Silphium perfoliatum flavonoids alleviate LPS-induced injury via enhancing intestinal antioxidant capacity, barrier...

This study investigated the effects of Silphium perfoliatum L. flavonoids (SPF) on growth performance, intestinal morphology, antioxidant capacity, anti-inflammatory responses, gut barrier function, and cecal microbiota in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged broilers. 250 one-day-old Arbor Acres broilers were randomly assigned to five groups: control (C), LPS (L), and LPS + SPF at 100, 200, or 300 mg/kg (SL1, SL2, SL3), with five replicates of 10 birds. Broilers in the LPS and SPF groups received 0.5 mg/kg LPS intraperitoneally on days 16, 18, and 20, while the control group received an equal volume of saline. SPF mitigated LPS-induced growth impairment, reducing feed-to-gain ratio (F/G) and improving average daily gain (ADG), villus height (VH), and villus height to crypt depth ratio (VH/CD) relative to the LPS group (all P < 0.001). SPF supplementation decreased malondialdehyde (MDA, P < 0.001), increased glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px, P < 0.001) and total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD, P = 0.011), elevated interleukin-4 (IL-4, P = 0.03), enhanced interleukin-10 (IL-10, P < 0.001), and reduced tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α, P < 0.001). SPF downregulated jejunal Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB), and TNF-α mRNA expression (all P < 0.001) and upregulated tight junction genes zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) and occludin (OCLN, both < 0.001), and claudin-1 (CLDN1, P = 0.002). SPF ameliorated LPS-induced decreases in cecal microbial diversity and abundances of beneficial bacteria including Lactobacillus and Ruminococcus. These results indicate that dietary SPF effectively improves growth, gut health, antioxidant status, and anti-inflammatory responses in LPS-stressed broilers, supporting its potential as a natural alternative to antibiotics in poultry production.