Mucosal expression of Ca and P transporters and claudins in the small intestine of broilers is altered by dietary Ca:P in a limestone particle size dependent manner

PLoS One. 2022 Sep 1;17(9):e0273852. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273852. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

High calcium (Ca) intake and fine limestone reduces precaecal phosphorus (P) absorption independently of P solubility in broilers. This study aimed to determine whether dietary total Ca: total P ratio (Ca:P) and limestone particle size (LPS) affect gene expression of P transporters in the small intestine. A total of 384 one-day-old Ross 308 male broiler chickens received diets low (0.50), medium (1.00) or high (1.75) in Ca:P containing either fine (160 μm) or coarse (1062 μm) limestone, in a 3×2 factorial arrangement. Expression of Ca- and P-related genes were determined using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) in duodenum and jejunum. Increasing dietary Ca:P decreased duodenal calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR), calbindin-D28k (CaBP-D28k), plasma membrane Ca-ATPase 1 (PMCA1) and sodium-coupled P cotransporter type IIb (NaPi-IIb), but not transient receptor potential canonical 1 (TRPC1) mRNA. This effect was greater with fine limestone when Ca:P increased from low to medium, but greater with coarse limestone when increased from medium to high. A similar inhibitory effect was observed for jejunal CaBP-D28k expression where increasing dietary Ca:P and fine limestone decreased CaSR mRNA, while dietary Ca:P decreased TRPC1 mRNA only for coarse limestone. It also decreased jejunal NaPi-IIb mRNA irrespective of LPS. Dietary treatments did not affect jejunal PMCA1 mRNA expression or that of inorganic phosphate transporter 1 and 2 and xenotropic and polytropic retrovirus receptor 1 in both intestinal segments. Dietary Ca increase reduced mucosal claudin-2 mRNA in both segments, and jejunal zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) mRNA only for coarse limestone. In conclusion, increasing dietary Ca:P reduced expression of duodenal P transporters (NaPi-IIb) in a LPS dependent manner, hence Ca induced reduction in intestinal P absorption is mediated by decreasing P transporters expression. Dietary Ca reduces Ca digestibility by downregulating mRNA expression of both Ca permeable claudin-2 and Ca transporters (CaBP-D28k, PMCA1).

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animal Feed / analysis
  • Animals
  • Calcium Carbonate / metabolism
  • Calcium, Dietary*
  • Chickens* / genetics
  • Claudin-2 / metabolism
  • Claudins / metabolism
  • Diet / veterinary
  • Intestine, Small / metabolism
  • Lipopolysaccharides / metabolism
  • Male
  • Particle Size
  • RNA, Messenger / genetics
  • RNA, Messenger / metabolism

Substances

  • Calcium, Dietary
  • Claudin-2
  • Claudins
  • Lipopolysaccharides
  • RNA, Messenger
  • Calcium Carbonate

Grants and funding

This research was conducted by Wageningen Livestock Research within the framework of the public private partnership “Feed4Foodure” and partially funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (Policy Support Research project number BO-31.03-005-00). The authors acknowledge the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) for the scholarship of Y.X. Hu to study at Wageningen University & Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.