Dietary Sodium Butyrate Maintains Gut Integrity

Post-weaning diarrhea is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in weaning piglets. Feeding sodium butyrate (NaBut) to weaning piglets decreased the incidence of diarrhea, but the mechanism has not been fully elucidated. The present study (X.Ma, et al. 2012, J.Anim.Sci) evaluated the effect of NaBut on diarrhea in relation to wound healing of intestinal barrier using IPEC-J2 cell model. Cultured cells were scratched to induce wound and then were treated with 4mM NaBut. The results showed that supplementation of the cells with NaBut significantly promoted the process of wound healing, indicating the protective effects of butyrate on the intestinal mucosa. Butyrate treatment enhanced mRNA expression of the intestinal mucosal tight junction (p