Effect Of Taurine On Intestinal Development In Rats With Intrauterine Growth Restriction

Intrauterine Growth Restriction(IUGR)refers to a phenomenon in which a mammalian fetus is growth restriction or organs damage during pregnancy.IUGR mainly occurs in multi-foetus animals,causing multiple organ and system dysplasia in offspring.In humans,it mainly leads to nervous system development disorder,and is prone to metabolic syndrome in adulthood.In animal husbandry,it also seriously affects animal production performance and causes serious economic losses to animal husbandry.IUGR newborn animals often suffer from intestinal dysfunction syndrome,necrotizing enteritis and other intestinal diseases,resulting in reduced survival rate of offspring animals.The mechanism of IUGR is still unknown,but some studies have shown that it may relate to dysfunction of the insulin growth factor 1(IGF-1)signaling pathway in the hypothalamic-pituitary-hepato-intestinal axis.Taurine is mainly synthesized in the liver and has protective effect on the liver.In addition,it can enhance the synthesis of liver IGF-1 and regulate the signal transduction of its receptor.Taurine has been shown to improve the intestinal morphology of young animals,increase the length and weight of the small intestine,and promote the development and maturation of intestinal function.Many studies have found that taurine has a preventive effect on IUGR newborn rats,manifested as:reducing the stillbirth rate of IUGR newborn rats,increasing the weight of newborn animals and organs,and promoting the development of the nervous system.So,we speculated that taurine may promote intestinal development of IUGR animals,and which may be related to the activation of IGF-1 signaling pathway.The experiment established IUGR model by feeding low-protein diet to pregnant rats,and taurine and beta-alanine(taurine intracellular transport inhibitor)were supplemented in the middle and late pregnancy.The baby rats of 1st day and 21 st day were acted as research objects,the levels of growth-related hormones in serum were detceted using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay,the morphological changes of jejunum and liver were detected by HE staining,the content of intestinal lactase was analyzed by colorimetric method,and the mRNA expression levels of growth and development related factors in hypothalamus,pituitary,liver and jejunum were measured through real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR.The aim of the present study to explore the regulatory effect and mechanism of taurine on intestinal development of IUGR,which will provide theoretical basis for the application of taurine in IUGR prevention.1.The results showed that:1.Taurine significantly increased the birth weight of IUGR newborn rats,and reduced the deformity rate and stillbirth rate(P<0.05).2.Taurine obviously increased the height of intestinal villi,the thickness of muscular layer and mucosa,and the activity of intestinal lactase in IUGR newborn rats(P<0.05).3.Taurine significantly reduced the contents of GHRH and GH in serum of IUGR newborn rats(P<0.01),and significantly increased the contents of SST,INS,IGF-1 and T4(P<0.05).4.Taurine markedly reduced the expression of pituitary GH mRNA in IUGR newborn rats(P<0.01).5.Taurine notely increased the expression levels of hepatic growth hormone receptor(GHR)and IGF-1 mRNA in IUGR newborn rats(P<0.05),and significantly decreased the expression level of hepatic IGF-binding protein 1(IGFBP-1)mRNA(P<0.05).6.Taurine obviously evevateted the expression of IGF-1,eukaryotic initiation factor 4E binding protein 1(4E-BP1)and ribosomal protein S6K1(S6K1)mRNA in the jejunum of IUGR newborn rats(P<0.05).The present results demonstrated that taurine can promote the intestinal development of IUGR newborn rats,which may be attributed to the activation of the IGF-1 signaling pathway of the hypothalamic-pituitary-liver-intestinal axis.