The mucosal layer of the intestine is in direct contact
with luminal contents, and contributes to the immune
defense against pathogens (Schenk and Mueller, 2008).
Therefore, investigating the alteration of ileal mucosa
function is important to help understand the underlying
mechanisms, by which the plant extracts protect against
the consequences of the E. coli infection. The objective
of this study was to characterize gene expression of ileal
mucosa of pigs as affected by experimental infection
with a pathogenic E. coli and by plant extracts using the
porcine genome array followed by quantitative real-time
PCR (qRT-PCR) validation.