Protective Effects of Fructus Ligustri Lucidi Fermentation on Fatty Liver Hemorrhagic Syndrome in Laying Hens

Fructus Ligustri Lucidi (FLL) is a traditional tonic Chinese medicine with a long history of application due to its various pharmacological effects, but there are fewer studies on the use of FLL to alleviate fatty liver in animals. The objective of the current study was to assess the influence of FLL fermentation products on fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome in hens during the late stages of egg production. The study involved 288 Hy-Line Brown laying hens, aged 500 days, which were randomly allocated into 4 groups, with each group having 6 replicates of 12 chickens. Hens were fed a basal diet (control group, group Ι), a high-energy diet (model group, group II) and a high-energy diet supplemented with 0.05% and 0.1% FLL fermentation product (groups III and IV). The duration of the pre-experiment was 1 week, and the trial period was 12 weeks. The results showed that the addition of FLL fermentation product to high-energy diets significantly increased egg weight and reduced eggshell breakage rate. High-energy diet supplementation with FLL fermentation product increased serum T-AOC and T-SOD activity (p < 0.05), and reduced serum MDA content (p < 0.05). As more FLL fermentation product was added, there was a notable reduction in lipid droplets in liver tissues, alleviation of symptoms of steatosis, and suppression of mRNA expression levels of lipid synthesis genes ACC, FAS, and SCD in the liver (p < 0.001). Transcription factors such as NR1H3 (p < 0.01), LPK (p < 0.001), and SREBF1 (p < 0.05) were differentially down-regulated, significantly reducing MTTP gene expression (p < 0.001). It can be concluded that the addition of 0.1% FLL fermentation product can enhance the productivity of laying hens during their late laying phase, increase the antioxidant capacity, inhibit the mRNA expression level of genes related to fat synthesis in the liver, reduce the accumulation of fat, and alleviate the fatty liver of laying hens caused by the high-energy diet.