Histological alterations of intestinal villi and epithelial cells after feeding dietary sugar cane extract in piglets

Abstract

Effects of sugar cane extract (SCE) on the piglet intestinal histology were observed. Twelve castrated male piglets weaned at the age of 26 days were allotted to three groups fed diets containing 0, 0.05 or 0.10% SCE. At the end of feeding experiment, each intestinal segment was taken for light or scanning electron microscopy. Feed intake, body weight gain and feed efficiency did not show a difference among groups. Most of the values for villus height, villus area, cell area and cell mitosis numbers were not different among groups, except for that the villus area of the 0.10% SCE group and the cell area of both SCE groups increased significantly at the jejunum compared to the control (P<0.05). For cell mitosis numbers, the 0.10% SCE group was higher than the 0.05% SCE group at the jejunum. Compared with the majority of flat cells of each intestinal segment in the control, the SCE groups had protuberated cells. In the 0.05% SCE group, deeper cells at the sites of recently exfoliated cells in the duodenum, cell clusters aggregated by protuberated cells in the jejunum and much more protuberant cells in the ileum were observed. These histological intestinal alterations suggest that SCE could raise the functions of intestinal villi and epithelial cells, especially at the 0.05%.