Improves Intestinal Barrier Function and Reduces Post-Weaning Diarrhea in Piglets: Involvement of the Endocannabinoid System

Probiotic intervention is a well-established approach for replacing antibiotics in the management of weaning piglet diarrhea, which involves a large number of complex systems interacting with the gut microbiota, including the endocannabinoid system; nevertheless, the specific role of the endocannabinoid system mediated by probiotics in the piglet intestine has rarely been studied. In this study, we used antibiotics (ampicillin) to perturb the intestinal microbiota of piglets. This resulted in that the gene expression of the intestinal endocannabinoid system was reprogrammed and the abundance of probiotic in the colon was lowered. Moreover, the abundance of was positively correlated with colonic endocannabinoid system components (chiefly diacylglycerol lipase beta) via correlation analysis. Subsequently, we administered another batch of piglets with . Interestingly, dietary effectively alleviated the diarrhea ratio in weaning piglets, accompanied by improvements in intestinal development and motility. Notably, administration enhanced the intestinal barrier function of piglets as evidenced by a higher expression of tight junction protein ZO-1, which might be associated with the increased level in colonic diacylglycerol lipase beta. Taken together, the dietary -mediated reprogramming of the endocannabinoid system might function as a promising target for improving the intestinal health of piglets.