Effects of dietary supplementation with plant oil and vitamin E on antioxidant capacity in serum and liver of Hu sheep.

The effects of dietary supplementation with plant oil and vitamin E (VE) on antioxidant status in serum and liver of Hu sheep were assessed.A total of 40 male Hu lambs (average initial body mass of 12.75 kg) at age of 45 d,were divided randomly and equally into five groups,and were allocated to five dietary treatments:basal diet (control),3% soybean oil (SBO),3% SBO plus 500 mg·kg-1 VE (SOE),3% corn oil (CNO),and 3% CNO plus 500 mg·kg-1 VE (COE).All the diets with roughage to concentrate ratio at 60:40 (air-dry basis) were formulated to be isoenergetic and isonitrogenous.The experiment lasted for 12 weeks,the first 2 weeks of which were for adaptation and the following 10 weeks were for experiment.At the end of the experiment,the samples of serum and liver of all lambs were taken to analyse their antioxidant status.The results showed that the oil-supplemented diets increased the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD),catalase (CAT),glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and decreased the contents of maleic dialdehyde (MDA) both in serum and liver.The SOE and COE diets decreased both antioxidant enzymatic activities and MDA contents compared to SOB and CNO diets.The enzymatic activities were not significant differences between VE-supplemented animals and control,except that SOD in the liver was lower and GSH-Px in the serum was higher in VE-supplemented animals.These results indicate that dietary supplementation with plant oil and VE elevates the antioxidant capacity in serum and liver of Hu sheep.