Dietary calcium requirements of broilers fed a conventional corn-soybean meal diet from 1 to 21 days of age

Table.7 Effect of dietary calcium (Ca) level on ALP, OPG, OC and BMP-2 mRNA and protein expression levels in the tibia of broilers on d 21¹

Analyzed dietary Ca level, %	ALP mRNA, RQ²	OPG mRNA, RQ²	OC mRNA, RQ²	BMP-2 mRNA, RQ²	ALP protein, RQ³	OPG protein, RQ³	OC protein, RQ³	BMP-2 protein, RQ³
0.59	1.11	0.98	1.69^a	0.91^ab	0.89^c	1.14	1.75	1.03
0.70	1.06	1.19	1.24^ab	1.07^a	1.03^abc	1.03	1.62	0.81
0.80	0.84	0.97	0.85^bc	0.72^bc	1.17^ab	0.98	1.67	0.79
0.88	0.89	0.85	1.00^bc	0.88^abc	1.19^a	0.91	1.65	0.73
0.98	1.00	1.00	1.00^bc	1.00^ab	1.06^abc	0.88	1.88	0.79
1.09	0.87	0.74	0.65^c	0.79^abc	0.95^bc	1.03	1.58	0.85
1.18	0.75	0.79	0.66^c	0.66^c	1.03^abc	1.01	1.43	0.89
SEM	0.107	0.113	0.147	0.092	0.069	0.089	0.134	0.081
P-value
Ca level	0.37	0.31	0.002	0.02	0.04	0.49	0.37	0.25
Linear	–	–	< 0.0001	0.02	0.75	–	–	–
Quadratic	–	–	0.11	0.24	0.006	–	–	–

¹Data represented the means of 6 replicates (n = 6)
²The mRNA levels were calculated as the relative quantity (RQ) of the target gene mRNA to the geometric mean of β-actin and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase mRNA, RQ = 2^-ΔΔCt (Ct, threshold cycle)
³The protein levels were calculated as the relative quantity (RQ) of the target gene protein to the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase protein
⁴Abbreviations: ALP alkaline phosphatase, BMP-2, morphogenetic protein-2, OC osteocalcin, OPG osteoprotegerin
^a-cMeans within a column with unlike superscript letters were significantly different (P < 0.04)

ISSN: 2049-1891