The Structural and Functional Capacity of Ruminal and Cecal Microbiota in Growing Cattle Was Unaffected by Dietary Supplementation of Linseed Oil and Nitrate

peer-reviewedMicroorganisms in the digestive tract of ruminants differ in their functionality and ability to use feed constituents. While cecal microbiota play an important role in post-rumen fermentation of residual substrates undigested in the rumen, limited knowledge exists regarding its structure and function. In this trial we investigated the effect of dietary supplementation with linseed oil and nitrate on methane emissions and on the structure of ruminal and cecal microbiota of growing bulls. Animals were allocated to either a CTL (control) or LINNIT (CTL supplemented with 1.9% linseed and 1.0% nitrates) diet. Methane emissions were measured using the GreenFeed system. Microbial diversity was assessed using amplicon sequencing of microbial genomic DNA. Additionally, total RNA was extracted from ruminal contents and functional mcrA and mtt genes were targeted in amplicon sequencing approach to explore the diversity of functional gene expression in methanogens. LINNIT had no effect on methane yield (g/kg DMI) even though it decreased methane production by 9% (g/day; P < 0.05). Methanobrevibacter- and Methanomassiliicoccaceae-related OTUs were more abundant in cecum (72 and 24%) compared to rumen (60 and 11%) irrespective of the diet (P < 0.05). Feeding LINNIT reduced the relative abundance of Methanomassiliicoccaceae mcrA cDNA reads in the rumen. Principal component analysis revealed significant differences in taxonomic composition and abundance of bacterial communities between rumen and cecum. Treatment decreased the relative abundance of a few Ruminococcaceae genera, without affecting global bacterial community structure. Our research confirms a high level of heterogeneity in species composition of microbial consortia in the main gastrointestinal compartments where feed is fermented in ruminants. There was a parallel between the lack of effect of LINNIT on ruminal and cecal microbial community structure and functions on one side and methane emission changes on the other. These results suggest that the sequencing strategy used here to study microbial diversity and function accurately reflected the absence of effect on methane phenotypes in bulls treated with linseed plus nitrate.This experiment is a part of a large collaborative project led by INRA granted by 11 companies: Adisseo France SAS, Agrial, Apis Gene, Deltavit, DSM Nutritional Products AG, Institut de l'Elevage, Lallemand, Moy Park Beef Orléans, Neovia, Techna France Nutrition, Valorex. This project aims to reduce enteric methane emission by nutrition. MP was the recipient of a PHC Ulysses travel scholarship to Ireland, provided by the French ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development (Ministères des Affaires Etrangères et du Développement International, MAEDI) and the ministry of National Education, Higher Education, and Research (Ministère de l'Education Nationale, de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, MENESR). EM was the recipient of a FACCE-JPI scholarship

Weight change during breast cancer treatment: is it always of poor prognosis?

National audienceWeight change (gain or loss) is not uncommon in patients treated for breast cancer, especially when they receive chemotherapy. Weight changes observed during chemotherapy treatment performed before the 2000s, were associated with poor prognosis, but this relation is less found in more recent studies. Changes in body composition of women treated whith current chemotherapies remains to be determined. Post-treatment regular and moderate physical activity would reduce the risk of recurrence and mortality by 24-50%, both in obese and normal-weight women

A Retrospective Study on the Onset of Menopause after Chemotherapy: Analysis of Data Extracted from the Jean Perrin Comprehensive Cancer Center Database Concerning 345 Young Breast Cancer Patients Diagnosed between 1994 and 2012

International audienceYoung breast cancer (BC) patients receiving chemotherapy are at risk of chemotherapy-induced menopause (CIM). We sought to define the incidence rate of premature menopause after chemotherapy and to retrospectively investigate factors related to the onset of menopause

Association between hereditary predisposition to common cancers and congenital multimalformations

