ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Avian Physiology
This article is part of the Research TopicGlobal Climate Change and Avian Physiological ResponsesView all 5 articles
Effect of Chronic Heat Stress on Duodenal Epithelial Barrier Integrity in Low-and High-Water Efficient Broiler chickens
Provisionally accepted
- University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States
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Heat stress (HS) has long posed a significant challenge to the poultry industry from its adverse effects on depressed feed, decreased growth performance, and increased water consumption Water efficiency (WE, conversion of water intake into body weight gain), although often neglected, is a key economic and production trait that is significantly affected by HS. Recently we selected two broiler lines for high (HWE) and low (LWE) WE and showed a differential hypothalamic expression of genes involved in water homeostasis regulation. As gut plays also a significant role in water absorption, the present study aimed to determine the effect of chronic HS on duodenal barrier integrity in LWE and HWE broilers. Male HWE and LWE chicks (240 chicks/line) were individually wing-banded for line identification, weighed, and placed in 12 controlled environmental chambers (2 pens/chambers). On day 29, birds were subjected to thermoneutral (TN, 25ºC) or cyclic HS (HS, 36ºC for 9h/day from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm) conditions (120 birds/line/environment) for three weeks. On day 49, duodenal tissues were collected for histological, biochemical, and molecular analyses. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining revealed that HS significantly reduced villus height in the duodenum. Further analysis by qPCR showed that the mRNA expression of intestinal barrier integrity-related genes, claudins (CLDN1, 4, 5, 8, 16, and 22), PALS1-associated tight junction protein (PATJ), gap junction alpha 1 and 3 (GJA1/3), cadherin 2 (CDH2) and catenin alpha 2 (CTNNA2) were significantly upregulated by HS and this effect was more pronounced in HWE line compared to its LWE counterpart. The findings of this study indicate that HS induces duodenal morphometric alterations. Based on the reduced serum fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran (FITC-D) levels previously reported in HWE line, the increased abundances of CLDN, PATJ, GJA1, CDH2, and CTNNA2 mRNAs in HWE line suggest an enhancement of its duodenal barrier integrity for better nutrient and water absorption and thereby better growth efficiency.
Keywords: Heat stress, intestinal barrier integrity, tight junction, water efficiency, Gene Expression
Received: 13 Sep 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Greene, Roach, Orlowski and Dridi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sami Dridi, dridi@uark.edu
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