Expression data of ileal mucosa in developing piglets

The transcriptome changes of the ileal mucosa in suckling piglets during early postnatal life were analysed to contribute to the knowledge of a pig’s gut development. In addition, the ileal transcriptome of suckling piglets was compared with that of age-matched weaned piglets (weaned at the age of 21 days) to elucidate the effect of weaning on the developing gut. DNA microarray was used to analyse the change of transcriptome profiles and biological pathways in porcine ileum that occurred during the developmental or the weaning process. Ileal mucosa was collected from thirty piglets from two littermates. Seven of the piglets were segregated and weaned at the age of 21 days (weaned group), while the others remained with their own sow as the intensive suckling piglets (suckling group) and were prohibited access to the sow’s diet to ensure that they solely consumed breast milk. The piglets in the suckling group were killed and dissected at the age of 1 day (S1D), 7 days (S7D), 14 days (S14D), 21 days (S21D), 28 days (S28D) and 35 days (S35D). At each time point, four piglets (two from each litter) were used except in the case of 35-day-old piglets, three of them were used. Four piglets in the weaning group were killed and dissected at the age of 28 days (7 days post-weaning; 21W28D) and the remaining three were killed and dissected at the age of 35 days (14 days post-weaning; 21W35D).