This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of grape-seed procyanidins in controlling weaning diarrhea using a rat model. Weaned rats were fed either the basal diet or basal diet supplemented with either 250 mg/kg grape-seed procyanidins or 2000 mg/kg ZnO. Treated rats had better performance with a reduced incidence of diarrhea (P < 0.05). Both ZnO and grape-seed procyanidins significantly reduced urinary lactulose to mannitol ratios (P < 0.05) and enhanced the mRNA and protein expression of the intestinal mucosal tight junction proteins Ocln/ZO-1 (P < 0.05). Grape-seed procyanidins increased the activities of SOD, GSH-Px, and GSH while decreasing the level of MDA in the intestinal mucosa (P < 0.05). Furthermore, an in vitro investigation revealed that supplementation with grape-seed procyanidins in IEC-6 intestinal epithelial cells significantly enhanced the expression of Ocln/ZO-1 under H(2)O(2)-induced oxidative stress. Collectively, these results indicate that grape-seed procyanidins have the potential to prevent weaning diarrhea by reducing intestinal permeability and improving antioxidant indices.

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BackgroundIntramuscular fat development is regulated by a series of complicated processes, and non-coding RNA (ncRNA) such as microRNA (miRNA) plays a critical role during intramuscular preadipocyte proliferation and differentiation development in pigs. In present research, we detected the expression profiles of miRNA during different differentiation stages, namely, day 0 (D0), day 4 (D4), and day 8 (D8), of intramuscular preadipocytes from the longissimus dorsi muscle of Chinese Guizhou Congjiang pigs to provide first insights into their potential involvement in intramuscular preadipocyte development. And we investigated the function of miR-148a-3p in adipocyte proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation. ResultsA total of 67, 95, and 16 differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs were detected between D4 and D0, between D8 and D0, and between D8 and D4, respectively. We further characterized the role of miR-148a-3p which was differentially expressed and highest expressed abundance in D0, D4, and D8. To explore the role of miR-148a-3p in porcine intramuscular preadipocyte, miR-148a-3p mimics and inhibitors were used to perform miR-148a-3p overexpression and knockdown, respectively. Overexpression of miRNA-148a-3p increased the number of intramuscular preadipocytes in the S/G2 phase of the cell cycle and decreased the proportion of cells in the G0/G1 phase. Moreover, it promoted proliferation by regulation of cyclin B, cyclin G1, cyclin D1, CDK2, CDK3, and CDK4 and inhibited apoptosis of intramuscular preadipocyte by regulating the expression of Caspase-3, Bax, and Bcl-2. Meanwhile, the mimics of miR-148a-3p dramatically promoted intramuscular preadipocyte differentiation and upregulated the expression levels of adipogenic marker genes PPARγ, FASN, FABP4, HSL, APOE, LPL, and CEBPα. Furthermore, miR-148a-3p promoted intramuscular preadipocyte differentiation via restraining the AMPK/ACC/CPT1C signaling pathway. PPARGC1A was identified as a target gene of miR-148a-3p by luciferase activity and western blotting assays. ConclusionOur study provides novel insights into the regulatory mechanisms underlying intramuscular preadipocyte development and identified amount of miRNAs whose regulatory potential will need to be explored in the future. Our results establish that miR-148a-3p promoted adipocyte differentiation by targeting PPARGC1A.