Effect of melatonin and folic acid supplementation on the growth performance, antioxidant status, and liver histology of the farmed gilthead sea bream ( Sparus aurata L.) under standard rearing conditions

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of dietary of melatonin (MLT) and folic acid (FA) administrations on growth performance, antioxidant status, and liver histological structure of juvenile gilthead sea bream, Sparus aurata L. under standard rearing conditions. Four diets were considered: a basal diet considered a control and three diets supplemented with 40 mg/kg of melatonin (MLT), 2 mg/kg of folic acid (FA), and with the mixture of melatonin and folic acid (MLT + FA). Each diet was randomly allocated to triplicate groups of fish (mean initial weight was 2.99 ± 0.55 g) for 41 days. The obtained results clearly indicated that the melatonin-supplemented diet decreased significantly the growth performance parameters (final body weight, weight gain rate, and specific growth rate) and IGF-1 level of the gilthead sea bream, while the folic acid-supplemented diet has no significant effect on these parameters. The mixture supplementation of melatonin and folic acid has no significant effect on the growth parameters due to the possible interaction between melatonin and folic acid effects. Furthermore, fish fed with all experimental diets showed significantly higher superoxide dismutase activity (SOD) and protein sulfhydryl level (PSH) and lower lipid peroxidation level (TBARS) and catalase activity (CAT) which confirm their powerful antioxidant role. The acetylcholinesterase activity (ACHE) decreased in fish fed with all experimental diets. The underlying mechanisms of driving melatonin and folic acid to reduce acetylcholinesterase activity require further studies. The histological structure of liver of control S. aurata fish shows severe hepatic lipid accumulation in large vacuoles that diminished after dietary individual or mixture folic acid and melatonin supplementations over 41 days. This work proved that 2 mg/kg of dietary folic acid has a positive effect on the growth performance, oxidative stress defense, and hepatic lipid accumulation reduction in the gilthead sea bream fish. Under our experimental conditions, melatonin failed to improve the growth indexes WGR, SGR, and IGF-I. This study recommends the diet supplementation with a dose lower than 2 mg/kg of food due to the observed effects on tissue ACHE activity.