Abstract
BackgroundDietary intervention has been reported to improve intestinal health. The intestinal microbiota of newborn animals plays a fundamental role in the development of intestinal function and the innate immune system. However, little is currently known about dietary interventions in the gut microbiota and barrier function of livestock, especially suckling Bamei piglets. To this end, we studied the effect of early dietary supplementation on intestinal bacterial communities and intestinal barrier function in piglets.Results10 purebred Bamei sows were randomly allocated into two groups. In group one, the piglets received a supplementary milk replacer on day 7 of age, whereas the other control group was allowed sow’s milk alone. At 21 days, 18 and 17, respectively, piglets in each group of average weight were randomly selected and sacrificed. Tissue and digesta samples were collected from the jejunum to evaluate differences in the microbiome-metabolome and the mRNA expression of inflammatory cytokines (TLR4, TNFα and IL-8) and barrier proteins (ZO-1, Occludin and Claudin-1). Sequencing of 16S rRNA revealed that ES improved the gut microbiome composition of Bamei suckling piglets. The relative abundances of some bacterial species such as Lactobacillales, Romboutsia, Actinobacillus, Bacteroides were significantly reduced in the ES group. Metabolomics analysis indicated that 23 compounds were enriched and 35 compounds decreased in the ES group. And correlation analysis demonstrated that some gut bacterial genera were highly correlated with altered gut microbiota-related metabolites. Meanwhile, ES of Bamei suckling piglets altered the gene expression of inflammatory cytokine and barrier protein in the jejunum.ConclusionsIn summary, these results provide important insights on the relationships between jejunal microbiota and related metabolites, and jejunal barrier function during the early life of Bamei suckling piglets.
Highlights
Dietary intervention has been reported to improve intestinal health
Diarrhea incidence, and mRNA expression of inflammatory cytokines and barrier proteins in suckling Bamei pigs As can be summarized from Table 1, piglets fed the supplement (ES) demonstrated significantly increased (p < 0.05) final body weight and average daily gain (ADG) compared with piglets in the control group (Con) group, while diarrhea incidence was significantly decreased for piglets fed early supplementary feeding group (ES) compared with Con piglets (p < 0.05)
In the ES group, TLR4, ZO-1, Occludin and Claudin-1 mRNA levels were higher compared to the Con group (p < 0.05)
Summary
Dietary intervention has been reported to improve intestinal health. The intestinal microbiota of newborn animals plays a fundamental role in the development of intestinal function and the innate immune system. Little is currently known about dietary interventions in the gut microbiota and barrier function of livestock, especially suckling Bamei piglets. To this end, we studied the effect of early dietary supplementation on intestinal bacterial communities and intestinal barrier function in piglets. The gut microbiota provides various benefits to the host, including nutrient absorption, metabolism, developing the immune defense systems, intestinal epithelial differentiation, and intestinal mucosal barrier maintenance, which all play a key role in human health and disease [2,3,4,5,6]. The mRNA relative abundance of ZO-1 in the small intestine mucosa was highest on d 7 [21] This implies that after the birth of Bamei piglets, the diet has a great influence on intestinal microbiome development. Little scientific information is known regarding the relationships and responses between the jejunal inflammatory cytokines, barrier proteins, and microbiomemetabolome when feeding supplements to suckling Bamei piglets
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