Table 3.

Effects of dietary treatment on concentrations of serum amyloid A (SAA), lipopolysaccharide binding protein (LBP), haptoglobin (Hp), interleukin-6 (IL-6), blood lipopolysaccharides (LPS), and fecal pH and LPS

	Treatment 1			SEM	P -value
Item	CT	FM	PM
Blood
SAA, μg/mL	37.1a	28.6ab	20.1b	5.21	0.036
LBP, μg/mL	4.1a	3.8ab	2.9b	0.65	0.048
Hp, μg/mL	675αβ	695α	601β	42.9	0.084
IL-6, 2 ng/mL	0.90	1.23	0.83	(0.0–4.1)	0.260
LPS, 3 EU/mL	0.35	0.36	0.42	0.082	0.387
Feces4
pH	6.60	6.56	6.65	0.057	0.697
LPS, 2,3 × 103 EU/mL	10.9	5.4	10.9	(5.4–13.9)	0.168

¹Treatments: control diet (CT); fumarate-malate mixture (FM); polyphenol-essential oil mixture (PM).

²Statistical analysis was conducted on natural logarithm (ln) transformed data that are presented as ln back transformed and 95%-confidence interval in brackets.

³LPS were reported as endotoxin unit.

⁴For feces variables, the statistical model included also the repeated effect of daily sampling time (3 levels: 0800 vs. 1400 vs. 2100). The effect was significant for pH (P = 0.042), but not for LPS (P = 0.128).

^{a, b}Means with different superscripts within a row differ (P <0.05).

^{α, β}Means with different superscripts within a row differ (P <0.10).