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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1508280
Dietary supplement of Acanthopanax senticosus decoction formula improves immune response via intestine flora of rabbits
Provisionally accepted- Guizhou University, Guiyang, China
Young rabbits are sensitive to surrounding changes and conditioned pathogens in intestine which might result in slow inflammation and diarrhea after microbial invasion. Traditional medicine herbs provide efficacious treatment on slow infection and inflammation. The present research designed an Acanthopanax senticosus (ACS) formula consisted of five types of Chinese herbs including Acanthopanax senticosus (Rupr & Maxim) Harms, (Ciwujia in Chinese), Astragalus membranceus (Fisch) Bge (Huangqi in Chinese), Indigo naturalis, (Qingdai in Chinese), Houttuynia cordata Thunb (Yuxingcao in Chinese), and Glycyrrhizae radix et Rhizoma (Gancao in Chinese). The effects of ACS decoction supplement were investigated via determination of cytokines and growth performances of young rabbits, and the intestinal flora in intestinal digesta from six intestinal fragments were further explored using 16S rRNA gene sequencing technology.Compared to the control group, rabbits supplied with different doses of ACS decoction possessed lower diarrhea and death rates, together with the IL-10 concentration, while the declined IL-1β and IL-12 levels and inflammatory factor gene expressions in intestinal tissues. Additionally, ACS addition changed the diversity of intestinal flora in each segments of intestine. Functional prediction on abundances of genera enriched to seven KEGG immunity pathways. Moreover, strong correlations were determined between the abundance of bacteria with interleukins contents, and the predictive immune signaling abundances, respectively. Especially, ACS exhibited anti-inflammation effects via decreasing the abundances of Bacteroides, Clostridia_vadinBB60_group, NK4A214_group, and dgA_11_gut_group in intestine of young rabbits. In conclusion, dietary supplement with ACS exerted and diarrhea-reducing effects, and improved intestinal immunity homeostasis by modulating intestinal flora diversity in young rabbits.
Keywords: Traditional medicinal herbs, Immunity, rabbit, intestinal flora, Inflammation
Received: 09 Oct 2024; Accepted: 10 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Nie, Liu, Huang, Wang, Niu and Ran. 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:
Qin Liu, Guizhou University, Guiyang, China
Shi hui Huang, Guizhou University, Guiyang, China
Jia fu Wang, Guizhou University, Guiyang, China
Xue qin Ran, Guizhou University, Guiyang, China
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