Effects Of Embelin On Growth Performance,Intestinal Inflammation And Intestinal Microflora In Weaned Piglets

Weaning stress is an important cause of intestinal damage in piglets.Weaned piglets often have symptoms such as growth stagnation and diarrhea,which brings economic losses to pig breeding.Adding plant extracts to diet is an effective nutritional regulation measure to repair damaged intestine.Embelin(Emb)is extracted from natural plants and has antiinflammatory and other effects.In order to explore the effects of embelin on growth performance,intestinal inflammation and intestinal microflora of weaned piglets,a total of120(Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire)castrated boars with similar initial body weight(6.76± 0.26 kg)were randomly divided into 4 groups,control group(basal diet),LEmb group(basal diet + 200 mg/kg embelin),MEmb group(basal diet + 400 mg/kg embelin),HEmb group(basal diet + 600 mg/kg embelin),each group includes 6 replicates,the trial period was 28 days.After the experiment,blood and tissues or contents of jejunum,ileum and colon of piglets were collected to detect relevant indexes.The main results are as follows:(1)The results of growth performance,serum antioxidant index and inflammatory factor content showed that on the 15th-28 th day of the experiment,compared with the basic diet,the ADG and ADFI of the MEmb and HEmb groups increased significantly(P<0.05),and the diarrhea rate of piglets decreased significantly by 41.30% and 48.64%(P<0.05).In terms of serum indexes,compared with the basic diet,the content of IL-6 was significantly reduced and the content of IL-10 was significantly increased in the three groups with different doses of embelin(P<0.05);at the same time,the contents of TNF-α and IL-1β in serum decreased significantly,T-AOC and the activity of and SOD increased significantly in MEmb and HEmb groups(P<0.05).(2)The results of intestinal morphology and the level of intestinal tight junction showed that compared with the basic diet,the height of jejunal villi of the MEmb and HEmb groups increased markedly(P<0.05).In terms of intestinal tight junction protein,compared with the basic diet,the protein and gene expression of Claudin-1 in jejunum were significantly increased in HEmb group(P<0.05).However,three different doses of embelin treatment groups all increased the level of Claudin-1 in ileum(P<0.05).At the same time,HEmb group markedly increased the level of Occludin in ileum.In addition,the level of ZO-1 in jejunum and ileum mucosa were increased markedly in MEmb and HEmb groups(P<0.05).(3)The results of intestinal mucosal inflammatory factor mRNA expression showed that compared with the basic diet,the expression of IL-1β mRNA in jejunum in MEmb and HEmb groups were decreased significantly(P<0.05);however,three different doses of embelin treatment groups all reduced the expression of IL-1β mRNA in ileum markedly(P<0.05),and the reduction effect of HEmb groups was better than MEmb and LEmb groups(P<0.05).In addition,compared with the basic diet the expression of TNF-α mRNA in ileum in MEmb and LEmb groups reduced markedly(P<0.05),and the expression of IL-10 mRNA increased significantly(P<0.05).(4)The results of PCAF expression and activity showed that compared with the basic diet,the mRNA expression of PCAF in the intestine of piglets were not significantly different in LEmb group(P>0.05),but MEmb and HEmb groups significantly reduced the mRNA expression of PCAF in the jejunum and ileum of weaned piglets(P<0.05).In terms of PCAF activity,compared with the basic diet,the PCAF activity in jejunum of piglets was not significantly different in LEmb group(P>0.05),but MEmb and HEmb groups significantly decreased the PCAF activity in jejunum of piglets(P<0.05);at the same time,the PCAF activity in ileum of piglets was significantly decreased in three different doses of embelin groups in a dose-dependent manner(P<0.05).(5)The results of NF-κB protein acetylation level and NF-κB protein activity showed that compared with the basic diet,the NF-κB protein activity and the acetylation level of NF-κB protein in jejunum of weaned piglets were not significantly different in LEmb and MEmb groups(P>0.05),but HEmb group significantly reduced the acetylation level and activity of NF-κB protein in jejunum of piglets(P<0.05).In addition,compared with the basal diet group and LEmb group,the acetylation level and activity of NF-κB protein in ileum of piglets were significantly reduced in MEmb and HEmb groups(P<0.05).(6)The results of intestinal microflora showed that the addition of embelin to the diet could improve the Alpha diversity of colonic microflora of weaned piglets.In addition,Compared with the basic diet and LEmb group,at the phylum level,the relative abundance of Proteobacteria reduced markedly in MEmb and HEmb groups(P<0.05);at the genus level,Prevotella and Lactobacillus markedly increased and the relative abundance of Campylobacter reduced markedly in MEmb and HEmb groups(P<0.05).In conclusion,the addition of embelin to the diet had a dose-dependent effect on the growth performance and antioxidant capacity of weaned piglets;improve the expression of tight junction protein and the relative abundance of beneficial flora in colon.At the same time,the addition of embelin to diet can regulate the acetylation of NF-κB inflammatory signaling pathway by inhibiting PCAF,thereby alleviating intestinal inflammatory response.