Conventional therapies for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have demonstrated limited efficacy and potential toxicity; therefore, there is a need for novel therapies that can safely ...and effectively treat IBD. Recent evidence has indicated that amino acids may play a role in maintaining gut health.
l-Tryptophan has been shown to reduce oxidative stress and improve neurological states. The objective of this study was to assess the therapeutic effects of
l-tryptophan in a porcine model of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis. DSS was administered to piglets via intragastric catheter for 5 days followed by tryptophan administration at 80% of the daily recommended intake. The severity of colitis was assessed macroscopically and histopathologically, and intestinal permeability was monitored in vivo by
d-mannitol analysis. The effect of tryptophan on the local expression of key mediators of inflammation and IBD pathogenesis was examined at the protein and gene expression levels. Supplementation with tryptophan ameliorated clinical symptoms and improved weight gain to feed intake conversion ratios. Histological scores and measurements were also improved, and gut permeability was notably reduced in tryptophan-supplemented animals. Moreover, tryptophan reduced the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-6, interferon (IFN)-γ, IL-12p40, IL-1β and IL-17, as well as IL-8 and intracellular adhesion molecule-1, and resulted in increased expression of apoptosis initiators caspase-8 and Bax. These results demonstrate that
l-tryptophan supplementation can reduce inflammation and enhance the rate of recovery in DSS-induced colitis and may be an effective immunomodulating agent for the treatment of IBD.
Abstract
Mucosa-associated microbiota from different regions of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of adult broilers was studied by analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences. The microbiota mainly comprised ...Gram-positive bacteria along the GI tract. Fifty-one operational taxonomic units (OTUs) (from 98 clones) were detected in the ceca, as compared with 13 OTUs (from 49 clones) in the crops, 11 OTUs (from 51 clones) in the gizzard, 14 OTUs (from 52 clones) in the duodenum, 12 OTUs (from 50 clones) in the jejunum and nine OTUs (from 50 clones) in the ileum. Ceca were dominantly occupied by clostridia-related sequences (40%) with other abundant sequences being related to Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (14%), Escherichia coli (11%), lactobacilli (7%) and Ruminococcus (6%). Lactobacilli were predominant in the upper GI tract and had the highest diversity in the crop. Both Lactobacillus aviarius and Lactobacillus salivarius were the predominant species among lactobacilli. Candidatus division Arthromitus was also abundant in the jejunum and ileum.
The alarming number of recently reported human illnesses with bacterial infections resistant to multiple antibacterial agents has become a serious concern in recent years. This phenomenon is a core ...challenge for both the medical and animal health communities, since the use of antibiotics has formed the cornerstone of modern medicine for treating bacterial infections. The empirical benefits of using antibiotics to address animal health issues in animal agriculture (using therapeutic doses) and increasing the overall productivity of animals (using sub-therapeutic doses) are well established. The use of antibiotics to enhance profitability margins in the animal production industry is still practiced worldwide. Although many technical and economic reasons gave rise to these practices, the continued emergence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria is furthering the need to reduce the use of medically important antibiotics. This will require improving on-farm management and biosecurity practices, and the development of effective antibiotic alternatives that will reduce the dependence on antibiotics within the animal industry in the foreseeable future. A number of approaches are being closely scrutinized and optimized to achieve this goal, including the development of promising antibiotic alternatives to control bacterial virulence through quorum-sensing disruption, the use of synthetic polymers and nanoparticles, the exploitation of recombinant enzymes/proteins (such as glucose oxidases, alkaline phosphatases and proteases), and the use of phytochemicals. This review explores the most recent approaches within this context and provides a summary of practical mitigation strategies for the extensive use of antibiotics within the animal production chain in addition to several future challenges that need to be addressed.
We investigated efficacy of in ovo application of epidermal growth factor (EGF) on intestinal expression of EGF receptor (EGFR) during embryogenesis (experiment 1) and posthatch growth performance ...and gastrointestinal development in broiler chickens (experiment 2). In experiment 1, 450 fertile Ross 708 eggs were allocated to 3 groups (150 eggs/group): 1) control, 2) 160 μg EGF/kg of egg, and 3) 640 μg of EGF/kg of egg. Eggs were candled for live embryos on day 16 and injected with the respective treatment solutions on day 17 and sampled for jejunal tissue from day 17 to hatch for EGFR analyses. There was no effect of EGF (P > 0.05) on EGFR expression on day 17 to 20; however, on day 21, EGF increased (P < 0.05) EGFR expression in EGF birds relative to control birds. In experiment 2, 600 fertile Ross 708 eggs were allocated to 5 treatments: 1) intact, no puncture or injection, 2) punched but not injected, 3) control, no EGF, 4) 80 μg of EGF/kg of egg, and 5) 160 μg of EGF/kg of egg. The eggs were incubated and candled for live embryos on D 19, treated, and subsequently transferred to the hatcher. Upon hatching, chicks were weighed, and 90 chicks per treatment placed in cages (15 birds/cage) and allowed free access to a standard antibiotic-free corn-soybean diet for 21 D. Feed intake and body weight were monitored on a weekly basis. Samples of birds were necropsied on D 0, 7, 14, and 21 for measurements of intestinal weight and jejunal histomorphology and excreta samples taken on D 3 to 5 and 17 to 19 for apparent retention of dry matter. There was no EGF effect (P > 0.05) on any posthatch response criteria. In conclusion, in ovo application of EGF increased EGFR expression but had no effect on posthatch growth performance, DM retention, and intestinal development. The lack of EGF effect on posthatch response was surprising but suggested in ovo application of EGF may not be a viable approach.
