Effects of nuciferine on growth performance, body composition, lipid metabolism and antioxidant capacity of juvenile large yellow croaker (Larmichthys crocea) fed diets with high palm oil level

This study was conducted to explore the impacts of nuciferine (NF) on growth performance, body composition, lipid metabolism and antioxidant capacity of juvenile large yellow croaker (Larmichthys crocea) fed diets with high palm oil level. Five diets were formulated with fish oil (FO), palm oil (PO) and PO supplemented with 0.01%NF, 0.05%NF and 0.25%NF. After feeding for 10 weeks, the results showed that the growth performance (final body weight and specific growth rate) exhibited a significantly quadratic trend with the increase of NF addition, and the maximums were observed in PO supplemented with 0.05%NF group. Moreover, dietary PO diet with NF addition relieved the abnormal lipid accumulation (hepatosomatic index, crude lipid and triglyceride contents, total cholesterol contents, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol contents in liver and serum) induced by PO diet. Simultaneously, NF addition inhibited PO diet-induced increase in the mRNA expressions of lipid synthesis-related genes and PO diet-induced activation of SREBP1. In addition, dietary PO diet with NF addition impeded PO diet-induced increase of hepatic MDA contents and recovered PO diet-induced inhibition of SOD and CAT activities. Similarly, NF addition alleviated PO diet-induced decrease in the mRNA expressions of antioxidant-related genes and PO diet-induced inhibition of SOD protein expression. Thus, addition of NF in PO diet might effectively ameliorate PO diet-induced growth retardation, lipid metabolism disorder and oxidative stress in croaker, and the optimal addition dose of NF in PO diet was approximately 0.05%.