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Early-life lactoferrin intervention modulates the colonic microbiota, colonic microbial metabolites and intestinal function in suckling piglets

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Abstract

This study reports the effects of early-life lactoferrin (LF) intervention on the colonic microbiota, intestinal function and mucosal immunity in suckling piglets. A total of 60 Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire suckling piglets from six sows were assigned to the control (CON) and LF groups in litters. The LF group piglets were fed 0.5 g/kg body weight of LF solution per day, and the CON group piglets were fed the same dose of physiological saline for a week. Six piglets from the two groups were randomly chosen and euthanised on days 8 and 21. The LF group piglets had higher ACE and Chao1 indices of colonic microbiota than the CON group piglets (P < 0.05). In addition, the LF group piglets had a higher abundance of Roseburia (P < 0.05) and a lower abundance of Escherichia–Shigella (P < 0.05) in the colonic digesta. The LF group piglets also had a higher concentration of butyrate (P < 0.05) in the colonic digesta. Moreover, the LF group piglets had a higher gene expression of occludin (P < 0.05) in the colonic mucosa. In addition, the gene expression of MUC4 was upregulated in the LF group piglets compared with that in the CON group on day 21 (P < 0.05), and the lower gene expression of TLR-4 was found in the LF group compared with the CON group on day 8 (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the concentration of IL-10 was increased in the LF group on day 8 (P < 0.05), while the LF group piglets had a higher concentration of sIgA and lower concentrations of IL-1α and IL-1β (P < 0.05) in the colonic mucosa. These results suggest that early-life LF intervention can modulate the composition of colonic microbiota and improve the intestinal function in suckling piglets.

Key Points

• Early-life LF intervention significantly modulated colon microbiota.

Early-life LF intervention can improve the colon health.

The colon microbiota plays an important role in host health.

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Funding

This study was supported by Nation Key R&D Program of China (2017YFE0135200) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (KYZ201722).

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Contributions

FZZ, PH and JW conceived and designed the study; PH and FZZ performed the experiments; PH and FZZ performed the statistical analysis and wrote the manuscript; JW and WYZ edit the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jing Wang.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All applicable international, national and institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

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Hu, P., Zhao, F., Wang, J. et al. Early-life lactoferrin intervention modulates the colonic microbiota, colonic microbial metabolites and intestinal function in suckling piglets. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 104, 6185–6197 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-020-10675-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-020-10675-z

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