The synbiotic mixture of lactulose and Bacillus coagulans protects intestinal barrier dysfunction and apoptosis in weaned piglets challenged with lipopolysaccharide

Weijiang Zheng; Zuyan Zhao; Yunnan Yang; Liren Ding; Wen Yao

doi:10.1186/s40104-023-00882-9

The synbiotic mixture of lactulose and Bacillus coagulans protects intestinal barrier dysfunction and apoptosis in weaned piglets challenged with lipopolysaccharide

J Anim Sci Biotechnol. 2023 Jun 11;14(1):80. doi: 10.1186/s40104-023-00882-9.

Authors

Weijiang Zheng¹, Zuyan Zhao¹, Yunnan Yang¹, Liren Ding², Wen Yao^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, China.
² National Experimental Teaching Center for Animal Science, College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, China.
³ College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, China. yaowen67jp@njau.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Lab of Animal Physiology and Biochemistry, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, China. yaowen67jp@njau.edu.cn.

Abstract

Background: Lactulose as an effective prebiotic protects intestinal mucosal injury. Bacillus coagulans is widely used in feed additives because of its ability to promote intestinal health. Our previous study suggests that the combination of lactulose and Bacillus coagulans may be a good candidate as alternative for antibiotic growth promoters. However, the in vivo effects of lactulose and Bacillus coagulans on growth and intestinal health under immune challenge in piglets remains unclear. The objective of this study is to explore the protective effects of synbiotic containing lactulose and Bacillus coagulans on the intestinal mucosal injury and barrier dysfunction under immune challenge in weaned piglets.

Methods: Twenty four weaned piglets were assigned to 4 groups. Piglets in the CON_-saline and LPS_-LPS group were fed the basal diet, while others were fed either with chlortetracycline (CTC) or synbiotic mixture of lactulose and Bacillus coagulans for 32 d before injection of saline or lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Piglets were sacrificed 4 h after LPS injection to collect samples to determine intestinal morphology, integrity and barrier functions as well as relative genes and proteins.

Results: Our data showed that no differences were observed in the growth performance of the four test groups. LPS injection induced higher serum diamine oxidase activities, D-lactic acid levels, and endotoxin status, lower villus height and ratio of villus height to crypt depth, greater mRNA and lower protein expression related tight junction in both jejunum and ileum. In addition, a higher apoptosis index, and protein expression of Bax and caspase-3 were also observed in the LPS challenge group. Interestingly, dietary synbiotic mixture with lactulose and Bacillus coagulans protected against LPS-induced intestinal damage, barrier dysfunction and higher apoptosis as well as CTC.

Conclusions: Our data suggest that dietary supplementation of synbiotic mixture with lactulose and Bacillus coagulans showed resilience to LPS-induced intestinal morphological damage, barrier dysfunction and aggressive apoptosis in piglets as well as the protective effects of CTC. These results indicate that synbiotic mixture of lactulose and Bacillus coagulans showed beneficial effects on performance and resilience to acute immune stress in weaned piglets.

Keywords: Apoptosis; Bacillus coagulans; Intestinal barrier function; LPS; Lactulose; Piglets; Synbiotic.

Grants and funding

2017YFE0114400/National Key R&D Program of China