Tryptophan can alleviate stress and improve intestinal health, but the precise mechanism has not been fully elucidated. This study aimed to examine the effects of tryptophan supplementation on antioxidant status, inflammation, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, apoptosis, and pyroptosis signaling pathway in the intestine of piglets after Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge. Thirty-two weaning piglets were allotted to four treatments including: non-challenged control, LPS-challenged control, LPS + 0.2% tryptophan and LPS + 0.4% tryptophan. On day 35 of feeding, piglets were injected intraperitoneally with 100 μg/kg of body weight LPS or saline. Among the LPS-challenged pigs, tryptophan supplementation improved intestinal morphology as indicated by greater villus height, villus area and smaller crypt depth, and antioxidant status, and decreased the mRNA expression and concentration of proinflammatory cytokines. Moreover, tryptophan downregulated the expression of ER stress (ER oxidoreductase-1α, ER oxidoreductase-1β, glucose-regulated protein-78, activating transcription factor 6, C/EBP homologous protein), apoptosis (B-cell lymphoma-2, BCL2-associated X protein, caspase 3), and pyroptosis signaling pathway (nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor protein 3, caspase 1, gasdermin-D, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD). Collectively, tryptophan supplementation can contribute to gut health by improving antioxidant status and alleviating inflammation, ER stress, apoptosis, and pyroptosis in the intestine of piglets after lipopolysaccharide challenge.
Keywords: antioxidant status; apoptosis; endoplasmic reticulum stress; pig; pyroptosis; tryptophan.