Dietary administration of laminarin improves the growth performance and immune responses in Epinephelus coioides

• Dietary administration of laminarin improves the growth performance.
• Laminarin modulates the immune response and stimulates growth of the fish.
• Laminarin could be used as a novel additive in groupers.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of laminarin on the growth performance, immunological and biochemical parameters, as well as immune related genes expression in the grouper, Epinephelus coioides. One hundred and eight fish were randomly divided into four groups (45 groupers/group). Blank control group was fed with the basal diet, while low, medium and high doses of laminarin groups were fed with the basal diet supplemented with 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5% laminarin, respectively, for 48 days. The immunological and biochemical parameters in blood were investigated. The mRNA levels of IL-1β, IL-8, and TLR2 in midgut were also evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR. Dietary laminarin supplementation significantly improved the specific growth rate and the feed efficiency ratio of the fish. The level of TP and the activity of LZM, CAT and SOD were higher than that of the control. The levels of UREA and CREA as well as the activity of ALP were lower than of the control. There was no significant difference in the levels of ALT and AST between control groups and treated groups. In addition, dietary laminarin supplementation decreased the levels of C3 and C4. The expression of immune response genes IL-1β, IL-8, and TLR2 showed significant increases (P < 0.05) in groupers fed low dose (0.5%) and medium dose (1.0%) of laminarin compared with the blank control. These results suggest that laminarin modulates the immune response and stimulates growth of the fish.