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Published on: November 15, 2019
Effects of melatonin on intestinal function and bacterial compositions in sucking piglets
Siting Xia1,2, Wei Gao3, Yunxia Li1,2
1College of Animal Science and Technology, Hunan Agriculture University, Changsha, China.
Insights
Melatonin supplementation enhanced intestinal development in piglets by improving neural development, barrier integrity, and nutrient absorption. It also modulated gut microbiota composition, showing promising results for infant gut health.
Area of Science:
- Gastroenterology
- Animal Science
- Microbiology
Background:
- Melatonin influences intestinal functions including microbiome, morphology, barrier integrity, and nutrient absorption.
- The impact of melatonin on intestinal development in newborn infants remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the hypothesis that melatonin treatment improves intestinal development in sucking piglets.
Main Methods:
- 14 healthy newborn piglets were administered melatonin solution or drinking water for 21 days.
- Intestinal development was assessed through liver weight, growth performance, jejunal tissue analysis (immunostaining for nnos and claudin1), serum proline concentration, gut microbiota composition (16S rDNA sequencing), and volatile fatty acid analysis.
Main Results:
- Melatonin increased relative liver weight but did not affect overall growth performance.
- Immunostaining revealed increased expressions of nnos and claudin1, indicating improved neural development and barrier integrity.
- Melatonin promoted intestinal absorptive function, evidenced by increased serum proline levels, and altered gut microbiota by increasing Actinobacteria and decreasing Selenomonadales.
Conclusions:
- Melatonin positively impacts intestinal development in sucking piglets.
- The findings suggest melatonin's potential benefits for gut health through effects on neural development, barrier function, nutrient absorption, and microbiota modulation.
Abstract:
Melatonin has been reported to affect intestinal function by targeting microbiome, morphological structure, barrier integrity and nutrient absorptive system. While the effect of melatonin on intestinal development in newborn infants is obscure, thus, this study firstly attempted to investigate the hypothesis that melatonin treatment improves intestinal development in sucking piglets. 14 healthy newborn piglets received 10 ml melatonin solution (1 mg/ml) or drinking water (n = 7) for 21 days. The results showed that oral administration of melatonin increased liver relative weight (p < 0.05) but failed to affect growth performance in sucking piglets (p > 0.05). Immunostaining jejunal samples from melatonin group showed high expressions of nnos and claudin1, indicating that melatonin improved intestinal neural development and barrier integrity. Also, melatonin promoted intestinal absorptive function evidenced by the increased serum proline concentration in melatonin-treated piglets compared with the control (p < 0.05). Gut microbiota compositions were tested by 16S rDNA sequencing and the results showed that melatonin increased the relative abundance of Actinobacteria compared with the control (p < 0.05) at the phylum level. However, Selenomonadales was markedly reduced compared with the control at the order level (p < 0.05). Gut and faecal volatile fatty acids were tested to evaluate the microbiota metabolism, but no difference was noticed in volatile fatty acid concentrations (p > 0.05). Melatonin improved intestinal development by affecting neural development, barrier integrity, nutrient absorption and microbiota in sucking piglets.
