Effects of melatonin on intestinal function and bacterial compositions in sucking piglets

AbstractMelatonin has been reported to affect intestinal function by targeting microbiome, morphological structure, barrier integrity and nutrient absorptive system. While the effect of melatonin on intestinal development in newborn infants is obscure, thus, this study firstly attempted to investigate the hypothesis that melatonin treatment improves intestinal development in sucking piglets. 14  healthy newborn piglets received 10 ml melatonin solution (1 mg/ml) or drinking water (n = 7) for 21 days. The results showed that oral administration of melatonin increased liver relative weight (p  <  0.05) but failed to affect growth performance in sucking piglets (p  >  0.05). Immunostaining jejunal samples from melatonin group showed high expressions of nnos and claudin1, indicating that melatonin improved intestinal neural development and barrier integrity. Also, melatonin promoted intestinal absorptive function evidenced by the increased serum proline concentr ation in melatonin-treated piglets compared with the control (p  <  0.05). Gut microbiota compositions were tested by 16S rDNA sequencing and the results showed that melatonin increased the relative abundance ofActinobacteria compared with the control (p  <  0.05) at the phylum level. However,Selenomonadales was markedly reduced compared with the control at the order level (p  <  0.05). Gut and faecal volatile fatty acids were tested to evaluate the microbiota metabolism, but no difference w...
Source: Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition - Category: Zoology Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research