Effects of 2 or 5 consecutive exercise days on adipocyte area and lipid parameters in Wistar rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Exercise has been prescribed in the treatment and control of dyslipidemias and cholesterolemia, however, lipid responses to different training frequencies in hypercholesterolemic men have been inconsistent. We sought to verify if different frequencies of continuous moderate exercise (2 or 5 days/week, swimming) can, after 8 weeks, promote adaptations in adipocyte area and lipid parameters, as well as body weight and relative weight of tissues in normo and hypercholesterolemic adult male rats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Normal cholesterol chow diet or cholesterol-rich diet (1% cholesterol plus 0.25% cholic acid) were freely given during 8 weeks to the rats divided in 6 experimentals groups: sedentary normal cholesterol chow diet (C); sedentary cholesterol-rich diet (H); 5× per week continuous training normal cholesterol chow diet (TC5) and cholesterol-rich diet (TH5); 2× per week continuos traning normal cholesterol chow diet (TC2) and cholesterol-rich diet (TH2).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No changes were observed in lipid profile in normal cholesterol chow diet, but both 2 a 5 days/week exercise improved this profile in cholesterol-rich diet. Body weight gain was lower in exercised rats. Decrease in retroperitoneal and epididymal relative weights as well as reductions in adipocyte areas under all diets types were observed only in 5 days/week, while 2 days/week showed improvements mainly in cholesterol-rich diet rats.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results confirm the importance of exercise protocols to control dyslipidemias and obesity in rats. The effects of 5 days/week exercise were more pronounced compared with those of 2 consecutive days/week training.</p

Ecosystem Services Provided by Overseeding Aeschynomene Into Bahiagrass Pastures in South Florida

Aeschynomene (Aeschynomene americana L.) is a warm-season annual legume commonly overseeded into warm-season perennial grass pastures in tropical and subtropical regions. Although aeschynomene usually increases forage production and nutritive value, there is limited information about the ecosystem services provided by this legume. The objective of these studies was to evaluate the effects of overseeding aeschynomene into bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flüggé) pastures on nutrient dynamics and microbial N-cycling gene abundances. The studies were conducted in Ona, FL, from April to March 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. Treatments were the split-plot arrangement of two forage systems treatments (overseeding aeschynomene into bahiagrass or bahiagrass monoculture; main plots) and two N fertilization levels [0 (control) and 60 kg N ha-1 ; sub-plot], distributed in a randomized complete block design with four replicates. Forage characteristics were evaluated 8-wk after seeding and every 35 d thereafter. The static chamber technique was used to estimate nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. The litter bag technique was used to estimate organic matter (OM) and N decomposition. Nitrogen-cycling gene abundances were measured by qPCR. Bahiagrass-aeschynomene had greater crude protein concentration than bahiagrass monoculture but there was no difference in forage accumulation. Nitrogen fertilization increased forage accumulation and daily N2O emissions. Litter from bahiagrass-aeschynomene had greater OM and N decomposition rates than bahiagrass only, and N fertilization did not affect litter decomposition. There were no differences in N-cycling microbial gene abundances among treatments. Overseeding aeschynomene into bahiagrass may provide additional ecosystem services, but the magnitude is conditional to the establishment and proportion of aeschynomene in the pasture botanical composition

Nutrient Return from Plant Litter and Cattle Excretion Grazing on N-Fertilized Grass or Grass-Legume Pastures in North Florida

Nutrient recycling via plant litter and livestock excreta is an important ecosystem service provided by grasslands. This study determined nutrient return via these pathways in three grazing systems. The experiment was conducted from May to October (2016 and 2017) and treatments were: 1) Nitrogen fertilized bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flügge) pastures (112 kg N ha-1) during the warm-season, overseeded with a mixture (56 kg ha-1 of each) of ‘FL 401’ cereal rye (Secale cereale, L.) and ‘RAM’ oat (Avena sativa, L.) during the cool-season (BGN); 2) Ecoturf Rhizoma peanut (Arachis glabrata Benth.)/bahiagrass pastures during the warm-season, overseeded with similar rye/oat mixture fertilized with 34 kg N ha-1 plus a mixture of clovers (Trifolium incarnatum L., T. pretense L., and T. nigrescens L.) during the cool-season (BGRP); 3) unfertilized bahiagrass pastures during the warm-season, overseeded with similar rye/oat grass/clover mixture + 34 kg N ha-1 during the cool-season (BG). Litter mass was evaluated every 5wk. Litter decomposition was evaluated with incubation periods of 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and 256 days. Urine and fecal samples were collected for N concentration analysis. There was a net return of 47 kg N ha-1 season-1 via litter in all three systems without differing among them. In addition, litter decomposition rates were not different in the three systems. Conversely, N returned via excreta (urine and feces) was greater (63, 27, and 51 kg N ha-1 season-1) than that returned via litter (58.6, 41.6, and 41.2 kg ha-1 season-1). When assessing the proportions of N returning to the system via litter or excreta, no differences were observed among treatments, and on average 65.1 % of the N returned via excreta vs. 34.9 % returning via litter. The introduction of legumes could reduce the inputs from N fertilizers in grazing systems and keep the productivity similar because of more efficient N cycling

