{"title":"The effect of a water-soluble β-glucan on intestinal immunity and microbiota in LPS-challenged piglets.","authors":"Yuliang Wu, Yuxin Li, Mengli Chen, Juan Zhao, Xia Xiong, Chen Guang Olnood, Yundi Gao, Fei Wang, Can Peng, Miao Liu, Chunxia Huang, Jianzhong Li, Liuqin He, Huansheng Yang, Yulong Yin","doi":"10.3389/fvets.2025.1533872","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The intestine is the largest immune and barrier organ in the body, and diarrhea and even death during piglet development are related to dysfunction caused by intestinal barrier damage and inflammation. A water-soluble β-glucan produced by Agrobacterium ZX09 has been shown to have a beneficial effect on gastrointestinal health. The main objective of this study was to investigate whether pre-feeding β-glucan has a protective effect on LPS-induced immune stress in piglets. In this study, 24 weaned piglets (21-day-old; 6.64 ± 0.16 kg) were assigned to 4 treatments in a two × two factorial design with diet (with or without β-glucan) and immunological challenge (saline or LPS). Piglets were challenged with saline or LPS after 39 days of feeding 0 or 200 mg/kg β-glucan. The results demonstrated that β-glucan supplementation increased the average daily weight gain and daily feed intake, and decreased diarrhea rate of piglets. Intestinal inflammation symptoms and histological changes in LPS-challenged piglets were alleviated by pre-feeding of β-glucan. β-glucan supplementation reduced serum IL-1β (interleukin-1β) and NO (nitric oxide) secretion in piglets after LPS challenge (0.01 < <i>p</i> < 0.05). Supplementation with β-glucan downregulated the mRNA expression of IL-6 in piglets after LPS challenge (0.01 < <i>p</i> < 0.05). β-glucan supplementation enriched the short-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria, such as <i>Agathobacter</i> and <i>Subdoligranulum</i> (0.01 < <i>p</i> < 0.05), and increased the concentrations of propionate and butyrate (0.01 < <i>p</i> < 0.05). In conclusion, pre-feeding β-glucan can enhance piglet immunity and promote piglet growth by influencing gut microbiota composition and metabolism, and alleviate intestinal damage after LPS challenge.</p>","PeriodicalId":12772,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Veterinary Science","volume":"12 ","pages":"1533872"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11931652/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in Veterinary Science","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2025.1533872","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"VETERINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The intestine is the largest immune and barrier organ in the body, and diarrhea and even death during piglet development are related to dysfunction caused by intestinal barrier damage and inflammation. A water-soluble β-glucan produced by Agrobacterium ZX09 has been shown to have a beneficial effect on gastrointestinal health. The main objective of this study was to investigate whether pre-feeding β-glucan has a protective effect on LPS-induced immune stress in piglets. In this study, 24 weaned piglets (21-day-old; 6.64 ± 0.16 kg) were assigned to 4 treatments in a two × two factorial design with diet (with or without β-glucan) and immunological challenge (saline or LPS). Piglets were challenged with saline or LPS after 39 days of feeding 0 or 200 mg/kg β-glucan. The results demonstrated that β-glucan supplementation increased the average daily weight gain and daily feed intake, and decreased diarrhea rate of piglets. Intestinal inflammation symptoms and histological changes in LPS-challenged piglets were alleviated by pre-feeding of β-glucan. β-glucan supplementation reduced serum IL-1β (interleukin-1β) and NO (nitric oxide) secretion in piglets after LPS challenge (0.01 < p < 0.05). Supplementation with β-glucan downregulated the mRNA expression of IL-6 in piglets after LPS challenge (0.01 < p < 0.05). β-glucan supplementation enriched the short-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria, such as Agathobacter and Subdoligranulum (0.01 < p < 0.05), and increased the concentrations of propionate and butyrate (0.01 < p < 0.05). In conclusion, pre-feeding β-glucan can enhance piglet immunity and promote piglet growth by influencing gut microbiota composition and metabolism, and alleviate intestinal damage after LPS challenge.
期刊介绍:
Frontiers in Veterinary Science is a global, peer-reviewed, Open Access journal that bridges animal and human health, brings a comparative approach to medical and surgical challenges, and advances innovative biotechnology and therapy.
Veterinary research today is interdisciplinary, collaborative, and socially relevant, transforming how we understand and investigate animal health and disease. Fundamental research in emerging infectious diseases, predictive genomics, stem cell therapy, and translational modelling is grounded within the integrative social context of public and environmental health, wildlife conservation, novel biomarkers, societal well-being, and cutting-edge clinical practice and specialization. Frontiers in Veterinary Science brings a 21st-century approach—networked, collaborative, and Open Access—to communicate this progress and innovation to both the specialist and to the wider audience of readers in the field.
Frontiers in Veterinary Science publishes articles on outstanding discoveries across a wide spectrum of translational, foundational, and clinical research. The journal''s mission is to bring all relevant veterinary sciences together on a single platform with the goal of improving animal and human health.