Age and nutritional state influence the effects of cholecystokinin on energy balance

AbstractCholecystokinin (CCK) is anorexic, irrespective whether it is applied intraperitoneally (IP) or intracerebroventricularly (ICV) in male Wistar rats. The metabolic effects depend on the route of administration: by the IP route it elicits hypothermia (presumably by type-1 receptors, CCK1R-s), while ICV administration is followed by fever-like hypermetabolism and hyperthermia via activation of CCK2R-s, which latter response seems to be most important in the postprandial (compensatory) hypermetabolism. The efficacy of the IP injected CCK varies with age: it causes strong anorexia in young adult 4 and 6-months old and again in old rats (aged 18–24months), but the middle-aged (12-month old) ones seem to be resistant to this effect. Such pattern of effects may contribute to the explanation of age-related obesity observed in middle-aged animals as well as to the aging anorexia and loss of body weight in old ones. Diet-induced obesity accelerates the appearance of CCK-resistance as well as the return of high sensitivity to CCK in further aging, while chronic calorie-restriction prevents the development of resistance, as if the speed of the age-related regulatory changes was altered by the nutritional state. The effects of ICV applied CCK also change with age: the characteristic anorexic and hypermetabolic/hyperthermic effects can be observed in young adult rats, but the effects gradually and monotonically decline with age and disappear by the old age of 24months. These disparate age-related patterns of CCK efficacy upon peripheral or central administration routes may indicate that although both peripheral and central CCKR-s exert anorexic effects, they may have dissimilar roles in the regulation of overall energy balance

Isolation and identification of Pyrenophora chaetomioides from winter oat in Hungary

The aim of this study was to identify a fungal pathogen that caused necrotic leaf spots in experimental plots of oat in two remote regions of Hungary, the Southern Great Plain and Central Transdanubia. Two monosporic isolates, one from each region, were subjected to morphological and molecular investigations, and their pathogenicity to oat, barley and wheat seedlings was tested by artifcial inoculations. Morphology of cultures and conidia matched well the description of genus Drechslera, the asexual stage of Pyrenophora. The natural host and higher pathogenicity of both isolates to oat than to barley and wheat suggested that the fungus represented the primarily oat pathogen P. chaetomioides. Although accurate species identifcation could not be achieved due to overlapping morphology and host range among the oat and barley pathogenic Pyrenophora spp., PCR amplifcation and direct sequencing of the ITS1–5.8S–ITS2 region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA revealed 100% identity amongst our isolates and several reference strains of P. chaetomioides, justifying the species identity of the fungus we found on oats. Our study also confrmed an earlier, symptom-based observation about the occurrence of Pyrenophora leaf blotch disease in experimental plots in Hungary, and is the frst to prove the presence of its causal agent, P. chaetomioides, based on isolation and accurate species identifcation

Spatial distribution of Trichinella britovi, T. pseudospiralis and T. spiralis in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Hungary

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is considered one of the main reservoir of Trichinella spp. in Europe. As limited information on Trichinella infection in wildlife of Hungary is available, 2116 red foxes, representing more than 3% of the estimated fox population of the country, were screened to detect Trichinella larvae by a digestion method. Trichinella larvae from the 35 positive foxes were identified by a multiplex PCR as Trichinella britovi (30 isolates, 85.7%), Trichinella spiralis (4 isolates, 11.4%), and Trichinella pseudospiralis (1 isolate, 2.9%). The true mean intensity of T. britovi, T. spiralis and T. pseudospiralis larvae in lower forelimb muscles was 23.6, 3.5 and 13.5 larvae/g, respectively. T. spiralis was detected only in the southern and eastern regions. The nonencapsulated T. pseudospiralis was recorded for the first time in Hungary. Although the overall true prevalence of Trichinella infection in foxes was only 1.8% (95% confidence interval, CI = 1.5–2.1%), the spatial analysis reveals different risk regions. In the north-eastern counties bordering Slovakia and Ukraine (21% of the Hungarian territory), the true prevalence of Trichinella infection is significantly higher than that observed in other regions (6.0%, CI = 4.8–7.1%). In the southern counties bordering Croatia, Serbia and Romania (41% of the Hungarian territory), the true prevalence of Trichinella infection is moderate (1.4%, CI = 1.0–1.8%). In the north-western and central counties (38% of Hungarian territory), the prevalence of Trichinella infection is significantly lower (0.2%, CI = 0.1–0.4%) than that of the other regions. Based on the statistical analysis and the evaluation of epidemiological data, none of the counties can be considered free of Trichinella infection. In the past decade, Trichinella infection has been detected only in few backyard pigs, and only few wild boar-related autochthonous infections in humans were described. Nevertheless, these results highlight the need of the maintenance of a strict monitoring and control programmes on Trichinella infection in farmed and hunted animals of Hungary