Convergent evidences from human and animal studies implicate angiotensin I-converting enzyme activity in cognitive performance in schizophrenia

In schizophrenia (SCZ), higher angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) levels have been reported in patient's blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Hereby, we propose to explore whether the ACE activity levels are associated to cognitive performance in SCZ. Seventy-two patients with SCZ or schizoaffective disorder diagnosis, and 69 healthy controls (HCs) underwent a cognitive battery with parallel collection of peripheral blood samples to measure ACE activity. Significant higher ACE activity levels were confirmed in the plasma of SCZ patients compared with HCs (Student's t=−5.216; P<0.001). ACE activity significantly correlated to Hopkins delayed recall measures (r=−0.247; P=0.004) and Hopkins total (r=−0.214; P=0.012). Subjects grouped as high ACE activity (above average) had worse performance compared with low ACE activity level group for Hopkins delayed recall measure, even after correction for clinical condition, age, gender and years of education (P=0.029). The adjusted R squared for this final model was 0.343. This result was evident only comparing extreme groups for ACE activity, when splitting the sample in three groups with similar number of subjects. To clarify this finding, we performed an evaluation of the cognitive performance of transgenic mice with three copies of ACE gene in novel object recognition (NOR) test, which showed that such animals presented impairment in NOR (P<0.05) compared with two copies of wild-type animals. The results observed in SCZ patients and animal model suggest both the association of ACE to cognitive deficits in SCZ. This finding may support the evaluation of novel treatment protocols and/or of innovative drugs for specific intervention of cognitive deficits in SCZ envisioning concomitant ACE activity and behavior evaluations

Morpho-physiological and anatomical characteristics of Urochloa brizantha cv. Marandu in silvopastoral and monoculture systems.

To gain insights into the forage morphological and anatomical characteristics in a silvopastoral system (SPS) with Bolsa de Pastor (Zeyheria tuberculosa) and palisadegrass 'Marandu' (Urochloa brizantha) monoculture (MONO). The SPS was established through natural regeneration of the tree species. Treatments were a SPS and MONO distributed in a completely randomized design with six replicates and repeated measures were the harvest periods. Response variables were morpho-physiological and anatomical characteristicss: green: dead material ratio, leaf blade: stem+sheath ratio, leaf area index, chlorophyll and carotenoid concentrations, proportions of non-lignified and achlorophyllous areas, lignified areas in stems, proportions of non-lignified and achlorophyllous areas, lignified and chlorophyllous areas in leaves, as well as cell length in longitudinal section of stem. Morpho-physiological patterns were altered (p 0.05) of the systems on anatomical patterns, proportions of non-lignified and achlorophyllous, lignified and chlorophyllous tissues, these proportions were influenced only by the periods of the year, both for stems and leaves. Cells of the internodes of the grasses of the studied systems had the same length. The SPS alters morpho-physiological characteristics of palisadegrass and increases the concentration of chlorophyll a and b

Influence of polymer-coated slow-release urea on total tract apparent digestibility, ruminal fermentation and performance of Nellore steers

Objective Two experiments were performed to evaluate the effects of coated slow-release urea on nutrient digestion, ruminal fermentation, nitrogen utilization, blood glucose and urea concentration (Exp 1), and average daily gain (ADG; Exp 2) of steers. Methods Exp 1: Eight ruminally fistulated steers [503±28.5 kg body weight (BW)] were distributed into a d 4×4 Latin square design and assigned to treatments: control (CON), feed grade urea (U2), polymer-coated slow-release urea A (SRA2), and polymer-coated slow-release urea B (SRB2). Dietary urea sources were set at 20 g/kg DM. Exp 2: 84 steers (350.5±26.5 kg initial BW) were distributed to treatments: CON, FGU at 10 or 20 g/kg diet DM (U1 and U2, respectively), coated SRA2 at 10 or 20 g/kg diet DM (SRA1 and SRA2, respectively), and coated SRB at 10 or 20 g/kg diet DM (SRB1 and SRB2, respectively). Results Exp 1: Urea treatments (U2+SRA2+SRB2) decreased (7.4%, p = 0.03) the DM intake and increased (11.4%, p<0.01) crude protein digestibility. Coated slow-release urea (SRA2+SRB2) showed similar nutrient digestibility compwared to feed grade urea (FGU). However, steers fed SRB2 had higher (p = 0.02) DM digestibility compared to those fed SRA2. Urea sources did not affect ruminal fermentation when compared to CON. Although, coated slow-release urea showed lower (p = 0.01) concentration of NH3-N (−10.4%) and acetate to propionate ratio than U2. Coated slow-release urea showed lower (p = 0.02) urinary N and blood urea concentration compared to FGU. Exp 2: Urea sources decreased (p = 0.01) the ADG in relation to CON. Animals fed urea sources at 10 g/kg DM showed higher (12.33%, p = 0.01) ADG compared to those fed urea at 20 g/kg DM. Conclusion Feeding urea decreased the nutrient intake without largely affected the nutrient digestibility. In addition, polymer-coated slow-release urea sources decreased ruminal ammonia concentration and increased ruminal propionate production. Urea at 20 g/kg DM, regardless of source, decreased ADG compared both to CON and diets with urea at 10 g/kg DM