The role of gut microbiota on the protective effects of baicalin in APEC-induced chicken colibacillosis
Gut microbiota plays a crucial role in herbal medicine therapy, whether gut microbiota was associated the protective role of baicalin on APEC-induced chicken colibacillosis was studied in present study. Treatment of baicalin after APEC infection significantly alleviated the pathological damages of lung (Fig. 3A), colon, heart, liver, and spleen pathological injuries see supplementary Fig. S2A), and viscera index (Table S2), reduced the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 (Fig. 3B-D and supplementary fig. S2B-D), and bacterial loads in the lung tissues (Fig. 3E). However, the protective effects of baicalin on APEC-induced colibacillosis were partly reversed when gut microbiota was depleted in chicken (Fig. 3A-E and supplementary Fig. S2A-C and Table S2). Furthermore, detection of the air-blood barrier permeability showed that depletion of gut microbiota partly counteracted the increase of the concentration of total protein in BALF (Fig. 3F) and the expression of tight junction protein including Occludin, claudin-3, and ZO-1 treated by baicalin (Fig. 3G-I). These results showed that gut microbiota played an important role on baicalin protects APEC-induced colibacillosis.