Bovine milk osteopontin improved intestinal health of high-fat diet pregnant rats through improving bile acid metabolism

Main purpose of the current study was to investigate the ameliorative effects of bovine milk osteopontin (bmOPN) on gut dysfunction of pregnant rats fed high-fat diet (HFD). bmOPN was supplemented at a dose of 6 mg/kg body weight. bmOPN supplementation during pregnancy reduced colonic inflammation of HFD dams. bmOPN also increased the colonic expression of ZO-1 and Claudin4 of HFD dams. bmOPN significantly enriched the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes, while decreased Proteobacteria, Helicobacteraceae and Desulfovibrionaceae in feces of HFD dams. The levels of isobutyric acid and pentanoic acid in HFD+bmOPN group were higher than that of HFD group. Functional predication analysis of microbial genome revealed that bmOPN supplementation to HFD pregnancies changed 4 KEGG pathways including bile acid biosynthesis. Further, bmOPN enriched hepatic taurochenodeoxycholic acid and tauroursodeoxycholic acid+taurohyodeoxycholic acid in the gut of HFD maternal rats. Our findings suggested that bmOPN improved gut health of HFD pregnant rats partially through modulating bile acid biosynthesis.