Abstract
Cinnamaldehyde is an aromatic aldehyde isolated from the essential oil of cinnamon. It has been proved to possess various bioactivities such as anti-inflammation, anti-bacteria and antihypertensive. Nevertheless, early weaning could lead to intestinal stress, causing a range of intestinal health problems. The aim of this study is to explore the effects of cinnamaldehyde on gut barrier integrity, inflammatory responses, and intestinal microbiome of early weaned rats. In this study, treatment with cinnamaldehyde (100 or 200 mg/kg bodyweight/day) for 2 weeks significantly promoted the production of mucins in the colonic epithelial tissue of rats. Cinnamaldehyde supplementation significantly upregulated the expression of Muc2, TFF3 and the tight junction proteins (ZO-1, claudin-1, and occludin). Hematoxylin and eosin staining results showed that colonic histopathological changes were recovered by cinnamaldehyde supplementation. The mRNA expression of IL-6 and TNF-α were significantly decreased in the cinnamaldehyde groups while the TNF-α protein levels were significantly decreased in the two cinnamaldehyde groups. Cinnamaldehyde treatment obviously attenuated the activation of NF-κB signaling pathway in rat colonic tissue and suppressed the production of inflammatory cytokines. Furthermore, cinnamaldehyde supplementation remodeled the gut microbiome structure, at the genus level, Akkermansia, Bacteroides, Clostridium III, Psychrobacter, Intestinimonas were increased, whereas those of Ruminococcus, Escherichia/Shigella were obviously decreased in the cinnamaldehyde treated groups. These findings indicated that cinnamaldehyde could effectively enhance intestinal barrier integrity, ameliorate inflammatory responses and remodel gut microbiome in early weaned rats.
Highlights
Cinnamaldehyde is the major bioactive component isolated from cinnamon essential oils
The results showed that treatment with cinnamaldehyde significantly (P < 0.01) increased the amount of secretary granules in the colonic epithelial tissues compared to the control (Figure 1)
Histological analysis showed clear inflammation in the colon of newly weaned rats, while treatment with cinnamaldehyde markedly ameliorated the histological changes (Figure 3A). These results suggested that cinnamaldehyde treatment could attenuate the colonic inflammatory responses of early weaned rats
Summary
Cinnamaldehyde is the major bioactive component isolated from cinnamon essential oils. Previous studies have shown that cinnamaldehyde exhibits a wide range of biological activities including anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and immune-modulating properties [1,2,3]. As the major component of cinnamon, cinnamaldehyde has been traditionally used as a food additive, and registered as a flavoring agent by the Food and Drug Administration and approved for food use [4]. The immature barrier function plays key roles in the pathogenesis of intestinal inflammatory diseases of newborns and children, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), infectious enteritis, or necrotizing enterocolitis [5]. Previous study has suggested that the infant maturation of the intestinal epithelium has lifelong impacts on gut functions and immune homeostasis [6]. The intestinal bacterial metabolites were found to be the key intermediates which induced the maturation of gut and formation of intestinal barrier [7]
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