Abstract
The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary bile acids (BAs) addition on hepatic lipid accumulation and fatty acid profile of late-phase laying hens. A total of 1080 healthy 76-week-old Hy-line Brown hens in the late-laying phase were randomly assigned to 4 treatments, and fed a basal diet added with 0 (control), 200 (BA200), 300 (BA300), and 500 (BA500) mg/kg BAs, respectively. The results showed that BAs supplementation significantly decreased steatotic foci and lipid droplets in hepatocytes, minimized vacuoles, and increased normal hepatocytes. Besides, BAs addition reduced the hepatic content of C20:0, C22:0, and C24:0, and up-regulated the mRNA expression levels of HSL and FABP(4) in the livers of laying hens (linear and quadratic, P < 0.05). Moreover, in comparison with the control group, BA200 group significantly elevated C17:0 and C20:2 concentrations (P < 0.05), and 300 mg/kg had significantly lower triglyceride content and mRNA expression levels of FAS and SCD in the liver of laying hens (P < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary BAs supplementation decreased liver lipid accumulation and changed fatty acid profile, benefiting the liver health for late-phase laying hens.