Zinc and Copper with New Triazine Hydrazone Ligand: Two Novel Organic Complexes Enhanced Expression of Peptide Growth Factors and Cytokine Genes in Weaned V-Line Rabbit

Abdelmotaleb A Elokil; Tharwat A Imbabi; Hany I Mohamed; Khaled F M Abouelezz; Omar Ahmed-Farid; Girmay Shishay; Islam I Sabike; Huazhen Liu

doi:10.3390/ani9121134

Zinc and Copper with New Triazine Hydrazone Ligand: Two Novel Organic Complexes Enhanced Expression of Peptide Growth Factors and Cytokine Genes in Weaned V-Line Rabbit

Animals (Basel). 2019 Dec 12;9(12):1134. doi: 10.3390/ani9121134.

Authors

Abdelmotaleb A Elokil^{1

2}, Tharwat A Imbabi², Hany I Mohamed^{3

4}, Khaled F M Abouelezz^{5

6}, Omar Ahmed-Farid⁷, Girmay Shishay¹, Islam I Sabike⁸, Huazhen Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Basic Veterinary Medicine, College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
² Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Benha University, Moshtohor 13736, Egypt.
³ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
⁴ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Benha University, Benha 13518, Egypt.
⁵ Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Dafeng Street 1, Wushan, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510640, China.
⁶ Department of Poultry Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, Egypt.
⁷ Department of Physiology, National Organization for Drug Control and Research, Giza 12553, Egypt.
⁸ Department of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Benha University, Moshtohor 13736, Egypt.

Abstract

Two novel transitional organic Zn/Cu complexes based on a new biocompatible bidentate triazine-hydrazone ligand (Thz) was designed, synthesized, and evaluated in this study. This study evaluated the effects of injecting 60 mg of Zn and 40 mg of Cu in three different forms, twice per week, for eight weeks on growth performance, expression of growth factors and cytokine genes, carcass yield, blood biochemicals, and intestinal morphology in weaned rabbits. The tested complexes were sulfate (Cu/ZnSO₄), montmorillonite (Cu/Zn-Mnt), and triazine hydrazone (Cu/Zn-Thz). A total of 60 V-line weaned rabbits at four weeks of age were assigned to four treatments (n = 15), which were intramuscularly injected with 0.5 mL of either (1) saline (control) or saline containing (2) Cu/ZnSO₄, (3) Cu/Zn-Mnt, or (4) Cu/Zn-Thz. Compared to the controls, the rabbits injected with Cu/Zn-Thz showed a higher (p < 0.01) growth rate, carcass yield (p < 0.05), and liver expression of insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), growth hormone receptor (GHR), fibroblast growth factor-1 (FGF1), and transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGFB1) (p < 0.05), as well as better jejunum morphometric variables (p < 0.05). On the other hand, mRNA of FGF1, TGF1, TCIRG1, and adenosine deaminase (ADA) were higher expressed (p < 0.05) in the spleen tissues of Cu/Zn-Mnt group. Collectively, the results indicated that our novel synthesized organic complexes of Zn/Cu-Thz proved to be a suitable feed supplement, as it increased rabbit productive performance through enhancing expression of peptide growth factors and cytokine genes.

Keywords: organic feed supplements; peptide growth factor expression; rabbit growth rate; triazine hydrazone complex; zinc and copper supplementation.