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Oxidative stress negatively affects maternal health and fetal development. Catalase (CAT) is an oxidoreductase enzyme that catalyzes the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into molecular oxygen and water, thereby protecting the cell from oxidative damage. This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of maternal CAT supplementation on reproductive performance, antioxidant enzyme activities, mineral transport, and the mRNA expression of related genes in sows and offspring. It was observed that giving dietary CAT supplementation to pregnant sows may decrease the intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) rate and contribute to improving the maternal and fetal antioxidant status, potentially by modulating the activities of selected antioxidant enzymes and mRNA expression of related genes, as well as the transport of some mineral elements in the pregnant sows and their piglets. This finding provides a reasonable foundation for focused intervention studies in the future and may also provide insight into important aspects of mother-infant nutrition in both animals and humans.

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of maternal catalase (CAT) supplementation on reproductive performance, antioxidant enzyme activities, mineral transport, and mRNA expression of related genes in sows and offspring. A total of 40 pregnant sows at 95 days of gestation with similar parity (3–5 parities) and back-fat thickness were assigned randomly and equally into the control (CON) group (fed a basal diet) and CAT group (fed a basal diet supplemented with 660 mg/kg CAT …