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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Nutritional Immunology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1506991
This article is part of the Research Topic Immunomodulatory effect of Nutrients on intestinal disorders and immunity View all 8 articles

Chitooligosaccharides Improves Intestinal Mucosal Immunity and Intestinal Microbiota in Blue Foxes

Provisionally accepted
Jiali Wei Jiali Wei 1Jing Su Jing Su 1Wei Li Wei Li 2Zheng-Shun Wen Zheng-Shun Wen 3*Huitao Liu Huitao Liu 1*
  • 1 Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun, China
  • 2 Technological Innovation Center for Fur Animal Breeding of Hebei, Shijiazhuang Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Hebei, China
  • 3 Xianghu Laboratory, Hangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Gut health is critical to the health of the host. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Chitooligosaccharides (COS) on intestinal morphology, intestinal barrier, intestinal immunity and cecum microbiota of blue foxes. Seventy-two 125-day-old blue foxes were randomly divided into basal diet (BD) group, 200 ppm COS1 (1.5 kDa) group and 200 ppm COS2 (3 kDa) group for 8 weeks. The results showed that dietary COS1 supplementation promoted the development of intestinal villus morphology in blue foxes. Importantly, COS1 increased the number of goblet cells in duodenum, jejunum and ileum by 27.71%, 23.67%, 14.97% and S-IgA secretion in duodenum, jejunum and ileum by 71.59% and 38.56%, and up-regulate the expression of Occludin and ZO-1 by 50.18% and 148.62%, respectively. Moreover, COS1 promoted the pro-inflammatory and antiinflammatory balance of small intestinal mucosa, and increased the diversity of cecum microbiota of blue foxes, especially Lactobacillus_agilis and Lactobacillus_murinus, and up-regulated the signaling pathways related to polysaccharide decomposition and utilization. In conclusion, dietary COS1 (1.5 kDa) can promote intestinal villus development, enhance intestinal barrier function, regulate intestinal immune balance and cecum microbiota homeostasis.

    Keywords: chitooligosaccharides, microbiota, intestinal barrier, mucosal immunity, Blue fox

    Received: 06 Oct 2024; Accepted: 30 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wei, Su, Li, Wen and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Zheng-Shun Wen, Xianghu Laboratory, Hangzhou, China
    Huitao Liu, Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.