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Interpretive Summary: Oxidative stress and postmortem meat quality in crossbred lambs

By Anne Zinn

The mechanism of meat tenderization is well-recognized, but the impact of oxidative stress of skeletal muscle and its influence on factors critical to meat quality, as well as the impact of oxidative stress and its relationship toward the muscle transcriptome, has yet to be understood. Therefore, a recent study published in the Journal of Animal Science evaluated the effects of controlled oxidative stress in vivo on oxidative biomarkers and fresh meat quality attributes, including tenderness, color stability, and lipid oxidation.

Lipopolysaccharide-mediated oxidative stress triggered the onset of biochemical pathways responsible for muscle composition, proliferation, sustainability, and apoptotic mechanisms related to meat quality; there were no detriments to lipid oxidation and color stability. Overall, results of the present study suggest that defined upregulation of oxidative stress has no detriment on fresh meat color, but could alter biological pathways responsible for muscle stress response, apoptosis, and enzymatic processes, which would result in changes in tenderness early postmortem.

The full paper can be found on the Journal of Animal Science webpage.