Alteration of gene expression in mammary gland tissue of dairy cows in response to dietary unsaturated fatty acids

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of supplementing unprotected dietary unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) from different plant oils on gene expression in the mammary gland of grazing dairy cows. A total of 28 Holstein–Friesian dairy cows in mid-lactation were blocked according to parity, days in milk, milk yield and fat percentage. The cows were then randomly assigned to four UFA sources based on rapeseed, soybean, linseed or a mixture of the three oils for 23 days, after which, all 28 cows were switched to a control diet for an additional 28 days. On the last day of both periods, mammary gland biopsies were taken to study genome-wide differences in gene expression on Affymetrix GeneChip® Bovine Genome Arrays (no. 900493) by ServiceXS (Leiden, The Netherlands). Supplementation with UFAs resulted in increased milk yield but decreased milk fat and protein percentages. Furthermore, the proportion of de novo fatty acids (FAs) in the milk was reduced, whereas that of long-chain FAs increased. Applying a statistical cut-off of false discovery rate of q-value

Dietary unsaturated fatty acids affect the mammary gland integrity and health in lactating dairy cows

Background Information about the effects of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) supplementation on the health and integrity of the mammary gland in lactating dairy cows is lacking. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effects of unprotected dietary UFA on the global expression pattern of genes in the mammary gland tissue of grazing dairy cows, and to translate this information into relevant biological knowledge. Methods Twenty-eight Holstein-Friesian dairy cows were randomly assigned to 4 different concentrated UFA-sources for 23 days after which all cows were switched to a non-UFA-supplemented concentrate for an additional 28 days. On the last day of both periods, mammary gland biopsies were taken to study genome-wide differences in gene expression on Bovine Genome Arrays. Results Supplementation with UFA reduced the concentration of short chain fatty acids (FA), C16 FA and saturated FA in the milk, whereas that of trans-FA increased. One major finding was that canonical pathways associated with remodelling and immune functions of the mammary gland were predominantly down-regulated during UFA supplementation and negatively correlated with the concentration of milk trans-FA. Conclusions Supplementing grazing dairy cows with unprotected dietary UFA can affect the remodelling and immune functions of the mammary gland with potential consequences for its integrity and health, as well as milk quality

Effect of inbreeding on the longevity of Landrace sows

Ponencia publicada en ITEA, vol.104La consanguinidad es un fenómeno biológico de especial relevancia en las especies domésticas, pudiéndose caracterizar tanto en términos de coeficiente de consanguinidad como fraccionando la contribución de cada individuo fundador en coeficientes de consanguinidad parcial (CP). A partir de los registros de longevidad de 4.226 cerdas de raza Landrace, este trabajo se ha centrado en la modelización de los CP bajo modelos Weibull de riesgos proporcionales y su posterior comparación mediante el DIC (deviance information criterion). Se asumieron tres distribuciones a priori distintas para los efectos de CP, resultando la normal asimétrica (DIC = 55.064,6) claramente preferible a la normal simétrica (DIC = 55.069,2) y a la distribución uniforme (DIC = 55.077,9). Se descartó, también, el modelo estándar con la consanguinidad global de cada individuo (DIC = 55.078,4). En el caso del modelo con DIC mínimo, la distribución posterior de los efectos de CP fue claramente asimétrica, con el 85,15% de las estimas afectando negativamente a la longevidad de las cerdas y el 14,85% restante con efecto neutro o incluso positivo. Señalar por último, que la heredabilidad para el carácter longevidad fue de 0,159.Inbreeding is a biological phenomenon of special relevance in domestic species, where the overall inbreeding coefficient can be partitioned in founder-specific partial inbreeding (PI) coefficients. Taking longevity data of 4,226 Landrace sows as starting point, this research proposed alternative parameterization for PI effects under Weibull proportional hazard models, and compared their performance through the deviance information criterion (DIC). Three different a priori distributions were assumed for PI effects, asymmetric normal (DIC = 55,064.6), symmetric normal (DIC = 55,069.2) and flat (DIC = 55,077.9). Additionally, the standard model accounting for the overall inbreeding coefficient was clearly discarded (DIC = 55,078.4). For the model with asymmetric Gaussian prior, the posterior distribution of PI effects was clearly skewed. An 85.15% of the estimates showed negative effect on sow longevity whereas the remaining 14.85% ones had null or even positive effect on sow survival. Estimated heritability was 0.159

Effects of human pharmaceuticals on cytotoxicity, EROD activity and ROS production in fish hepatocytes.

