AUTHOR=Wen Chaoyue , Guo Qiuping , Wang Wenlong , Duan Yehui , Zhang Lingyu , Li Jianzhong , He Shanping , Chen Wen , Li Fengna 

TITLE=Taurine Alleviates Intestinal Injury by Mediating Tight Junction Barriers in Diquat-Challenged Piglet Models

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physiology

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2020.00449

DOI=10.3389/fphys.2020.00449

ISSN=1664-042X

ABSTRACT=Background: Intestinal barrier contributes an important role in maintaining intestinal homeostasis. Oxidative stress can cause critically damages in intestinal integrity of animals.
Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the alleviated effect of taurine against small intestine (duodenum, jejunum, ileum) injury induced by oxidative stress. 
Methods: piglets were administered diquat and supplemented with taurine contained diet.
Results: Our study revealed that oxidative stress triggered immune response, caused a serious damage of small intestinal morphology and tight junction function in diquat-induced weaned piglets. Taurine supplementation attenuated oxidative stress mainly by strengthening serum immune response, improving the villus height and the ratio of villus height/crypt depth (V/C), and decreasing the crypt depth in small intestine, and elevating the protein expression of Occlaudin and ZO-1or recovering the protein expression of Claudin-1. 
Conclusions: Taurine exerts protective effects by regulating immune response and restoring the intestinal tight junction barrier whenever piglets suffer from oxidative stress.