A thirteen week ad libitum administration toxicity study of tartrazine in Swiss mice

Tartrazine is a colorant widely used in food products, drugs and cosmetics. The current study evaluates the effect of sub-chronic ingestion of tartrazine in drinking water at doses of 0, 0.1, 0.45, 1 and 2.5% for 13 weeks in mice. Our results show that female body weight gain and food consumption decreased in all treated groups, while fluid consumption increased. The red blood cell count, hemoglobin and hematocrit were increased in male 2.5% treated groups and the white blood cell count decreased in all treated groups. In both sexes of the 2.5% doses groups, total proteins, albumin, creatinine, urea, uric acid, total bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase and transaminases were higher. Histological examinations showed brain, liver and kidney damages in animals treated with 1 and 2.5% doses. We concluded that at doses of 1 and 2.5% in drinking water, tartrazine induces weight depression and adverse effects on brain, liver and kidney.Keywords: Tartrazine, subchronic toxicity, hematology, biochemical parameters, histology.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(28), pp. 4519-452

COCONUT MILK MODULATE THE ANTIGENICITY OF ALPHA-LACTALBUMIN IN BALB/C MICE

Objective: The aim of this work was to study the biochemical characteristics of coconut milk and its antigenic effect on the Balb/c mice immunized with α-lactalbumin protein, as well as its consequences on the structure of the intestinal epithelium.Methods: To achieve the objective of the study, an electrophoresis was realised on a polyacrylamide gel to determine various proteins contained in coconut milk. In addition, Lowry's method was used to determine the amount of proteins in the formula. The antigenicity of coconut milk in sera was also studied using the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) method. For the histological study, 21 w-old mice Balb/c were used and distributed in three groups of 7 mice each. Group 1, received a standard feed with no treatment (Negative control), group 2 and 3 received respectively a standard feed (Positive control) and coconut milk for a period of 28 d after being immunized with α- lactalbumin.Results: Analysis of the data revealed that the rate of proteins of cow's milk is higher than that of the coconut milk ( p0.01). However, after carrying out the electrophoresis analysis, the coconut milk showed the absence of intact proteins. The anti α-Lactalbumin IgG titers significantly increased in positive control groups that received coconut milk (p<0.0001). Moreover, there was an increase of the intestinal villi height of mice fed with coconut milk, in the structure level of their intestinal epithelium compared to the negative control group.Conclusion: The findings of the study provide the evidence that coconut milk is a possible alternative to the cow's milk formula in case of allergy

EFFECTS OF ORALLY ADMINISTERED ENTEROCOCCUS FAECIUM ON THE IMMUNE SYSTEMIC RESPONSE AND INTESTINAL EPITHELIAL STRUCTURE IN BALB/C MICE IMMUNIZED BY BOVINE Î’-LACTOGLOBULIN

Objective: Determine the effect of Enterococcus faecium on systemic immune response and its effect on the intestinal epithelial structure in the Balb/c mice. Methods: Thirty Balb/c mice were dispatched in three lots of 10 mice each. During an initial period of 18 days, the animals from the first lot received via an oral way suspension of 0,3 mL containing 108 ufc/mL of Enterococcus faecium,for the second and the third lot received 0,3 mL of a saline solution. In a second period of time, mice from the first and second lots were immunised via parenteral way using β-Lg. Then they were sacrified on the 50th day after the end of the first period (18 days). The level of IgG anti-β-Lg was determined in the sera by the ELISA, and histologic studies were conducted on the jejunum fragments. Results: Our results show that anti β-Lactoglobulin IgG titers were significantly reduced in immunized mice that received the Enterococcus faecium (1/280th) (***p<0,001). The histological studies of the intestinal epithelium shows long intestinal villi (53,88 ± 1,38µm) with diminished intra-epithelial lymphocytes. Conclusion: The study shows that Enterococcus faecium PC4.1 may help protect the intestinal epithelium integrity by maintaining the structure of the villi and has the ability to decrease the systemic immune response to β-lactoglobulin

Effect of a hyper-protein diet on Wistar rats development and intestinal function

