Pectin supplement alleviates gut injury potentially through improving gut microbiota community in piglets

pectin is widely used as a food and feed additive due to its tremendous prebiotic potentials for gut health. Yet, the underlying mechanisms associated with its protective effect remain unclear. Twenty four piglets were randomly divided into three groups with eight replicates per treatment: Control group, LPS challenged group, Pectin LPS group. Piglets were administrated with LPS or saline on day 14 and 21 of the experiment. Our result showed that pectin alleviated the morphological damage features by restoring the goblet numbers which the pig induced by LPS in the cecum. Besides, compared with the LPS group, pectin supplementation elevated the mRNA expression of tight junction protein. Whereas pectin downregulated the expression of proinflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and NFkB. What is more, Pectin supplementation also significantly increased the abundance of beneficial bacteria, and significantly reduced the abundance of harmful bacteria, such as Streptococcus. Taken together, dietary pectin supplementation enhances the gut barrier and improves immunity to ameliorates LPS induced injury by optimizing gut microbiota and their metabolites.