Feeding Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP) alleviates apoptotic, inflammatory hepatopancreas atrophy and injury in Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) poisoned by T-2 toxin

Chinese herbs and their purified components in aquafeeds have been proved effective to combat stress in aquatic animals to combat toxic environmental stress. Lycium barbarum poly-saccharides (LBP) is an active antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitoxic purified herbal agent. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the effect of 0.1–2.0% LBP on the hepatopancreas of Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) challenged with 2 mg/kg T-2 toxin orally for 5 weeks. The results showed that feeding LBP significantly restored the hepatopancreas index (HI), gonadsomatic index (GSI) reduced by T-2 toxin. Moreover, H&E sections indicated that LBP dose-dependently restored the disrupted microstructure of the hepatopancreas. In antioxidative capacity, significant increases in malondialdehyde (MDA) reduction and elevated glutathione (GSH) content, gluta-thione reductase (GPx) activity were seen in the 0.5% LBP group. In addition, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and apoptosis rate of hepatopancreas showed the anti-apoptotic effect of LBP doses, plus qPCR assay of 10 apoptosis-related genes to support them. The mRNA abundance of three pro-inflammatory genes was significantly reduced by LBP, corroborating its anti-inflammatory efficacy. In brief, feed supplementation with LBP alleviated the oxidative stress-apoptosis-inflammation induced by co-feeding T-2 toxin in E. sinensis, maintained the structural and functional integrity of the hepatopancreas, prevented degenerative atrophy.