Determining Amino Acid Digestibility of Soybean Meal from South Carolina Soybean Varieties Fed to Broilers

At hatch, 240 male broilers (Ross 308, Aviagen, Sallisaw, OK) were placed in batteries (Petersime Brood Unit, Gettysburg, OH) for a 15-d study to evaluate amino acid digestibility of soybean meal (SBM) from specialty variety soybeans grown in South Carolina. There were 10 replicates per treatment and 6 broilers per cage. Broilers were given a common corn and soybean meal-based diet from d 0 to 9. On d 9, broilers were weighed, and cages were allotted to 1 of 4 dietary treatments within location block. Dietary treatments consisted of 1 of 4 soybean sources varying in quality determined by crude protein (CP) content and processed into SBM. Two sources consisted of soybeans from a similar region and processed either commercially solvent extracted or experimentally solvent extracted at Texas A&M University. Therefore, dietary treatments consisted of a commercially processed SBM with 44% CP (CON) or experimentally processed SBM with 50% CP (PCON), 52% CP (52SBM), or 56% CP (56SBM). Assay diets were dextrose and SBM-based, formulated to supply 20% dietary CP with titanium dioxide as an indigestible marker. On d 15, broilers were euthanized by CO2 inhalation and ileal samples were collected for determination of apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of AA. Data were analyzed using the GLIMMIX procedure in SAS v. 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC), with pen as the experimental unit, pen location as the blocking factor and adjusted using Tukey-Kramer multiple comparisons. Broilers fed CON and 56SBM had increased (P \u3c 0.003) digestibility of total AA, Arg, His, Lys, Thr, and Trp compared to those fed PCON and 52SBM. Digestibility of Ile and Phe increased (P \u3c 0.001) in broilers fed 56SBM compared to CON and 52SBM, while PCON was intermediate to CON and 52SBM. Broilers fed 56SBM had increased (P \u3c 0.001) digestibility of Leu compared to all other sources. Digestibility of Met increased (P = 0.007) in broilers fed CON and 56SBM compared to 52SBM and there was no evidence for differences between those fed PCON and all other sources. Broilers fed CON and 56SBM had increased (P \u3c 0.001) digestibility of Val compared to PCON and 52SBM, with no evidence for differences between those fed CON and PCON. In conclusion, broilers fed commercially processed SBM had improved AA digestibility compared to those fed experimentally processed soybeans from a similar region. The high CP (57% CP) SBM variety had increased AA digestibility compared to the PCON and 52SBM

Evaluation of management of desmoid tumours associated with familial adenomatous polyposis in Dutch patients

Item does not contain fulltextBACKGROUND: The optimal treatment of desmoid tumours is controversial. We evaluated desmoid management in Dutch familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) patients. METHODS: Seventy-eight FAP patients with desmoids were identified from the Dutch Polyposis Registry. Data on desmoid morphology, management, and outcome were analysed retrospectively. Progression-free survival (PFS) rates and final outcome were compared for surgical vs non-surgical treatment, for intra-abdominal and extra-abdominal desmoids separately. Also, pharmacological treatment was evaluated for all desmoids. RESULTS: Median follow-up was 8 years. For intra-abdominal desmoids (n=62), PFS rates at 10 years of follow-up were comparable after surgical and non-surgical treatment (33% and 49%, respectively, P=0.163). None of these desmoids could be removed entirely. Eventually, one fifth died from desmoid disease. Most extra-abdominal and abdominal wall desmoids were treated surgically with a PFS rate of 63% and no deaths from desmoid disease. Comparison between NSAID and anti-estrogen treatment showed comparable outcomes. Four of the 10 patients who received chemotherapy had stabilisation of tumour growth, all after doxorubicin combination therapy. CONCLUSION: For intra-abdominal desmoids, a conservative approach and surgery showed comparable outcomes. For extra-abdominal and abdominal wall desmoids, surgery seemed appropriate. Different pharmacological therapies showed comparable outcomes. If chemotherapy was given for progressively growing intra-abdominal desmoids, most favourable outcomes occurred after combinations including doxorubicin

Germinal center B cells recognize antigen through a specialized immune synapse architecture

