Abstract
The gastrointestinal tract is a key source of superoxide so as to be one of the most vulnerable to oxidative stress damage. Ellagic acid (EA), a polyphenol displays widely biological activities owing to its strong antioxidant properties. Here, we investigated the protective benefits of EA on oxidative stress and intestinal barrier injury in paraquet (PQ)-challenged piglets. A total of 40 weaned piglets were randomly divided into five groups: Control, PQ, 0.005% EA-PQ, 0.01% EA-PQ, and 0.02% EA-PQ. Piglets were intraperitoneally injected with 4 mg/kg (BW) PQ or saline on d-18, and sacrificed on d-21 of experiment. EA treatments eliminated growth-check induced by PQ and increased serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity but decreased serum malondialdehyde (MDA) level as compared to PQ group. EA supplementation promoted Nrf2 nuclear translocation and enhanced heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) protein abundances of small intestinal mucosa. Additionally, EA improved PQ-induced crypt deepening, goblet cells loss, and villi morphological damage. Consistently, EA increased tight junction protein expression as was evident from the decreased serum diamine oxidase (DAO) levels. EA could ameliorate the PQ-induced oxidative stress and intestinal damage through mediating Nrf2 signaling pathway. Intake of EA-rich food might prevent oxidative stress-mediated gut diseases.
Highlights
There was no noticeable difference in final body weight (BW), Average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and F/G among five treatments (Table 3), PQ injection showed a negative effect on BW gain of piglets (Figure 1)
PQ induced a significant oxidative stress in piglets, which was exhibited by decreased serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities and increased serum MDA levels as compared to the control group (p < 0.05)
Our current study found that Ellagic acid (EA) could alleviate the oxidative damage of intestinal barrier in piglets challenged by PQ, and these effects were associated with the key regulatory factor nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling pathway
Summary
Ellagic acid (EA) is mainly found in the form of free monomers, derivatives, and complex ellagic tannins in various plants such as pomegranates, berries, and walnuts [1]. EA-rich foods have shown a broad spectrum of bioactivities in pathological conditions, including antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties, in animal models and human studies [2]. It has been reported that EA is able to counteract the detrimental reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS), and the mechanisms rely mainly on its capacity to accept electrons and to participate in antioxidation redox reactions [3]. Since EA could either prevent oxidation by acting as free-radical scavengers or retard the oxidation process by acting through indirect pathway, it has been classified as the multi-function
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