Excessive fat intake is a global health concern as women of childbearing age increasingly ingest a high fat diet. We therefore determined the association of a maternal high fat diet in pregnancy with offspring ovarian health during the gestation and postnatal female offspring in pig a model. Thirty-two Yorkshire gilts with similar bodyweights mated at the third estrus were randomly assigned to two nutrition levels of either a control (CON, crude fat: 7.27%) or a high fat diet (HFD, crude fat: 11.78%). Ovary samples were collected during the fetal (Day 55 (g55) and Day 90 of gestation (g90)) and offspring (prepuberty Day 160 (d160) and age at puberty) period to detect ovary development, antioxidant status and apoptosis cells. Maternal HFD did not influence notch signaling gene expression, which regulates primordial follicle formation and transformation, and ovarian histological effect at g55 and g90. However, maternal HFD reduced the numbers of large follicles at d160 and small follicle numbers upon puberty compared to CON in offspring. The results also revealed that the antioxidant index of total antioxidative capability (T-AOC), cytoplasmic copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (CuZn-SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities and mRNA expression were higher in the CON than the HFD at g90 and d160, whereas, malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration was decreased in the CON. Maternal HFD increased the inhibitor of the apoptosis-related gene of B-cell lymphoma-2 (bcl2) mRNA expression at g90 and d160, whereas, pro-apoptotic-related gene bcl-2 assaciated X protein (bax) was reduced. These data show that the maternal high fat diet does not delay fetal ovarian development, but it changes ovarian health by the induction of oxidative stress and accelerating cell apoptosis in offspring.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary lysozyme (LZM) supplementation on the vaginal microbiota, as well as the relationship between vaginal microbiota and the fecal microbiota of rectum and the reproductive performance of the sow. A total of 60 Yorkshire × Landrace sows (3–6 of parity) were arranged from day 85 of gestation to the end of lactation in a completely randomized design with three treatments (control diet, control diet + lysozyme 150 mg/kg, control diet + lysozyme 300 mg/kg). The results showed that sows fed with lysozyme increased serum interleukin-10 (IL-10, p < 0.05) on day 7 of lactation. The vaginal microbiota varied at different taxonomic levels with LZM supplementation by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The most representative changes included a decrease in Tenericutes, Streptococcus, Bacillus and increase in Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Enterococcus, and Lactobacillus (p < 0.05). There were 777 OTUs existing in both, vaginal and fecal microbiota. The addition of LZM also decreased the abundance of Tenericutes (p < 0.05) in the vagina and feces. The changes in the microbiota were correlated in some cases positively with the performance of the sow, for example, Bacillus in feces was positively correlated with the neonatal weight (p < 0.05). These results indicate that the addition of lysozyme to the diet of sow during perinatal period promote the change of vaginal bacterial community after farrowing. The variations in vaginal microbiota are also associated with the changes in the fecal microbiology of the rectum and the reproductive performance of the sow. Therefore, it is concluded that dietary supplementation with lysozyme in sows in late gestation stage until early lactation, is beneficial to establish vaginal microbiota that seems to promote maternal health and reproductive performance.

Lysozyme (LZM) is a natural anti-bacterial protein that is found in the saliva, tears and milk of all mammals including humans. Its anti-bacterial properties result from the ability to cleave bacterial cell walls, causing bacterial death. The current study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary LZM on fecal microbial composition and variation in metabolites in sow. The addition of LZM decreased the fecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Zonulin and endotoxin in the serum, and feces, were decreased with lysozyme supplementation. Furthermore, fecal concentrations of lipocalin-2 and the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α were also decreased while the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 was increased by lysozyme supplementation. 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the V3-V4 region suggested that fecal microbial levels changed at different taxonomic levels with the addition of LZM. Representative changes included the reduction of diversity between sows, decreased Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Tenericutes and Spirochaetes during lactation as well as an increase in Lactobacillus. These findings suggest that dietary lysozyme supplementation from late gestation to lactation promote microbial changes, which would potentially be the mechanisms by which maternal metabolites and inflammatory status was altered after LZM supplementation.Microbial diversity in sows' feces. A total of 54 fecal samples were subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Average raw reads, average effective tags and average operational taxonomic units (OTUs) for each treatment were shown in Supplementary Table S1. A set of 1,272 OTUs existed in all treatments and were thus defined as core OTUs (Fig. S2). These comprised 71.5% of the total number of OTUs, whereas 44,37,52, 135,47, 105, 72,56 and 57 OTUs were uniquely identified at Con. d1, LZM 150 d1, LZM 300 d1, Con. d7, LZM 150 d7, LZM 300 d7, Con. d21, LZM 150 d21 and LZM 300 d21, respectively (Fig. S2). To determine the bacterial diversity, the alpha and beta diversity of the fecal microbiota were assessed. We then compared the richness (observed species and Chao 1 index) and diversity (Shannon index) indices for the alpha diversity. As demonstrated in Table 2, LZM 300 diets decreased the observed species and Chao 1 index at day 21 of lactation. The lactation stage had a significant effect on fecal microbial community richness, with a Chao 1 index on day 1 of lactation being lower than at other stages (P < 0.01). A decrease in Shannon index (fecal microbial community diversity) with LZM supplementation at 300 mg/kg was found on day 7 and 21 of lactation (P < 0.01). For the analysis of beta diversity, the relationships among Control, LZM 150 and LZM 300 on day 1, 7 and 21 of lactation in the gut microbiome were examined by principal component analysis. The gut microbiota of sows showed obvious segregation in the different treatments, especially in treatment LZM300 d21 (Fig. 3) based on weighted UniFrac distance. The PERMANOVA analysis found that the bacterial community structure was significantly (P < 0...