title: The gut-brain axis interactions during heat stress and avian necrotic enteritis.
abstract: The gut-brain axis is known to modulate behavioral and immune responses in animals; evidence supporting this modulation in chickens, however, is elusive. Here, we analyzed the effects of heat stress and/orClostridium perfringens (CP) infection on behavior, intestinal morphology, brain activity, and corticosterone serum levels in chickens. Broilers were randomly divided into 5 equal groups: a naïve group (N), a thioglycolate group (T), a thioglycolate heat-stressed group (T/HS35), an infected group (I), and an infected/stressed (I/HS35) group. Broilers in the I and I/HS35 groups were experimentally infected withClostridium perfringensfrom the 15th to the 19th day of life. Heat stress (35±1°C) was constantly applied to the broilers in the stressed groups from the 14th to the 19th day of life. Our data showed that heat stress andC. perfringensinfection produced significant differential responses in the chickens' behavior and in c-fosexpression in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), nucleus taenia of the amygdala (Tn), medial preoptic area (POM), andglobus pallidus (GP) of the chickens. Heat stress ameliorated some of the intestinal lesions and the neuroendocrine changes induced byC. perfringensin the birds. Our results suggest the existence of clear relationships between the degree of intestinal lesions, the chickens' behavioral outcomes, brain activity, and serum levels of corticosterone. Together, they reinforce the importance of neuroimmunomodulation and especially of brain-gut axis interactions.
authors.affiliation: Neuroimmunomodulation Research Group, Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science ascalefi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Atilio Sersun
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Calefi
authors.affiliation: Neuroimmunomodulation Research Group, Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science.
authors.forename: Juliana Garcia
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: da Silva Fonseca
authors.affiliation: Neuroimmunomodulation Research Group, Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science.
authors.forename: Daniel Wagner Hamada
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Cohn
authors.affiliation: Neuroimmunomodulation Research Group, Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science.
authors.forename: Bruno Takashi Bueno
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Honda
authors.affiliation: Neuroimmunomodulation Research Group, Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science.
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Costola-de-Souza
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Physiology of Behavior, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Lucila Emiko
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Tsugiyama
authors.affiliation: Neuroimmunomodulation Research Group, Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science.
authors.forename: Wanderley Moreno
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Quinteiro-Filho
authors.affiliation: Neuroimmunomodulation Research Group, Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science.
authors.forename: Antonio J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Piantino Ferreira
authors.affiliation: Neuroimmunomodulation Research Group, Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science.
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Palermo-Neto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002645:Chickens; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000662:veterinary; D003016:Clostridium perfringens; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000097:blood; D004751:Enteritis / Q000209:etiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000378:metabolism*; D016762:Genes, fos / Q000502:physiology; D018882:Heat Stress Disorders / Q000378:metabolism / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D003345:Corticosterone
keywords: Clostridium perfringens; c-fos; gut-brain axis; neuroimmunomodulation; sickness behavior