抄録
In addition to the important role in maintaining calcium homeostasis, vitamin D3 (VD3) has also been suggested to participate in the regulation of innate and adaptive immune responses in human by enhancing antimicrobial peptides expression. In this study, we investigated the effect of supplementation of 0, 800, 1,600, 3,200 and 6,400 IU/kg of VD3 in the basal diet on the mRNA expression of antimicrobial peptides (AvBD-1 and chCATH-1) in chicken by using quantitative real-time RT-PCR. The supplementation of VD3 in the basal diet could significantly promote the mRNA expression of both AvBD-1 and chCATH-1 genes (P < 0.01), which showed dose-dependent response from 800 to 3,200 IU/kg supplementation dose. Compared with control group (0 IU/kg), 11-fold to 39-fold and 4.7-fold to 25-fold of mRNA expression difference in treatment groups were detected for AvBD-1 and chCATH-1 genes in bursa of Fabricius, respectively. In addition, VD3 also could significantly enhance the AvBD-1 and chCATH-1 mRNA expression in thymus (P < 0.05). Our results indicated that the VD3 supplementation of 3,200 IU/kg dose in basal diet could significantly promote the AvBD-1 and chCATH-1 mRNA expression in bursa of Fabricius, which is potential to improve the innate ability to resist diseases in chicken.
