Lactobacillus frumenti Facilitates Intestinal Epithelial Barrier Function Maintenance in Early-Weaned Piglets

Abstract

Increased intestinal epithelial barrier function damages caused by early weaning stress have adverse effects on swine health and feed utilization efficiency. Probiotics have emerged as the promising antibiotic alternatives used for intestinal barrier function damage prevention. Our previous data showed that Lactobacillus frumenti was identified as a predominant Lactobacillus in the intestinal microbiota of weaned piglets. However, whether the intestinal epithelial barrier function in piglets was regulated by L. frumenti is still unclear. Here, piglets received a PBS vehicle or PBS suspension (2 ml, 108 CFU/ml) containing the L. frumenti by oral gavage once a day during the period of 6–20 days of age prior to early weaning. Our data demonstrated that oral administration of L. frumenti significantly improved the intestinal mucosal integrity and decreased the serum endotoxin and D-lactic acid levels in early-weaned piglets (26 days of age). The intestinal tight junction proteins (including ZO-1, Occludin, and Claudin-1) were significantly up-regulated by L. frumenti administration. The serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels, intestinal secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) levels, and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) levels were significantly increased by L. frumenti administration. Furthermore, our data revealed that oral administration of L. frumenti significantly increased the relative abundances of health-promoting microbes (including L. frumenti, Lactobacillus gasseri LA39, Parabacteroides distasonis, and Kazachstania telluris) and decreased the relative abundances of opportunistic pathogens (including Desulfovibrio desulfuricans and Candida humilis). Functional alteration of the intestinal bacterial community by L. frumenti administration was characterized by the significantly increased fatty acids and protein metabolism and decreased diseases-associated metabolic pathways. These findings suggest that L. frumenti facilitates intestinal epithelial barrier function maintenance in early-weaned piglets and may be a promising antibiotic alternative used for intestinal epithelial barrier function damage prevention in mammals.

Effects of Lactobacillus plantarum on the intestinal morphology, intestinal barrier function and microbiota composition of suckling piglets

“…Previous studies have reported that oral administration of Lactobacillus changes the structure of the gut microbiota, influencing intestinal mucosal immunity and host metabolism (Valeriano et al, ). For example, administration of L. frumenti JCM 11122 increased the abundance of L. frumenti in the faeces of early weaned piglets, and treatment with L. reuteri ZLR003 significantly altered the microbial diversity and community composition in the intestinal contents of weaned piglets (Hu et al, ; Zhang et al, ). Unexpectedly, Liu et al found no significant changes in the colonic microbiota composition after L. reuteri I5007 administration in suckling piglets (Liu et al, ).…”

“…Additionally, our study also showed that L. plantarum 299v administration significantly changed the proportions of genes for some disease‐associated KEGG pathways such as those for cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. Another Lactobacillus , L. frumenti JCM, was reported to influence disease‐associated metabolic pathways in the intestinal bacterial community (Hu et al, ). Based on the above data, we conclude that changes in the structure of gut microbiotas by L. plantarum 299v may alter the gut‐microbial metabolism and influence intestinal immunity.…”

Original low birth weight deteriorates the hindgut epithelial barrier function in pigs at the growing stage

“…Immunohistochemistry was performed to analyze the expression and distribution of the intestinal tight junction proteins according to a previous study (34). The following antibodies were used in the immunohistochemistry assay: claudin-1 (ab211737; Abcam, Cambridge, MA, USA), occludin (ab216327; Abcam), and zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) (ab214228; Abcam).…”

“…The intestinal goblet cell numbers were measured according to a previous study (34). Briefly, colonic and caecal tissues fixed with 4% formaldehyde were embedded in paraffin, and sections (5 mm thickness) were obtained and stained with a PAS stain kit (ab150680; Abcam) according to the manufacturer's protocol.…”

Lactobacillus frumentiimproves antioxidant capacityvianitric oxide synthase 1 in intestinal epithelial cells

“…The primers for real-time quantitative PCR were shown in Table 1. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed with Bio-Rad CFX96 following the procedures previously described in Hu et al (23).…”