Open AccessArticle
Dietary Puerarin Supplementation Alleviates Oxidative Stress in the Small Intestines of Diquat-Challenged Piglets
by
1,2,†, 3,†, 4, 1 and 1,5,*
1
Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Physiology and Metabolic Process, Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, National Engineering Laboratory for Pollution Control and Waste Utilization in Livestock and Poultry Production, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha 410125, China
2
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100008, China
3
Department of Medicine, Jishou University, Jishou 416000, China
4
Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
5
College of Animal Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Received: 11 March 2020
/
Revised: 2 April 2020
/
Accepted: 4 April 2020
/
Published: 7 April 2020
Simple Summary
The oxidant stress which piglets suffer from during the weaning period has caused huge losses to the pig farm industry. It is important for scientists to find an effective way to alleviate the oxidant stress in weaned piglets. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that dietary puerarin supplementation alleviates oxidative stress in the small intestine of diquat-challenged piglets. Interestingly, dietary puerarin supplementation improved intestinal morphology, cell proliferation, barrier function, and increased Nrf2 and its downstream enzymes in diquat-challenged piglets, which shows that puerarin has potent protective effects against diquat-induced oxidative stress. These findings will be very beneficial to the pig industry, especially to the development of antibiotic-free diets, new anti-inflammatory drugs and the application of puerarin in piglets.