Oral Treatment With Ileal Spores Triggers Immunometabolic Shifts in Chicken Gut

Graham A J Redweik; Michael H Kogut; Ryan J Arsenault; Melha Mellata

doi:10.3389/fvets.2020.00629

Oral Treatment With Ileal Spores Triggers Immunometabolic Shifts in Chicken Gut

Front Vet Sci. 2020 Sep 8:7:629. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2020.00629. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Graham A J Redweik^{1

2}, Michael H Kogut³, Ryan J Arsenault⁴, Melha Mellata^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States.
² Interdepartmental Microbiology Graduate Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States.
³ Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center, USDA-ARS, College Station, TX, United States.
⁴ Department of Animal and Food Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, United States.

Abstract

The animal gut is a major site affecting productivity via its role in mediating functions like food conversion and pathogen colonization. Live microorganisms like probiotics are widely used to improve poultry productivity. However, given that chicks receive their microbiota from the environment at-hatch, a bacterial treatment that can stimulate gut immune maturation in early life can benefit animal health. Thus, our lab has begun investigating alternative means to improve poultry health via single inoculation with microbial spores. In this study, we orally-inoculated day-old chicks with ileal scrapings (ISs) enriched for spores via chloroform treatment (SPORE) or non-treated (CON). At 3, 7, and 14 days post-inoculation (dpi), gut permeability was measured via FITC-dextran assay in serum. Additionally, small intestinal scrapings (SISs) were tested for in vitro Salmonella killing and total IgA. Lastly, distal ileum was either fixed or flash-frozen for microscopy or kinome peptide array, respectively. Using bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequencing, SPORE and CON inocula were highly-similar in bacterial composition. However, spores were detected in SPORE but not in CON inoculum. Segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) filaments were observed in the distal ileum in SPORE birds as early as 3 dpi and all birds at 7 and 14 dpi. Additionally, SFB were detected via PCR in the ceca, colonizing all SPORE birds at 3 dpi. At 3 dpi, SPORE birds exhibited lower gut permeability vs. CON. In SPORE birds, SISs induced greater Salmonella growth in vitro at 3 dpi yet significantly-reduced Salmonella load at 7 and 14 dpi compared to CON in an IgA-independent manner. SPORE distal ileal tissue exhibited unique upregulation of several immunometabolic processes vs. CON birds, including innate (Toll-like receptor, JAK-STAT) and adaptive (T/B cell receptor, T_H17 differentiation) immune pathways, PI3K/Akt signaling, mTOR signaling, and insulin-related pathways. Collectively, these data suggest oral inoculation with ileal spores generally-improved gut health. Importance: We report that ileal, spore-forming commensal microbes have potent effects on ileum immunometabolism. Additionally, we identify a functional ileal phenotype in spore-treated chickens, which matched several of the observed immunometabolic changes and was associated with SFB colonization in the ileum.

Keywords: IgA; SFB; Salmonella; TH17; gut permeability; kinome; spores.