Effect of Dietary Resveratrol on Placental Function and Reproductive Performance of Late Pregnancy Sows

Placental function is vital to the fetal growth of sows, and resveratrol (RES) can protect cells against oxidative stress, which is one of the major factors impairing placental function. This study aimed to investigate the effect of dietary resveratrol (RES) on placental function and reproductive performance during late pregnancy in a sow model from the aspects of oxidative stress, insulin resistance, and gut microbiota. A total of 26 hybrid pregnant sows (Landrace × Yorkshire) with similar parity were randomly allocated into two groups ( = 13) and fed with a basal diet or a diet containing 200 mg/kg of resveratrol from day 85 of gestation until parturition. The dietary supplementation of RES increased the litter weight at parturition by 12.53% ( = 0.145), with ameliorated insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), increased triglyceride (TG) levels, and decreased interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 levels in serum ( < 0.05). Moreover, resveratrol increased the placental vascular density ( < 0.05) with the enhanced expression of nutrient transporter genes ( and ) and antioxidant genes, such as () and () but declined the expression of inflammatory genes, such as β and ( < 0.05). The characterization of the fecal microbiota revealed that resveratrol decreased the relative abundance of the and ( < 0.05), which had a positive linear correlation with the expression of β and ( < 0.05), but had a negative linear correlation with the expression of , and genes ( < 0.05). These data demonstrated that dietary supplementation with resveratrol can improve placental function with ameliorated insulin resistance, oxidative stress, and inflammation potentially by regulating and the in sows.