Gut microbiota of newborn piglets with intrauterine growth restriction have lower diversity and different taxonomic abundances

Abstract

Aim Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) is a prevalent problem in mammals. The present study was conducted to unveil the alterations in intestinal microbiota in IUGR piglets. Methods and Results We identified the alterations of small intestinal microbiota in IUGR piglets on 7, 21 and 28 days of age using 16S rRNA sequencing. The results showed that IUGR piglets had a decreased alpha diversity of jejunum microbiota at 7 and 21 days of age; had lower abundances of Bacteroidetes and Bacteroides in the jejunum at 7, 21 and 28 days of age, Oscillibacter in the jejunum at 21 days of age, and Firmicutes in the ileum at 21 days of age; whereas they had higher abundances of Proteobacteria and Pasteurella in the ileum at 21 days of age and Escherichia–Shigella in the jejunum at 28 days of age. Correlation analysis showed that Bacteroides, Oscillibacter and Ruminococcaceae_UCG‐002 compositions were positively associated with the body weight (BW) of IUGR piglets, nevertheless Proteobacteria and Escherichia–Shigella relative abundances were negatively correlated with the BW of IUGR piglets. Gene function prediction analysis indicated that microbiota‐associated carbohydrate metabolism, lipid metabolism, glycan biosynthesis and metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism were downregulated in the IUGR piglets compared to control piglets. Conclusions The present study profiled the intestinal microbiota of newborn piglets with IUGR and the newborn IUGR piglets have lower diversity and different taxonomic abundances. Alterations in the abundances of Bacteroidetes, Bacteroides, Proteobacteria Escherichia–Shigella and Pasteurella may be involved in nutrient digestion and absorption, as well as the potential mechanisms connecting to the growth and development of IUGR in mammals. Significance and Impact of the Study The small intestinal microbiota were highly shaped in the IUGR piglets, which might further mediate the growth and development of IUGR piglets; and the gut microbiota could serve as a potential target for IUGR treatment.

Intrauterine growth restriction alters growth performance, plasma hormones, and small intestinal microbial communities in growing-finishing pigs

“…Interestingly, when compared to NBW pigs, IUGR pigs showed lower expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism, glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism, terpenoid and polyketide metabolism, xenobiotic biodegradation and metabolism, cofactor metabolism, and vitamin metabolism, consistent with the results of our previous study [14]. The downregulation of amino acid metabolism is consistent with lower concentrations of most amino acids observed in IUGR pigs [47].…”

“…In a previous study, we reported alterations in the microbial communities of the small intestine in IUGR piglets at 7, 21, and 28 d of age, and that Bacteroidetes, Bacteroides, Escherichia-Shigella, and Pasteurella could be related to nutrient digestion and absorption, and growth and development regulation [14]. Microbial communities in the intestine are influenced by various environmental factors, including age, diet, lifestyle, and medication [17].…”

Changes in Faecal Microbiota Profiles Associated With Performance and Birthweight of Piglets

“…Indeed, microbiota establishment in LBW human infants, particularly those born prematurely, is different to that of NBW infants (Fança-Berthon et al, 2010;Unger et al, 2015) with similar effects reported in mice (Wang et al, 2016). Differences in the microbiota community composition have been identified in LBW pigs at different intestinal sites and in the faeces (Li et al, , 2019Huang et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2019). In the present study, differences in microbiota diversity were noted preand post-weaning, although inconsistent longitudinally.…”

“…early life (D'Inca et al, 2010(D'Inca et al, , 2011. More recent studies have demonstrated the microbiota community composition of the jejunum, ileum, colon (Li et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2019) and faeces to differ between LBW and NBW pigs up to 5 weeks of age. Whilst studies have identified microbiota characteristics related to growth of pre-weaned and weaned pigs (Mach et al, 2015;Ding et al, 2019), as well as feed efficiency of grower-finisher pigs (McCormack et al, 2017;Han et al, 2018;Quan et al, 2018), no published studies have compared the faecal microbiota of LBW piglets able to exhibit compensatory growth to those who remain stunted, in comparison to NBW pigs.…”

Alterations in the Blood Parameters and Fecal Microbiota and Metabolites during Pregnant and Lactating Stages in Bama Mini Pigs as a Model

“…The relative abundance of gut microbiota at phyla and genera levels during pregnancy and lactation was analyzed via Metastats analysis ( http://metastats.cbcb.umd.edu/ ) [ 17 ]. Spearman's correlation between the fecal metabolites, plasma indexes, and relative abundance of different microbial genera was performed using the R package [ 18 ]. All data were presented as means ± standard error of mean (SEM) and considered statistically significant when P < 0.05.…”