Fat deposition deficiency is critical for the high mortality of pre-weanling newborn piglets

BACKGROUND: The high mortality of pre-weanling piglets is a dominant challenge which severely restricts the development of pig industry. A number of factors including nutrients imbalance and temperature variation during postnatal period of piglets have been reported to closely associated with the high mortality of postnatal piglets. This study aims to find out the relationship between fat deposition and survival of newborn piglets. RESULTS: There were no differences in organ coefficient and bone density between the surviving and dead piglets (P > 0.05). The body weight and the fat deposition in the dead piglets were lower than the live individuals (P < 0.05). Consistently, the average sizes of white adipocytes in back and abdominal adipose tissues of dead piglets were smaller than the survivals (P < 0.05). The protein expression levels of adipocyte differentiation markers PPARγ and C/EBPα in the back and abdominal adipose tissues were lower in dead piglets compared to live piglets. The mRNA expressions of thermogenic markers PGC1α and PRDM16 in adipose tissues were decreased in the dead piglets (P < 0.05). The microarray of back fat samples from the surviving and dead piglets were conducted; two down-regulated genes namely AAMDC and CASTOR1 were identified from the dead piglets. According to quantitative real-time PCR (RT-PCR) analysis, the mRNA expression of AAMDC decreased, whereas CASTOR1 expression elevated in the dead piglets compared to the surviving piglets (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The fat deposition and adipocyte differentiation in the dead piglets are insufficient compared to the surviving piglets, which may attenuate the thermogenic ability of white adipose tissue (WAT). Our data indicate that fat deposition in newborn piglets is vital to their survival.