Effect of Early Pathogenic Escherichia coli Infection on the Intestinal Barrier and Immune Function in Newborn Calves

Abstract

We studied the effect of early pathogenic Escherichia coli infection on newborn calves’ intestinal barrier and immune function. A total of 64 newborn Holstein male calves (40–43 kg) were divided into two groups: normal (NG) and test (TG), each with 32 heads. At the beginning of the experiment, the TG calves were orally administered pathogenic E. coli O1 (2.5 × 1011 CFU/mL, 100 mL) to establish a calf diarrhea model. In contrast, the NG calves were given the same amount of normal saline. During the 30 d trial period, the feeding and management of the two groups remained constant. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, quantification PCR, and high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing technology were used to detect indicators related to the intestinal barrier and immune function in the calf serum and tissues. Pathogenic E. coli O1 had a significant effect on calf diarrhea in the TG; it increased the bovine diamine oxidase (P < 0.05) and endotoxin levels in the serum and decreased (P < 0.05) the intestinal trefoil factor (P < 0.05), Occludin, Claudin-1, and Zonula Occludens 1 (ZO-1) levels in the colon tissue, as well as downregulated the mRNA expression of Occludin, Claudin-1,and ZO-1 in the colon mucosa, leading to increased intestinal permeability and impaired intestinal barrier function. Additionally, pathogenic E. coli had a significant impact on the diversity of colonic microbial flora, increasing the relative abundance of Proteobacteria at the phylum level and decreasing the levels of Firmicutes and Bacteroides. At the genus level, the relative abundance of Escherichia and Shigella in the TG increased significantly (P < 0.05), whereas that of Bacteroides, Butyricicoccus, Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group, Blautia, and Lactobacillus was significantly decreased (P < 0.05). In addition, the level of IL-6 in the serum of the TG calves was significantly increased (P < 0.05), whereas the IL-4 and IL-10 levels were significantly decreased (P < 0.05), compared to those in the NG calves. Thus, pathogenic E. coli induced diarrhea early in life disrupts intestinal barrier and impairs immune function in calves.

A Novel Mast Cell Stabilizer JM25-1 Rehabilitates Impaired Gut Barrier by Targeting the Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone Receptors

“…There was a significant weight gain in the treated group compared to the non-treated group ( Figure 4 B). When the integrity of the intestinal barrier is damaged, diamine oxidase, D-lactate and bacterial endotoxin are released into the blood [ 26 , 27 ]. We monitored these markers in the blood from tail vein and found them increased in psychologically stressed rat on day 7 ( Figure S2 ), and decreased when treated with JM25-1 on day 11 ( Figure 4 C).…”

Host innate immune responses and microbiome profile of neonatal calves challenged with Cryptosporidium parvum and the effect of bovine colostrum supplementation

“…Additionally, C. parvum degrades occludin, claudin 4, and E-cadherin in murine enteroid-derived monolayer and intestines ( Kumar et al., 2018 ). Pathogenic E. coli also disturbs genes associated with epithelial integrity in colons of newborn calves ( He et al., 2022 ). Such overall rearrangements of the host cell cytoskeleton including aggregation and disassembly of actin would be key for the colonization of C. parvum ( Yu et al., 2020 ) and other enteropathogens.…”

“…and Shigella spp. was noticed in colonic microbiota from newborn calves challenged by pathogenic E. coli ( He et al., 2022 ) and in fecal microbiota of calves with naturally occurring diarrhea regardless of the pathogen ( Gomez et al., 2017 ; Zeineldin et al., 2018 ; Jang et al., 2019 ; Gomez et al., 2022 ). Interestingly, we observed that microbiota from C. parvum challenged calves supplemented with colostrum could be more resilient compared with microbiota from calves fed only milk replacer.…”

Direct-Fed Microbials for Dairy Calves: Gut Microbial Diversity and Host Health

“…The occurrence of diarrhea with pathogenic E. coli seems to be negatively related to the abundance of Lactobacillus. In a study conducted to investigate pathogenic E. coli effects on the intestinal immunity of orally infected dairy calves, the higher E. coli abundance was related to a lower abundance of Lactobacillus [30] . On the other hand, reduced microbial diversity has been observed in calves with watery feces (diarrhea) vs. normal feces in healthy calves [31] .…”