Betaine was found to alleviate inflammation in different studies. Here, newly hatched broilers were randomly divided into control and betaine consumptive groups, who had access to normal drinking water and water with betaine at a dose of 1000 mg/L, respectively. At the age of two weeks, the boilers were intraperitoneally treated with LPS. The protective effects of betaine against LPS-induced skeletal muscle inflammation were studied. Betaine attenuated the LPS-induced overexpression of IL-6 significantly in the leg muscle. Furthermore, LPS lowered the expression of TLR4 and TLR2 but increased the expression of MyD88. Betaine eliminated the effect of LPS on the expression of TLR4 but not TLR2 and MyD88. LPS also increased the expression of Tet methylcytosine dioxygenase 2 (Tet2), and this effect was also eliminated by betaine consumption. MeDIP-qPCR analysis showed that the methylation level in the promoter region of IL-6 was decreased by LPS treatment, whilst betaine cannot prevent this effect. On the contrary, LPS significantly increase the methylation level in the promoter region of TLR4, which was decreased by the consumption of betaine. Our findings suggest that betaine can alleviate LPS-induced muscle inflammation in chicken, and the regulation of aberrant DNA methylation might be a possible mechanism.
Keywords: IL6; TLR4; betaine; methylation; skeletal muscle.