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Effects of Dietary Serine Supplementation on Intestinal Integrity, Inflammation and Oxidative Status in Early-Weaned
Xihong Zhou1,2, Yumei Zhang1,3, Xin Wu1,3
1Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Physiology and Metabolic Process, Hunan Provincial Engineering Research Center for Healthy Livestock and Poultry Production, Scientific Observing and Experimental Station of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science in South-Central, Ministry of Agrictulture, Changsha, China.
Background/Aims:
Early weaning often causes gut dysfunction. Since serine alleviates oxidative stress and inflammatory response which are accompany with early weaning, we conducted the study to explore whether serine improves intestinal function in early-weaned piglets.
Methods:
Twenty-eight weaned piglets (aged 21 d) were fed either a basal diet or a basal diet plus 0.2% serine. We determined the effects of dietary serine supplementation on intestinal morphology by hematoxylin and eosin staining, expression of tight junction proteins (TJPs) by immunoblotting and immunofluorescence, expression of inflammatory cytokines and apoptosis markers by RT-qPCR and the level of antioxidant enzymes with ELISA kits in early-weaned piglets.
Results:
Serine supplementation increased daily body weight gain while decreasing diarrhea incidence. Both the jejunum and ileum of serine-supplemented piglets showed regularly arranged villi and microvilli. Moreover, dietary serine increased TJP expression, and alleviated apoptosis, inflammation, and oxidative stress in the intestine of early-weaned piglets.
Conclusion:
Our findings suggest that serine has the potential for use as a feed additive to prevent gut dysfunction caused by weaning.
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