Abstract
Dietary glutamine (Gln) or arginine (Arg) supplementation is beneficial for intestinal health; however, whether Gln or Arg may confer protection against Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) infection is not known. To address this, we used an ETEC-infected murine model to investigate the protective effects of Gln and Arg. Experimentally, we pre-treated mice with designed diet of Gln or Arg supplementation prior to the oral ETEC infection and then assessed mouse mortality and intestinal bacterial burden. We also determined the markers of intestinal innate immunity in treated mice, including secretory IgA response (SIgA), mucins from goblet cells, as well as antimicrobial peptides from Paneth cells. ETEC colonized in mouse small intestine, including duodenum, jejunum, and ileum, and inhibited the mRNA expression of intestinal immune factors, such as polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR), cryptdin-related sequence 1C (CRS1C), and Reg3γ. We found that dietary Gln or Arg supplementation decreased bacterial colonization and promoted the activation of innate immunity (e.g., the mRNA expression of pIgR, CRS1C, and Reg3γ) in the intestine of ETEC-infected mice. Our results suggest that dietary arginine or glutamine supplementation may inhibit intestinal ETEC infection through intestinal innate immunity.
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Author contributions
GL, WR, and YY conceived the experiment(s); GL, WR, JF, GG, JY, SC, and YP conducted the experiments; GL, WR, NAA, and VD analyzed the results; GL, WR, and CAH prepared the manuscript. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
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The protocol for this study was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Permit Number: 201206-14), and it was conducted out in accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Funding
This study was in part supported by National key research and development program of China (2016YFD0500504), International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (161343KYSB20160008), the Science and Technology Department of Hunan province (13JJ2034, 2013FJ3011, 2014NK3048, 2014NK4134, and 2014WK2032), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31330075, 31110103909, 31572416, 31402092, 31501965, and 31372326), and Chinese Academy of Sciences visiting professorship for senior international scientists Grant No. 2016VBB007. The authors are grateful to the Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University for funding through Vice Deanship of Scientific Research Chairs.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Handling Editors: C.-A. A. Hu, Y. Yin, Y. Hou, G. Wu, Y. Teng.
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Liu, G., Ren, W., Fang, J. et al. l-Glutamine and l-arginine protect against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli infection via intestinal innate immunity in mice. Amino Acids 49, 1945–1954 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-017-2410-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-017-2410-9