Dietary supplementation with pterostilbene activates the PI3K-AKT-mTOR signalling pathway to alleviate progressive oxidative stress and promote placental nutrient transport.

Background: Progressive oxidative stress easily occurs as a result of a gradual increase in the intensity of maternal metabolism due to rapid foetal development and increased intensity of lactation. However, studies on the effects of processive oxidative stress on nutrient transport in the placenta have received little attention. The present study was conducted on sows at 85 days of gestation to study the effects of pterostilbene (PTE) on maternal oxidative stress status and placental nutrient transport.

Results: PTE increased the antioxidant capacity and immunoglobulin content in mothers' blood and milk, reduced the level of inflammatory factors, and improved the nutrient content of milk. PTE also reduced sow backfat loss and the number of weak sons, and increased piglet weaning weight and total weaning litter weight. We subsequently found that PTE enhanced placental glucose and fatty acid transport and further affected glycolipid metabolism by increasing the expression of LAL, PYGM, and Gbe-1, which activated the PI3K phosphorylation pathway. Moreover, PTE addition altered the relative abundance of the Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Parabacillus, and Bacteroidetes-like RF16 groups in sow faeces. PTE increased the levels of acetate, propionate, butyrate and isovalerate in the faeces.

Conclusions: These findings reveal that the addition of PTE during pregnancy and lactation mitigates the effects of processive oxidative stress on offspring development by altering maternal microbial and placental nutrient transport capacity.