Effect of citric acid and microbial phytase on serum enzyme activities and plasma minerals retention in broiler chicks

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of microbial phytase supplementation and citric acid in broiler chicks fed corn-soybean meal base diets on enzyme activities and some blood parameters of serum and plasma minerals concentration in Ross 308 strain broilers. The data was analysed using a randomized complete block design with factorial arrangement of 3×3, three levels of citric acids (0, 3 and 6%) and three levels of phytase (0, 500 and 1000 enzyme unit per kg). There were three replicates for each treatment that total to 270 chicks for the whole experiment. The results indicated that addition of citric acid to diets caused significant decrease in alkaline phosphatase (P<0.05), lactate dehydrogenase (P<0.01) activities, cholesterol (P<0.05) and plasma phosphorus (P) (P<0.01) and Fe (P<0.05) concentrations. Microbial phytase caused significant decrease (P<0.01) in serum enzyme activities and plasma Fe concentration and significantly increased (P<0.01) aspartate aminotransferase activity, triglyceride and plasma P concentration. Microbial phytase and citric acid could modify some serum enzyme activities and increase the availability and use of minerals for growth and performance improvement of broilers. It is therefore necessary to re-evaluate mineral requirements of broiler chickens when a diet is supplemented with phytase and citric acid.Key words: Citric acid, microbial phytase, plasma minerals, serum enzyme activity, broilers

Influencia de diferentes regímenes de riego y tiempo de siembra en la calidad y cantidad del cáliz, el contenido de aceite de las semillas y la eficiencia del uso del agua de la roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.)

This study was carried out to examine the physiological traits, quality of calyx extract and seed oil content of roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) as affected by irrigation regimes and planting dates. The growth period from seed sowing to calyx harvesting was shortened as planting time was delayed. Stem diameter and plant height were decreased by drought stress or late planting, but calyx yield, total phenolic content, total anthocyanin content, vitamin C, and calyx water use efficiency increased under mild drought condition. In addition, antioxidant activity and calyx water use efficiency were significantly increased by late planting. It was suggested that an increase in calyx harvest index in delay in planting would be due to better photosynthesis activity and higher assimilate use efficiency because of the increase in sink capacity. Seed oil content decreased considerably due to drought stress and delay in planting date. These findings suggest that mild drought stress improves the quality and quantity of calyx and water use efficiency.Este estudio se llevó a cabo para examinar los rasgos fisiológicos, la calidad del extracto de cáliz y el contenido de aceite de semillas de roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) afectado por regímenes de riego y fecha de siembra. El período de crecimiento desde la siembra de la semilla hasta la cosecha del cáliz se acortó debido a que se retrasó el tiempo de siembra. El diámetro del tallo y la altura de la planta disminuyeron por el estrés por sequía o la siembra tardía, pero el rendimiento del cáliz, el contenido fenólico total, el contenido total de antocianinas, la vitamina C y la eficiencia del uso del agua del cáliz aumentaron en condiciones de sequía leve. Además, la actividad antioxidante y la eficiencia del uso del agua del cáliz aumentaron significativamente en la siembra tardía. Se sugirió que el aumento del índice de cosecha del cáliz en la demora en la siembra se debería a una mejor actividad de fotosíntesis y una mayor eficiencia en el uso de asimilación debido al aumento de la capacidad de hundimiento. El contenido de aceite de las semillas disminuyó considerablemente debido al estrés por sequía y al retraso en la fecha de siembra. Estos hallazgos sugieren que el estrés por sequía leve mejora la calidad y cantidad del cáliz y la eficiencia del uso del agua

Stabilizing the cold plasma-stimulated medium by regulating medium’s composition

Over past several years, the cold plasma-stimulated medium (PSM) has shown its remarkable anti-cancer capacity in par with the direct cold plasma irradiation on cancer cells or tumor tissues. Independent of the cold plasma device, PSM has noticeable advantage of being a flexible platform in cancer treatment. Currently, the largest disadvantage of PSM is its degradation during the storage over a wide temperature range. So far, to stabilize PSM, it must be remained frozen at −80 °C. In this study, we first reveal that the degradation of PSM is mainly due to the reaction between the reactive species and specific amino acids; mainly cysteine and methionine in medium. Based on this finding, both H2O2 in PSM and the anti-cancer capacity of PSM can be significantly stabilized during the storage at 8 °C and −25 °C for at least 3 days by using phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and cysteine/methionine-free Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM). In addition, we demonstrate that adding a tyrosine derivative, 3-Nitro-L-tyrosine, into DMEM can mitigate the degradation of PSM at 8 °C during 3 days of storage. This study provides a solid foundation for the future anti-cancer application of PSM

The Specific Vulnerabilities of Cancer Cells to the Cold Atmospheric Plasma-Stimulated Solutions.

