Dietary cinnamaldehyde improves muscle protein content by promoting muscle fiber growth via PTP1B/IGF1/PI3K/AKTs-TOR/FOXO3a signaling pathway in grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella)
Introduction
Along with the continuous improvement of China's economy, residents are pursuing higher living standards, and the demand for quality food is also increasing. Nowadays, meat is playing an important role in meeting the demand for quality food. Flesh quality is determined by a comprehensive series of evaluation indexes, including nutritional value and sensory quality (Maltin, Balcerzak, Tilley, & Delday, 2003). Flesh quality is the result of many complex factors, such as chemical composition and shear force, which can be influenced by intrinsic factors (fish species and size) and extrinsic factors (nutritional factors and temperature) (Børresen, 1992). Among these, nutritional factors are proven to play a role in regulating flesh quality (Lie, 2001). In addition to dietary protein (Xu et al., 2018) and fat (Regost et al., 2001), functional substances such as tea polyphenols (Ma et al., 2021), rutin (Xu et al., 2021), and cinnamaldehyde (CIN) (Dedi, Hutama, Nurhayati, & Vinasyiam, 2016) can also improve flesh quality, including nutritional value, tenderness, water holding capacity (WHC), collagen synthesis, muscle fiber growth, and antioxidant capacity. This indicates that functional substances play an important role in improving flesh quality.
CIN is a functional substance that can be found in the stem bark of Cinnamomum cassia and that is widely used in aquaculture. CIN can enhance growth performance in grass carp (Zhou et al., 2020), Marmalade cichlid (Labeotrophus fuelleborni) (Amiri & Bahrekazemi, 2017), and Asian catfish (Clarias batrachus) (Setiawati, Jusadi, Laheng, Suprayudi, & Vinasyiam, 2016). However, there are only a few studies reporting the effect of CIN on the flesh quality of fish, for example in common carp (Cyprinus carpio) 0.75 % and 1 % cinnamon leaf (in which the main effector is CIN) significantly improved the texture and taste of the muscle, indicating that CIN can affect flesh quality (Dedi et al., 2016). However, there has, so far, been no systematic research focusing on the effect of CIN on the flesh quality of aquatic animals or on the relevant signal pathways or molecular mechanisms.
Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) is arguably-one of the most important edible freshwater fish in the world because of its high yield, rapid growth, well-rounded nutrition, and relatively inexpensive cost. In 2019, grass carp was the freshwater fish farmed in the largest numbers, with an output of 5.53 million tons in China alone (Yearbook, 2020). However, the deterioration of flesh quality caused by high-density aquaculture and environmental pollution has become a serious problem due to the physical and chemical changes in the muscle. There is, therefore, a growing demand to improve grass carp flesh quality. Our previous study found that CIN promoted the growth performance of grass carp (Zhou et al., 2020). Furthermore, the improvement of growth performance was accompanied by physical and chemical changes in the muscle. Hence, in this study, we aimed to assess whether CIN improves flesh quality by assessing the effect of CIN on the nutritional value and sensory quality of grass carp muscle.
Section snippets
Ethics statement
All protocols were approved by the University of Sichuan Agricultural Animal Care Advisory Committee. Fish were anesthetized in a benzocaine bath before being assigned to a cage and carrying out muscle sampling in order to minimize suffering.
Experimental diets and growth trial
The basic diet was formulated as described in our former study (Zhou et al., 2020). CIN was provided by the Shanghai Menon Animal Nutrition Technology Co., ltd (Shanghai, China) as a commercial essential oil product. The CIN purity was >98 %, and it was
Effects of CIN supplementation on nutrient composition and flesh physicochemical properties in grass carp fillet
The effects of CIN on muscle nutrient composition are presented in Table 1. As shown in Table 1, CIN significantly decreased moisture levels in the 36, 72, 108, and 144 mg/kg CIN groups (P < 0.05) and significantly increased crude protein in the 36, 72, 108, and 144 mg/kg CIN groups (P < 0.05). However, compared with the control group, CIN had no effect on the content of crude lipid, ash, calcium, or phosphorus (P > 0.05).
The effects of CIN on flesh physicochemical properties are presented in
Discussion
The flesh quality is a result of chemical composition, muscle fiber growth, and many other complex factors, which can be evaluated through nutritional value and sensory quality (Maltin, Balcerzak, Tilley, & Delday, 2003). In our previous study, we found that CIN enhanced the growth performance of grass carp (Zhou et al., 2020). The growth performance of fish is known to be associated with muscle development, hence, we explored the effect of CIN on flesh quality and relevant signaling in grass
Conclusion
In conclusion, the results of this study show that CIN increased crude protein content, increased pH and collagen content, and decreased shear force, lactate, and cooking loss. The increased muscle crude protein might be related to changes in muscle fiber growth through increased myofiber diameter. The elevation of myofiber diameter through CIN supplementation is associated with the activation of TOR signaling and inhibition of FOXO3a signaling that increases protein deposition, which may be
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Yang Zhou: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft. Pei Wu: Methodology, Writing – original draft, Funding acquisition. Wei-Dan Jiang: Writing – review & editing, Project administration. Yang Liu: Writing – review & editing, Project administration. Yan Peng: Writing – review & editing. Sheng-Yao Kuang: Writing – review & editing. Ling Tang: Writing – review & editing. Shu-Wei Li: Writing – review & editing. Lin Feng: Supervision, Project administration. Xiao-Qiu Zhou:
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This research was financially supported by the National Science Foundation of China (31872582), National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFD0900400), Outstanding Talents and Innovative Team of Agricultural Scientific Research (Ministry of Agriculture), Foundation of Sichuan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Research Team (2017TD0002), the Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research System (CARS-45), Modern Agricultural Industry Technology System of Sichuan Freshwater Fish Innovation Team,
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