO vs RBO) in a significant way (n = 10 per group). Moreover, the reduction found in the TH2 cytokine IL-4 (7.59 +/- 2.3 vs 4.48 +/- 1.6 pg/ml) and IgE (56.9 +/- 39.2 vs 42.4 +/- 35.2 ng/ ml; HOSO vs RBO, n = 10 per group) levels suggests RBO may have antiallergenic properties. To elucidate the role of gamma-oryzanol, a similar study was also carried out including diets enriched with refined RBO or HOSO containing gamma-oryzanol (2 %). Our results suggest that although gamma-oryzanol may modulate the immune system, it is not responsible for the overall immunostimulation effect seen for RBO.

CONCLUSIONS

RBO-enriched diets could be useful in situations where a potentiation of the immune response was required. The fatty acids composition, more than the unsaponifiable fraction, might be responsible for this effect.