The Effect of Mitochondrial Transplant Therapy on Muscle Damage and Exercise Performance

Objective: To determine if weekly mitochondrial transplants given to animals undergoing a muscle damaging protocol will improve exercise performance and immune responses. Methods: Mitochondrial injections were given to eight-week-old C57/BL6 mice (N=7/group) for 6 weeks under a muscle damaging exercise protocol. A run-to-fatigue test was completed at baseline, 4, and 6 weeks. Blood was collected immediately after the last run; tissues and organs were harvested 24 hours later for transcription measurements and histology. Results: No significant differences were found in exercise performance in any week. Histological analysis did not show any differences between groups. PGC1-α transcripts were significantly decreased in liver in the transplanted group (p = 0.01). Inflammatory cytokine IL-6 was significantly decreased after exercise (p = 0.03). Lipopolysaccharide stimulated splenocytes showed TNF-α was significantly reduced in transplanted mice. Conclusion: Mitochondrial transplant therapy does not affect exercise performance, but it does affect inflammatory responses, specifically IL-6 and TNF-α

Cost and Efficiency of Producing Canning Peas in Cache and Box Elder Counties, Utah, 1951

The production of canning peas has an important place in the economy of Utah, particularly in the counties along the western slopes of the Wasatch Mountains. The enterprise is one which adds intensity to Utah\u27s small farms. This intensification is accomplished with little additional equipment or labor other than that owned or supplied by the farm operator and his family. The crop is seeded in early spring and harvested in early summer leaving the ground available for summer fallowing or planting to a short season crop such as grain pasture. Peas are a satisfactory nurse crop for small-seeded legumes such as alfalfa

Vitamin C supplementation: a comparison of delivery methods and the ability to attenuate oxidative stress induced by ischemia-reperfusion

2015 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Intravenous delivery of vitamin C to adult humans decreases indices of oxidative stress and in some instances improves physiological function. Oral delivery of vitamin C is more practical than intravenous but typically results in lower circulating vitamin C concentrations. The hypotheses for this study were, oral consumption of vitamin C encapsulated in liposomes would: 1) result in higher circulating vitamin C concentrations than a traditional oral supplement, and 2) better attenuate oxidative stress induced by ischemia-reperfusion. Eleven overweight/obese adults [age: 52±7 years; body mass index: 34.1±1.0 kg/m²; mean±SE] were administered a 4 g supplement of placebo, or vitamin C via different delivery methods, on four separate occasions, in a random order. The four treatments were: placebo, oral vitamin C, liposomal vitamin C, and intravenous (IV) administration of vitamin C. Concentrations of ascorbic acid, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), and oxidized low-density lipoproteins (Ox-LDL) were measured in venous blood at baseline, and over four hours following supplement administration. At three hours a blood pressure cuff was placed around the upper arm and inflated to 200 mmHg for 20 minutes to evoke an ischemia-reperfusion injury. Plasma ascorbic acid concentrations were significantly greater after IV vitamin C compared with all other treatments at all time points (P<0.01). At two hours, all subsequent ascorbic acid concentrations were greater after liposomal vitamin C treatment compared with oral vitamin C and placebo treatments. Plasma ascorbic acid concentrations were greater after oral vitamin C compared with placebo (P<0.01). Neither vitamin C nor ischemia-reperfusion influenced Ox-LDL. In the placebo condition, ischemia-reperfusion increased plasma TBARS concentration; all of the vitamin C treatments prevented this increase. These data suggest that liposomal encapsulation of vitamin C increases bioavailability of oral vitamin C. Additionally, the antioxidant protection provided by liposomal vitamin C is not inferior to intravenously administered vitamin C

The Effects of a Health Career Ladder Program in a Rural Community: Case Study

This paper presents a case study analysing a rural health career ladder program’s (HCL) influence on students’ career aspirations toward health care fields. Rural students enrolled in a career ladder program were interviewed to assess the effectiveness of early experience on career choice. Although limited to one institution, the findings shed light on the ways that institutional characteristics, policies and practices may effectively influence rural youth career aspirations. The study provides useful information to counselors, parents, school administrators and education policy makers to put in place experiential strategies to guide students into making health career choices achievable. The data was analyzed using an in vivo coding method to study relationships among factors that affect student career decisions. Drawing on the findings, the recommendations of the paper are to keep current hands-on activities and to provide profession-based mentors for rural students to encourage careers in rural health care

