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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fayetteville, Arkansas » Poultry Production and Product Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #352956
Research Project: Antibiotic Alternatives for Controlling Foodborne Pathogens and Disease in Poultry

Location: Poultry Production and Product Safety Research

Title: A method to culture chicken enterocytes and their characterization

Author
item Rath, Narayan
item LIYANAGE, ROHANA - University Of Arkansas
item GUPTA, ANAMIKA - University Of Arkansas
item PACKIALAKSHMI, BALAMURUGAN - University Of Arkansas
item LAY, JACKSON - University Of Arkansas

Submitted to: Poultry Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/27/2018
Publication Date: 6/15/2018
Citation: Rath, N.C., Liyanage, R., Gupta, A., Packialakshmi, B., Lay, J. 2018. A method to culture chicken enterocytes and their characterization. Poultry Science. 0:1-8. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey248.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey248

Interpretive Summary: We cultured cells from day-old chicken intestine to study their ability to respond to different treatments and host parasite interactions, which included treatment with nutrients, metabolic modulators such as toxins and short chain fatty acid (sodium butyrate). These cells were also characterized by their expression of relevant proteins by a method called immunohisto chemistry. Our results show that these intestinal cells areamenable to growth and exhibit epithelial morphology and can be useful to explore their physiology under different treatments.

Technical Abstract: Enterocytes function as both absorptive and protective components of intestine that come in close contact with a variety of enteric factors such as dietary, microbial, and parasites, that have potential to affect the organismal health. Understanding how enterocytes interact with these complex array of factors may help improve gut health particularly in the context of poultry production where it is also linked to food safety issues. The enterocyte culture can help screen different factors and their interactions with microbiome, and to develop appropriate interventions such as antibiotic alternatives. We developed a method to culture primary chicken enterocytes and conducted their characterization using cytochemical and proteomic methods, and investigated their potential to respond to different chemical stimuli. Using selected micronutrients, microbial toxins, and metabolic modulators, we assessed their effects on the viability and morphological changes in enterocytes. We found that whereas some nutritional factors (calcitriol, retinoic acid) produced different morphological changes, toxins such as aflatoxin B1 and deoxynivalenol (DON) produced enterocyte degeneration and death, and the bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) had very little effect compared on the bases of their mass. Both cyclic AMP and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) exhibited some cachectic effects on enterocytes with the later showing more severe changes. The thyroxin induced distinct morphological changes making the cells more cuboidal and Na-butyrate produced no significant change in morphology. The cytochemical and proteomic characterization suggest that these enterocytes largely belong to epithelial cell categories, may be amenable to analysis of biochemical paths and mechanisms of action of different factors that affect these cells. Based on these results we conclude that chicken enterocyte culture can be a useful in vitro model to study intestinal physiology.