Exploring the effects of lysozyme dietary supplementation on laying hens: performance, egg quality, and immune response

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the dietary supplementation with lysozyme's impacts on laying performance, egg quality, biochemical analysis, body immunity, and intestinal morphology. A total of 720 Jingfen No. 1 laying hens (53 weeks old) were randomly assigned into five groups, with six replicates in each group and 24 hens per replicate. The basal diet was administered to the laying hens in the control group, and it was supplemented with 100, 200, 300, or 400 mg/kg of lysozyme (purity of 10% and an enzyme activity of 3,110 U/mg) for other groups. The preliminary observation of the laying rate lasted for 4 weeks, and the experimental period lasted for 8 weeks. The findings demonstrated that lysozyme might enhance production performance by lowering the rate of sand-shelled eggs (P < 0.05), particularly 200 and 300 mg/kg compared with the control group. Lysozyme did not show any negative effect on egg quality or the health of laying hens (P > 0.05). Lysozyme administration in the diet could improve intestinal morphology, immune efficiency, and nutritional digestibility in laying hens when compared with the control group (P < 0.05). These observations showed that lysozyme is safe to use as a feed supplement for the production of laying hens. Dietary supplementation with 200 to 300 mg/kg lysozyme should be suggested to farmers as a proper level of feed additive in laying hens breeding

Deep Sub–Wavelength Focusing Metalens at Terahertz Frequency

With the benefits of non–invasive and low radiation, terahertz radiation has shown great potential in biomedical imaging applications. However, the low spatial resolution of the imaging system significantly affects its application in these fields. Although immersion techniques and super–oscillation theory have achieved considerable success in improving the resolution of imaging systems, there are still problems with large focal spot sizes or large sidebands. Herein, a solid immersion lens based on super–oscillation is proposed to reduce the focal spot size when illuminated with circularly polarized light at a wavelength of 118.8 μm. The simulation results show that the lens can compress the full widths at half–maxima down to deep sub–wavelength scales, as small as 0.232 λ. At the same time, the maximum side–lobe ratio was 16.8%, which ensured that the device had a large field of view. The proposed method reveals new ideas in the field of super–resolution imaging

Metabolic Profiling by UPLC–Orbitrap–MS/MS of Liver from C57BL/6 Mice with DSS-Induced Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Liver disorder often occurs in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); however, the changes in IBD-induced liver disorder at the intrinsic molecular level (chiefly metabolites) and therapeutic targets are still poorly characterized. First, a refined and translationally relevant model of DSS chronic colitis in C57BL/6 mice was established, and cecropin A and antibiotics were used as interventions. We found that the levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-6 in the liver tissues of mice were highly increased in the context of DSS treatment but were lowered by cecropin A and antibiotics. Subsequently, an untargeted metabolomics analysis was performed by UPLC–Orbitrap–MS/MS to reveal the metabolic profile and attempt to find the potential therapeutic targets of the liver disorders that occur in IBD. Notably, 133 metabolites were identified by an integrated database. Metabolism network and pathway analyses demonstrated that the metabolic disturbance of the liver in IBD mice was mainly enriched in bile acid metabolism, arachidonic acid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and steroid hormone biosynthesis, while those disturbances were regulated or reversed through cecropin A and antibiotic treatment. Furthermore, the top 20 metabolites, such as glutathione, maltose, arachidonic acid, and thiamine, were screened as biomarkers via one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA, p1) of orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), which could be upregulated or downregulated with the cecropin A and antibiotics treatment. Spearman correlation analysis showed that the majority of the biomarkers have a significant correlation with cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-10), indicating that those biomarkers may act as potential targets to interact directly or indirectly with cecropin A and antibiotics to affect liver inflammation. Collectively, our results extend the understanding of the molecular alteration of liver disorders occurring in IBD and offer an opportunity for discovering potential therapeutic targets in the IBD process

Abrupt Dietary Change and Gradual Dietary Transition Impact Diarrheal Symptoms, Fecal Fermentation Characteristics, Microbiota, and Metabolic Profile in Healthy Puppies

