Project description:Weaning is a very critical period for piglets, typically accompanied by lower feed intake, weight loss after weaning and increased mortality. At weaning, piglets are exposed to many stressors, such as loss of mothering, mixing with other litters, end of lactational immunity, and a change in their environment and gut microbiota. After weaning, morphological and histological changes occur in the small intestine of piglets producing a rapid change of feeding regime which is critical for the immature digestive system. Sixteen female piglets were weaned to assess the effect of sorbic acid supplementation on the small intestine tissue transcriptome. At weaning day (T0), 4 piglets were sacrified and tissue samples collected. The remaining 12 piglets were weighted and randomly assigned to different post weaning (T5) diets. Diet A (n=6) contained 5 g/kg of sorbic acid. Diet B (n=6) is the same as Standard diet. Total RNA was isolated from ileum samples to be analyzed using the a CombiMatrix CustomArrayTM 90K platform . Even though diet had no detectable effect during the first 5 days after weaning, outcomes from this study highlighted some of the response mechanisms to the stress of weaning occurring in the piglet gut. A total of 205 differentially expressed genes were used for functional analysis using bioinformatics through BLAST2GO, Ingenuity Pathway Analysis 8.0, and the Dynamic Impact Aproach (DIA). Bioinformatics analysis revealed that Apoptosis, RIG-I-like and NOD-like receptor signaling were altered as a result of weaning. Results suggest that immune and inflammatory responses were activated and likely are a cause of small intestine atrophy as revealed by a decrease in villus height and villus/crypt ratio. Keywords: weaning, gut, gene expression, sorbic acid, microarray analysis
Project description:Early-weaning-induced stress causes diarrhea, thereby reduces growth performance of piglets. Gut bacterial dysbiosis emerges as a leading cause of post-weaning diarrhea. The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of capsulized fecal microbiota transportation (FMT) on gut bacterial community, immune response and gut barrier function of weaned piglets. Thirty-two were randomly divided into two groups fed with basal diet for 21 days. Recipient group was inoculated orally with capsulized fecal microbiota of health Tibetan pig daily morning during whole period of trial, while control group was given orally empty capsule. The results showed that the F/G ratio, diarrhea ratio, diarrhea index, and histological damage score of recipient piglets were significantly decreased. FMT treatment also significantly increased the colon length of piglets. Furthermore, the relative abundances of Firmicutes, Euryarchaeota, Tenericutes, Lactobacillus, Methanobrevibacter and Sarcina in colon of recipient piglets were increased, and the relative abundances of Campylobacter, Proteobacteria, and Melainabacteria were significantly decreased compared with control group.
Project description:The study investigated the impact of environment on the composition of the gut microbiota and mucosal immune development and function at gut surfaces in early and adult life. Piglets of similar genotype were reared in indoor and outdoor environments and in an experimental isolator facility. Mucosa-adherent microbial diversity in the pig ileum was characterized by sequence analysis of 16S rRNA gene libraries. Host-specific gene responses in gut ileal tissues to differences in microbial composition were investigated using Affymetrix microarray technology and Real-time PCR. Experiment Overall Design: Animals were reared on the sow at an outdoor or indoor facility. Additional piglets from the indoor facility were transferred to individual isolator units at 24 hours of age, and given a daily dose of antibiotic cocktail for the duration of the study. Piglets were weaned at day 28. From day 29 onwards, piglets were fed creep feed ad libitum. Ileal tissue samples were excised from N=6 piglets per group at day 5, 28 and 56.
Project description:Early weaning commonly results in gastrointestinal disorders, inflammation and diarrhea in infants and young animals. Resveratrol, a plant phenol, affords protection against inflammation and cancer.A porcine model was used to investigate the effects of maternal resveratrol supplementation on diarrhea, intestinal inflammation and intestinal morphology in offspring during weaning. The intestinal gene expression was measureed by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis. Results that weaning-associated intestinal inflammation and diarrhea in pig offspring were alleviated and intestinal morphology was improved by maternal resveratrol supplementation. In weaning piglets (21-day-old), RNA-seq showed that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were enriched for T cell receptor, primary immunodeficiency, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and Ras signaling pathway. In post-weaning piglets (28-day-old), RNA-seq showed that DEGs were enriched in the cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction pathway and pathways related to metabolism. This study provided insight into molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of maternal dietary resveratrol.
Project description:We demonstrated that a maternal antibiotic treatment can change intestinal development of the offspring piglets permanently by showing that maternal gestational antibiotic treatment affects intestinal development in offspring piglets for a period of at least seven weeks after the antibiotic treatment in the sows was finished. It was shown that immediately after birth the piglets from amoxicillin treated sows, showed upregulation of genes involved in processes related to ‘tight junctions’ and ‘immunoglobulins’. In addition, these piglets had significantly lower number of goblet cells. Together, this may lead to a gut wall that is more rapidly closed in piglets from amoxicillin treated sows, affecting the uptake of immunoglobulins and the intestinal development. Later in life, around weaning, gene expression and morphological data indicate that the crypts of piglets from amoxicillin treated sows deepen around weaning as an effect of the amoxicillin treatment which in combination with the upregulation of genes involved in cell cycle processes, ribosomal activity and protein degradation might imply that the intestinal development, the subsequent differentiation of cells or the timing of these processes was delayed by the maternal antibiotic treatment.