Conductive cooling and Moringa oleifera supplementation of heat stressed sows during late gestation and lactation alters the cheek cell lipidome of neonatal pigs

Exposure to maternal heat stress during gestation and lactation reduces litter growth. Heat stress disrupts lipid metabolism and elevates the risk of oxidative damage to lipids. However, it remains unclear whether maternal heat stress during gestation and lactation affects lipid profiles of offspring. Buccal cheek cells, which can be collected noninvasively, provide a valuable source for assessing the metabolic response to such environmental challenges. A 2 × 2 factorial study was conducted to investigate the impact of maternal cooling and supplementation with Moringa oleifera, a high-antioxidant feedstuff, on the lipid composition of buccal cells of neonates born to sows exposed to moderate heat stress conditions. Sows were assigned to one of four treatments: electronic cooling pad (ECP) + control corn–soybean meal (CS) diet (n = 8), heat stressed (HS) + CS (n = 8), HS + 4% Moringa-supplemented diet (M; n = 8), ECP + M (n = 8). Piglet cheek cells were collected on day 19 postnatal using a cytology brush from two male and two female neonates per sow litter (n = 128 neonates). Lipids were extracted and analyzed using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) profiling. Relative abundance of lipids was calculated, and MetaboAnalyst 6.0 was used for statistical analysis to assess the effects of cooling, diet, parity, and sex on the neonatal lipidome. Of the 887 MRM corresponding to lipids greater than blank samples, ECP significantly influenced the relative abundance of 255 lipids, while diet affected 80, parity influenced 272 lipids, and sex impacted 84 lipids (P < 0.05). Triacylglycerols (TGs) represented the majority of lipids altered by ECP. Compared to HS, ECP increased the total number of carbons in fatty acyl chains of TG, reduced TG with shorter chains, and increased the number of unsaturated bonds in TG molecules. Lipid profiles of neonates from Moringa-supplemented sows indicated the presence of plant-derived lipids and a greater level of lipids that possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant qualities. The distribution of TG by carbon length varied by parity. TG and membrane lipids of female neonates had longer carbon lengths and greater unsaturated bonds than those of males. Neonate buccal cell lipid profiles mirrored ECP, Moringa, and parity influences on sow milk lipidome, supporting that milk lipids affect lipid composition of buccal cells of neonates. Future studies are warranted to investigate whether such lipid alterations affect the development of neonates.