SUN Manqiang, HUANG Jinqiang, LI Yongjuan, WANG Qi, ZHAO Lu, GUO Zhijia, LIU Kangkang
To investigate the effects of Chinese herbal compound medicines (CHMM) on the intestinal antioxidant capacity and expression of immune-related genes in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), ten Chinese herbal medicines, including Astragalus membranaceus, Angelica sinensis, Codonopsis pilosula, Ophiopogon japonicus, and Glycyrrhiza uralensis, were mixed in equal proportions and then added into the basal diet at mass ratios of 0 (control), 1%, 2%, and 3%. These diets were fed to rainbow trout with a body weight of 30.0 g± 0.5 g. The intestinal samples of fish were collected respectively after fed 7d, 21d, 35d.Additionally the samples were taken after 12d infected with infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV).Antioxidant indicators and the expression of immune-related genes of fish were tested by using quantitative real-time PCR technology. The result showed that,compared with the control group, the total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and catalase (CAT), total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), and acid phosphatase (ACP) activities in the intestines increased first and then decreased as the proportion of CHMM increased. The values peaked in the 2% group, at which point they were significantly higher than those of the control group (P<0.05). However, the activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) first decreased and then increased, and the MDA content in the 2% group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). After infected with IHNV, the T-AOC and activities of T-SOD, CAT, and ACP significantly increased, while the content of MDA and the activities of ALT and AST significantly decreased (P<0.05). The quantitative PCR analysis showed that before infected with IHNV, the fish in the 1% group had significantly upregulated the expression of jak1, myd88, and irf7 genes (P<0.05), while the expression levels of mx1 and mda5 were not significantly upregulated (P>0.05).In the 2% group, the expression level of immune-related gene il-8 was significantly upregulated (P<0.05), but the expression levels of il-1β, mx1, myd88, and mda5 were not significantly changed (P>0.05). After infected with IHNV, the fish in the 1% group had significantly upregulated expression levels of il-1β, mx1, mda5, lgp2, irf3, and irf7 (P<0.05). Overall, the experimental results show that the 2% addition of the CHMM could effectively improve the activity of antioxidant enzymes and regulate the expression of immune-related genes of rainbow trout. The CHMM addition also significantly enhanced the immunity and anti-IHNV ability of the fish. These findings lay the foundation for understanding the mechanisms that traditional Chinese herbal medicines enhance the natural immune response of rainbow trout to diseases and provide a helpful reference for the development and application of Chinese herbal medicine to prevent and control fish diseases in aquaculture.