Effect of Perilla frutescens Extracts on Porcine Jejunal Epithelial Cells

Growth behavior and mRNA expression profiling during growth of IPEC-J2 cells

OBJECTIVE

The IPEC-J2 cell line is used as an in vitro small intestine model for swine, but it is also used as a model for the human intestine, presenting a relatively unique setting. By combining electric cell-substrate impedance sensing, with next-generation-sequencing technology, we showed that mRNA gene expression profiles and related pathways can depend on the growth phase of IPEC-J2 cells. Our investigative approach welcomes scientists to reproduce or modify our protocols and endorses putting their gene expression data in the context of the respective growth phase of the cells.

RESULTS

Three time points are presented: (TP1) 1 h after medium change (= 6 h after seeding of cells), (TP2) the time point of the first derivative maximum of the cell growth curve, and a third point at the beginning of the plateau phase (TP3). Significantly outstanding at TP1 compared to TP2 was upregulated PLEKHN1, further FOSB and DEGS2 were significantly downregulated at TP2 compared to TP3. Any provided data can be used to improve next-generation experiments with IPEC-J2 cells.

Porcine and Chicken Intestinal Epithelial Cell Models for Screening Phytogenic Feed Additives—Chances and Limitations in Use as Alternatives to Feeding Trials

Numerous bioactive plant additives have shown various positive effects in pigs and chickens. The demand for feed additives of natural origin has increased rapidly in recent years to support the health of farm animals and thus minimize the need for antibiotics and other drugs. Although only in vivo experiments can fully represent their effect on the organism, the establishment of reliable in vitro methods is becoming increasingly important in the goal of reducing the use of animals in experiments. The use of cell models requires strict control of the experimental conditions so that reliability and reproducibility can be achieved. In particular, the intestinal porcine epithelial cell line IPEC-J2 represents a promising model for the development of new additives. It offers the possibility to investigate antioxidative, antimicrobial, anti- or pro-proliferative and antiviral effects. However, the use of IPEC-J2 is limited due to its purely epithelial origin and some differences in its morphology and functionality compared to the in vivo situation. With regard to chickens, the development of a reliable intestinal epithelial cell model has attracted the attention of researchers in recent years. Although a promising model was presented lately, further studies are needed to enable the standardized use of a chicken cell line for testing phytogenic feed additives. Finally, co-cultivation of the currently available cell lines with other cell lines and the development of organoids will open up further application possibilities. Special emphasis was given to the IPEC-J2 cell model. Therefore, all publications that investigated plant derived compounds in this cell line were considered. The section on chicken cell lines is based on publications describing the development of chicken intestinal epithelial cell models.

Lemna minor studies under various storage periods using extended-polarity extraction and metabolite non-target screening analysis

Plant metabolomic studies cover a broad band of compounds, including various functional groups with different polarities and other physiochemical properties. For this reason, specific optimized methods are needed in order to enable efficient and non-destructive extraction of molecules over a large range of LogD values. This study presents a simple and efficient extraction procedure for Lemna minor samples demonstrating polarity extension of the molecular range. The Lemna samples chosen were kept under the following storage conditions: 1) fresh, 2) stored for a few days at -80 °C, and 3) stored for 6 months at -80 °C. The samples were extracted using five specifically chosen solvents: 100 % ethanol, 100 % methanol (MeOH), acidic 90 % MeOH (MeOH-water-formic acid (FAC) (90:9.5:0.5, v/v/v), MeOH-water (50:50, v/v), and 100 % water. The final extraction procedure was conducted subject to three solvent conditions, and the subsequent polarity-extended analysis was applied for Lemna minor samples using RPLC-HILIC-ESI-TOF-MS. The extraction yield is in descending order (acidic 90 % MeOH), 50 % MeOH, 100 % water and 100 % MeOH. The results displayed significant molecular differences, both in the extracts investigated and in the fresh Lemna samples, compared to stored samples, in terms of the extraction yield and reducing contents as well as the number of features. The storage of Lemna minor resulted in changes to the fingerprint of its metabolites as the reducing contents increased. The comparisons enable a direct view of molecule characterizations, in terms of their polarity, molecular mass, and signal intensity. This parametric information would appear ideal for further statistical data analysis. Consequently, the extraction procedure and the analysis/data evaluation are highly suitable for the so-called extended-polarity non-target screening procedure.