Abstract
1. Little is known about the activities and regulation of cytochrome P4503A (CYP3A) enzymes in porcine colon in response to specific feeding components.
2. We added hydrolyzable tannins to the diet of fattening boars and studied its effect on the expression of hepatic and intestinal CYP3A.
3. In total, 51 Landrace × Large White boars were assigned to the following treatment groups: control (without the addition of hydrolysable tannins), T1 (diet-containing 1% hydrolysable tannin extract), T2 (diet-containing 2% hydrolysable tannin extract) and T3 (diet-containing 3% hydrolysable tannin extract). CYP3A expression and activity were measured in microsomes prepared from liver and colon tissue.
4. CYP3A protein expression and activity were increased in the colon of pigs fed 2% and 3% tannins, while no changes were observed with lower tannin concentrations, or in the liver of any treatment groups. Also, it was demonstrated that colon mucosa possess CYP3A activity similar to that measured in the liver.
5. The present results provide the first evidence that tannin supplementation can modulate CYP3A in porcine colon mucosa in vivo. The physiological significance of this finding for the health status of the individual animal needs further investigation.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency (grants L4-5521; P4-0133) and by Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, NL faculty. The authors also acknowledge Matheus Antunes Junqueira for his valuable help with in vitro study and Jill Brew for her indispensable effort in language editing.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Supplementary material available online Supplementary Table I