Dietary resveratrol attenuates oxidative stress in Pacific whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, in response to ammonia stress

To study the effect of resveratrol on the antioxidant system of Litopenaeus vannamei, resveratrol (0, 40, 80, 120 and 180 mg/kg) was added to the feed. After 7 days of culture, 10 tails of L. vannamei were randomly selected and exposure to ammonia stress at the sublethal concentration of ammonia (20 mg/L) for 24h. The results showed that the malondialdehyde (MDA) level in serum of shrimp fed with resveratrol decreased significantly compare to the control group (p< 0.05). After the ammonia stress, the MDA levels in serum in the Res 120 group and the Res 160 group was lower significantly than that in the control group (p< 0.05). The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the hepatopancreas and the serum, and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) in the serum of shrimps fed with resveratrol showed a decrease trend before the ammonia stress. Conversely, the activities of SOD and the total antioxidant competence (T-AOC) levels in the hepatopancreas in the Res 80 group and Res 120 group were significantly higher than that in the control group after the ammonia stress (p<0.05). Dietary resveratrol decreased oxidative damage, increased antioxidant enzyme activities under the ammonia stress. Our results demonstrated that resveratrol attenuated oxidative stress and improved the resistance to the ammonia stress.