International audienceIn a previous article we reported that mutations favoring cancer at adulthood seemed to improve fertility and limit miscarriages. Because spontaneous abortion may result from anomalies in embryo, we questioned if an increased frequency of congenital malformation could be evidenced among cancer-prone families. Oncogenetics database (≈193 000 members) of the comprehensive cancer center Jean Perrin was crossed with regional registry of congenital malformations (≈10 000). Among children born between 1986 and 2011, 176 children with malformation matched in both databases. In breast/ovaries cancer-prone families, the risk for malformations was multiplied by 2.4 [1.2-4.5] in case of a BRCA1 mutation. Frequencies of malformation in BRCA2 and MMR mutated families were similar to families without a cancer syndrome. In comparison to malformations concerning a unique anatomical system, multimalformations were significantly more frequent in case of BRCA or MMR mutations: compared to families without cancer syndrome, the risk of multimalformations was multiplied by 4.1 [0.8-21.7] for cancer-prone families but with no known deleterious mutation, by 6.9 [1.2-38.6] in families with a known mutation but an unknown parental mutational status and by 10.4 [2.3-46.0] when one parent carried the familial mutation. No association with the type of anatomical system was found, nor with multiple births. These results suggest that BRCA and MMR genes play an important role in human embryogenesis and that if their function is lowered because of heterozygote mutations, congenital malformations are either more likely (BRCA1 mutations) and/or more susceptible to concern several anatomical systems

BRCA Mutations Increase Fertility in Families at Hereditary Breast/Ovarian Cancer Risk

<div><p>Background</p><p>Deleterious mutations in the BRCA genes are responsible for a small, but significant, proportion of breast and ovarian cancers (5 - 10 %). Proof of <i>de novo</i> mutations in hereditary breast/ovarian cancer (HBOC) families is rare, in contrast to founder mutations, thousands of years old, that may be carried by as much as 1 % of a population. Thus, if mutations favoring cancer survive selection pressure through time, they must provide advantages that compensate for the loss of life expectancy.</p><p>Method</p><p>This hypothesis was tested within 2,150 HBOC families encompassing 96,325 individuals. Parameters included counts of breast/ovarian cancer, age at diagnosis, male breast cancer and other cancer locations. As expected, well-known clinical parameters discriminated between BRCA-mutated families and others: young age at breast cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer and male breast cancer. The major fertility differences concerned men in BRCA-mutated families: they had lower first and mean age at paternity, and fewer remained childless. For women in BRCA families, the miscarriage rate was lower. In a logistic regression including clinical factors, the different miscarriage rate and men's mean age at paternity remained significant.</p><p>Results</p><p>Fertility advantages were confirmed in a subgroup of 746 BRCA mutation carriers and 483 non-carriers from BRCA mutated families. In particular, female carriers were less often nulliparous (9.1 % of carriers versus 16.0 %, p = 0.003) and had more children (1.8 ± 1.4 SD versus 1.5 ± 1.3, p = 0.002) as well as male carriers (1.7 ± 1.3 versus 1.4 ± 1.3, p = 0.024).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Although BRCA mutations shorten the reproductive period due to cancer mortality, they compensate by improving fertility both in male and female carriers.</p></div

Accrual flowchart of the families and the individuals selected from the Database.

<p>Accrual flowchart of the families and the individuals selected from the Database.</p

The Structural and Functional Capacity of Ruminal and Cecal Microbiota in Growing Cattle Was Unaffected by Dietary Supplementation of Linseed Oil and Nitrate

Microorganisms in the digestive tract of ruminants differ in their functionality and ability to use feed constituents. While cecal microbiota play an important role in post-rumen fermentation of residual substrates undigested in the rumen, limited knowledge exists regarding its structure and function. In this trial we investigated the effect of dietary supplementation with linseed oil and nitrate on methane emissions and on the structure of ruminal and cecal microbiota of growing bulls. Animals were allocated to either a CTL (control) or LINNIT (CTL supplemented with 1.9% linseed and 1.0% nitrates) diet. Methane emissions were measured using the GreenFeed system. Microbial diversity was assessed using amplicon sequencing of microbial genomic DNA. Additionally, total RNA was extracted from ruminal contents and functional mcrA and mtt genes were targeted in amplicon sequencing approach to explore the diversity of functional gene expression in methanogens. LINNIT had no effect on methane yield (g/kg DMI) even though it decreased methane production by 9% (g/day; P < 0.05). Methanobrevibacter- and Methanomassiliicoccaceae-related OTUs were more abundant in cecum (72 and 24%) compared to rumen (60 and 11%) irrespective of the diet (P < 0.05). Feeding LINNIT reduced the relative abundance of Methanomassiliicoccaceae mcrA cDNA reads in the rumen. Principal component analysis revealed significant differences in taxonomic composition and abundance of bacterial communities between rumen and cecum. Treatment decreased the relative abundance of a few Ruminococcaceae genera, without affecting global bacterial community structure. Our research confirms a high level of heterogeneity in species composition of microbial consortia in the main gastrointestinal compartments where feed is fermented in ruminants. There was a parallel between the lack of effect of LINNIT on ruminal and cecal microbial community structure and functions on one side and methane emission changes on the other. These results suggest that the sequencing strategy used here to study microbial diversity and function accurately reflected the absence of effect on methane phenotypes in bulls treated with linseed plus nitrate.This experiment is a part of a large collaborative project led by INRA granted by 11 companies: Adisseo France SAS, Agrial, Apis Gene, Deltavit, DSM Nutritional Products AG, Institut de l’Elevage, Lallemand, Moy Park Beef Orléans, Neovia, Techna France Nutrition, Valorex. This project aims to reduce enteric methane emission by nutrition. MP was the recipient of a PHC Ulysses travel scholarship to Ireland, provided by the French ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development (Ministères des Affaires Etrangères et du Développement International, MAEDI) and the ministry of National Education, Higher Education, and Research (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, MENESR). EM was the recipient of a FACCE-JPI scholarship