Dietary changes are inevitable for pets, yet little is known about the impact of different dietary change methods on the gastrointestinal response. The current comparative study evaluated the effects of different dietary changes on the diarrheal symptoms, fecal fermentation characteristics, microbiota, and metabolic profile of healthy puppies. A total of 13 beagle puppies were randomly divided into two groups; puppies in the abrupt change (AC) group were given 260 g of a chicken- and duck-based extruded diet (CD)daily for the one-week transition period, whereas puppies in the gradual transition (GT) group were fed according to a gradual transition ratio of a salmon-based extruded diet (SA) and a CD diets with a difference of 40 g per day for seven consecutive days. Serum samples were collected on D7, and fecal samples were collected on D0 and D7. The results indicated that GT reduced the incidence of diarrhea in puppies throughout the trial period. Dietary change methods had no influence on serum inflammatory factors or fecal SCFAs, but isovaleric acid was significantly reduced after GT. Meanwhile, 16S rRNA sequencing showed that the fecal microbiota was changed after different dietary changes. Compared with the bacterial changes after AC, the relative abundances of beneficial bacteria (i.e., Turicibacter and Faecalibacterium) in feces were increased after GT in puppies. Additionally, both GT and AC caused changes in amino acid metabolism, while AC also altered lipid metabolism. AC increased fecal histamine and spermine concentrations, but decreased concentrations of metabolites such as 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid and serotonin. Our findings indicated that GT most likely reduced the diarrhea rate in puppies by modulating the composition and metabolism of the gut microbiota

Effects of Softening Dry Food with Water on Stress Response, Intestinal Microbiome, and Metabolic Profile in Beagle Dogs

Softening dry food with water is believed to be more beneficial to the intestinal health and nutrients absorption of dogs by some owners, but there appears to be little scientific basis for this belief. Thus, this study aimed to compare feeding dry food (DF) and water-softened dry food (SDF) on stress response, intestinal microbiome, and metabolic profile in dogs. Twenty healthy 5-month-old beagle dogs were selected and divided into two groups according to their gender and body weight using a completely randomized block design. Both groups were fed the same basal diet, with one group fed DF and the other fed SDF. The trial lasted for 21 days. The apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of nutrients, inflammatory cytokines, stress hormones, heat shock protein-70 (HSP-70), fecal microbiota, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), branch-chain fatty acids (BCFAs), and metabolomics were measured. Results showed that there was no significant difference in body weight, ATTD, and SCFAs between the DF and SDF groups (p > 0.05), whereas feeding with SDF caused a significant increase in serum cortisol level (p p = 0.062) and HSP-70 (p = 0.097) levels. Fecal 16S rRNA gene sequencing found that the SDF group had higher alpha diversity indices (p Streptococcus, Enterococcus, and Escherichia_Shigella, and lower levels of Faecalibacterium (p p < 0.05). Overall, feeding with SDF caused higher cortisol level and generated effects of higher intestinal microbial diversity in dogs, but it caused an increase in some pathogenic bacteria, which may result in intestinal microbiome disturbance and metabolic disorder in dogs. In conclusion, feeding with SDF did not provide digestive benefits but caused some stress and posed a potential threat to the intestinal health of dogs. Thus, SDF is not recommended in the feeding of dogs

VPPIPP and IPPVPP: two hexapeptides innovated to exert antihypertensive activity.

In this study, two hexapeptides of IPPVPP and VPPIPP were innovated by using two commercial antihypertensive peptides IPP and VPP as two domains cis-linked and trans-linked, respectively. The IPPVPP and VPPIPP were chemically synthesized and evaluated for the antihypertensive activity in vitro/vivo. The in vitro ACE-inhibitory study showed that VPPIPP (34.71 ± 4.38%) has a significantly stronger activity than that of IPPVPP (13.17 ± 0.25%) at a treatment concentration of 10 µmol/L, but it was weaker than the commercial IPP (56.97 ± 2.40%) (P<0.05). However, VPPIPP, IPPVPP, and IPP lowered the systolic blood pressure by 21 ± 0.9%, 17.4 ± 1.3% and 17.5 ± 0.9%, respectively, in rats at 1.5 mg/kg body weight dosage. The result was consistent with the mRNA level of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+), Mg(2+) -ATPase Gene (SERCA 2a) in rat hearts. Additionally, VPPIPP and IPPVPP showed no negative impact on blood glycometabolism. The results suggested that the two hexapeptides could be potent bioactive peptides in functional foods for people with high blood pressure

