Dietary sodium butyrate and forskolin promote cell proliferation to resist Citrobacter rodentium infection by lysozyme upregulation

Abstract

The invasion of pathogens derived from diet or the environment triggers intestinal inflammation, which is a result of the host intestinal barrier damage and immune dysfunction, such as the decrease of host defense peptides (HDPs) and inhibition of cell proliferation. Herein, the siRNA interference demonstrated that a critical lysozyme, which was mainly induced by dietary supplementations of sodium butyrate and forskolin, improved cell proliferation by inhibiting p38 MAPK and JNK signaling pathways and reinforced the intestinal barrier. Moreover, we established a mouse model of intestinal inflammation with Citrobacter rodentium (C. rodentium). It was found that NaBu and FSK stimulated intestinal epithelial proliferation to repair barrier damage, and performed stronger disease resistance to C. rodentium infection on account of the lysozyme upregulation in colon. Therefore, this study revealed that NaBu and FSK prevented or alleviated the development of foodborne infections by promoting lysozyme expression, which may be mediated by the effect of lysozyme on promoting cell proliferation and improving barrier function.