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. 2024 Jan 3:102:skae296.
doi: 10.1093/jas/skae296.

Dietary curcumin supplementation enhances growth performance and anti-inflammatory functions by modulating gut microbiota, microbiota-derived metabolites, and expression of inflammation-related genes in broilers

Xinyu Chen  1 , Fei Li  1 , Xingyu Xu  1 , Lijun Wang  1 , Yichen Yu  1 , Jie Yan  1 , Xuemei Shan  1 , Rui Zhang  2 , Hua Xing  1   3 , Tangjie Zhang  1   3 , Min Du  4 , Shifeng Pan  1   3   4   5
Affiliations

Dietary curcumin supplementation enhances growth performance and anti-inflammatory functions by modulating gut microbiota, microbiota-derived metabolites, and expression of inflammation-related genes in broilers

Xinyu Chen et al. J Anim Sci. .

Abstract

Curcumin (CUR) is a natural polyphenolic substance that has been widely used since ancient times for its multiple beneficial functions. However, whether CUR affects the growth performance of broilers by altering gut microbiota and metabolite and the underlying mechanism are largely unknown. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary CUR supplementation on growth performance, anti-inflammatory function, intestinal morphology and barrier, cecum microbiota, and metabolite profile of broilers. Sixty-one-day-old male broilers were randomly divided into the control group (CON, fed a control diet) and the CUR group (fed a control diet supplemented with 200 mg/kg CUR) after 2 d of adaptation. Results showed that after feeding to 52-d-old, compared with CON broilers, the CUR broilers showed improved feed utilization efficiency and growth performance. Furthermore, the CUR broilers showed an improved intestinal morphology, which was demonstrated by a lower crypt depth in the jejunum. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing and non-targeted metabonomics (LC-MS/MS) analysis results showed that the cecum microbiota ecology and function were significantly improved, and the abundance of beneficial flora and metabolites were increased, while the harmful bacteria and metabolites were significantly decreased. In addition, RT-qPCR results showed that CUR significantly reduced inflammatory responses, promoted the formation of the mucosal barrier and enhanced digestion, absorption, and transport of lipids and glucose-related gene expression in the intestine. These above findings demonstrated that dietary CUR supplementation improved growth performance, intestinal morphology, and anti-inflammatory functions, mainly by manipulating cecum microbiota and microbiota-derived metabolites, which provides a credible explanation for the growth-promoting effect and anti-inflammatory functions of CUR and aids our understanding of the mechanisms underlying.

Keywords: anti-inflammatory functions; broilers; cecum microbiota and metabolites; dietary curcumin supplementation; growth performance.

Plain language summary

In this study, experimental studies were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary CUR supplementation on the growth performance in broilers by altering gut microbiota and metabolites and to further clarify the mechanisms underlying. As expected, after feeding to 52-d-old, dietary CUR supplementation improved both feed utilization efficiency and growth performance. Furthermore, CUR supplementation improved intestinal morphology and lowered crypt depth in the jejunum. The cecum microbiota profiles were significantly improved by CUR, with an increased abundance of beneficial flora and metabolites, and significantly reduced harmful bacteria and metabolites. In addition, CUR suppressed the inflammatory response, promoted the barrier function, and enhanced the absorption ability of lipids and glucose in the intestine. In short, dietary CUR improved growth performance, intestinal morphology, and suppressed inflammation mainly by improving cecum microbiota and metabolites, providing a plausible explanation for the improvement of growth performance in boilers by CUR supplementation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no real or perceived conflicts of interest.

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