Author(s)

Maria Grazia Cappai, Petra Wolf, Walter Pinna, Josef Kamphues

Institute of Animal Nutrition, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover Foundation, Bischofsholer Dam, Hannover, Germany.
Research Unit of Animal Husbandry Sciences, Department of Agriculture, University of Sassari, via Vienna, ex-Faculty of Vete-rinary Medicine, Sassari, Italy.

Proline contents of parotid glands (PG) in pigs constantly increase after the inclusion of different amounts of ripe hulled acorns in the diet providing high polyphenols levels. The dose-response relationship was estimated on natural hydrolizable tannins (expressed as tannic acid equivalent TAE) amounts of 25.8 to 36.1 g TAE/kg DM in experimental diets. Macroscopic and histological morphometry of parotid glands greatly varied according to feed intake and dosages of TAE ingested. The PG response (hypertrophy grade) on acorns’ tannins content in the diet was positively correlated (R² = 0.748): the response to the protein precipitating activity (PPA) of tannins consisted of a functional parotidomegaly (hypertrophy), 1.34 up to 3.55 folds than control PGs, following an oral dosage 0.596 up 1.72 TAE g·kg body weight·d^-1 respectively, after one week exposure.

Acorns; Parotid Gland; Polyphenols; Hypertrophy; Proline; Secretory Response

M. Cappai, P. Wolf, W. Pinna and J. Kamphues, "Dose-Response Relationship between Dietary Polyphenols from Acorns and Parotid Gland Hypertrophy in Pigs," Food and Nutrition Sciences, Vol. 3 No. 9, 2012, pp. 1261-1268. doi: 10.4236/fns.2012.39166.