Relationship between the intestinal permeability to macromolecules and invasion of septicemia-inducing Escherichia coli in neonatal piglets

The influence of age and diet on the invasion of septicemia-inducing Escherichia coli and the endocytotic activity of the small intestinal epithelium were examined in colostrum-deprived conventional and gnotobiotic piglets orally infected with E. coli 078. The piglets infected at birth and the animals fed glucose-amino acids solution and infected at 3 days after birth soon suffered from septicemia caused by the invasion of E. coli 378. The piglets fed artifical milk and infected at 3 days after birth, however, showed resistance to the invasion of E. coli in the absence of passively acquired serum gamma globulin. The endocytotic activity of the small intestinal epithelium was more intense in the former than in the latter piglets. Some of the ileal epithelial cells of the piglets infected at birth contained organisms, although these cells were morphologically intact and showed intense endocytosis. The present results suggest that the intestinal permeability to macromolecules, which depends on the endocytotic activity of the small intestinal epithelium, might predispose neonatal piglets to colisepticemia.