Maternal resveratrol improves the intestinal health and weight gain of suckling piglets during high summer temperatures: The involvement of exosome-derived microRNAs and immunoglobin in colostrum

Changming Hong; Yujian Huang; Guan Yang; Xiaolu Wen; Li Wang; Xuefen Yang; Kaiguo Gao; Zongyong Jiang; Hao Xiao

doi:10.1016/j.aninu.2024.01.002

Maternal resveratrol improves the intestinal health and weight gain of suckling piglets during high summer temperatures: The involvement of exosome-derived microRNAs and immunoglobin in colostrum

Anim Nutr. 2024 Jan 29:17:36-48. doi: 10.1016/j.aninu.2024.01.002. eCollection 2024 Jun.

Authors

Changming Hong^{1

2

3}, Yujian Huang^{1

2}, Guan Yang⁴, Xiaolu Wen^{1

2}, Li Wang^{1

2}, Xuefen Yang^{1

2}, Kaiguo Gao^{1

2}, Zongyong Jiang^{1

2}, Hao Xiao^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
² Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science in South China, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Animal Breeding and Nutrition, Guangzhou, China.
³ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition Control, Institute of Subtropical Animal Nutrition and Feed, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that maternal resveratrol improved growth performance and altered the microbial composition of suckling piglets under hot summer conditions. However, it remains unclear how maternal resveratrol improves growth performance of suckling piglets during high summer temperatures. A total of 20 sows (Landrace × Large White; three parity) were randomly assigned to 2 groups (with or without 300 mg/kg resveratrol) from d 75 of gestation to d 21 of lactation during high ambient temperatures (from 27 to 30 °C). The results showed that maternal resveratrol supplementation increased total daily weight gain of piglets under hot summer conditions, which is consistent with previous studies. Furthermore, we found that maternal resveratrol improved the intestinal morphology and intestinal epithelial proliferation in suckling piglets. Dietary resveratrol supplementation affected the characteristics of exosome-derived microRNAs (miRNAs) in sow colostrum, as well as the genes targeted by differentially produced miRNAs. MiRNAs are concentrated in the tight junction pathway. As a result, the expression of intestinal tight junction proteins was increased in suckling piglets (P < 0.05). Notably, maternal resveratrol increased the intestinal secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) levels of suckling piglets via colostrum immunoglobin (P < 0.05), which could increase the abundance of beneficial microbiota to further increase the concentration of short chain fatty acids (SCFA) in suckling piglets' intestine (P < 0.05). Finally, our correlation analysis further demonstrated the positive associations between significantly differential intestinal microbiota, intestinal sIgA production and SCFA concentrations, as well as the positive relation between total daily weight gain and intestinal health of suckling piglets. Taken together, our findings suggested that maternal resveratrol could promote intestinal health to improve piglet growth during high summer temperatures, which might be associated with the immunoglobin and exosome-derived miRNAs in sows' colostrum.

Keywords: Colostrum; Exosome; Immunoglobulin; Intestinal health; Resveratrol.