Effect of thermal manipulation during embryogenesis on liver heat shock protein expression in chronic heat stressed colored broiler chickens

• High incubation temperature effect on liver HSP gene and protein expression studied.
• HSP expression upregulated in 17th day chicken embryo.
• HSP expression lower in embryonic heat exposed and chronic heat stressed birds.
• Thermal manipulation during egg incubation protects adult birds from chronic heat stress.

Thermal manipulation during embryogenesis has been shown to improve thermo tolerance in broilers. Heat shock proteins are a family of proteins produced in response to variety of stress and protect cells from damage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of thermal manipulation (TM) during embryogenesis on HSP gene and protein expression in the embryos and in chronic heat stressed 42nd day old chicks. On 15th day of incubation, fertile eggs from two breeds-Naked neck (NN) and Punjab Broiler-2 (PB-2) were randomly divided in to two groups, namely Control (C) eggs were incubated under standard incubation conditions and Thermal Conditioning (TC) eggs were exposed to higher incubation temperature (40.5 °C) for 3 h on 15th, 16th and 17th day of incubation. The chicks so obtained from each group were further subdivided and reared from 15th–42nd day as normal (N; 25±1 °C, 70% RH) and heat exposed (HE; 35±1 °C, 50% RH) resulting in four treatment groups (CN, CHE, TCN and TCHE). Embryos of two groups (C and TC) on 17th day and birds from four treatment groups on 42nd day were sacrificed. Liver was collected for analysis of gene expression by real-time PCR and protein expression by Western blot of Heat Shock Proteins (HSP 90 alpha, HSP 90 beta, HSP 70, HSP 60, HSP 27 and ubiquitin). The plasma collected on 42nd day was analyzed for biochemical parameters. Thermal challenging of embryos of both the breeds caused significant (P≤0.05) increase in all the HSPs gene and protein expression. The TCHE chicks had significantly (P≤0.05) lower HSPs gene and protein expressions and oxidative stress compared to CHE groups in both NN and PB-2. Based on these findings it can be concluded that TM during incubation provides adaptation to broiler chicks during chronic heat stress.