Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Mar 23;15(7):920.
doi: 10.3390/ani15070920.

Comparative Analysis of Short-Chain Fatty Acids and the Immune Barrier in Cecum of Dahe Pigs and Dahe Black Pigs

Huijin Jia  1 , Yuxiao Xie  1   2 , Lanlan Yi  1 , Wenjie Cheng  1 , Guangyao Song  1 , Wenzhe Shi  1 , Junhong Zhu  1 , Sumei Zhao  1
Affiliations

Comparative Analysis of Short-Chain Fatty Acids and the Immune Barrier in Cecum of Dahe Pigs and Dahe Black Pigs

Huijin Jia et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

The intestinal immune barrier is a developed and complex immune system, and there is a fine synergy between it and the induced immune response. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are the main metabolites of intestinal microbial fermentation. In the cecum of pigs, SCFAs not only provide energy for the host but also participate in regulating the function of the intestinal immune system. The purpose of this study was to explore the mechanism of SCFAs in the regulation of immune gene expression in porcine cecum. SCFAs content and mRNA expression levels of immune genes in cecum were detected, and Gene Ontology (GO) function annotation, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis, Protein-Protein Interaction Networks (PPI) network construction, key gene identification, and correlation analysis were performed. The results showed that the content of SCFAs in the cecum of Dahe black pigs (DHB) was lower than that of Dahe pigs (DH). There were significant differences in mRNA expression of some immune genes between the two groups. GO functional annotation found terms related to cytokine activity and protein heterodimerization activity; the KEGG pathway was enriched in several pathways related to intestinal immunity. The PPI network identified Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Interleukin-8 (IL-8), Interleukin-10 (IL-10), Interleukin-17A (IL-17A), and Interleukin-18 (IL-18) as key proteins. The correlation analysis showed that acetic acid and valerate were closely related to the immune response. In this study, the differences in cecal short-chain fatty acids and the immune barrier between Dahe pigs and Dahe black pigs were compared, which provided a theoretical basis for improving the intestinal immunity of pigs.

Keywords: cecum; immune barrier; immune genes; pigs; short-chain fatty acids.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Comparison of short-chain fatty acids in cecum between Dahe pigs and Dahe Black pigs. * indicates significant difference between groups (p < 0.05) and ** indicates difference is extremely significant between groups (p < 0.01).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative expression of cecum short-chain fatty acid immunity gene mRNA in Dahe pigs and Dahe black pigs. The relative mRNA expression levels of (A) IL-6, (B) CXCL8 (IL-8), (C) FFAR2, (D) FFAR3, (E) IL-10, (F) IL-17A, (G) IL-18, (H) IL-1β, (I) AhR, (J) HIF1a, (K) TLR4, (L) IFN-γ, (M) MCP-1, and (N) TNF-α. Data are presented as mean ± SEM (n = 6). * indicates significant difference between groups (p < 0.05) and ns indicates no statistical difference. GAPDH was used as the internal reference gene, and the relative expression was calculated by the 2−ΔΔCt method.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative expression of cecum short-chain fatty acid immunity gene mRNA in Dahe pigs and Dahe black pigs. The relative mRNA expression levels of (A) IL-6, (B) CXCL8 (IL-8), (C) FFAR2, (D) FFAR3, (E) IL-10, (F) IL-17A, (G) IL-18, (H) IL-1β, (I) AhR, (J) HIF1a, (K) TLR4, (L) IFN-γ, (M) MCP-1, and (N) TNF-α. Data are presented as mean ± SEM (n = 6). * indicates significant difference between groups (p < 0.05) and ns indicates no statistical difference. GAPDH was used as the internal reference gene, and the relative expression was calculated by the 2−ΔΔCt method.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Significantly enriched GO for differentially expressed genes. DH vs. DHB. DH, Dahe pigs; DHB, Dahe black pigs.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Significantly enriched KEGG for differentially expressed genes. DH vs. DHB. DH, Dahe pigs; DHB, Dahe black pigs.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Significantly enriched PPI for differentially expressed genes. DH vs. DHB. DH, Dahe pigs; DHB, Dahe black pigs. Nodes represent proteins, lines represent protein–protein associations, green lines indicate text mining, black lines indicate co-expression, blue lines come from curated databases, purple lines indicate gene co-occurrence, and gray lines represent protein homology.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Heat map of short-chain fatty acid content in cecum and expression of genes related to metabolism between Dahe pigs and Dahe black pigs. * means p < 0.05, ** means p < 0.01.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Markowiak-Kopeć P., Śliżewska K. The Effect of Probiotics on the Production of Short-Chain Fatty Acids by Human Intestinal Microbiome. Nutrients. 2020;12:1107. doi: 10.3390/nu12041107. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lu S.X., Li M.L., Yan D.W., Ge C.R. Germplasm Characteristics, Conservation and Diversified Utilization of Yunnan Local pigs Breeds. J. Yunnan Agric. Univ. 2020;35:1096–1105. doi: 10.12101/j.issn.1004-390X(n).202010002. - DOI
    1. Jiao X.H. Research Status of the Development of Wujin pigs. Swine Ind. Sci. 2023;40:118–120. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-5358.2023.02.033. - DOI
    1. Miao X.H., Wu L.F., Zhu R., Shen Y.C., Zhang M.D., Gao C.G., Han M., Chen K.K., Cao X.Y., Wei B., et al. Practice and Thinking on the Conservation and Utilization of Genetic Resources of Main Livestock Breeds in Qujing City. Yunnan J. Anim. Sci. Vet. Med. 2021;4:41–44. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1005-1341.2021.04.017. - DOI
    1. Sivaprakasam S., Gurav A., Paschall A.V., Coe G.L., Chaudhary K., Cai Y., Kolhe R., Martin P., Browning D., Huang L., et al. An essential role of Ffar2 (Gpr43) in dietary fibre-mediated promotion of healthy composition of gut microbiota and suppression of intestinal carcinogenesis. Oncogenesis. 2016;5:e238. doi: 10.1038/oncsis.2016.38. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources