Intestinal gene expression analysis in response to maternal dietary resveratrol supplementation in pig

Early weaning commonly results in gastrointestinal disorders, inflammation and diarrhea in infants and young animals. Resveratrol, a plant phenol, affords protection against inflammation and cancer.A porcine model was used to investigate the effects of maternal resveratrol supplementation on diarrhea, intestinal inflammation and intestinal morphology in offspring during weaning. The intestinal gene expression was measureed by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis. Results that weaning-associated intestinal inflammation and diarrhea in pig offspring were alleviated and intestinal morphology was improved by maternal resveratrol supplementation. In weaning piglets (21-day-old), RNA-seq showed that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were enriched for T cell receptor, primary immunodeficiency, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and Ras signaling pathway. In post-weaning piglets (28-day-old), RNA-seq showed that DEGs were enriched in the cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction pathway and pathways related to metabolism. This study provided insight into molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of maternal dietary resveratrol. Sows were bred with semen from a pool of Landrace boars and segregated into 2 dietary treatments 20 days after breeding as follows: 1) control sows were fed a corn-soybean meal basal diet (Con treatment), and 2) treatment sows were fed a basal diet supplemented with 300 mg/kg resveratrol for 20 days after breeding through gestation and lactation (Res treatment). After birth, piglets were cross-fostered within dietary treatment groups to standardize the litter size to range between 9 and 12 piglets. The piglets were weaned on day 21 of lactation. On the weaning day, the sows were removed from the piglets, while the piglets remained in the nursing pens for a week until day 28 to avoid the stress caused by a change in environment. The jejunum samples of weaning piglets (21-day-old) and post-weaning piglets (28-day-old) were collected for RNA-seq analysis. The weaning and post-weaning pigs from each treatment group were named Weaning-Con (W-Con), Weaning-Res (W-Res), Post-weaning-Con (PW-Con) and Post-weaning-Res (PW-Res), with a total of 12 samples with 3 biological replicates in each group for RNA-seq analysis.