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Arginine plays an important role in preventing intestinal dysfunction and metabolic disorders caused by early weaning stress. However, little is known about how arginine mitigates early weaning stress. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of weaning stress and dietary arginine supplementation on the metabonome in the serum of piglets using 1H NMR spectroscopy in conjunction with multivariate data analysis. Thirty castrated male piglets (Duroc x Landrace x Large Yorkshire) aged 21 d with a body weight = 5436 ± 316 g were used. They were randomly assigned to one of three groups (n = 10 piglets per group): (1) sow-fed (SF) piglets continued to be nursed by sows, (2) weaned piglets received dietary supplementation with 2.05% L-alanine supplementation (ALA), and (3) weaned piglets received dietary supplementation with 1.0% L-arginine supplementation (ARG) to the basal diet. All weaned piglets were housed individually. BW was recorded at the beginning and the end of the trial and daily food intake was also recorded. Approximately, 2 mL of blood was collected by venipuncture from the jugular vein at the ages of day 21 and 28 following a 12 h fast. Serum were obtained by centrifugation at 1000 g and 4ºC for 10 min and stored at -80ºC until NMR analysis.
SF and ARG piglets gained more body weight compared to ALA piglets measured at 28 d (15.6 and 5.6%). In addition, the food intake to bodyweight gain ratio was lower for ARG piglets than for ALA piglets (P < 0.05). The early weaning stress was associated with marked alterations in lipid and amino acid metabolisms and perturbations in population and/or activities of gut microorganisms, which were manifested in increased levels of organic acids, amino acids, and acetyl-glycoproteins and reduced levels of choline metabolism and lipoproteins.
Dietary supplementation with arginine could partially counteract the changes of metabolites induced by weaning stress, such as lipid and amino acid metabolisms. However, arginine was not able to restore disturbed gut microbiota. These results demonstrate the central role of arginine supplementation in regulating the metabolisms of weaned piglets.
Q He, H Tang, P Ren, X Kong, G Wu, Y Yin, Y Wang. Dietary supplementation with L-Arginine partially counteracts serum metabonome induced by weaning stress in piglets . 2011. Journal of Proteome Research, 10:5214-5221.
