title: Dietary supplementation with proline confers a positive effect in both porcine circovirus-infected pregnant and non-pregnant mice.
abstract: Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is associated with various diseases that impose a significant economic burden on the swine industry. We hypothesised that nutritional supplementation with proline to enhance the immune response might be a useful prophylactic measure against PCV2 infection. To test this hypothesis, in the present study, we measured clinical data, including blood parameters, serum cytokine profile, PCV2 virus load in organs and serum, and microscopic lesions in the lung, liver and spleen, in both PCV2-infected pregnant and non-pregnant mice. Dietary supplementation with proline had no effect (P>0·05) on abortion rates in PCV2-infected pregnant mice, although a numerically lower abortion rate (22·2 v. 44·4%) was observed compared with the control. Dietary supplementation with proline significantly increased serum C-reactive protein levels (P= 0·03) in PCV2-infected pregnant mice, and increased serum TNF-α levels (P= 0·01), leucocytes (P< 0·05), lymphocytes (P< 0·05) and neutrophilic granulocytes (P< 0·05) in PCV2-infected non-pregnant mice. Meanwhile, dietary proline significantly (P< 0·05) decreased the PCV2 virus load in the lung. Furthermore, mice in the dietary proline group showed a significant (P< 0·01) decrease in microscopic lesion scores in the lung, liver and spleen compared with those in the alanine group. Collectively, dietary proline supplementation confers a functional role in PCV2-infected mice.
authors.affiliation: Observation and Experiment Station of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science in South-Central China, Ministry of Agriculture, Hunan Provincial Engineering Research Center for Healthy Livestock and Poultry Production, Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, Hunan 410125, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wenkai
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Miaomiao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Ruilin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Yulong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Yinghui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Teijun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xinglong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous; D000818:Animals; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D018173:Circoviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017925:Circovirus; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D011270:Pregnancy, Animal; D011392:Proline / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011897:Random Allocation; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D002097:C-Reactive Protein; D011392:Proline