Maternal l-arginine supplementation during early gestation affects foetal skeletal myogenesis in pigs

To study the impact of maternal l-arginine supplementation during early gestation on skeletal muscle formation in the offspring, gilts were fed 3 kg of a standard diet (control group, n=10) or standard diet and additionally 26 g/d l-arginine from d 14 to 28 of gestation (arginine group, n=10). The gilts were sacrificed at d 75 of gestation. From each litter the lightest, the heaviest, and one medium-weight foetus per sex were selected and three different muscle samples were collected. In the longissimus dorsi muscle of all foetuses (n=99) biochemical properties were assessed. In the same muscle of a subset of the lightest and heaviest female foetuses (n=28), mRNA expression of selected genes involved in myogenesis were measured. In all three muscles, myosin heavy chain (MyHC) expression analyses (n=99) were performed. The protein/DNA ratio tended to be lower (P=0.08) in the offspring of the arginine group. Treatment×sex interactions revealed lower creatine kinase activity (P<0.05) and protein concentration (P=0.07) in female's of the arginine group. The MYF5 mRNA expression was lower (P<0.01) in the lightest, whereas IGF2 and IGFBP5 expressions (P<0.001) were lower in the heaviest females of the arginine group. The proportion of MyHC mRNA expression revealed an increase in the embryonic isoform (P=0.05) and a decrease by tendency in the Slow/I and IIx isoforms (P<0.10) in response to arginine supplementation. The results suggest that arginine supplementation during early gestation stimulates myogenic proliferation and delays muscular differentiation at d 75 of gestation.