Intramuscular vitamin A injection in newborn lambs enhances antioxidant capacity and improves meat quality

Pengkang Song; Guoqiang Huo; Jinxin Feng; Weipeng Zhang; Xuying Li; Junxing Zhao

doi:10.3389/fvets.2023.1272874

Intramuscular vitamin A injection in newborn lambs enhances antioxidant capacity and improves meat quality

Front Vet Sci. 2023 Dec 4:10:1272874. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1272874. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Pengkang Song¹, Guoqiang Huo¹, Jinxin Feng¹, Weipeng Zhang¹, Xuying Li¹, Junxing Zhao¹

Affiliation

¹ College of Animal Science, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, Shanxi, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Vitamin A (VA) and its metabolite, retinoic acid (RA) possess several biological functions. This report investigated whether neonatal intramuscular VA injection affected antioxidative activity and meat quality in longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle of lambs.

Methods: Lambs were injected with 0 (control) or 7,500 IU VA palmitate into the biceps femoris muscle on day 2 after birth. At 3, 12, and 32 weeks of age, blood samples were collected in the jugular vein for serum levels of RA and muscle samples were collected in the biceps femoris for analysis of relative mRNA expression of enzyme contributors to retinoid metabolism. All animals were harvested at 32 weeks of age and muscle samples were collected to explore the role of VA on the meat quality and antioxidant capacity of lambs.

Results and discussion: Our results indicated that VA increased the redness, crude protein, and crude fat (p < 0.05), without affecting moisture, ash, and amino acid composition in LD muscle (p > 0.05). In addition, VA increased catalase (CAT) activity and decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in LD muscle (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, greater levels of CAT and NRF2 mRNA and protein contents with VA treatment were observed in LD muscle (p < 0.05), partly explained by the increased level of RA (p < 0.05). Collectively, our findings indicated that VA injection at birth could improve lamb meat quality by elevating the redness, crude protein, crude fat, and antioxidative capacity in LD muscle of lambs.

Keywords: antioxidant activity; lamb; longissimus dorsi; meat quality; retinoic acid; vitamin A.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972559) and the Distinguished and Excellent Young Scholar Cultivation Project of Shanxi Agricultural University (2022JQPYGC01).