The epidermal growth factor (EGF) has been widely used for protection of stress-induced intestinal mucosa dysfunction. However, whether EGF would alleviate oxidative injury and reduce apoptosis in porcine intestine is not yet known. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of EGF on lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-induced induction of oxidative stress and ensuing apoptosis in the porcine intestinal epithelial cell line, IPEC-J2. The present study showed that EGF significantly increased cell viability and decreased the LPS-induced induction of apoptosis, dehydrogenase (LDH) release and malonaldehyde (MDA) production. EGF also (i) decreased expression of the pro-apoptotic genes Fas, Bax, Cascase-3, Cascase-8, Cascase-9, and proteins such as P53, Fas, Bax, Caspase3; (ii) increased antiapoptotic protein B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl2) expression; (iii) increased mRNA levels of the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) related genes Nrf2, manganese superoxide dismutase (SOD2), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), heme oxygenase (HO-1) and quinone oxidoreductase (NQO1); (iv) protein level of Nrf2-realeted proteins Nrf2, HO-1, NQO1; and (v) total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), CAT, SOD, GSH-Px concentrations. Collectively, our results indicated that EGF enhanced Nrf2 protein expression, and upregulated the expression of phase II metabolizing enzymes (such as HO-1 and NQO1) and antioxidative enzymes (SOD, CAT and GSH-Px) to alleviate oxidative injury, and then protect IPEC-J2 cells from apoptosis induced by LPS.
Keywords: antioxidant; apoptosis; epidermal growth factor; lipopolysaccharides (LPS); oxidative stress.