Impaired intestinal barrier function and relapsing digestive disease: Lessons from a porcine model of early life stress

Abstract

Within this issue of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, an article by Pohl et al highlights new insights from a powerful porcine model of the link between early life adversity and relapsing functional gastrointestinal disorders. Early weaning stress closely mimics the early life psychosocial stressors that have been linked to adult onset gastrointestinal dysfunction. This early weaning model provides reproducible and highly translatable outcomes in young stress-challenged pigs. Due to the convincingly comparable neurological and gastroenterological anatomy and physiology between pigs and human beings, gastrointestinal stress and injury studies utilizing swine models will provide invaluable insights to improve our understanding and treatment of gastrointestinal disease in human beings. Future studies to examine mechanisms underlying this link between early life adversity and functional gastrointestinal disorders will explore the roles of gender and hypo-maturity in gastrointestinal responses to stress.

Environmental stressors affect intestinal permeability and repair responses in a pig intestinal ischemia model

“…gastrointestinal studies must be designed thoughtfully to prevent confounding experimental outcomes and interpretation. 13,14,16,[19][20][21] Our lab uses the pig to study intestinal repair mechanisms following injury. Most commonly, we have used a surgical ischemia model to induce repeatable and controlled epithelial injury in order to closely observe and define the mechanisms of mucosal repair after discrete epithelial sloughing.…”

“… 14 These similarities make the pig a superb model for comparative and translational studies, but the sensitivity of the pig gastrointestinal tract to exogenous stressors, as shown by Moeser et al ., means that gastrointestinal studies must be designed thoughtfully to prevent confounding experimental outcomes and interpretation. 13 , 14 , 16 , 19–21 Our lab uses the pig to study intestinal repair mechanisms following injury. Most commonly, we have used a surgical ischemia model to induce repeatable and controlled epithelial injury in order to closely observe and define the mechanisms of mucosal repair after discrete epithelial sloughing.…”

“…[13][14][15] It is proposed that the pig is an excellent model of the effects of stress on the gut due to advanced gyrencephalic neuroanatomy in both human beings and pigs. 16 This may mean that pigs have similar higher centers related to interpretation of social and physical stress as humans. 17 While these striking similarities make for a very powerful model for the study of gastrointestinal physiology and disease, these sensitivities to stress mean that intestinal barrier studies utilizing pigs must be carefully planned to minimize unintended effects of animal transport and handling stresses on experimental outcomes.…”

Low Molecular Seleno-Aminopolysaccharides Protect the Intestinal Mucosal Barrier of Rats under Weaning Stress

“…Human infants and neonatal swine experience significant stress in early life that is associated with homeostatic changes related to birth and weaning. Adaptive changes to these early-life stressors are likely contributors to future gastrointestinal disease susceptibility [2]. Weaning stress is easy to result in intestinal mucosal oxidative damage, increase intestinal mucosal damage, and endanger the health of the body.…”

Protective Effect of Low Molecular Weight Seleno-Aminopolysaccharide on the Intestinal Mucosal Oxidative Damage

“…In early life, human infants and neonatal piglets experience significant stress, which are associated with homeostatic changes related to birth and weaning. Adaptive changes to these early-life stressors are likely contributors to future gastrointestinal disease susceptibility [2]. Weaning stress results in intestinal mucosal oxidative damage, increases intestinal mucosal damage, and endangers the health of the body.…”