This study was designed to investigate the long-term effects of a high-protein diet on the functional and histological structure of the intestinal epithelium. Sixteen adult male Wistar rats (180 ± 2.27 g) were divided into two groups: 1) the control group, (n = 30) were fed a normal diet of 14% protein; 2) the P50-group (n = 30) were fed a 50% protein diet. The effects of a high-protein diet were studied over a period of 2 months. Functional and morphological differences between the high-protein and control groups were compared. Internal organs (liver, stomach, lungs, heart, kidneys, spleen, intestine, skin, surrenal glands, white and brown adipose tissues) were removed from each sacrificed animal. The organs were weighed, and histological studies were performed on jejunal fragments. The weight of the P50 group rats increased 79%, while the weight of the control-group increased 98% (p< 0.01 0.05). The weight of the white adipose tissue, the skeleton and the skin were significantly greater in control-group rats (p< 0.01). An important modification of the epithelial structure in the intestine was observed in rats of the P50 group. The average length of their villi was significantly reduced and there was a significant increase in their IEL (p< 0.01). Our results indicate that ingestion of a protein-rich diet over a long period leads to modification of the histological structure of the intestinal epithelium, as indicated by; pronounced atrophy of mucosa; marked inflammatory infiltration of lymphocytes in the chorion; and many intra-epithelial lymphocytes

IN VITRO DIGESTIBILITY OF THE DROMEDARY WHEY PROTEINS: POTENTIAL USES IN INFANT MILK ALLERGIES

Objective: Dromedary milk has a good nutritive value and is free of b-lactoglobulin (b-Lg), which is considered one of the major antigens of cow's milk proteins responsible for the incidence of allergy in infancy. In this work, we try to assess the in vitro gastrointestinal digestion of dromedary's whey proteins.Methods: The dromedary and bovine whey proteins were subjected to two successive hydrolysis: pepsic followed by the mixture of trypsin/chymotrypsin. The kinetics of degradation was determined, then the degree of hydrolysis (DH) and the peptide chains length (PCL) was calculated. SDS-PAGE was carried out to evaluate the specific protein composition before and after degradation.Results: The determination of α-NH2 free functions and DH shows that the dromedary's whey proteins are more susceptible to pepsin digestion (***p<0.001, *p<0.05/ **p<0.01, *p<0.05), and combined trypsin/chymotrypsin digestion (***p<0.001, **p<0.01/ **p<0.01, **p<0.01) compared to bovine whey proteins digestibility. In the other hand, the PCL of the dromedary hydrolysates obtained are shorter than those of the bovine hydrolysates. The electrophoretic profile of native dromedary's whey proteins shows the absence of the b-Lg and the presence of specific proteins (CWBP: Camel Whey Basic Protein, PGRP: Peptidoglycan Recognition Protein and WAP: Whey Acidic Protein), Also, we observed in the electrophoretic gels that a new band was present and could correspond to new peptide generated after the peptic hydrolysis of dromedary's whey proteins.Conclusion: The gastrointestinal digestion of the two whey is important with higher DH of dromedary's whey proteins and PCL almost identical at the end of digestion.Â

Fermented Wheat Hamoum improves the recovery of intestinal mucosal and the short-chain fatty acids profile of colonic bacterial flora in malnourished rats

International audienceThe aim of the present study was to investigate whether a re-feeding protocol with fermented wheat Hamoum based- diet (FWH) had a beneficial effect on the recovery of weight growth as well restoration of intestinal organs morphometry and production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) in young malnourished rats during the weaning period. Male Wistar rats (n = 36) aged 4-weeks and weighing 66 +/- 0.17g were divided into five groups. The first group constitute the control group (C) subjected to an experimental balanced diet with 20% casein; the second is the malnourished group (Mal) received a protein-deficient diet (2% casein) for 28 days; The other three groups constitute the malnourished and refed groups, they were refed for 28 days with FWH (Mal/FWH), non-fermented wheat-based diet (Mal/NFW) and control diet (Mal/C). We evaluated the weight growth of rats, the intestinal organs morphometry (small bowel, cecum and colon), the pH level and SCFA content. The results obtained show that the refeeding with FWH was sufficient to induce a recovery in the weight growth and the intestinal morphometry. It also contributed to the enhancement of the pH levels in the intestinal lumen and increased SCFA content in particular acetic acid at the ileal and colic level compared to Mal group. This recovery was strongly observed in Mal/FWH than for Mal/NFW and Mal/C groups. These findings indicated that FWH based diet could effectively improve the physiological functioning of the intestinal tract after weaning in situations of protein malnutrition

