Oral administration of polyphenolic compounds from cognac decreases ADP-induced platelet aggregation and reduces chronotropic effect of isoprenaline in rats

This study sought to evaluate whether consumption of polyphenol extract from Cognac (CPC) modulates platelet activation and cardiovascular reactivity in rats. Male Wistar rats were treated daily for 4 weeks by intra-gastric gavage receiving CPC at 80 mg/kg/day or vehicle (5 % glucose). Platelet adhesion and aggregation in response to different activators were assessed. Cardiac and vascular reactivity in response to various agonists as well as NO measurement by electron paramagnetic resonance technique were investigated in isolated heart and thoracic aorta. Oral administration of CPC decreased platelet aggregation induced by ADP but not by collagen. CPC did not affect adhesion to collagen. The chronotropic but not the inotropic response to isoprenaline was reduced without alteration of NO production in hearts from CPC-treated rats. CPC treatment did not affect ex vivo relaxation to acetylcholine nor NO content of rat aorta. CPC did not significantly alter the response to phenylephrine in aorta despite the participation of endothelial vasoconstrictor products. In summary, chronic treatment with CPC has no impact on ex vivo vascular and cardiac reactivity; however, it reduced heart work and platelet aggregation. These data suggest the existence of compounds in Cognac that may decrease the risk of coronary thrombosis and protect against some cardiac diseases

Seasonal Variability in the Zooplankton Community Structure in a Sub-Arctic Fjord as Revealed by Morphological and Molecular Approaches

Phyto- and zooplankton in Arctic and sub-Arctic seas show very strong seasonal changes in diversity and biomass. Here we document the seasonal variability in the mesozooplankton community structure in a sub-Arctic fjord in Northern Norway based on monthly sampling between November 2018 and February 2020. We combined traditional morphological zooplankton identification with DNA metabarcoding of a 313 base pair fragment of the COI gene. This approach allowed us to provide the most detailed mesozooplankton species list known for this region across an entire year, including both holo- and meroplankton. The zooplankton community was dominated by small copepods throughout the sampling period both in terms of abundance and relative sequence counts. However, meroplankton was the most diverse group, especially within the phylum polychaeta. We identified four distinct periods based on the seasonal analysis of the zooplankton community composition. The pre-spring bloom period (February–March) was characterized by low abundance and biomass of zooplankton. The spring bloom (April) was characterized by the presence of Calanus young stages, cirripedia and krill eggs. The spring-summer period (May–August) was characterized by a succession of meroplankton and a relatively high abundance of copepods of the genus Calanus spp. Finally, the autumn-winter period (September–December) was characterized by a high copepod diversity and a peak in abundance of small copepods (e.g., Oithona similis, Acartia longiremis, Pseudocalanus acuspes, Pseudocalanus elongatus, Pseudocalanus moultoni, Pseudocalanus minutus). During this period, we also observed an influx of boreal warm-water species which were notably absent during the rest of the year. Both the traditional community analysis and metabarcoding were highly complementary and with a few exceptions showed similar trends in the seasonal changes of the zooplankton community structure

Monitoring bacterial community dynamics in a drinking water treatment plant: an integrative approach using metabarcoding and microbial indicators in large water volumes

Monitoring bacterial communities in a drinking water treatment plant (DWTP) may help to understand their regular operations. Bacterial community dynamics in an advanced full-scale DWTP were analyzed by 16S rRNA metabarcoding, and microbial water quality indicators were determined at nine different stages of potabilization: river water and groundwater intake, decantation, sand filtration, ozonization, carbon filtration, reverse osmosis, mixing chamber and post-chlorination drinking water. The microbial content of large water volumes (up to 1100 L) was concentrated by hollow fiber ultrafiltration. Around 10 million reads were obtained and grouped into 10,039 amplicon sequence variants. Metabarcoding analysis showed high bacterial diversity at all treatment stages and above all in groundwater intake, followed by carbon filtration and mixing chamber samples. Shifts in bacterial communities occurred downstream of ozonization, carbon filtration, and, more drastically, chlorination. Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota predominated in river water and throughout the process, but in the final drinking water, the strong selective pressure of chlorination reduced diversity and was clearly dominated by Cyanobacteria. Significant seasonal variation in species distribution was observed in decantation and carbon filtration samples. Some amplicon sequence variants related to potentially pathogenic genera were found in the DWTP. However, they were either not detected in the final water or in very low abundance (<2%), and all EU Directive quality standards were fully met. A combination of culture and high-throughput sequencing techniques may help DWTP managers to detect shifts in microbiome, allowing for a more in-depth assessment of operational performance

Liver Resection for Primary Hepatic Neoplasms.

