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Characteristics of the gut microbiota colonization, inflammatory profile, and plasma metabolome in intrauterine growth restricted piglets during the first 12 hours after birth

  • Microbial Ecology and Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) predisposes newborns to inflammatory and metabolic disturbance. Disequilibrium of gut microbiota in early life has been implicated in the incidence of inflammation and metabolic diseases in adulthood. This study aimed to investigate the difference in gut microbiota colonization, cytokines and plasma metabolome between IUGR and normal birth weight (NBW) piglets in early life. At birth, reduced (P < 0.05) body, jejunum, and ileum weights, as well as decreased (P < 0.05) small intestinal villi and increased (P < 0.05) ileal crypt depth were observed in IUGR piglets compared with their NBW counterparts. Imbalanced inflammatory and plasma metabolome profile was observed in IUGR piglets. Furthermore, altered metabolites were mainly involved in fatty acid metabolism and inflammatory response. At 12 h after birth and after suckling colostrum, reduced (P < 0.05) postnatal growth and the small intestinal maturation retardation (P < 0.05) continued in IUGR piglets in comparison with those in NBW littermates. Besides, the gut microbiota structure was significantly altered by IUGR. Importantly, the disruption of the inflammatory profile and metabolic status mainly involved the pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and IFN-γ) and amino acid metabolism. Moreover, spearman correlation analysis showed that the increased abundance of Escherichia-Shigella and decreased abundance of Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 in IUGR piglets was closely associated with the alterations of slaughter weight, intestinal morphology, inflammatory cytokines, and plasma metabolites. Collectively, IUGR significantly impairs small intestine structure, modifies gut microbiota colonization, and disturbs inflammatory and metabolic profiles during the first 12 h after birth. The unbalanced gut microbiota mediated by IUGR contributes to the development of inflammation and metabolic diseases.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Mianyang New-hope Livestock Farming Co. Ltd in Sichuan province, China, for the assistance in this study. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31630074), the Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (S170001), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD-0500506 and 2018YDF0501002), the 111 Project (B16044), Jinxinnong Animal Science Developmental Foundation and Hunan Co-Innovation Center of Animal Production Safety, CICAPS.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, P. R. China

    Shimeng Huang, Na Li, Cong Liu, Tiantian Li, Wei Wang, Lili Jiang, Zhen Li, Dandan Han, Shiyu Tao & Junjun Wang

  2. Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Food Nutrition and Human Health, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, P. R. China

    Shimeng Huang, Na Li, Tiantian Li, Wei Wang, Dandan Han, Shiyu Tao & Junjun Wang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, P. R. China

    Zhen Li

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  1. Shimeng Huang
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Huang, S., Li, N., Liu, C. et al. Characteristics of the gut microbiota colonization, inflammatory profile, and plasma metabolome in intrauterine growth restricted piglets during the first 12 hours after birth. J Microbiol. 57, 748–758 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-019-8690-x

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