Grain-rich diets altered the colonic fermentation and mucosa-associated bacterial communities and induced mucosal injuries in goats

Remarkably little information is available about the impact of high-grain (HG) feeding on colonic mucosa-associated bacteria and mucosal morphology. In the present study, 12 male goats were randomly assigned to either a hay diet (n = 6) or an HG diet (65% grain; n = 6) to characterise the changes in the composition of the bacterial community in colonic mucosa and the mucosal morphology of the colon. The results showed that HG feeding decreased the colonic pH and increased the concentrations of total short chain fatty acids and lipopolysaccharides in colonic digesta. The principal coordinate analysis results showed that the HG diet altered the colonic mucosal bacterial communities, with an increase in the abundance of genus Blautia and a decrease in the abundance of genera Bacillus, Enterococcus, and Lactococcus. The HG-fed goats showed sloughing of the surface layer epithelium, intercellular tight junction erosion, cell mitochondrial damage, and upregulation of the relative mRNA expression of IL-2 and IFN-γ in colonic mucosa. Collectively, our data indicate that HG feeding induced changes in colonic mucosal morphology and cytokines expression that might be caused by excessive fermentation and dramatic shifts in the bacterial populations in the colon.