Abstract:
To investigate the effects of dietary rosemary extract on growth performance, liver health, and glycolipid metabolism of juvenile largemouth bass (
Micropterus salmoides) under a dietary high-carbohydrate load, a diet containing 18% cassava starch was used as the control group (high-starch group, CON), and two experimental diets were supplemented with 0.05% and 0.10% rosemary extract based on the control diet, designated as R0.05 and R0.1, respectively. Juvenile largemouth bass with an initial body weight of (19.00±0.20) g were reared in cages for 8 weeks, with three replicates per treatment and 50 fish per replicate. Compared with the CON group, the R0.1 group significantly increased the weight gain rate (WGR) and intestinal trypsin activity (
P<0.05). Serum biochemical indicators showed that glucose (GLU), total cholesterol (TC), and triglyceride (TG) levels were significantly decreased, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was significantly increased in the R0.1 group; in the rosemary extract supplemented groups, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) levels were significantly decreased, along with significantly increased insulin (INS) and glucagon (GCG) levels (
P<0.05). Meanwhile, rosemary extract significantly reduced hepatic glycogen (HGC) and lipid deposition, alleviated hepatocyte vacuolization and tissue damage, and significantly decreased serum GOT and GPT activities (
P<0.05). Gene expression analysis showed that genes related to glycolysis (
pfk) and glycogen synthesis and transport (
gs,
glut2) were significantly upregulated, while genes associated with gluconeogenesis (
pepck,
fbpase) and triglyceride synthesis (
gpat4,
dgat1) were significantly downregulated in the rosemary extract supplemented groups (
P<0.05); furthermore, the R0.1 group exhibited a more prominent upregulatory effect on glucokinase (
gk) and downregulatory effects on sterol regulatory element binding protein-1 (
srebp1) and fatty acid synthesis-related genes (
lxr,
fasn) (
P<0.05). In conclusion, under the present experimental conditions, dietary rosemary extract improved the growth and hepatic metabolic health of juvenile largemouth bass under a dietary high-carbohydrate load, with 0.10% supplementation showing relatively better effects, which can serve as a reference for the development of functional feed additives for largemouth bass.