Effect of spermine on liver and spleen antioxidant status in weaned rats

While weaning is frequently adopted in animal agriculture to improve economic profit all over the world, the practice presents several problems at the same time. Numerous biological stress responses are evoked by maternal and littermate separations, abrupt changes in society, and environmental changes associated with weaning (Moeser et al., 2007). Weaning stress can contribute to intestinal and immune system dysfunctions by impairing mucosal barrier functions, increasing metabolic disorders and increasing the frequency of diarrhoea incidence (Zhu et al., 2012; Campbell et al., 2013). Previous study showed that weaning can lead to enhanced oxidative stress, which can cause organand pathway-specific toxicity associated with such processes as altered membrane permeability and enhanced apoptosis; oxidative stress also decreases antioxidant defense capacity of the whole organism (Zhu et al., 2012). It was observed that addition of certain bioactive substances (e.g., glutamine and ABSTRACT. Whereas strong antioxidant properties of spermine have been reported mostly in in vitro studies, there is lack of the in vivo studies on spermine influence conducted on mammals. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of different doses of spermine and the period of its supplementation on the liver and spleen antioxidant capacity in weaned rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats at the age of 19 days received intragastrically spermine at the dose of 0.2 or 0.4 μmol · g−1 body weight for 3 or 7 days, respectively. Control rats received saline in analogical way. It was found that liver anti-superoxide anion (ASA) capacity, catalase (CAT) activity, glutathione (GSH) content and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) were increased in group supplemented with higher dose of spermine after 3 days, and anti-hydroxy radical (AHR) capacity was increased when treatment lasted for 7 days. In the spleen the higher spermine dose supplementation increased ASA capacity and total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) activity (after 3 and 7 days), AHR capacity (after 7 days) and T-AOC (after 3 days) in comparison to the corresponding control groups (P < 0.05). Only in the spleen the lower spermine dose reduced lipid peroxidation level and increased CAT activity and GSH content regardless treatment duration (P < 0.05). The obtained results suggest that spermine supplementation can improve the antioxidant properties of the liver and spleen of weaned rats in a dose-, timeand tissue-dependent manner. Received: 29 July 2015 Revised: 18 July 2016 Accepted: 25 November 2016