Puerarin alleviates liver injury induced by heat-stress through regulating oxidative stress and apoptosis in broilers.

With the intensification of global warming, heat stress (HS) has become a key environmental factor restricting the efficient development of broiler cultivation industry.Puerarin possesses a variety of cytoprotective properties, but the mechanism by which it exerts its potential protective effect against HS-induced liver injury in broiler chickens remains to be elucidated. In this study, the protective mechanisms of puerarin on HS-induced liver injury and metabolic disorders in broilers were investigated. Research has demonstrated that HS can result in diminished growth performance, hepatic oxidative stress, hepatocyte pathological damage and hepatic cell apoptosis in broilers. The results demonstrated that the incorporation of puerarin led to a reduction in the FCR, whilst concomitantly enhancing the production performance of HS broilers. Puerarin supplementation significantly lowered AST and ALT levels while increasing HDL and LDL levels in HS broilers. Meanwhile, The antioxidant analysis demonstrated that the incorporation of puerarin into the liver of broilers could lead to a reduction in MDA levels, while simultaneously enhancing T-AOC and SOD levels. Immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry results indicated that after puerarin treatment, the levels of Bax and Caspase3 decreased, while the level of Bcl-2 increased. In parallel, gene and protein results indicated that the addition of puerarin could reduce the expression levels of Bak1 and Caspase3 and increase the expression level of Bcl-2 in HS broilers. In summary, the present study demonstrates that puerarin has a protective effect on oxidative stress-induced apoptosis, thereby alleviating hepatocyte injury induced by HS.