Effects of Dietary Folic Acid Supplementation in Pregnant Ewes on Expression of Genes Related to Umbilical Cord Angiogenesis of Newborn Lambs of Different Litter Size

  • PENG Sijia ,
  • LI Heqiong ,
  • LUO Hailing ,
  • WANG Bo ,
  • LI Zhen ,
  • WANG Yuejun
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  • State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China

Received date: 2020-07-06

  Online published: 2021-02-04

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Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary folic acid supplementation in pregnant ewes on expression of genes related to umbilical cord angiogenesis of newborn lambs of different litter size. A total of 120 mutated Hu sheep ewes with similar body weight and consistent age were artificial inseminated and randomly divided into 3 groups, they were housed in individual pens and fed total mixed ration supplemented with 0, 16 and 32 mg/kg DM folic acid, respectively. At the time of delivery, each 3 samples of placenta and fetal umbilical cord of twin lambs and triplet lambs were collected randomly from each group, a total of 18 samples were used to measure placental related traits. The real-time quantitative PCR was used to detect the relative expression levels of the angiogenesis-related genes, including vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA), transforming growth factor-β3 (TGF-β3), angiopoietin-1 (ANGPT-1), fms related tyrosine kinase 1 (FLT-1) and kinase insert domain receptor (KDR). The results showed that the dietary folic acid supplementation in pregnant ewes had no significant effects on placental weight, cotyledon number, placental efficiency (P>0.05), and had no significant effects on the relative expression levels of TGF-β3, ANGPT-1, FLT-1 and KDR genes in the umbilical cord of newborn lambs (P>0.05), but significantly increased the relative expression level of VEGFA gene (P<0.05). Besides, litter size had no significant effects on placental weight, cotyledon number, placental efficiency and the relative expression levels of VEGFA, TGF-β3, FLT-1 and KDR genes in the umbilical cord of newborn lambs (P>0.05), while the relative expression level of ANGPT-1 gene of triplet lambs was significantly higher than that of twin lambs (P<0.05). In conclusion, the dietary folic acid supplementation in pregnant ewes have no significant effects on the development of placenta, but it can significantly increase the relative expression level of VEGFA gene in the umbilical cord of newborn lambs, which is beneficial to umbilical cord angiogenesis of newborn lambs. Meanwhile, among newborn lambs, the relative expression level of ANGPT-1 gene of triplet lambs is significantly higher than that of twin lambs, which is beneficial to umbilical cord angiogenesis of multiple lambs.

Cite this article

PENG Sijia , LI Heqiong , LUO Hailing , WANG Bo , LI Zhen , WANG Yuejun . Effects of Dietary Folic Acid Supplementation in Pregnant Ewes on Expression of Genes Related to Umbilical Cord Angiogenesis of Newborn Lambs of Different Litter Size[J]. Chinese Journal of Animal Nutrition, 2021 , 33(2) : 944 -953 . DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1006-267x.2021.02.035

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