Proteomic analysis of intestinal mucosa from weaning piglets with feeding Clostridium butyricum

Modern breeding technology uses segregated early weaning to raise breeding efficiency at a minimum expense. However, early weaning is a stressful matter that results in intestinal dysfunction. Adding probiotics to the diet is gradually being accepted as an alternative to antibiotics for enteric disease. It has been found that dietary supplementation with probiotics could improve intestinal barrier function and also the ecosystem of the intestinal tract. Because the mechanism of action for improvement of intestinal health by probiotics in weaned piglets is currently unknown, this objective of this study is to determine the mechanism of dietary supplementation with Clostridium butyricum in relieving weaning-induced diarrhea. Six weaned pigs (21 d) were assigned to 2 groups according to their littermates and initial BW. The control group was fed a basal diet and the treated group received the basal diet supplemented with 500 mg/kg Clostridium butyricum. A label-based tandem mass tags technology was applied to investigate protein changes of the intestinal mucosa of weaned pigs fed with a probiotic. Quantitative proteins with a false discovery rate of less than 1% were identified (n = 5,367); of these, a total of 36 differentially expressed proteins were found. Functional analysis indicated that differentially expressed proteins were closely related to responses to stimulus and immune response. With respect to immune response, downregulated proteins, such as transmembrane glycoprotein NMB and beta-galactoside alpha-2,6-sialyltransferase 1, participated in intestinal disease and innate immune response, whereas upregulated proteins took part in antigen presentation and complement activation pathways such as ficolin-2 and inverted formin-2. For cell growth and proliferation, downregulated proteins were involved in cell proliferation (such as methyl-CpG-binding domain protein 2), cell morphology (such as hexokinase-2), and tissue morphology (such as nuclear distribution protein nudE homolog 1). Additionally, glycoprotein, which is widely involved in immune response and adhesion of pathogens, was observed (such as fucose mutarotase). Based on these results, it could be concluded that adding a probiotic in diets could significantly improve intestinal immune response and adhesion of pathogens in the intestine, which provides new insights into the intestinal regulation mechanisms of probiotics.