Weng Linjian, Zhang Jingyi, Peng Jianling, Ru Meng, Liang Haiping, Wei Qing, Ruan Jiming, Ali Ramlat, Yin Chao, Huang Jianzhen
College of Animal Science and Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China.
Anim Biosci. 2025 Apr;38(4):692-706. doi: 10.5713/ab.24.0299. Epub 2024 Oct 28.
Animals will experience energy deprivation processes such as moulting, clutching, migration and long-distance transportation under natural survival conditions and in production practices, and the body will trigger a series of adaptive metabolic changes during these processes. Fasting and refeeding after fasting can induce remodeling of nutrients and energy metabolism. This study aims to investigate the mechanisms by which the gut microbiota and liver of poultry respond to energy deprivation under specific conditions.
Ninety 252-day-old laying hens were randomly divided into 3 groups: (1) fed ad libitum (control group); (2) fasted from day 13 to day 17 (fasting group); (3) fasted from day 1 to day 5, then refed on a specific feeding way (refeeding group). After that, the serum, liver, jejunum tissues, and cecum contents were sampled and sent for metabolome, transcriptome, morphology, and 16S rDNA sequencing analyses, respectively.
Results showed that food deprivation not only observably decreased the body weight, liver index, and the villus height and villus/crypt ratio of jejunum, but also significantly changed the gut microbiota compositions, serum metabolic profiles, and the hepatic gene expression patterns of laying hens, whereas these changes were effectively reversed by the following refeeding operation. At the same time, metabolome combined transcriptome analysis revealed that both serum differential metabolites and hepatic differential expressed genes (DEGs) were consistently enriched in the lipid and amino metabolism pathways, and strong correlations were synchronously found between the differential metabolites and both of the differential gut microbial genera and DEGs, suggesting the crosstalks among gut, liver and their resulting serum metabolic products.
The results suggested that the organism might coordinate to maintain metabolic homeostasis under energy deprivation through a combination of changes in gut microbial composition and hepatic gene expression.
在自然生存条件和生产实践中，动物会经历诸如换羽、抱窝、迁徙和长途运输等能量剥夺过程，在此过程中机体将触发一系列适应性代谢变化。禁食及禁食后再喂食可诱导营养物质和能量代谢的重塑。本研究旨在探究家禽肠道微生物群和肝脏在特定条件下对能量剥夺的反应机制。
将90只252日龄蛋鸡随机分为3组：(1)自由采食组（对照组）；(2)第13天至第17天禁食组（禁食组）；(3)第1天至第5天禁食，然后以特定方式再喂食组（再喂食组）。之后，分别采集血清、肝脏、空肠组织和盲肠内容物，进行代谢组学、转录组学、形态学和16S rDNA测序分析。
结果表明，食物剥夺不仅显著降低了蛋鸡的体重、肝脏指数、空肠绒毛高度和绒毛/隐窝比值，还显著改变了蛋鸡的肠道微生物群组成、血清代谢谱和肝脏基因表达模式，而随后的再喂食操作有效逆转了这些变化。同时，代谢组学联合转录组学分析表明，血清差异代谢物和肝脏差异表达基因（DEGs）均一致富集于脂质和氨基酸代谢途径，并且差异代谢物与差异肠道微生物属和DEGs之间均同步发现强相关性，表明肠道、肝脏及其产生的血清代谢产物之间存在相互作用。
结果表明，机体可能通过肠道微生物组成和肝脏基因表达的变化相结合，在能量剥夺状态下协同维持代谢稳态。
