The intestinal immune function of chickens is limited during the early growing stage. Maternal nutritional intervention has been suggested to affect the innate immunity of offspring. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of maternal stevioside supplementation on the intestinal immune function of chicken offspring. A total of 120 Jinmao yellow-feathered breeder hens were fed a basal diet or a diet supplemented with 250 mg/kg stevioside for 5 weeks. During the last week, 200 breeding eggs from each group were collected for incubation. After hatching, 80 male offspring (40 chickens from each group) were randomly selected and fed the same basal diet for 28 d. In addition, 90 well-shaped fertile eggs of non-treated breeder hens were incubated for the in ovo injection experiment. Steviol dissolved in 20% glycerol was injected at 7 d of incubation. The results showed that maternal stevioside supplementation could improve embryonic development, jejunal integrity and proliferation in the jejunal crypt (P < 0.05). Maternal stevioside supplementation could also increase the innate transcription levels of cytokines and endotoxin tolerance-related factors in the jejunum of chicken offspring (P < 0.05). At 28 d of age, the offspring following maternal stevioside supplementation exhibited higher jejunal secretory immunoglobulin A and serum interferons levels (P < 0.05). A higher abundance of Lactobacillales induced by maternal stevioside supplementation was positively correlated with intestinal immune-related factors (P < 0.05). The in ovo injection with steviol did not alter either embryonic development or intestinal immune function of hatching chickens (P > 0.05). Furthermore, maternal stevioside supplementation could induce hypo-methylation on the promoter region of suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS1). In conclusion, maternal stevioside supplementation could improve the intestinal immune function of chicken offspring potentially via modulating the gut microbiota and down-regulating the promoter methylation level of SOCS1.

鸡的肠道免疫功能在生长早期是有限的。已提出母体营养干预会影响后代的先天免疫。本研究旨在探讨母体添加甜菊苷对鸡仔肠道免疫功能的影响。对120只金茂黄羽种鸡进行基础日粮或添加250mg/kg甜菊苷的日粮喂养5周。在最后一周，每组收集了200只种蛋进行孵化。孵化后，随机选择80只雄性后代（每组40只鸡），饲喂相同的基础日粮28 d。此外，90个未处理的种鸡的形状良好的受精蛋被孵化用于蛋内注射实验。在孵育 7 天时注射溶解在 20% 甘油中的甜菊醇。结果表明，母体补充甜菊苷可以改善胚胎发育、空肠完整性和空肠隐窝的增殖。P  < 0.05)。母体添加甜菊苷还可提高鸡仔空肠细胞因子和内毒素耐受相关因子的先天转录水平（P  < 0.05）。母体补充甜菊苷后的后代在 28 日龄时表现出较高的空肠分泌性免疫球蛋白 A 和血清干扰素水平（P  < 0.05）。母体补充甜菊苷诱导的较高丰度乳杆菌与肠道免疫相关因素呈正相关（P  < 0.05）。蛋内注射甜菊醇不会改变孵化鸡的胚胎发育或肠道免疫功能（P > 0.05)。此外，母体甜菊苷补充剂可诱导细胞因子信号抑制因子 1 ( SOCS1 )的启动子区域低甲基化。总之，母体甜菊苷补充剂可能通过调节肠道微生物群和下调SOCS1的启动子甲基化水平来改善鸡后代的肠道免疫功能。