Goblet cell mucin distribution in the small intestine of newborn goat kids fed lyophilized bovine colostrum

The number of goblet cells containing neutral and acidic mucins, including sulphomucins and sialomucins, was investigated in the small intestine of goat kids fed with lyophilized bovine colostrum in the period of passive immunity acquisition. At 0, 7 and 14 h of life, 15 male newborns received 5% of body weight of lyophilized bovine colostrum (LBC) and 14 male newborns received goat colostrum (GC), both with 55 mg/mL of IgG. Three additional animals were sampled at birth, without colostrum intake. Duodenum, jejunum and ileum samples were collected at 18, 36 and 96 h of life. Histological stains, periodic acid-Schiff, 1% alcian blue pH 2.5 and 1% alcian blue pH 1.0 were used to identify neutral and acidic mucins and acidic sulphated mucins, respectively. The number of goblet cells containing neutral and acidic mucins, including sulphomucins and sialomucins, does not differ in the duodenum (P>0.05). In the jejunum, LBC showed a higher number of goblet cells containing sialomucins compared to GC (P<0.05). The highest number of goblet cells containing acidic and neutral mucins and total number of goblet cells were observed at 96 h (P<0.05). In this segment, vacuoles of colostrum were present at 18 and 36 h mainly in the upper region of the villi, while the goblet cells were located at the bottom. At 96 h, vacuoles of colostrum were not detected, only goblet cells distributed throughout the villi. In the ileum, the number of goblet cells containing sulphomucins was higher (P<0.05) at 96 h than at 18 h. The LBC group showed higher (P<0.05) number of goblet cells containing sulphomucins at 96 h and total number of goblet cells at 36 and 96 h than the 0-h group. The present work revealed that the greater the absorption of colostrum in the goat kids' jejunum epithelium, the smaller the number of goblet cells. Considering this segment, feeding newborns with heterologous colostrum caused alteration in the number of goblet cells containing sialomucin. This condition suggested a reaction of the intestinal epithelium with increasing secretion due to the presence of non-recognized substances from the lyophilized bovine colostrum.