Acesso alimentar tardio pós-eclosão sobre a morfofisiologia intestinal de codornas europeias

Abstract

The present work was carried out with the objective of evaluating the effects of late post-hatching food access on intestinal morphometry (villus height, crypt depth, villus:crypt ratio and villus area) and changes in the expression of related genes with glucose transport (Sglt1 and Glu2), in European Quails (Coturnix coturnix) at 21 days of age. We used 180 quails distributed in a completely randomized experimental design, with three experimental treatments, with three times of access to food post-hatch (immediate access to food; late food access post-hatch of 24 hours and late food access post-hatch of 48 hours), with five replications of 12 animals each. At 21 days of age, five animals per treatment were euthanized, followed by the collection of samples measuring approximately 2 cm from the medial portion of the jejunum for histomorphometric analyzes and evaluation of the gene expression of intestinal transporters, using the RT-PCR technique. The data were subjected to analysis of variance and the means were compared using the Tukey test at 5% probability. It was observed that birds submitted to late post-hatch food access of 48 hours showed a reduction (p<0.05) in the height of the villi and in the villus area of the jejunum. No differences (p<0.05) were observed in any of the morphometric variables in quails subjected to 24 hours of delayed food access post-hatch in relation to the immediate access to food treatment. The expression of the sodium-dependent glucose cotransporter gene (Sglt1) was higher (p<0.05) in birds that had immediate access to food. The expression of the basolateral membrane glucose transporter gene (Glut2) was lower (p<0.05) in the 48h post-hatch fasting treatment. It is concluded that late post-hatch food access negatively affects intestinal morphology and gene expression of intestinal glucose transporters in European quails at 21 days of age.