Sodium Butyrate Improves High-Concentrate-Diet-Induced Impairment of Ruminal Epithelium Barrier Function in Goats

Abstract

We investigated the effect of sodium butyrate feeding on the disruption of ruminal epithelium barrier function in goats fed a high-concentrate diet. A total of 18 male Boer goats (live weight of 31.75 ± 1.35 kg, aged 1 year) were randomly assigned to three groups, which were fed a low-concentrate diet (LC), a high-concentrate diet (HC), or a high-concentrate diet with 1% sodium butyrate by weight (SH) for 9 weeks. We found that the pH of rumen fluid in the SH and LC groups was higher than that in the HC group. The activity of protein kinase C (PKC) kinase in the rumen epithelium was higher in the HC group than that in the LC and SH groups. The mRNA expression and phosphorylated protein levels of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in the rumen epithelium were lower in the SH and LC groups than those in the HC group. The DNA methylation rate of occludin was higher in the HC group than that in the SH and LC groups. The mRNA and protein expression of claudin-1, claudin-4, occludin, and zona occludin-1 was greater in the SH and LC groups than that in the HC group. In addition, sodium butyrate mitigated damage to the rumen epithelium caused by the HC diet. Together, our results suggest that the supply of sodium butyrate reverses the damage of rumen epithelium tight junction by inhibiting PKC and MAPK signaling pathways and is protective to the rumen epithelium during subacute rumen acidosis.

Dynamic changes in rumen fermentation and bacterial community following rumen fluid transplantation in a sheep model of rumen acidosis: implications for rumen health in ruminants

“…Our results showed that acute rumen acidosis caused damage to the rumen epithelia, and RT effectively repaired the damaged rumen epithelia. The more effective roles of RT may be due to the higher ruminal butyrate production because the butyrate is involved in rumen epithelial repair (42). In addition, our findings also showed that length of rumen papillae in RT is similar with that in donor group and greater than that in the Con group at the time of euthanization.…”

Nutritional Interventions Improved Rumen Functions and Promoted Compensatory Growth of Growth-Retarded Yaks as Revealed by Integrated Transcripts and Microbiome Analyses

“…Moreover, the butyrate concentration was also closely positively related with epithelium junction gene expressions. Previous studies found that butyrate acted as signal molecule to improve tight junctions in the rumen epithelium (Zhang et al, 2018), suggesting that beneficial microbes may improve the ruminal epithelium barrier via the butyrate signaling pathway. It also found that the beneficial bacterial genera including Prevotella_1, Butyrivibrio_2 and Ruminococcaceae were positively correlated with cell junctions and VFA absorption genes and negatively correlated with C3 gene expressions.…”

Dietary Postbiotic Lactobacillus plantarum Improves Serum and Ruminal Antioxidant Activity and Upregulates Hepatic Antioxidant Enzymes and Ruminal Barrier Function in Post-Weaning Lambs

“…The rumen epithelial barrier function through measurement of mRNA expression and protein concentration such as tight junction protein (TJP), claudin (CLDN) and occludin (OCLD) was studied in ruminants, but a majority of the studies do not focus on feed additive supplementation [21][22][23][24][25]. In modern ruminant production, grains inclusion in the diet increases fermentable carbohydrates and leads to excess accumulation of lactate and volatile fatty acids, which decrease rumen pH, elevate toxin concentration [26,27] and depress barrier function of gastrointestinal, leading to reduced nutrient absorption and production performance [21,28].…”