SYMBIOTIC ENHANCES GUT MUCOSA RECOVERY RATE AND REDUCES OVERGROWTH OF BACTERIA IN EXPERIMENTAL PROTEIN MALNUTRITION

Objective: Investigate the effect of symbiotic on the recovery of bowel atrophy and bacterial translocation (BT) induced by protein malnutrition (PM) in rats.Methods: Rats were fed protein-deficient diet (maize) or the standard diet (standard rat chow) for 15 days. On day 10, rats fed with the protein-deficient diet were subdivided into three groups for reconstitution with protein-rich diet and Symbiotic. Milk-MTZ group, received milk+Metronidazole for 5 days and Symbiotic group, fed with some diet and probiotics-oligofructosaccharide for 5 days. Body weight was monitored daily, and all animals were sacrificed on day 15, and intestinal microflora and bacterial translocation (BT) to mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) were evaluated. Histological studies were carried out to evaluate villi length and intra epithelial lymphocyte (IEL) infiltration.Results: Our results show the symbiotic group (n=6) having the greater gain in body weight (12% increase) than milk-MTZ-fed group (n=6, 0.61 % increase). Overgrowth of Enterobacteria in protein-deficient diet rats was higher than in controls (p<0.0001); whereas, significantly decreasing in symbiotic fed group (p<0.0001). There was no significant difference in bacterial translocation between rats fed protein-deficient diet and those fed symbiotic rich diet. However, gut mucosa recovery was greater in symbiotic group (49.24 %).Conclusion: Our data suggests that symbiotic-rich diet induces an important gain in weight and leads to better recovery of gut mucosa, but without altering bacterial translocation rate induced by the protein-deficient diet.Â

Preventive effects of royal jelly against anaphylactic response in a murine model of cow’s milk allergy

Context: Royal jelly (RJ) has long been used to promote human health. Objective: The current study investigated the preventive effects of RJ against the development of a systemic and intestinal immune response in mice allergic to cow’s milk proteins. Materials and methods: Balb/c mice treated orally for seven days with RJ at doses of 0.5, 1 and 1.5 g/kg were sensitized intraperitoneally with β-lactoglobulin (β-Lg). Serum IgG and IgE anti-β-Lg were determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Plasma histamine levels, symptom scores and body temperature were determined after in vivo challenge to β-Lg. Jejunums were used for assessment of local anaphylactic responses by an ex vivo study in Ussing chambers and morphologic changes by histological analysis. Results: RJ significantly decreased serum IgG (31.15–43.78%) and IgE (64.28–66.6%) anti-β-Lg and effectively reduced plasma histamine level (66.62–67.36%) (p < 0.001) at all the doses tested. Additionally, no clinical symptoms or body temperature drops were observed in RJ-pretreated mice. Interestingly, RJ significantly reduced (p < 0.001) intestinal dysfunction by abolishing the secretory response (70.73–72.23%) induced by sensitization and prevented length aberrations of jejunal villi by 44.32–59.01% (p < 0.001). Discussion and conclusions: We speculate that using RJ may help prevent systemic and anaphylactic response in allergic mice. These effects may be related to its inhibitory effects on the degranulation of mast cells

The metabolic syndrome: Emerging novel insights regarding the relationship between the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance and other key predictive markers in young adults of western Algeria

Several biological markers have been identified as risk factors for cardiovascular disease and are associated with increased risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS). This study provides a factual information on promising biomarkers that are associated with MetS and can aid in early detection and management of MetS in young adults of Western Algeria. We studied a total of one hundred subjects aged between thirty and forty years with MetS, in which anthropometric measurements, insulin resistance, C peptide and HbA1c, lipid profile, circulating adipokines and glucagon-like peptide-1 were measured by suitable methods, in comparison to two groups of control. MetS is closely linked to altered glucose homeostasis, the plasma insulin/glucose ratio; i.e. the insulinogenic index helps to estimate the level of insulin secretion and also for assessing β-cell function. The correlation between homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) and HbA1c, body mass index or plasma triglycerides yielded positive and significant values. Biomarkers with a known and predictable association with MetS can provide a means to detect those at risk and intervene as needed. This could significantly decrease the burden complications impose on patients and the healthcare system.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe