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Effects of oral florfenicol on intestinal structure, function and microbiota in mice

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Abstract

Many kinds of antibiotics have effects on intestinal structure and function. In the current experimental study, we evaluate the effect of oral florfenicol on intestinal barrier in mice. Thirty adult male mice were randomly divided into two groups, the group none (N) and the group florfenicol (F), the mice in group F were orally administered florfenicol 100 mg/kg body weight (BW) for 7 days. At day 8, mice were euthanized and sampled for the analysis of alterations in genes and proteins from jejunum, jejunum morphology and microbiota analysis. Administration of florfenicol caused higher liver index (P < 0.05). In the jejunum, mucosa injury and villus rupture, compared with the group N, the villus length and V/C (villus length/crypt depth) in group F were marked decrease (P < 0.01). The transcription level of Muc2 and occludin in group F were significantly lower than those in group N (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05). The expression of APRIL, IL-17, IL-22, BAFF and sIgA on protein level were significantly down-regulated (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05), while the expression of IL-10, TGF-β, IL-6, IL-4 were significantly up-regulated (P < 0.01) in group F. The abundances of bacteria in Firmicutes and Lactobacillus decreased significantly (P < 0.01) in group F. Our results indicated that oral administration of florfenicol might have a negative impact on functions of intestinal mucosal barrier, immune system and the intestinal microbiota.

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Data availability

The meta-genome data are available in the NCBI under BioProject PRJNA470777.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the scientific and technological project of Shanxi Province, China (Grant No. 20140311022-1) and the Key project of Shanxi Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 201703D211001-05-02). All experiments were carried out in compliance with the current laws of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, 030801, China

    Shiyu Yun, Yurong Guo, Lan Yang, Weiqi Shen, Zhuo Wang, Shuang Wen, Dongdong Zhao, Haiping Wu, Jia Chen, Yaogui Sun & Zhibian Duan

  2. Institute of Industrial Crops, Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Taiyuan, 030000, Shanxi, China

    Shiyu Yun & Xin Zhang

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  1. Shiyu Yun
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  2. Yurong Guo
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  3. Lan Yang
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  4. Xin Zhang
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Contributions

ZD designed the experiments. SY, YG, LY, WS, ZW, SW, DZ, HW, JC, YS, ZD, performed the experimental work. SY analyzed the data analysis. SY and XZ wrote the manuscript. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhibian Duan.

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Yun, S., Guo, Y., Yang, L. et al. Effects of oral florfenicol on intestinal structure, function and microbiota in mice. Arch Microbiol 202, 161–169 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-019-01731-y

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