Subtotal hepatic resection was performed in 356 patients; 87 had primary hepatic malignancies, 108 had metastatic tumors, and 161 had benign lesions including 8 traumatic injuries. The global mortality was 4.2%. The experience has elucidated the role of subtotal hepatic resection both for benign and malignant neoplasms

Rosiglitazone, a Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-γ Agonist, Prevents Microparticle-Induced Vascular Hyporeactivity through the Regulation of Proinflammatory Proteins

Microparticles are plasma membrane vesicles with procoagulant and proinflammatory properties. We recently demonstrated that microparticles induce vascular hyporeactivity and evoke up-regulation of proinflammatory protein expression. This study dissected the effect of either in vitro treatment or short-term oral administration of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) agonist, rosiglitazone, on microparticle-induced vascular hyporeactivity of mouse vessels. Microparticles were produced from T cells by actinomycin D treatment. The effects of rosiglitazone on mouse aortic rings incubated with microparticles were investigated. Aortae treated in vitro with rosiglitazone or aortae taken from mice treated by oral administration of the same agonist completely prevented microparticle-induced vascular hyporeactivity in response to U46619 [9,11-dideoxy-11α, 9α-epoxymethanoprostaglandin F2α). These effects of rosiglitazone occurred independently of the presence of endothelium without modifications in blood parameters. The mechanisms involved abrogation of nitric oxide (NO) and prostacyclin overproduction linked to up-regulation of inducible NO-synthase and cyclooxygenase 2 elicited by microparticles. In addition, rosiglitazone treatment reduced the ability of microparticles to evoke increases in interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, and nuclear factor (NF)-κB transcription, and NF-κB expression and activation. These results suggest that rosiglitazone, via PPARγ activation, counteracts vascular dysfunction associated with increased release of proinflammatory proteins elicited by microparticles. They underscore therapeutic perspective for rosiglitazone in vascular diseases involving enhanced participation of microparticles

Niche separation between two dominant crustacean predators in European estuarine soft-bottom habitats

Epibenthic predators in estuarine shallow soft-bottom environments are generally considered to have broad ecological niches with a wide overlap. This allows them to cope with abundant but highly variable prey communities. The assessment of trophic relationships in shallow soft-bottom habitats is, however, challenging and often complicated by the bias and low resolution of the analytical tools available to study diet in relatively small invertebrates. This study investigates niche overlap between two dominant epibenthic predators in European estuarine soft-bottom environments, the brown shrimp (Crangon crangon L.) and the European green crab (Carcinus maenas L.), by means of trophic DNA-metabarcoding with universal primers for cytochrome c oxidase I (COI). Results show differences in diet composition between the two predators, despite the fact that both species are opportunistic generalists with a high overlap in prey items (218 overlapping Molecular Taxonomic Units). The European green crab showed a richer, more even, and more geographically consistent diet than the brown shrimp, with fairly balanced consumption of algal, arthropod, annelid and mollusc food items. The brown shrimp instead preferred arthropods and annelids, and showed more spatial variation in diet. The observed niche separation could be linked to behavioural variation between the two predators, with European green crab showing more active movements over shallow soft-bottom environments compared to the brown shrimp, which regularly stays buried in the sediment, ambushing its prey. An accurate understanding of the trophic ecology of these estuarine crustaceans is important to capitalise on their role as sentinel organisms since their diet reflects local diversity and can result in toxin bioaccumulation. This study provides new insights in the predator–prey relationships and food web dynamics in European estuaries and highlights the importance of trophic DNA-metabarcoding to study marine food webs

Metabarcoding of shrimp stomach content: harnessing a natural sampler for fish biodiversity monitoring

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Siegenthaler, A., Wangensteen Fuentes, O.S., Soto, A.Z., Benvenuto, C., Corrigan, L, & Mariani, S. (2018). Metabarcoding of shrimp stomach content: harnessing a natural sampler for fish biodiversity monitoring. Molecular Ecology Resources. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.12956, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.12956. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.Given their positioning and biological productivity, estuaries have long represented key providers of ecosystem services, and consequently remain under remarkable pressure from numerous forms of anthropogenic impact. The monitoring of fish communities in space and time are one of the most widespread and established approaches to assess the ecological status of estuaries and other coastal habitats, but traditional fish surveys are invasive, costly, labour intensive and highly selective. Recently, the application of metabarcoding techniques, on either sediment or aqueous environmental DNA, has rapidly gained popularity. Here, we evaluate the application of a novel, high through‐put DNA‐based monitoring tool to assess fish diversity, based on the analysis of the gut contents of a generalist predator/scavenger, the European brown shrimp, Crangon crangon. Sediment and shrimp samples were collected from eight European estuaries and DNA metabarcoding (using both 12S and COI markers) was carried out to infer fish assemblage composition. We detected 32 teleost species (16 and 20, for 12S and COI respectively). Twice as many species were recovered using metabarcoding than by traditional net surveys. By comparing and interweaving trophic, environmental DNA and traditional survey‐based techniques, we show that the DNA‐assisted gut content analysis of a ubiquitous, easily accessible, generalist species may serve as a powerful, rapid and cost‐effective tool for large scale, routine estuarine biodiversity monitoring