In vitro prebiotic potential of agricultural by-products on intestinal fermentation, gut barrier and inflammatory status of piglets

The inclusion of fibre-rich ingredients in diets is one possible strategy to enhance intestinal fermentation and positively impact gut ecology, barrier and immunity. Nowadays, inulin-type fructans are used as prebiotics in the feed of piglets to manipulate gut ecology for health purposes. Likewise, some by-products could be considered as sustainable and inexpensive ingredients to reduce gut disorders at weaning. In the present study, chicory root and pulp, citrus pulp, rye bran and soya hulls were tested in a three-step in vitro model of the piglet's gastro-intestinal tract combining a pepsin-pancreatin hydrolysis (digestion), a dialysis step using cellulose membranes (absorption) and a colonic batch fermentation (fermentation). The fermentation kinetics, SCFA and microbiota profiles in the fermentation broth were assessed as indicators of prebiotic activity and compared with the ones of inulin. The immunomodulatory effects of fermentation supernatant (FS) were investigated in cultured intestinal porcine epithelial cells (IPEC-J2) by high-throughput quantitative PCR. Chicory root displayed a rapid and extensive fermentation and induced the second highest butyrate ratio after inulin. Citrus pulp demonstrated high acetate ratios and induced elevated Clostridium clusters IV and XIVa levels. Chicory root and pulp FS promoted the intestinal barrier integrity with up-regulated tight and adherens junction gene expressions in comparison with inulin FS. Chicory pulp FS exerted anti-inflammatory effects in cultured IPEC-J2. The novel approach combining an in vitro fermentation model with IPEC-J2 cells highlighted that both chicory root and pulp appear to be promising ingredients and should be considered to promote intestinal health at weaning.status: publishe

Importance of neonatal immunoglobulin transfer for hippocampal development and behaviour in the newborn pig - Fig 1

<p><b>A) The left hippocampus of the piglet after dissection. Scale bar– 1.5 cm. B) Immunostaining of the subiculum of piglets. Synaptopodin- positive punctae (red) and synaptophysin- positive punctae (green). Scale bar– 100 μm. C) The density of stained regions for the synaptic proteins, synaptophysin (SPhys) and synaptopodin (SPod), in the hippocampus of piglets as analysed with immunohistochemistry. D)The colocalisation coefficients M1 and M2 of synaptophysin-positive and synaptopodin-positive puncta in the hippocampus of piglets as analysed with immunohistochemistry.</b> Unsuckled newborn piglets (NB, n = 6) and newborn piglets fed with either an infant formula (IF, n = 6), bovine colostrum (BC, n = 6), an infant formula + i.v. infusion of sow serum (IF+IGLD, n = 6), an infant formula + i.v. infusion of porcine immunoglobulins (IF+IGHD, n = 6), or swine colostrum (SC, n = 6). Data are presented as mean±SD. Small letters given with result bars describe significant differences when p<0.05.</p