Special Issue "Gut Health - Animal Health: An Indissoluble Binomial in Veterinary Nutrition and Medicine"

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Maria Teresa Capucchio
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Veterinary Science, University of Turin, Largo Paolo Braccini 2, 10095 Grugliasco (TO), Italy
Interests: gut health evaluation; morpho-histology; immunohistochemistry; mucin evaluation; neuromuscular diseases; animal model; host/pathogens interactions in comparative medicine

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent times, the term “gut health” has become increasingly popular as a state of physical wellbeing in the absence of gastrointestinal complaints. There is clear evidence that the gastrointestinal tract function goes further than feed processing. In fact, the gut has an impact on general health through ensuring digestion and absorption of nutrients, minerals, and fluids; through the induction of mucosal and systemic tolerance; through defense of the host against biological and other pathogens; and through signaling from the periphery to the brain. For this reason, in veterinary medicine, gut health can be considered synonymous to animal health and can offer a new approach to preventive medicine. Gut health depends on the maintenance of a delicate balance between the host, the gut mucosal barrier/microbiota, the diet, and the environment in which the animal lives. 

Original research papers and reviews that address different strategies (nutritional, environmental or clinical strategies) to improve and maintain the different components of gut health (e.g., intestinal morphology, microbiota, mucins, immune responses/cytokine expression) in food-producing, companion animals, and animal models are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Maria Teresa Capucchio
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • gut health
  • animal health
  • nutrition
  • probiotic
  • prebiotic
  • microbiota
  • molecular biology
  • histology
  • immunology
  • clinical pathology

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Porcine Milk-Derived Small Extracellular Vesicles Promote Intestinal Immunoglobulin Production through pIgR
Animals 2021, 11(6), 1522; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11061522 - 24 May 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 716
Abstract
Secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) plays an important role in gut acquired immunity and mucosal homeostasis. Breast milk is the irreplaceable nutritional source for mammals after birth. Current studies have shown the potential functional role of milk-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) and their RNAs [...] Read more.
Secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) plays an important role in gut acquired immunity and mucosal homeostasis. Breast milk is the irreplaceable nutritional source for mammals after birth. Current studies have shown the potential functional role of milk-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) and their RNAs cargo in intestinal health and immune regulation. However, there is a lack of studies to demonstrate how milk-derived sEVs affect intestinal immunity in recipient. In this study, through in vivo experiments, we found that porcine milk small extracellular vesicles (PM-sEVs) promoted intestinal SIgA levels, and increased the expression levels of polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) both in mice and piglet. We examined the mechanism of how PM-sEVs increased the expression level of pIgR in vitro by using a porcine small intestine epithelial cell line (IPEC-J2). Through bioinformatics analysis, dual-luciferase reporter assays, and overexpression or knockdown of the corresponding non-coding RNAs, we identified circ-XPO4 in PM-sEVs as a crucial circRNA, which leads to the expression of pIgR via the suppression of miR-221-5p in intestinal cells. Importantly, we also observed that oral administration of PM-sEVs increased the level of circ-XPO4 and decreased the level of miR-221-5p in small intestine of piglets, indicating that circRNAs in milk-derived sEVs act as sponge for miRNAs in recipients. This study, for the first time, reveals that PM-sEVs have a capacity to stimulate intestinal SIgA production by delivering circRNAs to receptors and sponging the recipient’s original miRNAs, and also provides valuable data for insight into the role and mechanism of animal milk sEVs in intestinal immunity. Full article
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Article
Influence of Supplementation of Lactoferrin, Melittin and Cecropin A to Rat Diet on Changes in Faecal Ammonia Concentrations, Short-Chain Fatty Acid Concentrations and Activities of Bacterial Enzymes
Animals 2021, 11(5), 1203; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11051203 - 22 Apr 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 458
Abstract
We hypothesised that the dietary addition of the bioactive antimicrobial protein lactoferrin (LF) and peptides melittin (MT) or cecropin A (CR) at a dosage of 100 mg/kg to the diet of Wistar rats would result in strong modulatory effects on faecal microbial enzymatic [...] Read more.
We hypothesised that the dietary addition of the bioactive antimicrobial protein lactoferrin (LF) and peptides melittin (MT) or cecropin A (CR) at a dosage of 100 mg/kg to the diet of Wistar rats would result in strong modulatory effects on faecal microbial enzymatic activity, short-chain fatty acid and ammonia concentrations. To date, the changes in bacterial extracellular and intracellular enzymatic activities upon addition of dietary AMPs have not yet been studied. This experiment lasted 15 days; during the first 5 day period, the rats were fed the control diet (S) and diets supplemented with LF, MT or CR. On days 6–15, all rats were fed the control S diet. The faecal fermentation processes were substantially stopped after two days of treatment, on average, in all rats receiving LF and two AMPs. The deepest suppression effect was observed on the last day of treatment (day 5) and persisted through days 5–8. The highest decreases in faecal bacterial β-glucosidase and β-glucuronidase activities as well as in SCFA and ammonia concentrations were observed in the rats fed the CR diet. Only in the CR animals did the mechanism of suppressed microbial fermentation involve diminished enzyme release from bacterial cells to the digesta. Full article
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