He, LiuqinZhou, XihongWu, ZipingFeng, YanzhongLiu, DiLi, TiejunYin, Yulong2022-05-312022-05-312022-03-26He, L., Zhou, X., Wu, Z., Feng, Y., Liu, D., Li, T. and Yin, Y. (2022) ‘Glutamine in suppression of lipopolysaccharide-induced piglet intestinal inflammation: The crosstalk between AMPK activation and mitochondrial function’, Animal Nutrition. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.aninu.2022.03.001.2405-6545 (electronic)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aninu.2022.03.001Publication history: Accepted - 18 March 2022; Published online - 26 March 2022.The study was conducted to investigate the regulatory mechanism of glutamine (Gln) on intestinal inflammation in an Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (E. coli LPS)-induced in vivo and in vitro models. Piglets (n = 8) weaned at 21 d of age were fed a basal diet (control and LPS groups) or 1% Gln diet (Gln + LPS group) ad libitum for 4 weeks. On d 22, 24, 26 and 28, piglets in the LPS and Gln + LPS groups were intraperitoneally injected with E. coli LPS. Intestinal porcine epithelial cells (IPEC-J2) (n = 6) induced by LPS were used to assess related mechanisms and compound C was used to inhibit adenosine 5′-monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity. Our current results showed that compared with the LPS treatment, the Gln + LPS treatment had better growth performance and greater villus height (P < 0.05), and the Gln + LPS treatment reduced the rate of diarrhea by 6.4% (P < 0.05); the Gln + LPS treatment decreased serum tumor necrosis factor (TNF-ɑ), interleukin-6 (IL-6), K+, cortisol and insulin levels, whereas increased (P < 0.05) serum immunoglobulin M and epidermal growth factor levels; the Gln + LPS treatment increased (P < 0.05) the expression of aquaporins and AMPK pathway-associated targets in the jejunum and ileum of piglets, whereas decreased the expression of ion transporters (P < 0.05). The in vitro results showed that 4 mmol/L Gln administration could inhibit (P < 0.05) cell apoptosis and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6 and TNF-ɑ secretion in LPS-induced IPEC-J2 cells, promote (P < 0.05) mitochondrial respiratory metabolism and increase (P < 0.05) the number of mitochondria and mitochondrial membrane potential. The activity of AMPK was elevated by 70% to 300% in Gln-treated IPEC-J2 cells under LPS challenge or normal conditions. Our results indicate that pre-administration of Gln to piglets suppresses intestinal inflammation by modulating the crosstalk between AMPK activation and mitochondrial function.en© 2022 Chinese Association of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).GlutamineWeaned pigletIntestinal inflammationAMPKMitochondrial functionArticle