Host innate immune responses and microbiome profile of neonatal calves challenged with Cryptosporidium parvum and the effect of bovine colostrum supplementation

IntroductionCalves are highly susceptible to gastrointestinal infection with Cryptosporidium parvum (C. parvum), which can result in watery diarrhea and eventually death or impaired development. With little to no effective therapeutics, understanding the host’s microbiota and pathogen interaction at the mucosal immune system has been critical to identify and test novel control strategies.MethodsHerein, we used an experimental model of C. parvum challenge in neonatal calves to describe the clinical signs and histological and proteomic profiling of the mucosal innate immunity and microbiota shifts by metagenomics in the ileum and colon during cryptosporidiosis. Also, we investigated the impact of supplemental colostrum feeding on C. parvum infection.ResultsWe showed that C. parvum challenged calves experienced clinical signs including pyrexia and diarrhea 5 days post challenge. These calves showed ulcerative neutrophil ileitis with a proteomic signature driven by inflammatory effectors, including reactive oxygen species and myeloperoxidases. Colitis was also noticed with an aggravated mucin barrier depletion and incompletely filled goblet cells. The C. parvum challenged calves also displayed a pronounced dysbiosis with a high prevalence of Clostridium species (spp.) and number of exotoxins, adherence factors, and secretion systems related to Clostridium spp. and other enteropathogens, including Campylobacter spp., Escherichia sp., Shigella spp., and Listeria spp. Daily supplementation with a high-quality bovine colostrum product mitigated some of the clinical signs and modulated the gut immune response and concomitant microbiota to a pattern more similar to that of healthy unchallenged calves.DiscussionC. parvum infection in neonatal calves provoked severe diarrheic neutrophilic enterocolitis, perhaps augmented due to the lack of fully developed innate gut defenses. Colostrum supplementation showed limited effect mitigating diarrhea but demonstrated some clinical alleviation and specific modulatory influence on host gut immune responses and concomitant microbiota

Solubilities of metal carbonates

Solubilities in aqueous media of sparingly-soluble metal carbonates play an important role in chemical processes whether they occur in a laboratory, on an industrial scale, or in the geologic environment. Solubility phenomena (i.e. dissolution and precipitation reactions) of metal carbonates control procedures for preparing, separating and purifying chemicals. Moreover, the interactions of the hydrological cycle with the cycle of carbonate rocks, the naturally occurring dissolution of carbonate minerals in water as well as their precipitation on the ocean floor and in the sediments of rivers and lakes can be described by the principles of solubility, although gigantic quantities of material may be involved. The experimental methods for the determination of carbonate solubilities are reviewed and the results are discussed within the frame-work of equilibrium thermodynamics. It will be shown that Gibbs functions of pure stoichiometric carbonate phases can be determined by accurately measuring solubilities in aqueous electrolyte systems. In cases where solid-solid phase transformations and recrystallisations are kinetically inhibited, the methods developed were successfully applied to metastable equilibria. Occasionally, solubility data were even employed to estimate activity coefficients of components forming a series of carbonate solid solutions. Whenever possible the activity coefficients of the reacting species were controlled by use of a constant ionic medium. Solubility constants obtained at various fixed ionic strengths were fitted to the Pitzer equations and extrapolated to infinite dilution. Provided the standard potentials of the respective metal ion/metal electrode are known over a range of ionic strengths the values of solubility constants at infinite dilution can be calculated independently. In any case the optimised thermodynamic constants were incorporated in a comprehensive computer model which permits a wide variety of solubility calculations. These are illustrated by a case study of a multicomponent system with industrial relevance

Beams on Foundation, Winkler Bedding or Halfspace: A Comparison

Beams on a foundation as rails on the ground can be analysed along Winkler\u27s concept introducing a bedding coefficient k. In reality most beams are supported by a halfspace which simplest can be described by overall elastic properties. Exact relations between k and the elastic properties are presented for infinite beams as rails

Graphical representation of solid-solute phase equilibria in aqueous solution

Solid-solute phase diagrams are useful tools for the depiction of stable and metastable equilibria between binary mixed crystals with common ions and aqueous solutions. Generalized Gibbs-Duhem equations provide the common basis and suggest natural co-ordinates for the graphical representation of thermodynamic variables. Diagrams applicable even to highly soluble electrolytes can be constructed by plotting the osmotic coefficient of the solvent times the total molality πΣm vs. the mole fractions x of the dissolved and solid components, respectively. According to Schmalzried and Pelton's topological classification the resulting phase diagrams are of Type II. They can be used for practical purposes, e.g., to predict the separability of the components by fractional crystallization

Solid-solute phase equilibria in aqueous solution. IV. Calculation of Phase Diagrams

The thermodynamic principles of conventional (T-x, P-T) phase diagrams and solubility (log ΣK-x) diagrams depicting solid-solute phase equilibria in aqueous solution are derived from a unifying point of view. It is shown that thermodynamic quantities necessary for the construction of conventional phase diagrams can be obtained from solubility measurements. The unary system calcite-aragonite and the binary system aragonite-strontianite, where solubility data are available over the whole compositional range, have been selected as examples. In the latter case, the constraint of constant composition of the solid phase leading to a metastable equilibrium with the respective solute species is an essential point in the thermodynamic derivation and was observed experimentally as well