Protective effect of chitosan against growth inhibition and pancreatic oxidative stress in weaned piglets

ABSTRACT This study was undertaken to determine the protective effect of chitosan against oxidative injury in pancreas of weaned piglets. A 2 × 2 factorial experiment was conducted. Twenty-four weaned piglets were randomly divided into one of two dietary treatments (0 or 0.5 g/kg chitosan). After 2 weeks of feeding, half of the piglets on each dietary treatment were given an intraperitoneal injection of diquat or saline. Piglets were killed and samples were collected to assess enzyme activity, redox parameters and nutrient apparent digestibility. The results show that diquat decreased growth performance and induced pancreatic injury, markedly increased pancreas weight, the pancreatic MDA content, activities of pancreatic lipase, serum amylase and lipase, but decreased antioxidant enzyme activity of pancreas. However, chitosan improved growth performance, decreased the relative pancreas weight, activities of serum amylase and lipase, pancreatic lipase activity and crude fat apparent digestibility, but increased the pancreatic T-AOC and activities of antioxidant enzyme, pancreatic trypsin activity, and crude protein apparent digestibility. Furthermore, in the weaned piglets challenged with diquat, chitosan inclusion alleviated the activities of serum amylase and lipase, and pancreatic MDA concentration. The results of the present study indicated that chitosan could be a safe and potent new additive for alleviating pancreatic oxidative injury.