Dietary Supplementation with Lactobacillus casei Alleviates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Liver Injury in a Porcine Model.

This study aims to determine whether () could relieve liver injury in piglets challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Piglets were randomly allocated into one of the three groups: control, LPS, and . The control and LPS groups were fed a corn- and soybean meal-based diet, whereas the group was fed the basal diet supplemented with 6 × 10⁶ cfu/g . On Day 31 of the trial, piglets in the LPS and groups received intraperitoneal administration of LPS (100 µg/kg body weight), while the control group received the same volume of saline. Blood and liver samples were collected for analysis. Results showed that supplementation decreased the feed/gain ratio ( = 0.027) and diarrhea incidence ( < 0.001), and attenuated LPS-induced liver histomorphological abnormalities. Compared with the control group, LPS challenge dramatically increased glutamyl transpeptidase activity ( = 0.001) in plasma as well as the concentrations of Interleukin 6 (IL-6) ( = 0.048), Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) ( = 0.041), and Malondialdehyde (MDA) ( = 0.001) in the liver, while decreasing the hepatic SOD activity. LPS also increased ( < 0.05) the mRNA levels for IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, Toll-like receptors 4 (TLR4), Nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) and Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) in the liver. The adverse effects of LPS challenge were ameliorated by supplementation. In conclusion, dietary alleviates LPS-induced liver injury via reducing pro-inflammatory cytokines and increasing anti-oxidative capacity.