Pharmaceuticals are found in the aquatic environment but their potential effects on non-target species like fish remain unknown. This in vitro study is a first approach in the toxicity assessment of human drugs on fish. Nine pharmaceuticals were tested on two fish hepatocyte models: primary cultures of rainbow trout hepatocytes (PRTH) and PLHC-1 fish cell line. Cell viability, interaction with cytochrome P450 1A (CYP1A) enzyme and oxidative stress were assessed by using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrasodium bromide tetrazolium (MTT), 7-ethoxyresorufin-o-deethylase (EROD) and dichlorofluorescein (DCFH-DA) assays, respectively. The tested drugs were clofibrate (CF), fenofibrate (FF), carbamazepine (CBZ), fluoxetine (FX), diclofenac (DiCF), propranolol (POH), sulfamethoxazole (SFX), amoxicillin (AMX) and gadolinium chloride (GdCl(3)). All substances were cytotoxic, except AMX at concentration up to 500 microM. The calculated MTT EC(50) values ranged from 2 microM (CF) to 651 microM (CBZ) in PLHC-1, and from 53 microM (FF) to 962 microM (GdCl(3)) in PRTH. CF, FF, and FX were the most cytotoxic drugs and induced oxidative stress before being cytotoxic. Compared to hepatocytes from human and dog, fish hepatocytes seemed to be more susceptible to the peroxisome proliferators (PPs) CF and FF. In PLHC-1 cells none of the tested drugs induced the EROD activity whereas POH appeared as a weak EROD inducer in PRTH. Moreover, in PRTH, SFX, DiCF, CBZ and to a lesser extend, FF and CF inhibited the basal EROD activity at clearly sublethal concentrations which may be of concern at the biological and chemical levels in a multipollution context

Estudio de expresión diferencial de genes y distribución de la vinculina en ovario de cerdas

Ponencia publicada en ITEA, vol.104El objetivo de este estudio es analizar las diferencias en la expresión de genes y proteínas en tres estadios reproductivos en cerdas. Con el fin de caracterizar los cambios en los perfiles de expresión, se hibridó RNA de ovario de cerdas en celo, 15 y 45 días de gestación en microchips porcinos. Se detectaron diferencias de expresión en 281 genes (probabilidad posterior <10-11) entre los tres momentos reproductivos analizados en ovario. Uno de estos genes, la vinculina, mostró una expresión 100 veces mayor en celo comparado con 45 días de gestación. Por ello, fue escogido para realizar un análisis de expresión proteica mediante inmunohistoquímica y análisis western blot. Los resultados obtenidos mediante inmunohistoquímica muestran mayor cantidad de vinculina en celo que a 30 días de gestación. Para esta misma proteína, los resultados sugieren la existencia de diferencias significativas entre ovarios de cerdas en celo y a 45 días de gestación mediante la técnica western blotStudy on the differential gene expression and distribution of the vinculin in the ovary of sows The objective of this experiment is to study genes and proteins differing across reproductive stages in swine. RNA from ovary, from sows on heat, 15 and 45 days of pregnancy have been hybridised in porcine oligonucleotide microchips to characterize changes in gene expression profile between different reproductive stages. Expression differences in 281 genes (posterior probability <10-11) have been found between expression at different stages in ovary. One of these genes, vinculin, showed 100 times more expression on heat than at 45 days of pregnancy, so we chose that gene for immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis. On immunohistochemistry we found that ovaries of sows on heat showed stronger vinculin staining than ovaries stroma of sows at 30 days of pregnancy. On western blot, significant differences appeared only between heat and 45 days of pregnancy

Characterisation of activated sludge by automated image analysis : validation on full-scale plants

Automated methods based on the analysis of macro- and meso-scale images has been developed to characterise activated sludge in terms of size and shape (fractal dimension) of flocs and abundance of filamentous bacteria. After tests on pilot-scale reactors, the method has been validated on full-scale samples from twelve different wastewater treatment plants in France and Portugal

Synchronization in Von Bertalanffy’s models

Many data have been useful to describe the growth of marine mammals, invertebrates and reptiles, seabirds, sea turtles and fishes, using the logistic, the Gom-pertz and von Bertalanffy's growth models. A generalized family of von Bertalanffy's maps, which is proportional to the right hand side of von Bertalanffy's growth equation, is studied and its dynamical approach is proposed. The system complexity is measured using Lyapunov exponents, which depend on two biological parameters: von Bertalanffy's growth rate constant and the asymptotic weight. Applications of synchronization in real world is of current interest. The behavior of birds ocks, schools of fish and other animals is an important phenomenon characterized by synchronized motion of individuals. In this work, we consider networks having in each node a von Bertalanffy's model and we study the synchronization interval of these networks, as a function of those two biological parameters. Numerical simulation are also presented to support our approaches