. 2021 Sep 23;12:713485. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.713485

Table 5.

Effects of dietary treatment on the jejunal morphology, sIgA, and MUC 2 of 7- and 14-day-old broilers.

Items	GML levels (mg/kg feed)					SEM	P-value
Items	CON	300	600	900	1200	SEM	Linear	Quadratic
7 d of age
VH (µm)	659.86	708.71	706.49	684.76	675.15	14.75	0.881	0.300
CD (µm)	107.01^a	101.01^a	83.39^ab	67.32^b	60.48^b	4.37	<0.001	0.928
VCR	6.24^d	7.11^cd	8.66^bc	10.34^ab	11.30^a	0.43	<0.001	0.841
sIgA (ng/mgprot)	26.01	26.48	25.70	26.60	25.32	0.45	0.694	0.645
MUC 2 (ng/mgprot)	209.22	208.11	201.65	202.80	198.44	2.28	0.14	0.97
14 d of age
VH (µm)	745.08	697.30	670.03	686.95	708.35	15.99	0.663	0.227
CD (µm)	102.33^a	89.90^ab	73.28^bc	66.33^c	69.10^c	3.44	<0.001	0.019
VCR	7.30^b	7.84^ab	8.88^ab	10.37^a	10.34^a	0.39	0.001	0.764
sIgA (ng/mgprot)	25.18	25.10	27.62	25.35	25.73	0.38	0.611	0.221
MUC 2 (ng/mgprot)	194.11^b	192.53^b	202.68^ab	201.31^ab	212.2^a	2.14	0.002	0.418

VH, villus height; CD, crypt depth; VCR, villus height to crypt depth ratio; sIgA, secreted immunoglobulin A; MUC 2, mucin 2; mgprot, mg of protein; SEM, total standard error of mean.

Values were expressed as least squares means ± SEM (n = 6).

^a,b,c,dDifferent superscripts in the same line indicate significant differences according to Tukey’s multiple comparisons (P < 0.05).