Ageratina adenophora damages the rumen epithelium via inducing the expression of inflammatory factors in goats

Abstract The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of Ageratina adenophora on the expression of epithelium tight junction proteins and inflammatory factors in the rumen of goats. Twelve goats were randomly divided into three groups. The first group was the blank control group (n=3, C) which was fed normal diet. The second group was fistulas control group (n=3, RFC), which was fitted with rumen fistulas, and fed normal diet. The third group was the A. adenophora test group (n=6, AA), which was fitted with rumen fistulas and fed a mixture of 60% of normal diet and 40% of A. adenophora grass powder. The feeding experiment lasted for 90d, after which all goats were sacrificed and samples were collected from the rumen dorsal sac and ventral sac. The relative expression of mRNA of inflammatory factors in the rumen epithelium (TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, and IL-10) and tight junction protein genes (Occludin, Claudin-1, and ZO-1) was measured by quantitative real-time fluorescence PCR (qRT-PCR). Expression of tight junction proteins in the rumen epithelium was measured by Western blot. A correlation was established between the expression of inflammatory factors and tight junction protein genes using Graph Pad Prism. The results showed that A. adenophora caused a significant increase in the mRNA expression levels of TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6 and IL-10 in the rumen epithelial (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The expression of tight junction proteins at both gene and protein levels was significantly decreased (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Furthermore, the correlation analysis revealed that the changes of tight junction protein expression in the test group were closely related to the upregulation of the expression of inflammatory factors TNF-α and IFN-γ in rumen epithelial cells. In conclusion, the expression of inflammatory factors was increased and the expression of tight junction proteins was decreased in goats after feeding on A. adenophora, which caused some damage to the rumen epithelium.