Choline and Bile Acids Mixture Improved Growth Performance and Intestinal Immunity via Altering Gut Microbiota and Bacterial Metabolites in the Colon of Weaned Piglets.

Abstract

Background: Choline or bile acids has many beneficial roles in physiological function. However, little was known about growth performance, intestinal mucosal function and microbiota-host interactions of weaned piglets in response to choline or bile acids supplementation. This study aimed to investigate the effect of choline and bile acids mixtures (ChB) supplementation on growth performance, intestinal mucosal barrier function, gut microbiota and bacterial metabolites of weaned piglets. One hundred and twenty-eight crossbred (Duroc × Landrace × Large White) weaned piglets (initial body weight: approximately 8 kg; 21 d of age) were randomly allocated to four different dietary treatments(a control diet (Control) and the other three groups were control diet supplemented with 800 mg/kg choline chloride (choline), 500 mg/kg bile acids (bile acids) or 800 mg/kg choline chloride plus 500 mg/kg bile acids (ChB), respectively) and for 28-d feeding trail. Results: ChB significantly increased average daily gain (ADG) and reduced feed/gain (F/G) ratio, associated with elevation of lipase activity and total bile acids level in ileal digesta compared with control diet. Additionally, ChB altered colonic microbiota by increasing the relative abundance of Lactobacillus and Faecalibacterium , and decreasing the relative abundances of unidentified-Clostridiales , Parabacteroides and Unidentified-Ruminococcaceae , when compared with control diet. Meanwhile, ChB increased the butyrate level and decreased the production of bile acid profiles in the colonic digesta. Besides, feeding ChB improved gut immunity, as reflected by increasing the abundance of IL-10 , FXR and mucin2 transcript, while downregulated expression of TLR4 , MyD88 , NF-κBp65 and TNF-α genes in the intestinal mucosa. Quantitative proteomics of jejunal mucosa further showed that ChB regulated the proteins that were related to inflammatory response. Furthermore, the changes in the ADG and genes expression were associated with alteration of gut microbiota composition and their metabolites. Conclusions: Collectively, our findings demonstrated that choline and bile acids mixture may improve the growth performance and intestinal immune response of weaned piglets through alteration of gut microbiota composition and bacterial metabolites, which promoted gut health.