Dietary Nucleotides Supplementation Improves the Intestinal Development and Immune Function of Neonates with Intra-Uterine Growth Restriction in a Pig Model

• Published in: PloS one 2016-06, Vol.11 (6), p.e0157314-e0157314
• Main Authors: Che, Lianqiang, Hu, Liang, Liu, Yan, Yan, Chuan, Peng, Xie, Xu, Qin, Wang, Ru, Cheng, Yuanfang, Chen, Hong, Fang, Zhengfeng, Lin, Yan, Xu, Shengyu, Feng, Bin, Chen, Daiwen, Wu, De
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Animals; Animals, Newborn; Biology and Life Sciences; Birth weight; Blotting, Western; Body weight; Body weight gain; Conversion ratio; Diet; Dietary Supplements; Disease Models, Animal; Dry matter; Duodenum; Feed conversion; Feeding; Female; Fetal Growth Retardation - drug therapy; Fetal Growth Retardation - immunology; Fetal Growth Retardation - metabolism; Gastrointestinal Microbiome - genetics; Gastrointestinal Microbiome - immunology; Gene expression; Gene Expression - drug effects; Gene regulation; Genes; Ileum; Immune response; Immune system; Immunity; Immunoglobulin A; Innate immunity; Interleukin 10; Interleukin-1beta - genetics; Interleukin-1beta - metabolism; Intestine; Intestines - drug effects; Intestines - growth & development; Intestines - immunology; Jejunum; Lactase; Leukocytes; Lymphocytes; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Microorganisms; Milk; Neonates; Newborn babies; Nucleotides; Nucleotides - administration & dosage; Nucleotides - pharmacology; Nutrient solutions; Nutrients; Proteins; Research and Analysis Methods; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Swine; Tight Junction Proteins - genetics; Tight Junction Proteins - metabolism; Tissues; TLR2 protein; Toll-like receptors; Toll-Like Receptors - genetics; Toll-Like Receptors - metabolism; Uterus; Weight Gain - drug effects
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157314

The current study aimed to determine whether dietary nucleotides supplementation could improve growth performance, intestinal development and immune function of intra-uterine growth restricted (IUGR) neonate using pig as animal model. A total of 14 pairs of normal birth weight (NBW) and IUGR piglets (7 days old) were randomly assigned to receive a milk-based control diet (CON diet) or diet supplemented with nucleotides (NT diet) for a period of 21 days. Blood samples, intestinal tissues and digesta were collected at necropsy and analyzed for morphology, digestive enzyme activities, microbial populations, peripheral immune cells, expression of intestinal innate immunity and barrier-related genes and proteins. Compared with NBW piglets, IUGR piglets had significantly lower average daily dry matter intake and body weight gain (P