Effects of Different Levels of oak acorn in the diet on Pancreatic Weight and expression of pancreatic Charboxypeptidase gene in Broiler Chickens

The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of pancreatic Charboxypeptidase gene and changes of pancreas weight of broiler chickens fed with different levels of oak acorn. For this purpose, three diets (control, 15% and 20% oak) were fed to broilers from 1 to 42 days of age. On days 21 and 42, body weight and pancreatic weight of 36 broiler chicken (18 for each time, 6 for each treatment) were measured. Then the total RNA extracted from the pancreatic tissue and cDNA was synthesized. The gene expression analysis is also fitted with the REST, 2009, and SAS 9.1 softwares. The gene expression results show that mRNA expression levels of Charboxypeptidase gene were significantly higher in treatment containing 15 percent oak acorn on day 21 in compared to those fed with diet without oak acorn (p<0.05). On day 42, the expression of Charboxypeptidase gene in chickens fed with diet containing 20% oak was significantly lower in compared to 15% oak diet (p<0.05). In addition, pancreatic relative weight was significantly increased in broilers fed with diet containing 20% oak on day 42 (p<0.05). Generally, the substitution of dietary corn with oak acorn lead to a change in expression of Charboxypeptidase gene, reducing body weight and an increase in the relative weight of the pancreas, and these effects depend on the value of DMI, the percentage of oak acorn, time period of its use and other factors .Hence, in order to understand the molecular mechanism polyphones function requires more research.