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. 2022 Aug 25;12(1):14533.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-18330-5.

Supplementation of mixed doses of glutamate and glutamine can improve the growth and gut health of piglets during the first 2 weeks post-weaning

Diana Luise  1 , Federico Correa  1 , Tristan Chalvon-Demersay  2 , Livio Galosi  3 , Giacomo Rossi  3 , William Lambert  2 , Paolo Bosi  1 , Paolo Trevisi  4
Affiliations

Supplementation of mixed doses of glutamate and glutamine can improve the growth and gut health of piglets during the first 2 weeks post-weaning

Diana Luise et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The aim of this study was to test the effect of mixing doses of glutamate (Glu) and glutamine (Gln) on the growth, health and gut health of post-weaning piglets. One hundred twenty weaned piglets (24 ± 2 days of age) were assigned to 6 dietary groups: (1) standard diet (CO); (2) CO plus Glu (6 kg/Ton): 100Glu; (3) CO plus 75Glu + 25Gln; (4) CO plus 50Glu + 50Gln; (5) CO plus 25Glu + 75Gln and (6) CO plus 100Gln. At days 8 and 21, blood was collected for haematological and reactive oxygen metabolite analysis, intestinal mucosa for morphological and gene expression analysis, and caecal content for microbial analysis. Data were fitted using a Generalised Linear Model (GLM). Piglet growth increased linearly with an increase in Gln from d7 to d14. The Glu:Gln ratio had a quadratic effect on faecal consistency and days of diarrhoea, neutrophil% and lymphocyte%, and a positive linear effect on monocyte% in the blood at d8. The amino acids (AAs) reduced the intraepithelial lymphocytes in the jejunum, and 100Gln improved intestinal barrier integrity at d8. The caecal microbiota did not differ. Overall, this study suggested a favourable effect of mixing Glu and Gln (25 + 75-50 + 50) as a dietary supplementation in post-weaning piglets to benefit the immune and barrier function of the gut, resulting in an increase in faecal consistency and improvement of growth during the first 2 weeks post-weaning.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have read the Journal’s policy and have the following competing interests. Co-authors T.C.D and W.L. are associated with Metex Noovistago which partially financed the project and they provided support for experimental design. The authors D.L., F.C., L.G., G.R., P.B. and P.T. have no competing interests as defined by Nature Research, or other interests that might be perceived to influence the results and/or discussion reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The effect of dietary supplementation (6 g/T) with Glu and Gln in different ratios on the faecal score and the faecal index of weaned piglets from d0 to d8 (A: faecal score; C: faecal index) and from d9 to d21 (B: faecal score; D: faecal index). The data of the faecal index were transformed from log values. Diet: CO = standard diet; 100Glu = CO plus 6 kg/Ton Glu; 75Glu + 25Gln = CO plus 4.5 kg/Ton Glu and 1.5 kg/Ton Gln; 50Glu + 50Gln = CO plus 3 kg/Ton Glu plus 3 kg/Ton Gln; 25Glu + 75Gln = CO plus 1.5 kg/Ton Glu and 4.5 kg/Ton Gln; 100Gln = CO plus 6 kg/Ton Gln.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Alpha diversity indices per Diet and time points (day 21 and day 8 post-weaning). Diet: CO = standard diet; 100Glu = CO plus 6 kg/Ton Glu; 75Glu + 25Gln = CO plus 4.5 kg/Ton Glu and 1.5 kg/Ton Gln; 50Glu + 50Gln = CO plus 3 kg/Ton Glu plus 3 kg/Ton Gln; 25Glu + 75Gln = CO plus 1.5 kg/Ton Glu and 4.5 kg/Ton Gln; 100Gln = CO plus 6 kg/Ton Gln.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The effect of the diet on the cumulative probabilities of having each score for the intraepithelial lymphocytes in the jejunum of piglets at 8 days post-weaning. (A) Comparison between the CO group and the groups supplemented with AAs; (B) Cumulative probabilities of having each score in each dietary group. Diet: CO = standard diet; 100Glu = CO plus 6 kg/Ton Glu; 75Glu + 25Gln = CO plus 4.5 kg/Ton Glu and 1.5 kg/Ton Gln; 50Glu + 50Gln = CO plus 3 kg/Ton Glu plus 3 kg/Ton Gln; 25Glu + 75Gln = CO plus 1.5 kg/Ton Glu and 4.5 kg/Ton Gln; 100Gln = CO plus 6 kg/Ton Gln.
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