Nano Chromium Picolinate Improves Gene Expression Associated with Insulin Signaling in Porcine Skeletal Muscle and Adipose Tissue

The aim of this study was to investigate the interactive effects of dietary nano chromium picolinate (nCrPic) and dietary fat on genes involved in insulin signaling in skeletal muscle and subcutaneous adipose tissue of pigs. Forty-eight gilts were stratified on body weight into four blocks of four pens of three pigs and then within each block each pen was randomly allocated to four treatment groups in a 2 × 2 factorial design. The respective factors were dietary fat (22 or 57 g/kg) and dietary nCrPic (0 or 400 ppb nCrPic) fed for six weeks. Skeletal muscle samples were collected from the Longissimus thoracis and subcutaneous adipose tissue collected from above this muscle. Dietary nCrPic increased adiponectin, uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3) and serine/threonine protein kinase (AKT) mRNA expression, whereas dietary fat decreased adiponectin and increased leptin, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors γ (PPARγ) and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein α (C/EBPα) mRNA expression in adipose tissue. In skeletal muscle, dietary nCrPic increased phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K), AKT, UCP3 and interleukin-15 (IL-15), as well as decreased suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) mRNA expression. The improvement in insulin signaling and muscle mass and the reduction in carcass fatness by dietary nCrPic may be via decreased SOCS3 and increased UCP3 and IL-15 in skeletal muscle and increased adiponectin in subcutaneous adipose tissue

Dietary nano chromium picolinate can ameliorate some of the impacts of heat stress in cross-bred sheep

Two studies were conducted to evaluate the effect of nano chromium picolinate (nCrPic) during heat stress (HS) in sheep. In the initial study, 36 Merino × Poll cross-bred sheep were individually penned and allocated to 3 dietary treatments (0, 400 and 800 μg/kg nCrPic) for 8 wk. Body composition was determined at the beginning and end of the experiment using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. The sheep remained in their dietary groups but were then placed in metabolic cages and randomly allocated within the dietary group to differing ambient temperature regimes, i.e., thermo-neutral (TN) (n = 18) and HS (n = 18), for 3 wk. Dietary nCrPic had no effect on growth performance and body composition during the initial study conducted under TN conditions. Heat stress decreased average daily feed intake (ADFI) (P = 0.002) whereas sheep under HS had reduced average daily gain (ADG) and indeed lost weight (P < 0.001). Dietary nCrPic increased both ADFI (P = 0.041) and ADG (P = 0.049) under both TH and HS conditions such that the performance of sheep receiving supplemental nCrPic and exposed to HS was similar to that of control sheep maintained under TN conditions. Heat stress increased rectal temperature (P < 0.001) and respiration rate (P < 0.001), particularly during the hottest parts of the day as indicated by interactions (P < 0.001) between time of day and thermal treatment. Rectal temperature was lower in sheep fed nCrPic (P = 0.050), particularly under peak HS conditions during the afternoon as indicated by the interactions between dietary nCrPic and time of day (P < 0.001) and dietary nCrPic, thermal treatment and time of day (P = 0.010). Similarly, respiration rate was lower in sheep fed nCrPic under peak HS conditions during the afternoon as indicated by the interactions between dietary nCrPic and thermal treatment (P < 0.001) and dietary nCrPic and time of day (P = 0.030). In conclusion, dietary nCrPic can partially ameliorate the negative effects of HS as indicated by the maintenance of ADFI and decreased physiological responses, such as elevations in rectal temperature and respiration rate

Costs and Cost-Effectiveness of Training Traditional Birth Attendants to Reduce Neonatal Mortality in the Lufwanyama Neonatal Survival Study (LUNESP)

The Lufwanyama Neonatal Survival Project (“LUNESP”) was a cluster randomized, controlled trial that showed that training traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to perform interventions targeting birth asphyxia, hypothermia, and neonatal sepsis reduced all-cause neonatal mortality by 45%. This companion analysis was undertaken to analyze intervention costs and cost-effectiveness, and factors that might improve cost-effectiveness.We calculated LUNESP's financial and economic costs and the economic cost of implementation for a forecasted ten-year program (2011–2020). In each case, we calculated the incremental cost per death avoided and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted in real 2011 US dollars. The forecasted 10-year program analysis included a base case as well as ‘conservative’ and ‘optimistic’ scenarios. Uncertainty was characterized using one-way sensitivity analyses and a multivariate probabilistic sensitivity analysis. The estimated financial and economic costs of LUNESP were $118,574 and$127,756, respectively, or $49,469 and$53,550 per year. Fixed costs accounted for nearly 90% of total costs. For the 10-year program, discounted total and annual program costs were $256,455 and$26,834 respectively; for the base case, optimistic, and conservative scenarios, the estimated cost per death avoided was $1,866,$591, and $3,024, and cost per DALY averted was$74, $24, and$120, respectively. Outcomes were robust to variations in local costs, but sensitive to variations in intervention effect size, number of births attended by TBAs, and the extent of foreign consultants' participation.Based on established guidelines, the strategy of using trained TBAs to reduce neonatal mortality was ‘highly cost effective’. We strongly recommend consideration of this approach for other remote rural populations with limited access to health care

