Maternal dietary resveratrol alleviates weaning-associated diarrhea and intestinal inflammation in pig offspring by changing intestinal gene expression and microbiota

Abstract

Early weaning commonly results in gastrointestinal disorders, inflammation and diarrhea in infants and young animals. Resveratrol, a plant phenol, affords protection against inflammation and cancer. A porcine model was used to investigate the effects of maternal dietary resveratrol on diarrhea, intestinal inflammation and the intestinal morphology in offspring during weaning. The results showed that maternal dietary resveratrol alleviated weaning-associated intestinal inflammation and diarrhea and improved the intestinal morphology in offspring. In weaning piglets, maternal dietary resveratrol increased the proportion of butyrate-producing bacteria, such as Flavonifractor, Odoribacter and Oscillibacter, as determined by 16S rRNA sequencing. RNA-seq analysis identified 189 and 139 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in weaning and post-weaning piglets, respectively. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis showed that DEGs were enriched for the T cell receptor, primary immunodeficiency, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and Ras signaling pathways in weaning piglets and for the cytokine–cytokine receptor interaction pathway and metabolism-related pathways in post-weaning piglets.