Effect of deoxynivalenol on apoptosis, barrier function, and expression levels of genes involved in nutrient transport, mitochondrial biogenesis and function in IPEC-J2 cells

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effect of 200 ng mL⁻¹ and 2000 ng mL⁻¹ deoxynivalenol (DON) on apoptosis, barrier function, nutrient transporter gene expression, and free amino acid variation as well as on mitochondrial biogenesis and function-related gene expression in the intestinal porcine epithelial cell line J2 (IPEC-J2) for 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h. Exposure to 200 ng mL⁻¹ DON inhibited the cell viability and promoted cell cycle progression from the G2/M phase to the S phase (P < 0.05). The data showed that the IPEC-J2 cell content of free amino acids, such as valine, methionine, leucine, and phenylalanine, was increased (P < 0.05) after treatment for 6 h; the aspartate, threonine, and lysine contents increased (P < 0.05) after treatment for 12 h; and the aspartate, serine, glycine, alanine, isoleucine, leucine, and lysine contents decreased (P < 0.05) after treatment for 24 h. The expression levels of barrier function genes, including zonula occludens 1 (ZO-1), occludin (OCLN), and claudin 1 (CLDN1), showed a significant reduction (P < 0.05). Moreover, the expression levels of differently regulated nutrient transporter genes, including B^0,+ amino acid transporter (B^0,+AT) and sodium-glucose transporter 1 (SGLT1) genes, showed a significant decrease (P < 0.05), while the Na⁺-dependent neutral amino acid transporter 2 (ASCT2) and glucose transporter type 2 (GLUT2) showed a significant increase (P < 0.01). The expression levels of cytokine genes, including IL-8, and IL-1β genes, showed a significant increase (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the expression levels of mitochondrial biogenesis and function-related genes, including mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) and nuclear respiratory factor-1 (NRF), mitochondrial single-strand DNA-binding protein (mt SSB) and mitochondrial polymerase r (mt polr), NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4 (ND4) and cytochrome c oxidase (CcOX) IV, CcOX V and cytochrome c (Cyt c), mammalian silencing information regulator-2α (SIRT-1), glucokinase and citrate synthase (CS), showed a significant increase (P < 0.05). Taken together, the present study indicated that 200 and 2000 ng mL⁻¹ DON could affect proliferation and cell cycle progression from the G2/M phase to the S phase and could mediate the expression levels of differently regulated barrier function, nutrient transport, and mitochondrial biogenesis and function-related genes.