Short-term supplementation of isocaloric meals with l-tryptophan affects pig growth

• Published in: Amino acids Vol. 49; no. 12; pp. 2009 - 2014
• Main Authors: Liu, H. N., Hu, C.-A. A., Bai, M. M., Liu, Gang, Tossou, M. C. B., Xu, K., Li, F. N., Liao, P., Kong, X. F., Wu, X., Yin, Y. L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01.12.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Amino acids; Amino Acids - metabolism; Amino Acids, Branched-Chain - blood; Amino Acids, Essential - blood; Analytical Chemistry; Animal Feed - analysis; Animal Feed - statistics & numerical data; Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena - drug effects; Animals; Arginine; Biochemical Engineering; Biochemistry; Biomarkers; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Blood Glucose; Blood Urea Nitrogen; Body weight; Cellular; Chain branching; Chains; Circadian rhythms; Dietary Supplements; Feed efficiency; Glycine; Histidine; Isoleucine; Life Sciences; Meals; Metabolites; Methionine; Neurobiology; Nitrogen - metabolism; Organoid and Animal Models in Therapeutics; Original Article; Proline; Proteomics; Serine; Sus scrofa - growth & development; Sus scrofa - metabolism; Threonine; Tryptophan; Tryptophan - metabolism; Tryptophan - pharmacology; Urea; Valine; Weight Gain - drug effects; Tryptophan; Feed efficiency; Sequence of isocaloric meals; Amino acid profile; Pig
• ISSN: 0939-4451; 1438-2199
• DOI: 10.1007/s00726-017-2440-3

l -Tryptophan (Trp) and some of its metabolites regulate the circadian rhythm in mammals. We aimed to investigate the effects of short-term supplementation of Trp in isocaloric meals on growth performance using the parameters of multiple blood biomarkers and free amino acids in growing pigs. A total of 32 Landrace × Yorkshire barrows with a mean body weight of 8.64 (±1.13) kg were randomly assigned to four groups and then fed with various concentrations of Trp diets daily. Our results showed that sequential supplementation of different concentrations of Trp in isocaloric meals decreased the feed:gain (F:G) ratio ( P  = 0.079) and plasma urea and albumin ( P  = 0.019), whereas the level of total protein did not. Among the essential and conditionally essential amino acids, the concentrations of histidine, isoleucine, proline, threonine, arginine, and valine in the plasma decreased ( P  < 0.05), whereas the concentrations of Trp, glycine, serine, and methionine increased ( P  < 0.01). In addition, concentrations of branched chain amino acids also significantly decreased ( P  = 0.004), while the rate of conversion of Trp to branched chain amino acids increased ( P  < 0.001). Taken together, we show that administration of a high concentration of Trp in breakfast with decreasing concentrations of Trp in lunch and dinner positively affected feed utilization and improved feed efficiency, at least in part, through the optimization of amino acid interconversions and nitrogen utilization.