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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.

Sec. Bacteria and Host

Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1553639

This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Nutritional Strategies for Optimizing Swine Growth Performance and Gut HealthView all 5 articles

Intramuscular iron supplementation enhances intestinal barrier function in weaned piglets challenged with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

Provisionally accepted
Chenying  TianChenying Tian1Xiaofeng  ZhangXiaofeng Zhang2Yecheng  XuYecheng Xu1林凤  Linfeng林凤 Linfeng1Jing  ZhaoJing Zhao1Qingqing  XiongQingqing Xiong1Yuhui  ZhangYuhui Zhang1Shouchuan  JiangShouchuan Jiang1Yu  HanYu Han1Huahua  DuHuahua Du1*
  • 1Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
  • 2Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Since iron is an essential mineral for both host and microbial communities, how to scientifically replenish the iron in the context of bacterial infection has become a critical issue.The aim of this study was to compare the influence of intramuscular and oral iron supplementation on the progression of bacterial infection. We used weaned piglets as an experimental model to supplement iron after enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) K88 infection and found that intramuscular iron supplementation alleviated the clinical symptoms of bacterial infection by deducing the diarrhea rate and alleviated inflammatory response. Compared to oral iron supplementation, intramuscular iron supplementation significantly mitigated the intestinal damage caused by ETEC K88 infection by increasing the ratio of villus length to crypt depth, and repairing epithelial tight junction. Furthermore, intramuscular iron supplementation also protected the function of intestinal goblet cells and improved iron metabolism of infected piglets. Our finding clearly demonstrated that intramuscular iron supplementation is more effective during infection than oral supplementation.

Keywords: Intramuscular iron supplementation, Oral iron supplementation, Weaned piglets, ETEC K88, Diarrhea, intestinal barrier function

Received: 31 Dec 2024; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Tian, Zhang, Xu, Linfeng, Zhao, Xiong, Zhang, Jiang, Han and Du. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Huahua Du, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

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