Dietary tryptophan helps to preserve tryptophan homeostasis in pigs suffering from lung inflammation.

In pigs, inflammation modifies Trp metabolism and consequently could impact on Trp requirement for growth. In this study, the effects of lung inflammation, induced by the intravenous injection of complete Freund's adjuvant, and dietary Trp content on Trp metabolism and availability were investigated. Two dietary Trp contents, one corresponding to a low-Trp diet (1.5 g of Trp/kg of diet, Basal diet) and the second to an adequate-Trp diet (2 g of Trp/kg of diet, TRP diet), were used. Ten blocks of 4 littermate piglets were selected at 40 d of age. Within each block, piglets were randomly assigned to 1 of the 4 experimental treatments: (1) healthy control and Basal diet, (2) inflammation and Basal diet, (3) inflammation and Basal diet + antioxidant, and (4) inflammation and TRP diet. Inflammation induced an increase in indoleam-ine 2,3 dioxygenase (IDO) activity, an enzyme involved in Trp catabolism, in lung, lymph nodes, heart, and spleen (P < 0.01). Contrary to piglets fed the TRP diet, pigs suffering from inflammation did not maintain their plasma Trp concentrations when they were fed the Basal diet. Furthermore, pigs fed the TRP diet had decreased plasma haptoglobin concentrations, IDO activity, and lung weight than those fed the Basal diet, indicating that the inflammatory response was moderated with the greater Trp supply. Antioxidant addition in the Basal diet decreased the effects of inflammation on plasma Trp concentrations and IDO activity. These results indicated that inflammation increases Trp catabolism and thus may decrease Trp availability for growth.