A gene expression programme induced by bovine colostrum whey promotes growth and wound-healing processes in intestinal epithelial cells

Bovine colostrum is well known for its beneficial properties on health and development. It contains a wide variety of bioactive ingredients that are known to promote a number of cellular processes. Therefore the use of colostrum whey as a feed additive to promote intestinal health has been proposed, yet little is known about mechanisms implicated in its beneficial properties on intestinal epithelial cells. In the present paper, casein were removed from bovine colostrum and the remaining liquid, rich in bioactive compounds, was evaluated for its capacity to modulate cellular processes in porcine intestinal epithelial cell line IPEC-J2 and human colon adenocarcinoma cell line Caco-2/15. First, we verified the effect of colostrum whey and cheese whey on processes involved in intestinal wound healing, including cell proliferation, attachment, morphology and migration. Our results showed that colostrum whey promoted proliferation and migration, and decreased specifically the attachment of Caco-2/15 cells on the culture dish. On the other hand, cheese whey induced proliferation and morphological changes in IPEC-J2 cells, but failed to induce migration. The gene expression profile of IPEC-J2 cells following colostrum whey treatment was evaluated by microarray analysis. Results revealed that the expression of a significant number of genes involved in cell migration, adhesion and proliferation was indeed affected in colostrum whey-treated cells. In conclusion, colostrum specific bioactive content could be beneficial for intestinal epithelial cell homoeostasis by controlling biological processes implicated in wound healing through a precise gene expression programme.