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP), a novel promising anti-cancer modality, has shown its selective anti-cancer capacity on dozens of cancer cell lines in vitro and on subcutaneous xenograft tumors in mice. Over the past five years, the CAP-stimulated solutions (PSS) have also shown their selective anti-cancer effect over different cancers in vitro and in vivo. The solutions used to make PSS include several bio-adaptable solutions, mainly cell culture medium and simple buffered solutions. Both the CAP-stimulated medium (PSM) and the CAP-stimulated buffered solution (PSB) are able to significantly kill cancer cells in vitro. In this study, we systematically compared the anti-cancer effect of PSM and PSB over pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells and glioblastoma cells. We demonstrated that pancreatic cancer cells and glioblastoma cells were specifically vulnerable to PSM and PSB, respectively. The specific response such as the rise of intracellular reactive oxygen species of two cancer cell lines to the H2O2-containing environments might result in the specific vulnerabilities to PSM and PSB. In addition, we demonstrated a basic guideline that the toxicity of PSS on cancer cells could be significantly modulated through controlling the dilutability of solution

Lipid composition of spermatozoa in normozoospermic and asthenozoospermic males

Introduction: Lipids play an important role in the structural and functional activity of spermatozoa. We investigated the phospholipids composition and fatty acid-bound phospholipid of spermatozoa from asthenozoospermic and normozoospermic men. Patients and methods: Semen samples were analyzed in 15 asthenozoospermic and eight normozoospermic subjects and the sperm phospholipids and fatty acids were determined using high performance thin layer chromatography and gas chromatography, respectively. Results: The most abundant (mean±SE) phospholipids in normozoospermic and asthenozoospermic samples were phosphatidylethanolamine (70.9±11.5 and 44.2±8.5 nmol/108 spermatozoa, respectively) and phosphatidylcholine (58.6±9.5 and 34.6±3.2 nmol/108 spermatozoa, respectively). Compared to normozoospermic samples, asthenozoospermic samples showed lower levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA; p<0.01) and higher levels of saturated fatty acids (SFA; p<0.05). Discussion: Changes in content of phospholipids and its fatty acid composition of spermatozoa may be related to infertility in asthenozoospermic males. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Fractional deletion of Compound Kushen Injection indicates cytokine signaling pathways are critical for its perturbation of the cell cycle

Published online: 02 October 2019We used computational and experimental biology approaches to identify candidate mechanisms of action of aTraditional Chinese Medicine, Compound Kushen Injection (CKI), in a breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231). Because CKI is a complex mixture of plant secondary metabolites, we used a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fractionation and reconstitution approach to define chemical fractions required for CKI to induce apoptosis. The initial fractionation separated major from minor compounds, and it showed that major compounds accounted for little of the activity of CKI. Furthermore, removal of no single major compound altered the effect of CKI on cell viability and apoptosis. However, simultaneous removal of two major compounds identified oxymatrine and oxysophocarpine as critical with respect to CKI activity. Transcriptome analysis was used to correlate compound removal with gene expression and phenotype data. Many compounds in CKI are required to trigger apoptosis but significant modulation of its activity is conferred by a small number of compounds. In conclusion, CKI may be typical of many plant based extracts that contain many compounds in that no single compound is responsible for all of the bioactivity of the mixture and that many compounds interact in a complex fashion to influence a network containing many targets.T. N . Aung, S. Nourmohammadi, Z. Qu, Y. Harata-Lee, J. Cui, H. Y. Shen, A. J. Yool, T. Pukala, Hong Du, R. D. Kortschak, W. Wei, D. L. Adelso