| The development of intestine during fetal period significantly affect global development and healthy of lifetime. However, study of the effect of maternal energy intake levels during gestation on offspring's intestinal development is limited. The object of this study was to evaluate the effects of maternal high energy intake during gestation on the digestive and absorptive capacity of offspring's intestine. Twenty prim parous Large White breeding, body weight at 135.24 ± 0.56 kg were used in this study. Gilts were randomly allocated to two groups including control (CON) and high energy diet (HED), respectively. The dietary nutrient levels of the CON were referred to meet the nutrient recommendations by National Research Council (NRC,2012), while those of the HED were designed by adding an amount of 4.6% of diet weight soybean oil to the CON diet. The dietary treatments were introduced from day 1 of gestation to farrowing. All the gilts were fed with the same diets ad libitum during lactation. At day 90 of gestation, day of birth, and day 28 post-birth, the weights of fetuses or piglets were measured, blood and tissues were collected after the piglets was killed by jugular puncture. SI was dissected and measured for weight and length. The small intestine was divided into duodenum, jejunum and ileum. All the samples were obtained rapidly and placed in liquid nitrogen and stored at-80? for subsequent analyses. The main results were as follows:1) Fetuses or piglets from HED group had greater body weight on day 90 of fetus (+20%, p< 0.05), at birth (+19%, p<0.05) and at weaning (+25%, p<0.01) compared with those from the CON group. Besides, the weight of offspring's small intestine (SI) was increased by 60% (p< 0.001),36% (p< 0.05) and 16% (p<0.05) respectively in the fetuses of day 90, piglets at birth and piglets at weaning of HED group compared with those of CON group.2) The villous height were significantly increased in the jejunum in the fetuses of day 90 (+15%, p< 0.05) and piglets at birth (+15%, p<0.01) by maternal high energy intake compared with CON group. As for the ileum, the villous height were significantly increased in the fetuses of day 90 (+18%,p< 0.05) and piglets of weaning (+12%, p< 0.05) in the group of HED compared with CON group.3) The activity of lactase in the jejunum of piglets at weaning (+68%, p< 0.05) and in the ileum of piglets at birth (+50%, p< 0.05) were markedly increased by maternal high energy diet treatment compared with CON group.4) Compared to CON group, the concentration of IGF-1 in newborn and weaning piglets were significantly increased by 63%(p< 0.05) and 36%(p< 0.05) respectively in HED group.5) The gene expression of 1GF-1R in the jejunum were significantly increased in 90-day fetuses, newborn and weaning piglets by maternal high energy diet treatment (p< 0.05). Besides, the protein levels of IGF-1R tend to be higher in the jejunum of HED group on 90 days of fetuses, day at newborn and weaning than those of CON group. Moreover, the glucose transporter GLUT2 mRNA levels were significantly increased in the jejunum of newborn piglets and weaning piglets in HED group (p< 0.05).6) Maternal HED significantly reduced the innate immunity-related gene expressions IL-1? in the ileum of fetal, newborn and weaning piglets (p<0.05).In conclusion, increasing energy intake during gestation does have significant consequences on offspring's birth weight and the weight of small intestine. And it has promote intestine development in offspring, which prolongs to after-birth. Moreover the mechanism is relevant to up growth factor IGF-IR expression. However, it may not benefit for the innate immune response of offspring by TLR-4-Myd88-NF-kB signal pathway. |
PDF Full Text Request