Antioxidant molecular targets of wheat bran fermented by white rot fungi and its potential modulation of anti-oxidative status in broiler chickens

1. The study focused on antioxidant molecular targets of wheat bran fermented by white rot fungi in poultry. After solid-state fermentation of wheat bran by white rot fungi for 12 d, scanning electron microscopy found that the lignocellulose structure showed degradation and fragmentation. 2. The fermented wheat bran had significantly increased laccase and manganese peroxidase activity, as well as twice as high concentration of total quercetin, phenolics and crude polysaccharides compared to the unfermented wheat bran. 3. A total of 300 1-d-old broilers were evenly divided by gender and randomly allocated into the following treatments: 1) maize-soybean meal (control group), 2) 10% of wheat bran replacing maize (10% WB group) or 3) 10% of fermented wheat bran replacing maize (10% FWB group). 4. The results indicated that the antioxidant gene expression, such as Haeme oxygenase-1 and Glutathione-S-transferase of chicken peripheral blood mononuclear cells, of the 10% FWB group were significantly higher than the control group at d 35. For genes of NADPH oxygenase 1 and Reactive oxygen species modulator protein 1, the expression of the 10% FWB group was lower than the control group at d 21 and 35. The malondialdehyde concentration in serum in the FWB group was significantly decreased compared to the control group at the age of 35 d. 5. In conclusion, wheat bran fermented by white rot fungi could increase lignocellulolytic enzyme activities and the levels of active components that further regulate the expression of antioxidant molecular targets in poultry.