Acute immobilization stress in prone position in susceptible Pietrain and resistant Duroc pigs. I: comparison of protein degradation in Duroc and Pietrain pigs' skeletal muscle and liver

The experiment was conducted to determine the relationship between lysosomal proteinase activities in skeletal muscle and liver of stressed pigs. Six‐month‐old Duroc (D) and Pietrain (P) pigs were randomly assigned to either control (group I) or stressed groups (5 min of stress, group II; 15 min of stress, group III; 30 min of stress, group IV; 60 min of stress, group V). At slaughter, the longissimus dorsi muscle and the liver were taken. The tissues were analysed for cathepsin D, acid autolytic activities without and with pepstatin (inhibitor of cathepsin D) and leupeptin (inhibitor of cysteine proteinases). Both tissues were also analysed for RNA, DNA and protein content. The acute immobilization stress in the prone position caused changes in longissimus dorsi muscle in DNA (26% decrease in D and 35% increase in P pigs), functional cell size, protein/10³DNA (FCS) (34% increase in D and 25% decrease in P pigs), increase in acid autolytic activity (AAA) (by 48.3%), pepstatin insensitive acid autolytic activity (PIA) (by 111.8%), leupeptin insensitive acid autolytic activity (LIA) (by 35.8%) in D, but in P pigs by 13.5%, 16.6% and 54%, respectively. The interaction between strain of pigs and stress was also observed, mostly in DNA and AAA's. In the liver, RNA was decreased by 10% in D and by 12.3% in P pigs, DNA by 13% and 24% in D and P pigs, FCS was increased by 13.2% in D and by 22.7% in P pigs; the activity of cathepsin D (CatD) and pepstatin sensitive cathepsin D (PSCatD) increased after 15 min of stress by 9.2% and 9.3% and LIA by 13.7% in D pigs but in P pigs the maximal increase was after 15 min of stress in AAA by 10.3%, in PIA by 13.6% and in LIA by 3.2%. The experiment showed that the proteinase activities in the two different strains of pigs were different. The highest changes were in AAA's in the longissimus dorsi muscle and in CatD and PSCatD in the liver. There was more CatD in the longissimus dorsi muscle and liver of D than P pigs. Although it should be taken with caution, this suggests that other proteinases may be also responsible for the catabolism of proteins.