Effect of heat stress on the organ indices, small intestine damages and expression of HSP70 mRNA in the gastric mucosa of mice / 中国实验动物学报

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effect of heat stress on organ indices, intestinal morphology, gastric mu-cosal HSP70 mRNA expression and glucose metabolic hormones in mice.Methods A single-factor experiment was de-signed for the present research.Eighteen KM mice of the similar age and weight were randomly divided into control group and heat stress group.The weight of the heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney, as well as the expression of HSP70 mRNA in the mouse gastric mucosa were measured.The plasma concentration of insulin and glucagon, the villus height and crypt depth of the duodenum and jejunum were detected.The histological changes of the liver, duodenum and jejunum were also examined.Results There was no effect of heat stress on the organ indices.It significantly increased the expression of HSP70 mRNA in the gastric mucosa, reduced the plasma insulin level and caused serious injury to the liver, duodenum and jejunum in the mice.Conclusions Heat stress does not significantly affect the organ indices in mice, but can significantly increase the expression of HSP70 mRNA in the gastric mucosa, cause apparent damages in the liver, duodenum and jeju-num, reduce the villus height, crypt depth and villus height/crypt depth ratio of the duodenum and jejunum, and also de-crease the blood insulin concentration in the mice.