Roles of Probiotics and Prebiotics in Colon Cancer Prevention: Postulated Mechanisms and In-vivo Evidence

Probiotics are live bacteria that could exert health beneficial effects upon consumption. In additional to their conventional use as gut modulators, probiotics are investigated for their role to prevent cancer. In-vivo and molecular studies have demonstrated encouraging outcomes, mainly attributed to its antimicrobial effects against carcinogen-producing microorganisms, antimutagenic properties, and alteration of the tumor differentiation processes. Prebiotics are indigestible food components that could promote the growth of beneficial bacteria including probiotics. Present studies have suggested that prebiotics also possess protective effect against colon carcinogenesis, mainly attributed to the production of short chain fatty acids upon its fermentation by gut microflora, and alteration of gene-expressions in tumor cells. Synbiotic (combination of probiotic and prebiotic) has been found to exert a synergistic effect in improving colon carcinogenesis compared to when both were used individually. This paper highlights the colon cancer preventive effects by probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics. In addition, the controversial outcomes on the insignificant effect of these food adjuncts will be discussed

Electron microscopy finder-grids link quantitative cytometry with high-resolution confocal imaging in the study of TGF-beta 1 expression in the small intestine mucosa in growing pigs

A new method is proposed linking the high-throughput quantitative population analysis with high-resolution imaging systems. Samples from piglet small intestine labelled against transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) were overlayed with electron microscopy finder-grids and scanned by SCAN^R scanning cytometer. From the tissue map generated by SCAN^R, regions of interest (ROI) with TGF-β1-positive cells were selected and their coordinates stored from the sample overview. ROI were then located under the confocal microscope enabling detail visualization of the pattern of intracellular localization of the studied cytokine.4 page(s

Effect of sodium butyrate on the small intestine development in neonatal piglets feed by artificial sow

International audienc

Effect of sodium butyrate on the small intestine development in neonatal piglets feed by artificial sow

International audienc