Qingqiao polyphenols may alleviate multi-organ inflammatory injury caused by Escherichia coli infection in chickens by regulating pyroptosis in a gut microbiota-independent manner

Background This study systematically elucidates the mechanism by which Qingqiao polyphenols (QP) alleviate bacterial infectious lesions in poultry by regulating the pyroptosis signaling pathway. Methods An Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) O157 infection model was established and evaluate the effect of QP on infected chickens. Results Results showed QP significantly alleviated infection-induced systemic damage, manifested as improved pathological lesions in liver and lungs, and restored mucosal structures in duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. Further studies demonstrated that QP alleviates inflammatory damage in the liver, lungs, and intestines (duodenum, jejunum, ileum) of chickens induced by E. coli , by suppressing the pyroptosis signaling pathway. After gut microbial depletion by antibiotics, a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced chicken enteritis model was used to evaluate whether QP can exert anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting the pyroptosis pathway. The results demonstrated that QP effectively suppressed pyroptosis and alleviated LPS-induced intestinal inflammation, maintaining efficacy even under antibiotic depleted microbiota group conditions. This suggests that the anti-inflammatory effect of QP may be mediated by a pyroptosis pathway that is independent of the gut microbiota. Conclusion This study confirms that QP exerts multi-organ protective effects against E. coli -induced inflammatory injury via a gut microbiota-independent pyroptosis-inhibitory mechanism, which provides a new theoretical basis for the application of QP as an antibiotic substitute in poultry bacterial disease prevention and control.