B cell activation is regulated by B cell antigen receptor (BCR) signaling and antigen internalization in immune synapses. Using large-scale imaging across B cell subsets, we show that in contrast to naive and memory B cells, which gathered antigen towards the synapse center before internalization, germinal center (GC) B cells extracted antigen by a distinct pathway using small peripheral clusters. Both naive and GC B cell synapses required proximal BCR signaling, but GC cells signaled less through the protein kinase C-β (PKC-β)–NF-κB pathway and produced stronger tugging forces on the BCR, thereby more stringently regulating antigen binding. Consequently, GC B cells extracted antigen with better affinity discrimination than naive B cells, suggesting that specialized biomechanical patterns in B cell synapses regulate T-cell dependent selection of high-affinity B cells in GCs

Toward estimating the impact of changes in immigrants' insurance eligibility on hospital expenditures for uncompensated care

BACKGROUND: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 gave states the option to withdraw Medicaid coverage of nonemergency care from most legal immigrants. Our goal was to assess the effect of PRWORA on hospital uncompensated care in the United States. METHODS: We collected the following state-level data for the period from 1994 through 1999: foreign-born, noncitizen population and health uninsurance rates (US Census Current Population Survey); percentage of teaching hospitals (American Hospital Association Annual Survey of Hospitals); and each state's decision whether to implement the PRWORA Medicaid bar for legal permanent residents or to continue offering nonemergency Medicaid coverage using state-only funds (Urban Institute). We modeled uncompensated care expenditures by state (also from the Annual Survey of Hospitals) in both univariate and multivariable regression analyses. RESULTS: When measured at the state level, there was no significant relationship between uncompensated care expenditures and states' percentage of noncitizen immigrants. Uninsurance rates were the only significant factor in predicting uncompensated hospital care expenditures by state. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing the number of uninsured patients would most surely reduce hospital expenditures for uncompensated care. However, data limitations hampered our efforts to obtain a monetary estimate of hospitals' financial losses due specifically to the immigrant eligibility changes in PRWORA. Quantifying the impact of these provisions on hospitals will require better data sources

Hormone Therapy and the Risk of Breast Cancer in BRCA1 Mutation Carriers

Background: Hormone therapy (HT) is commonly given to women to alleviate the climacteric symptoms associated with menopause. There is concern that this treatment may increase the risk of breast cancer. The potential association of HT and breast cancer risk is of particular interest to women who carry a mutation in BRCA1 because they face a high lifetime risk of breast cancer and because many of these women take HT after undergoing prophylactic surgical oophorectomy at a young age. Methods: We conducted a matched case-control study of 472 postmenopausal women with a BRCA1 mutation to examine whether or not the use of HT is associated with subsequent risk of breast cancer. Breast cancer case patients and control subjects were matched with respect to age, age at menopause, and type of menopause (surgical or natural). Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated with conditional logistic regression. Statistical tests were two-sided. Results: In this group of BRCA1 mutation carriers, the adjusted OR for breast cancer associated with ever use of HT compared with never use was 0.58 (95% CI = 0.35 to 0.96; P =. 03). In analyses by type of HT, an inverse association with breast cancer risk was observed with use of estrogen only (OR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.27 to 0.98; P =. 04); the association with use of estrogen plus progesterone was not statistically significant (OR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.34 to 1.27; P =. 21). Conclusion: Among postmenopausal women with a BRCA1 mutation, HT use was not associated with increased risk of breast cancer; indeed, in this population, it was associated with a decreased risk

Cytoskeletal control of B cell responses to antigens.

The actin cytoskeleton is essential for cell mechanics and has increasingly been implicated in the regulation of cell signalling. In B cells, the actin cytoskeleton is extensively coupled to B cell receptor (BCR) signalling pathways, and defects of the actin cytoskeleton can either promote or suppress B cell activation. Recent insights from studies using single-cell imaging and biophysical techniques suggest that actin orchestrates BCR signalling at the plasma membrane through effects on protein diffusion and that it regulates antigen discrimination through the biomechanics of immune synapses. These mechanical functions also have a role in the adaptation of B cell subsets to specialized tasks during antibody responses