Abstract
Weanling stress and toxicosis, which are harmful to the health of pigs’ intestines, are associated with oxidative stress. Quercetin (Que) is a polyphenolic compound that shows good anti-cancer, anti-inflammation and anti-oxidation effects. This study aimed to elaborate whether or not Que promotes IPEC-J2 (intestinal porcine enterocyte cells) proliferation and protects IPEC-J2 from oxidative damage. Thus, we examined the effects of Que on proliferation and H2O2-induced apoptosis in IPEC-J2. The results showed that Que increased IPEC-J2 viabililty, propelled cells from G1 phase into S phase and down-regulated gene levels of P27 and P21, respectively. Besides, H2O2-induced cell damage was alleviated by Que after different exposure times, and Que depressed apoptosis rate, reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and percentage of G1 phase cells and elevated the percentage of cells in G2 phase and S phase and mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) after IPEC-J2 exposure to H2O2. Meanwhile, Que reduced the value of Bax/Bcl-2 in H2O2 exposed cells. In low-degree oxidative damage cells, lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA) content and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity were increased. In turn, Que could reverse the change of MDA content and SOD activity in low-degree damage cells. Nevertheless, catalase (CAT) activity was not changed in IPEC-J2 incubated with Que under low-degree damage conditions. Interestingly, relative expressive levels of the proteins claudin-1 and occludin were not altered under low-degree damage conditions, but Que could improve claudin-1 and occludin levels, slightly. This research indicates that Que can be greatly beneficial for intestinal porcine enterocyte cell proliferation and it protects intestinal porcine enterocyte cells from oxidation-induced apoptosis, and could be used as a potential feed additive for porcine intestinal health against pathogenic factor-induced oxidative damages and apoptosis.
Highlights
IntroductionWith the continuous spread of large-scale farming, the intestinal health of pigs is challenged, resulting in problems such as weaning stress, mycotoxicosis and endotoxin-induced stress [1,2,3].These can lead to oxidative damage and inflammatory response in pigs’ intestines, and subsequently destroy the structure of the intestinal tissue, interfere with the intestinal immunity function, eventuallyMolecules 2018, 23, 2012; doi:10.3390/molecules23082012 www.mdpi.com/journal/moleculesMolecules 2018, 23, 2012 reduce the digestion and absorption of nutrients, and reduce the porcine growth performance [4,5,6,7].In particular, these can result in death of pigs exposed to serious oxidative damage or inflammatory responses
Porcine intestinal epithelial cells have a barrier function against harmful substances [13] and the proliferation of intestinal epithelial cells is closely related to the normal development of the intestinal mucosa and villi, and the increase of intestinal villi height is helpful to improve the absorption function of the small intestine, which indirectly reflects the close relationship between proliferation of small intestinal epithelial cells and the absorption function of the small intestine [14,15], so it is beneficial for intestinal health to promote proliferation of small intestinal epithelial cells
Our results showed that whether a long time or a short time preconditioning of Que, or simultaneous treatment of Que with H2 O2, could play a good protective role in IPEC-J2, making cells free from or less damaged by H2 O2
Summary
With the continuous spread of large-scale farming, the intestinal health of pigs is challenged, resulting in problems such as weaning stress, mycotoxicosis and endotoxin-induced stress [1,2,3].These can lead to oxidative damage and inflammatory response in pigs’ intestines, and subsequently destroy the structure of the intestinal tissue, interfere with the intestinal immunity function, eventuallyMolecules 2018, 23, 2012; doi:10.3390/molecules23082012 www.mdpi.com/journal/moleculesMolecules 2018, 23, 2012 reduce the digestion and absorption of nutrients, and reduce the porcine growth performance [4,5,6,7].In particular, these can result in death of pigs exposed to serious oxidative damage or inflammatory responses. With the continuous spread of large-scale farming, the intestinal health of pigs is challenged, resulting in problems such as weaning stress, mycotoxicosis and endotoxin-induced stress [1,2,3]. These can lead to oxidative damage and inflammatory response in pigs’ intestines, and subsequently destroy the structure of the intestinal tissue, interfere with the intestinal immunity function, eventually. Molecules 2018, 23, 2012 reduce the digestion and absorption of nutrients, and reduce the porcine growth performance [4,5,6,7] These can result in death of pigs exposed to serious oxidative damage or inflammatory responses. Moderate cell apoptosis, a normal life phenomenon, belongs to the programmed cell death process that balances metabolism and maintains normal physiological activity, but the aggravation of apoptosis in normal cells will destroy the organism’s structure and interfere with the basic functions of cells [16]
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