China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine ›› 2019, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (9): 2567-2574.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2019.09.009

• Physiology and Biochemistry • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Reasearch Progress of Keap1-Nrf2/ARE Signaling Pathway and Its Role in the Antioxidation of Livestock and Poultry

DOU Caixia1, WANG Qian1, AN Jianyong2, QIAO Jiayun1   

  1. 1. College of Life Sciences, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China;
    2. Tianjin Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Research Institute, Tianjin 300381, China
  • Received:2019-03-26 Online:2019-09-20 Published:2019-09-21

Abstract: Under normal physiological conditions,the generation and scavenging of free radicals in animals are in a stable dynamic balance.However,when oxidative stress occurs,the amount of free radicals in the body exceeds the scavenging capacity,causing the imbalance between the oxidation system and the antioxidant system and causing oxidative damage.Activation of the Keap1-Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway plays a key role in preventing cellular and tissue damage caused by oxidative stress,maintaining redox balance and protein homeostasis,and regulating inflammation.Keap1 is a cytoplasmic inhibitor of Nrf2.Under normal physiological conditions,Nrf2 binds to its inhibitor Keap1 to undergo ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation,maintaining the Nrf2 content in the nucleus at a relatively low level.Under oxidative stress,the ability of Keap1 to ubiquitinate and degrade Nrf2 is weakened,Nrf2 accumulates in the nucleus,and Nrf2 binds to the antioxidant response element (ARE) to initiate the expression of a series of downstream protective genes,which makes the body returns to a normal physiological state from oxidative stress.Oxidative stress is involved in a variety of pathophysiological changes,which have a negative impact on livestock production performance,growth and development,reproductive performance,meat quality,etc.Keap1-Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway is one of the most important antioxidant stress pathways in cells,so it is extremely important to the health protection of animals.The authors summarizes the basic structure and activation mechanism of Keap1-Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway and the research progress in livestock and poultry,and describes its important role in improving the antioxidant,anti-inflammatory and meat quality of livestock and poultry,in order to provide a theoretical basis for solving the serious oxidative stress and inflammation in the current livestock industry.

Key words: Nrf2; ARE; signal pathway; livestock and poultry

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