In-Ovo Glutamine Administration Enhances Intestinal Development and Functions in Broiler Chickens: Insights from Enteroid Models
Date
2024-04-10
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Journal of Nutrition
Abstract
Background
Early life events play significant roles in tissue development and animal health in their later life. Early nutrition, through in-ovo delivery, has shown beneficial effects on improving intestinal health in broiler chickens. However, the underlying mechanism is not fully investigated. A recently developed enteroid culture technique allows investigations on intestinal epithelial functions that are close to physiologic conditions.
Objectives
In this study, we evaluated the short- and long-term effects of in-ovo administration of glutamine (Gln) on intestinal epithelial development and functions by using intestinal enteroid culture and tissue electrophysiologic analysis.
Methods
A hundred eggs of commercial Cobb500 broilers were in-ovo injected with 0.2 mL of either phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) or 3% Gln at embryonic day 18 (E18). Chicks were killed on the day of hatch, and at 3- and 14-d posthatch. Enteroids were generated from the small intestine. After 4 d of culture, enteroids were harvested for 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine proliferation, fluorescein isothiocyanate-4 kDa dextran permeability, and glucose absorption assays. At day 3 (d3) and day 14 (d14), intestinal barrier and nutrient transport functions were measured by the Ussing chamber. The gene expression of epithelial cell markers, nutrient transporters, and tight-junction proteins were analyzed in both intestinal tissues and enteroids.
Results
In comparison with the PBS control group, in-ovo Gln increased intestinal villus morphology, epithelial cell proliferation, and differentiation, and altered epithelial cell population toward increased number of enteroendocrine and goblet cells while decreasing Paneth cells. Enteroids gene expression of nutrient transporters (B0AT1, SGLT1, and EAAT3), tight junction (ZO2), glucose absorption, and barrier functions were enhanced on the day of hatch. Long-term increases of intestinal di-peptide and alanine transport were observed at day 14 posthatch.
Conclusions
Together our results suggested that the in-ovo injection of Gln stimulated intestinal epithelium proliferation and programmed the epithelial cell differentiation toward absorptive cells.
Description
This article was originally published in The Journal of Nutrition . The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.02.007. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of American Society for Nutrition. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords
broilers, enteroids, glutamine, gut health, intestinal barrier, intestinal nutrient transporter, in-ovo injection
Citation
Yu, Liang-en, Peter Mann, Lydia Schlitzkus, Federico Ghiselli, Mia Sanders, Abdallah Hadimundeen, and Yihang Li. “In-Ovo Glutamine Administration Enhances Intestinal Development and Functions in Broiler Chickens: Insights from Enteroid Models.” The Journal of Nutrition 154, no. 4 (April 2024): 1175–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.02.007.