Moreover, the protective effects of curcumin on intestinal
mucosa barrier have been repeatedly demonstrated in a variety of gastrointestinal
disease models in rats [19–21] and human [22]. However,
knowledge about the influence of curcumin administration to piglets
on intestinal mucosal barrier function is still scarce. Therefore, the
purpose of our study is to investigate the effects of curcumin on growth
performance and intestinal mucosal barrier function by establishing a
pigletmodel of postweaning diarrhea. The effects on intestinalmucosal
barrier function were assessed by analyzing jejunal morphology and
histology, jejunalmucosal membrane integrity, secretory immunoglobulin
(sIgA), Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and cytokine expression.