ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Lysozyme supplement enhances antioxidant capacity and regulates liver glucolipid metabolism in weaned piglets
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, China
- 2Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin, China
- 3Huanshan Group, qingdao, China
- 4Tianjin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Tianjin, China
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Lysozyme (LZ) is a widely distributed innate defense molecule with significant bactericidal capacity against. This study aimed to investigate the effects of LZ on antioxidant function and glucolipid metabolism of liver tissue in weaned piglets. A total of 48 weaned piglets (Landrace × Yorkshire, 22 days old) were randomly divided into two groups: control group (basal diet) and LZ group (0.1% LZ supplementation). LZ could significantly improve liver index (P < 0.05) and hepatic triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDLC) in serum (P < 0.05). In the liver, CAT activities were significantly increased (P < 0.05) in the LZ group. Liver RT-qPCR results showed that LZ could increase the activity of antioxidant enzymes including NADH quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), Mn superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) and catalase (CAT, P < 0.05). In addition, LZ supplementation significantly increased the content of C16:1 (P < 0.01), C17:0 (P < 0.05), C20:3n6 (P < 0.01) and C18:1n9t (P < 0.05), whereas the content of C20:2 (P = 0.068) tended to decrease in the liver of weaned piglets from the LZ group. Liver RT-qPCR results showed that LZ up-regulated the relative expression of carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1 α (CPT1α, P < 0.05) and peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARα, P < 0.05), but inhibited the mRNA level of stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD, P < 0.05) and sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP1, P < 0.05) when compared with those in control group. In addition, LZ could improve glucose metabolism by upregulating the mRNA expression of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK, P < 0.05), pyruvate carboxylase (PC, P < 0.05) and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PC, P < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary LZ supplementation effectively improved liver lipid metabolism, enhanced glucose homeostasis, and boosted antioxidant function in weaned piglets. These findings provide an important theoretical basis for the application of LZ as a promising feed additive in pig production.
Keywords: Lysozyme (LZ), Weaned piglet, Lipid Metabolism, glucose metabolism, antioxidant function
Received: 09 Oct 2025; Accepted: 19 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 wu, zhang, zhang, Xie and chen. 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:
Chunyan Xie, xie.chunyan@foxmail.com
guoshun chen, chengs@gsau.edu.cn
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