Evaluating Threats to the Rare Butterfly, \u3cem\u3ePieris Virginiensis\u3c/em\u3e

Humans have caused drastic changes in ecosystems and communities through their modification of the natural landscape. Rare species, often highly specialized, are more impacted by these changes. Pieris virginiensis is a rare butterfly native to eastern North America that is a species of concern due to negative influences from habitat loss and plant invasion. This thesis discusses several threats to P. virginiensis, including habitat loss, climate change, competition, and the cascading effects of a novel European invasive plant, Alliaria petiolata, that attracts oviposition but does not allow for larval survival. First, I examined a local extinction event and attributed it primarily to several seasons of poor weather and extreme climatic events, but with contributions by an increasing deer population and the introduction of A. petiolata. Second, I found that A. petiolata attracts approximately two-thirds of total eggs, but no larvae survive on the novel host. I tested several chemical causes of larval death and identified two potential contributors: sinigrin, which delays growth, and alliarinoside, which reduces survival. I also examined competition between P. virginiensis, its host plants, and novel competitors in the habitats. First, I looked at shared habitat use between P. virginiensis and another, exotic Pierid butterfly P. rapae. Although habitats are occasionally shared, P. rapae is most likely not a large influence on the success or failure of P. virginiensis. Second, I examined the influence of A. petiolata when it competes with two native host plants of P. virginiensis, and found differential effects of each life stage of A. petiolata on the native host plants. Finally, I used a combination of species distribution modeling and genetic sequencing to determine the current and future states of P. virginiensis given the changing climate and other stressors on P. virginiensis populations. Although secure currently, future stressors will most likely cause a range contraction and local extinctions

Effect of dietary fat on cholesterol absorption, synthesis and transport in the preruminant calf

Seventeen preruminant male calves were prepared surgically with lymphatico-venous shunts and/or re-entrant gallbladder to proximal duodenum shunts to evaluate the effects of the degree of saturation of dietary fat upon cholesterol transport in the intestinal lymph and bile and cholesterol transposition from blood capillaries to the intestinal lymph. Liquid diets were formulated to contain 12.5% dried skim milk (SM) or 10.5% SM to which was added 2% soybean oil (SBO), milk fat (MF), beef tallow (T) or a fat plus supplemental cholesterol. Calves received each diet for 3 days at 8% of body weight per day in two equal feedings. Following completion of each three day dietary treatment, total lymph collections were made for 15 min of each hour, 1 h prefeeding and 12 h postfeeding, to determine flow rate, total lipid and cholesterol transport. Total bile collections were made during the same time span to determine flow rate, cholesterol and bile acid transport. Transposition of cholesterol from blood capillaries to intestinal lymph was determined by injection of 100 (mu) Ci 4-(\u2714)C-cholesterol into the blood of calves at feeding time. To avoid recirculation of 4-(\u2714)C-cholesterol via the enterohepatic circulation, bile was diverted and replaced with bile from a donor calf fed an identical diet. For the SM, SBO, T and MF diets, respectively, cholesterol transported in the mesenteric lymph averaged 1.09, 1.92, 2.70, and 2.41 mg/(h x kg body weight); average lipid transport in the mesenteric lymph was 8.94, 32.58, 38.12 and 64.86 mg/(h x kg body weight); cholesterol transposed from capillaries was 44, 61, 48 and 36% of the cholesterol transported in the mesenteric lymph. Source of fat or addition of supplemental cholesterol had no effect on amount of cholesterol or bile acid transported in the bile; however, calves fed SM transported greater quantities of cholesterol in the bile than did calves fed fat or fat plus cholesterol. Our method allows for simultaneous determination of cholesterol absorption and excretion, as well as calculation of intestinal cholesterol synthesis