Protective Effector Memory CD4 T Cells Depend on ICOS for Survival

Memory CD4 T cells play a vital role in protection against re-infection by pathogens as diverse as helminthes or influenza viruses. Inducible costimulator (ICOS) is highly expressed on memory CD4 T cells and has been shown to augment proliferation and survival of activated CD4 T cells. However, the role of ICOS costimulation on the development and maintenance of memory CD4 T cells remains controversial. Herein, we describe a significant defect in the number of effector memory (EM) phenotype cells in ICOS−/− and ICOSL−/− mice that becomes progressively more dramatic as the mice age. This decrease was not due to a defect in the homeostatic proliferation of EM phenotype CD4 T cells in ICOS−/− or ICOSL−/− mice. To determine whether ICOS regulated the development or survival of EM CD4 T cells, we utilized an adoptive transfer model. We found no defect in development of EM CD4 T cells, but long-term survival of ICOS−/− EM CD4 T cells was significantly compromised compared to wild-type cells. The defect in survival was specific to EM cells as the central memory (CM) ICOS−/− CD4 T cells persisted as well as wild type cells. To determine the physiological consequences of a specific defect in EM CD4 T cells, wild-type and ICOS−/− mice were infected with influenza virus. ICOS−/− mice developed significantly fewer influenza-specific EM CD4 T cells and were more susceptible to re-infection than wild-type mice. Collectively, our findings demonstrate a role for ICOS costimulation in the maintenance of EM but not CM CD4 T cells

Concepts of Cardiac Development in Retrospect

Recent research, enabled by powerful molecular techniques, has revolutionized our concepts of cardiac development. It was firmly established that the early heart tube gives rise to the left ventricle only, and that the remainder of the myocardium is recruited from surrounding mesoderm during subsequent development. Also, the cardiac chambers were shown not to be derived from the entire looping heart tube, but only from the myocardium at its outer curvatures. Intriguingly, many years ago, classic experimental embryological studies reached very similar conclusions. However, with the current scientific emphasis on molecular mechanisms, old morphological insights became underexposed. Since cardiac development occurs in an architecturally complex and dynamic fashion, molecular insights can only fully be exploited when placed in a proper morphological context. In this communication we present excerpts of important embryological studies of the pioneers of experimental cardiac embryology of the previous century, to relate insights from the past to current observations

Self-Compassion, emotion regulation and stress among australian psychologists: Testing an emotion regulation model of self-compassion using structural equation modeling

Psychologists tend to report high levels of occupational stress, with serious implications for themselves, their clients, and the discipline as a whole. Recent research suggests that selfcompassion is a promising construct for psychologists in terms of its ability to promote psychological wellbeing and resilience to stress; however, the potential benefits of self-compassion are yet to be thoroughly explored amongst this occupational group. Additionally, while a growing body of research supports self-compassion as a key predictor of psychopathology, understanding of the processes by which self-compassion exerts effects on mental health outcomes is limited. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test an emotion regulation model of self-compassion and stress among psychologists, including postgraduate trainees undertaking clinical work (n = 198). Self-compassion significantly negatively predicted emotion regulation difficulties and stress symptoms. Support was also found for our preliminary explanatory model of self-compassion, which demonstrates the mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties in the self-compassion-stress relationship. The final self-compassion model accounted for 26.2% of variance in stress symptoms. Implications of the findings and limitations of the study are discussed

Dietary nano-chromium tripicolinate increases feed intake and decreases plasma cortisol in finisher gilts during summer

Chromium (Cr) is an essential mineral element and has been used in pig diets to improve growth performance, insulin sensitivity, immune response and carcase traits and to reduce heat or other stress responses. The aims of thiss study were to determine the impact of nano-sized chromium tripicolinate (nCrPic) on growth performance, feed efficiency and carcase characteristics of finisher gilts during the summer period. A total of 60 finisher Large White x Landrace gilts were stratified on initial weight and then within strata randomly allocated into two treatment groups in three replicates during mid-summer for 28 days. All pigs were housed in individual pens and had ad libitum access to feed and water. Pigs were fed either a control finisher diet (wheat-based diet containing 13.8 MJ digestible energy (DE) per kilogram and 0.56 g available lysine/MJ DE) or a control diet containing 400 ppb Cr as nCrPic. Dietary nCrPic supplementation increased feed intake by 6 % over the entire study (P = 0.05). In particular, dietary nCrPic increased average daily feed intake (ADFI) by 8 % (P = 0.02) during the final 2 weeks of the study. Moreover, dietary nCrPic tended to improve average daily feed (ADFI) over the entire study (P = 0.09). However, there were no significant effects of nCrPic on feed conversion ratio (FCR), final weight, hot standard carcase weight (HCWT), P2 depth or dressing percentage. Plasma cortisol was decreased by 25 % (P = 0.06) by dietary nCrPic supplementation. However, there were no effects of nCrPic on plasma glucose, insulin and nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA), might because of the higher feed intake. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that dietary nCrPic supplementation at 400 ppb can increase feed intake in finisher gilts during mid-summer, suggesting that nCrPic can ameliorate some of the negative effects of heat stress in pigs, possibly via decreased of circulating cortisol