Table 5.

Effect of dietary pterostilbene supplementation on the expression levels of hepatic antioxidant gene of 21-day-old broilers challenged with diquat.

Items1,2	SS		DQ		SEM	Stress effect		Diet effect		P-value
	CON	PT	CON	PT		SS	DQ	CON	PT	Stress	Diet	S × D
NRF2	1.00	1.78	1.51	2.10	0.14	1.39	1.81	1.26	1.94	0.100	0.010	0.707
HO1	1.00	1.23	0.60	1.24	0.11	1.11	0.92	0.80	1.24	0.338	0.037	0.294
NQO1	1.00	1.19	0.89	1.20	0.07	1.10	1.04	0.94	1.19	0.679	0.071	0.658
SOD1	1.00	1.16	0.51	1.02	0.08	1.08	0.77	0.76	1.09	0.021	0.014	0.177
SOD2	1.00	1.05	0.81	0.98	0.08	1.03	0.90	0.91	1.02	0.423	0.499	0.729
GSTA2	1.00	1.44	0.85	1.63	0.13	1.22	1.24	0.92	1.54	0.934	0.018	0.482
GSTA3	1.00	1.24	1.06	1.48	0.12	1.12	1.27	1.03	1.36	0.557	0.206	0.709
GCLC	1.00	2.00	0.74	1.92	0.18	1.50	1.33	0.87	1.96	0.566	0.001	0.765
GCLM	1.00	1.61	1.60	1.39	0.14	1.30	1.49	1.30	1.50	0.495	0.467	0.156

Abbreviations: CON, birds received a basal diet from 1 to 21 D of age; DQ, birds were injected with diquat solution at 20 D of age; PT, birds received a pterostilbene-supplemented diet from 1 to 21 D of age; SS, birds were injected with sterile saline at 20 D of age; S × D, the interaction of stress and diet effects; GCLC, glutamate–cysteine ligase catalytic subunit; GCLM, glutamate–cysteine ligase modifier subunit; GSTA2, glutathione S-transferase alpha 2; GSTA3, glutathione S-transferase alpha 3; HO1, heme oxygenase 1; NQO1, NAD(P)H quinone dehydrogenase 1; NRF2, nuclear factor, erythroid 2-related factor 2; SOD1, superoxide dismutase 1; SOD2, superoxide dismutase 2.

¹Mean values with pooled SEMs, n = 6.

²Expressed in arbitrary units. The expression of each target gene for the CON-SS group was assigned a value of 1 and normalized against beta actin.