%0 Journal Article
%T Effects of inadequate maternal dietary protein:carbohydrate ratios during pregnancy on offspring immunity in pigs
%A Margret Tuchscherer
%A Winfried Otten
%A Ellen Kanitz
%A Maria Gr£¿bner
%A Armin Tuchscherer
%A Olaf Bellmann
%A Charlotte Rehfeldt
%A Cornelia C Metges
%J BMC Veterinary Research
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1746-6148-8-232
%X In sows, the LP diet increased cortisol (P£¿<£¿0.05) and decreased protein levels (P£¿<£¿0.01) at the end of pregnancy. Immunoglobulin concentrations were decreased in LP (IgA) and HP piglets (IgG, IgM and IgA) on the first day of life (P£¿<£¿0.05), whereas the number of lymphocytes and mitogen-induced lymphocyte proliferation of the piglets were unaffected by the maternal diet. Mortality during the suckling period was higher in LP piglets compared with AP and HP offspring (P£¿<£¿0.01). Furthermore, LP piglets showed an elevated cortisol response to weaning, and in HP piglets, the CD4+ cell percentage and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio increased after weaning (P£¿<£¿0.05). The lipopolysaccharide-induced rise of IL-6 was higher in LP (P£¿=£¿0.09) and HP (P£¿<£¿0.01) compared with AP piglets, and LP piglets displayed higher IL-10 levels than AP piglets (P£¿<£¿0.05).Our results indicate that both low and high protein:carbohydrate ratios in the diet of pregnant sows can induce short-term as well as long-lasting effects on immune competence in piglets that may have serious consequences for host defence against bacterial pathogens.Inadequate maternal nutrition and stress during gestation can affect the physiological development of offspring and may increase their susceptibility to diseases later in life [1,2]. Across species, including laboratory animals, non-human primates, and humans, reduced birth weight is a major outcome of disturbances during gestation [3] that may be associated with altered activity of the neuroendocrine system [4] and modified immune function in offspring [5]. Also in domestic pigs, prenatally stressed offspring displayed altered hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis regulation [6,7], suppressed humoral and cellular immune responses [8,9], increased cortisol levels after social mixing [10,11] and stronger fever and cytokine responses to an inflammatory stimulus [12,13]. Inadequate maternal dietary protein and/or carbohydrate levels during pregnancy in pigs have been sho
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/8/232