Table 5.

Histomorphology, crypt cell proliferation, immune response, mucin protein, and digestive enzyme activity in the jejunum of nursery pigs fed with whey permeate in exp. 2

	Whey permeate1, %							P-value
Item	0	3.75	7.50	11.25	15.00	18.75	SEM	Linear	Quad.	0% vs. others
Histomorphology
Villus height, μm	548	531	571	531	547	500	32	0.359	0.391	0.701
Villus width2, μm	98	98	99	100	95	105	4	0.483	0.747	0.377
Crypt depth, μm	268	255	265	253	247	251	8	0.082	0.725	0.121
VH:CD	2.04	2.08	2.15	2.11	2.23	1.99	0.12	0.868	0.256	0.569
Crypt cell proliferation, %	27.8	29.1	31.8	31.6	34.2	37.0	3.0	0.012	0.762	0.113
Immune response
TNF-α, pg/mg	0.80	0.81	0.72	0.72	0.74	0.91	0.16	0.359	0.754	0.924
IL-8, pg/mg	170	214	223	203	214	202	14	0.272	0.052	0.015
TGF-β1, pg/mg	4.40	3.10	3.88	3.64	4.18	2.86	0.75	0.387	0.857	0.225
MUC2, U/mg	0.52	0.43	0.43	0.55	0.53	0.39	0.07	0.700	0.656	0.456
Digestive enzyme activity
Sucrase, U/mg	20.4	21.4	19.1	16.5	20.7	18.8	2.0	0.413	0.514	0.587
Maltase, U/mg	87.1	70.4	56.5	46.8	92.4	51.4	12.3	0.222	0.288	0.077
Lactase, U/mg	15.8	11.7	9.0	9.3	4.9	6.6	2.8	0.020	0.441	0.033

¹Treatments were the supplemental levels of whey permeate in the diets.

²Villus width is the average of the three lengths (tip, middle, and base of villus).