Prospective Study on Body Composition, Energy Balance and Biological Factors Changes in Post-menopausal Women with Breast Cancer Receiving Adjuvant Chemotherapy Including Taxanes

International audienceIn breast cancer patients, weight and fat mass changes observed after chemotherapy have been related to poor prognosis but some recent works using modern chemotherapy failed to find this correlation with weight gain. In this study, the extent of changes in weight and body composition (DEXA, impedance) was characterized until six months after current chemotherapy, in 50 post-menopausal women with breast cancer. The evolution of factors contributing to the energy balance and some biological factors were also described. During chemotherapy, 20% of women lost weight due to both fat (-13.1% ± 10.3) and lean soft tissue mass loss (-3.6% ± 4.6). Twenty percent of women gained weight. No significant fat mass gain was observed in these women but significant water gain was highlighted. Six months later, women who gained weight presented a gain in fat mass (15.4% ± 19.0), especially in the abdominal region. Age and initial BMI were negatively correlated with fat mass in multivariate analyzes (r = 0.486, P = 0.0030). No significant variation of the glucose homeostasis, triglycerides, and HDL-Cholesterol was found six months after chemotherapy. These results do not suggest major adverse metabolic disturbances six months after modern chemotherapy and only a mild fat mass gain was observed in women who gained weight

Cancer locations predicting the BRCA mutational risk.

<p>(logistic regression: p-values complete the information given by each Odds-Ratio; error bars represent 95%-CI of Odds-Ratios; covariates are cancer locations and "Breast < 30" means female breast cancers occurring before 30 years…).</p

Repeatability of enteric methane determinations from cattle using either the SF6 tracer technique or the GreenFeed system

The SF6 tracer technique (SF6) and GreenFeed system (GF) are two methods for measuring enteric methane (CH4) emissions from cattle. Both methods estimate individual daily CH4 emissions from expired gas samples collected either continuously over 24 h in a canister (SF6) or several times a day during short-term periods (3–8 min) when cattle visit an automated head chamber (GF). The objective of this work was to study repeatability (R) of each method according to duration of measurement period as an indicator of their precision. The R of CH4 measurements was evaluated in two different trials using cows. For Experiment 1, the SF6 technique was used for 20 days in six non-lactating dairy cows fed a hay-based diet; for Experiment 2, the GF system was used for 91 days in seven lactating dairy cows fed a maize silage-based diet. The CH4 data were grouped by periods of 1–10 days (SF6) and 1–45 days (GF). The CH4 emissions averaged 23.6 ± 3.9 g/kg dry matter intake (DMI) for the SF6 and 17.4 ± 3.3 g/kg DMI for the GF on the measurement period. To achieve an R value of 0.70 for CH4 emissions (g/kg DMI), 3-day periods were necessary for SF6 and 17-day periods for GF. The R did not increase after 4-day periods for SF6 (R = 0.73), but increased for GF until 45-day periods (R = 0.90). In our experimental conditions and R = 0.70, the total number of cows necessary to detect a significant difference in CH4 emissions (g/kg DMI) between two treatments (e.g. diet) was similar for SF6 and GF