mRNA expression of kidney aquaporins and blood composition of meat-type chickens raised with or without glucose supplementation under cyclic heat or thermoneutral condition

Heat stress (HS) disrupts water homeostasis in broiler chickens. Kidney aquaporins (AQPs) facilitate water permeability in the renal tubules, thereby maintaining homeostasis of body water and metabolites. We evaluated the mRNA expression of kidney AQPs 1, 2, 3 and 4, and the blood composition of broilers raised under thermoneutral (TN) or cyclic HS condition with or without glucose supplementation. The treatments were TN+0% glucose (TN0), TN+6% glucose (TN6), HS+0% glucose (HS0), and HS+6% glucose (HS6). Each treatment had 6 replicates of 19 birds each. Groups with glucose (Glu) supplementation continuously received 6% Glu in water, and HS groups were exposed to a cyclic HS regime involving 35 °C from 8am to 8pm, and subsequently retuned to 25 °C (thermoneutral) from 8pm to 8am. Both heat and glucose supplementation were applied from d28 to d35. Blood and kidney were collected from 1 bird/replicate on d35. AQP-1, -2, and -3 were highly expressed (p