10 research outputs found
Advances in research on the prenatal development of skeletal muscle in animals
Selective breeding is an effective tool to improve livestock. Several selection experiments have been conducted to study direct
selection responses as well as correlated responses in traits of skeletal muscle growth and function. Moreover, comparisons of
domestic with wild-type species and of extreme breeds provide information on the genetic background of the skeletal muscle
phenotype. Structural muscular components that differed with increasing distance in lean growth or meat quality in mammals
were found to be myofibre number, myofibre size, proportions of fibre types as well as the numbers and proportions of secondary
and primary fibres. Furthermore, markers of satellite cell proliferation, metabolic enzyme activities, glycogen and fat contents, the
expression of myosin heavy chain isoforms, of activated AMPKa and other proteins in skeletal muscle tissue and circulating IGF1
and IGF-binding proteins have been identified to be involved in selection responses observed in pigs, cattle and/or chicken. The
use of molecular methods for selective breeding of fish has only recently been adopted in aquaculture and studies of the genetic
basis of growth and flesh quality traits are scarce. Some of the molecular markers of muscle structure/metabolism in livestock have
also been identified in fish, but so far no studies have linked them with selection response. Genome scans have been applied to
identify genomic regions exhibiting quantitative trait loci that control traits of interest, for example, muscle structure and meat
quality in pigs and growth rate in chicken. As another approach, polymorphisms in candidate genes reveal the relationship
between genetic variation and target traits. Thus, in large-scale studies with pigs’ associations of polymorphisms in the HMGA2,
CA3, EPOR, NME1 and TTN genes with traits of carcass and meat quality were detected. Other studies revealed the significance
of mutations in the IGF2 and RYR1 genes for carcass lean and muscle fibre traits in pigs. Mutations in the myostatin (MSTN)
gene in fish were also examined. Advances in research of the genetic and environmental control of traits related to meat quality
and growth have been made by the application of holistic ‘omics’ techniques that studied the whole muscle-specific genome,
transcriptome and proteome in relation to muscle and meat traits, the development of new methods for muscle fibre typing and
the adaptation of biophysical measures to develop parameters of muscle fibre traits as well as the application of in vitro studies.
Finally, future research priorities in the field are defined.COST action 92
Epidemiology of intra-abdominal infection and sepsis in critically ill patients: “AbSeS”, a multinational observational cohort study and ESICM Trials Group Project
Purpose: To describe the epidemiology of intra-abdominal infection in an international cohort of ICU patients according to a new system that classifies cases according to setting of infection acquisition (community-acquired, early onset hospital-acquired, and late-onset hospital-acquired), anatomical disruption (absent or present with localized or diffuse peritonitis), and severity of disease expression (infection, sepsis, and septic shock). Methods: We performed a multicenter (n = 309), observational, epidemiological study including adult ICU patients diagnosed with intra-abdominal infection. Risk factors for mortality were assessed by logistic regression analysis. Results: The cohort included 2621 patients. Setting of infection acquisition was community-acquired in 31.6%, early onset hospital-acquired in 25%, and late-onset hospital-acquired in 43.4% of patients. Overall prevalence of antimicrobial resistance was 26.3% and difficult-to-treat resistant Gram-negative bacteria 4.3%, with great variation according to geographic region. No difference in prevalence of antimicrobial resistance was observed according to setting of infection acquisition. Overall mortality was 29.1%. Independent risk factors for mortality included late-onset hospital-acquired infection, diffuse peritonitis, sepsis, septic shock, older age, malnutrition, liver failure, congestive heart failure, antimicrobial resistance (either methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Gram-negative bacteria, or carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria) and source control failure evidenced by either the need for surgical revision or persistent inflammation. Conclusion: This multinational, heterogeneous cohort of ICU patients with intra-abdominal infection revealed that setting of infection acquisition, anatomical disruption, and severity of disease expression are disease-specific phenotypic characteristics associated with outcome, irrespective of the type of infection. Antimicrobial resistance is equally common in community-acquired as in hospital-acquired infection. © 2019, The Author(s)