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The effect of varying the degrees of β-receptor stimulation on the activity of the calpain - calpastatin system at slaughter in porcine longissimus dorsi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2021

P. L. Sensky
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Biochemistry and Food Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom
T. Parr
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Biochemistry and Food Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom
R. G. Bardsley
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Biochemistry and Food Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom
P. J. Buttery
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Biochemistry and Food Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom
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Extract

Despite efforts to standardise breeding, nutrition and husbandry regimes, consumer studies indicate that 17% of all loin chops sold in the UK are unacceptable in terms of toughness and dryness (Warkup et al., 1995). Recent evidence suggests that this unaccountable variability may be at least partly due to changes in the calpain-calpastatin proteolytic system around the time of slaughter, stimulated by changes in the circulating levels of the natural β-agonist adrenaline (Sensky et al., 1996). An increase in calpastatin, the inhibitory component of the system, at slaughter has also been shown to be associated with reduced degrees of tenderisation (Koohmaraie, 1992, Sensky et al., 1996b). Variation in the degree of β-receptor stimulation close to slaughter should therefore correlate with calpastatin levels at slaughter. This study aimed to investigate the validity of this claim.

The diet of 30 female Landrace x Large White pigs (67 ± 1 kg) was supplemented with either 2 or 20 ppm nadolol, a β-antagonist, or clenbuterol, a β-agonist, 16 h before slaughter, giving 5 groups of 6 pigs, including controls (no supplement), with differing degrees of β-receptor stimulation, ranging from low (20 ppm nadolol) to high (20 ppm clenbuterol). Calpain and calpastatin activities were measured in samples of longissimus dorsi (LD) taken immediately after slaughter using chromatographic and fluorimetric techniques (Sensky et al., 1996b).

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Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1997

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References

Koohmaraie, M. 1992. The role of Ca2+-dependent proteases (calpains) in postmortem proteolysis and meat tenderness. Biochimie 74: 239245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sensky, P. L., Parr, T., Bardsley, R. G. and Buttery, P. J. 1996. Relationship between plasma epinephrine concentration and the activity of the calpain enzyme system in porcine longissimus muscle. Journal of Animal Science 74: 380387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sensky, P. L., Parr, T., Bardsley, R. G., Buttery, P. J., Brown, S. N. and Wood, J. D. 1996b. Relationship between pigmeat toughness and the calpain proteolytic system. Animal Science 62: 663664.Google Scholar
Warkup, C., Marie, S. and Harrington, G. 1995. Consumer perceptions of texture; the most important quality attribute. In Expression of tissue proteinases and regulation of protein degradation as related to meat quality (ed. Ouali, A., Demeyer, D. I. and Smulders, F. J. M.), pp. 225237. ECCEAMST, Utrecht, The Netherlands.Google Scholar