Tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) is a long bone abnormality of many avian species, characterized by distended and unvascularized cartilage of proximal tibiotarsal bone and leads to economic losses and major animal welfare problem in poultry industry. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the mechanism of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) inhibition and antioxidant capacity of apigenin in thiram induced TD. One hundred and fifty broiler chicks were equally divided into 3 groups: control; thiram fed; and apigenin group. The genotypic expression of HIF-1α was analyzed by using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and the protein levels of HIF-1α were determined by western blot analysis. The results showed that HIF-1α mRNA levels were significantly (P<0.05) increased during the course of disease in thiram induced TD birds as compared to control. However, the mRNA levels of HIF-1α was significantly decreased by HIF-1α inhibition factor in apigenin group with diminishes growth plate size and lameness. Moreover, thiram induction also increased the levels of AST, ALT and MDA contents in liver, whereas decreased the antioxidant enzymes and ALP values in thiram group, while these values were found close to normal range in apigenin group as compared to control group in response to apigenin. In conclusion, HIF-1α inhibition can heal lameness and avascularized growth plate in broiler chickens; moreover, apigenin may be efficient through rectifying the liver damage and oxidative imbalance induced by thiram.

To Cite This Article: Iqbal MK, Nabi F, Mehmood K, Rehman MU, Huang S, Zhang H, Zhang L, Ahmad HI, Iqbal M, Li J and Shen Y, 2018. Healing of growth plate cartilage by hypoxia Inducible Factor-1α inhibitor Apigenin on Thiram induced Tibial Dyschondroplasia. Pak Vet J, 38(2): 143-148. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2018.034