The effect of atorvastatin on mRNA levels of inflammatory genes expression in human peripheral blood lymphocytes by DNA microarray

Accumulating evidence indicates that beneficial effects of statins on inflammatory processes besides their lowering-lipid activities, statins are thought to exert anti-inflammatory effects via direct inhibition of inflammatory genes expression. Little comprehensive analysis has been made of gene-expression changes after statin therapy. In this study, to search novel genes after treatment by atorvastatin (one of the most potent statins), we performed a DNA microarray analysis by using normal human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL). Analysis of gene expression by DNA microarray showed that 180 genes were downregulated 3-fold changes by atorvastatin therapy compared with controls, changes in the expression of 11 inflammatory genes, confirmed by real-time RT-PCR. The results showed that atorvastatin significantly decreased the expression of six cytokines (IL-6, IL-8, IL-1, PAI-1, TGF-beta 1, TGF-beta 2) and five chemokines (CCL2, CCL7, CCL13, CCL18, CXCL1). Our results showed the marked changes in these cytokine and chemokine expression in human PBL by atorvastatin therapy. It seemed that these data were useful as a reference database of inflammatory gene changes, some of which may be new biomarkers follow atorvastatin treatment. (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved

Downregulation of snoRNA SNORA52 and Its Clinical Significance in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common and aggressive tumors in the world while the accuracy of the present tests for detecting HCC is poor. A novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for HCC is urgently needed. Overwhelming evidence has demonstrated the regulatory roles of small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA) in carcinogenesis. This study is aimed at analyzing the expression of a snoRNA, SNORA52, in HCC and exploring the correlation between its expression and various clinical characteristics of HCC patients. By using quantitative real-time PCR, we found that SNORA52 was downregulated in HCC cell lines (P<0.05) and HCC tissues (P<0.001). Correlation analysis showed that the expression of SNORA52 was obviously associated with tumor size (P=0.011), lesion number (P=0.007), capsular invasion (P=0.011), tumor differentiation degree (P=0.046), and TNM stage (P=0.004). The disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) analysis showed that patients with lower SNORA52 expression had a worse prognosis (P<0.001). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that SNORA52 expression was a completely independent prognostic factor to predict DFS (P=0.009) and OS (P=0.012) of HCC patients. Overall, our findings showed SNORA52 expression levels were downregulated in HCC tissues and correlated with multiple clinical variables, and SNORA52 was an independent prognostic factor for HCC patients, which suggested that SNORA52 could function as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for HCC patients

Effects of 10-Day Complete Fasting on Physiological Homeostasis, Nutrition and Health Markers in Male Adults

Fasting shows great potential in preventing chronic diseases and has to be surmounted under some extraordinary circumstances. This study aimed to investigate the safety, time effects of metabolic homeostasis and health indexes during prolonged fasting. Thirteen participants were recruited to conduct a 10-day complete fasting (CF) in a controlled health research building under medical supervision including 3-day Baseline (BL), 10-day CF, 4-day calorie restriction (CR) and 5-day full recovery (FR). Body healthy status was assessed by surveying pulse, blood pressure, body weight (BW), blood glucose and ketones, body composition and nutritional and biochemistry indexes at different times. BW declined about 7.28 kg (&minus;9.8%) after 10-day CF, accompanied by increased pulse and decreased systolic blood pressure, but there were no changes to the myocardial enzymogram. Body composition analysis showed fat mass was constantly lost, but lean mass could recover after CR. The energy substrate switch from glucose to ketone occurred and formed a stable dynamic balance between 3&ndash;6 days of CF. The lipid metabolism presented increased total cholesterol, LDL-C, ApoA1 and almost no changes to TG and HDL-C. Prolonged CF did not influence liver function, but induced a slight decrease of kidney function. The interesting results came from the marked increase of lipid-soluble vitamins and a significant decrease of sodium and chlorine. Adults could well tol-erate a 10-day CF. A new metabolic homeostasis was achieved. No vitamins but NaCl supplement should be considered. These findings provide evidence to design a new fasting strategy for clinical practice