The impact of exogenous vasoactive intestinal polypeptide on inflammatory responses and mRNA expression of tight junction genes in lambs fed a high-grain diet.

This study assessed the impact of administering vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) on inflammation and intestinal VIP and tight junction mRNA expression in lambs fed grain-based finishing diets. Sixteen wether lambs (69.6 ± 1.9 kg) were individually housed, adapted to a corn-based diet containing no forage, and randomly assigned to 2 treatment groups. Lambs were intraperitoneally injected every other day for 28 d with either saline (0.9% NaCl) with no VIP (n = 8; control) or saline with VIP (n = 8; 1.3 nmol/kg BW). Blood samples were collected weekly for analysis of cytokine concentrations, and on days 0 and 28 for lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and LPS-binding protein (LBP) concentrations. Upon completion of the treatment period, lambs were euthanized and gastrointestinal tissues, including rumen, jejunum, cecum, and colon samples, were collected for analysis of the expression of tight junction mRNA (claudin-1, claudin-4, occludin, and ZO-1), endogenous VIP, and VIP receptor (VPAC-1). No treatment effects (P ≥ 0.38) were observed for VIP and VPAC-1 mRNA expression in the colon. Supplementation with VIP did not influence (P ≥ 0.28) the expression of claudin-1, claudin-4, occludin, and ZO-1 tight junction mRNA in the rumen, jejunum, cecum, and colon. Lambs treated with VIP had greater (P ≤ 0.01) plasma concentrations of the anti-inflammatory cytokines, IL-10 and IL-36RA. There were treatment-by-day interactions observed (P ≤ 0.02) for concentrations of the pro-inflammatory cytokines, MIP-1α and MIP-1β. Lambs that did not receive VIP had greater serum concentrations of LPS (P = 0.05) than the lambs receiving VIP. These data suggest that VIP administration may not influence tight junction mRNA expression but may decrease LPS concentrations and thus inflammation in lambs fed a grain-based diet.