The human brain shows neuroplastic adaptations caused by motor skill training. Of note, there is little known about the plastic architecture of the whole-brain network in resting state. The purpose ...of the present study was to detect how motor training affected the density distribution of whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (FC). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data was assessed based on a comparison of fast-ball student athletes (SA) and non-athlete healthy controls (NC). The voxel-wise data-driven graph theory approach, global functional connectivity density (gFCD) mapping, was applied. Results showed that the SA group exhibited significantly decreased gFCD in brain regions centered at the left triangular part of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), extending to the opercular part of the left IFG and middle frontal gyrus compared to the NC group. In addition, findings suggested the idea of an increased neural efficiency of athletes' brain regions associated with attentional-motor modulation and executive control. Furthermore, behavioral results showed that in the SA group, faster executive control reaction time relates to smaller gFCD values in the left IFG. These findings suggested that the motor training would decrease the numbers of FC in IFG to accelerate the executive control with high attentional demands and enable SA to rapidly focus the attention to detect the intriguing target.
Red-osier dogwood (ROD) extract contains a lot of polyphenols that have the potential for modulation of gut microbiota. However, little information is available about its prebiotic properties. This ...study investigated the impact of ROD polyphenol extract on the ileal microbiota with dietary supplementation of ROD polyphenol extract in a pig model. The data indicated that supplementation of ROD polyphenol extract significantly increased class
Bacilli
, order
Lactobacillales
and family
lactobacillaceae
. Within family
lactobacillaceae
,
Lactobacillus
was the main responder by increasing from 5.92% to 35.09%. Further analysis showed that ROD polyphenol extract improved two species
Lactobacillus delbrueckii
and
Lactobacillus mucus
. The results of this study suggested that ROD polyphenol extract has the potential to play prebiotic role and confer health benefit through modifying gut microbiota.
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary protease supplementation on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, intestinal morphology, digestive enzymes and gene expression ...in weaned piglets. A total of 300 weaned piglets (21 days of age Duroc × Large White × Landrace; initial BW = 6.27 ± 0.45 kg) were randomly divided into 5 groups. The 5 diets were: 1) positive control diet (PC), 2) negative control diet (NC), and 3) protease supplementations, which were 100, 200, and 300 mg per kg NC diet. Results indicated that final BW, ADG, ADFI, crude protein digestibility, enzyme activities of stomach pepsin, pancreatic amylase and trypsin, plasma total protein, and intestinal villus height were higher for the PC diet and the supplementations of 200 and 300 mg protease per kg NC diet than for the NC diet (P < 0.05). Supplementations of 200 and 300 mg protease per kg NC diet significantly increased the ratio of villus height to crypt depth (VH:CD) of duodenum, jejunum and ileum compared with NC diet (P < 0.05). Feed to gain ratio, diarrhea index, blood urea nitrogen, and diamine oxidase were lower for the PC diet and supplementations of 200 and 300 mg protease per kg NC diet than for the NC diet (P < 0.05). Piglets fed the PC diet had a higher peptide transporter 1 (PepT1) mRNA abundance in duodenum than piglets fed the NC diet (P < 0.05), and supplementations of 100, 200 and 300 mg protease per kg NC diet increased the PepT1 mRNA abundance in duodenum (P < 0.05) comparing with the NC diet. Piglets fed the PC diet had a higher b0,+AT mRNA abundance in jejunum than piglets fed the NC diet (P < 0.05), and supplementations of 200 and 300 mg protease per kg NC diet increased the b0,+AT mRNA abundance in jejunum and ileum comparing with the NC diet (P < 0.05). In summary, dietary protease supplementation increases growth performance in weaned piglets, which may contribute to the improvement of intestinal development, protein digestibility, nutrient transport efficiency, and health status of piglets when fed low digestible protein sources.
PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) protect the germ line by targeting transposable elements (TEs) through the base-pair complementarity. We do not know how piRNAs co-evolve with TEs in chickens. Here we ...reported that all active TEs in the chicken germ line are targeted by piRNAs, and as TEs lose their activity, the corresponding piRNAs erode away. We observed de novo piRNA birth as host responds to a recent retroviral invasion. Avian leukosis virus (ALV) has endogenized prior to chicken domestication, remains infectious, and threatens poultry industry. Domestic fowl produce piRNAs targeting ALV from one ALV provirus that was known to render its host ALV resistant. This proviral locus does not produce piRNAs in undomesticated wild chickens. Our findings uncover rapid piRNA evolution reflecting contemporary TE activity, identify a new piRNA acquisition modality by activating a pre-existing genomic locus, and extend piRNA defense roles to include the period when endogenous retroviruses are still infectious.
Pathogenesis-related protein-4 (PR-4) is generally believed to be involved in physiological processes. However, a comprehensive investigation of this protein in tung tree (Vernicia fordii) has yet to ...be conducted. In this study, we identified 30 PR-4 genes in the genomes of Euphorbiaceae species and investigated their domain organization, evolution, promoter cis-elements, expression profiles, and expression profiles in the tung tree. Sequence and structural analyses indicated that VF16136 and VF16135 in the tung tree could be classified as belonging to Class II and I, respectively. Phylogenetic and Ka/Ks analyses revealed that Hevea brasiliensis exhibited a significantly expanded number of PR-4 genes. Additionally, the analysis of promoter cis-elements suggested that two VfPR-4 genes may play a role in the response to hormones and biotic and abiotic stress of tung trees. Furthermore, the expression patterns of VfPR-4 genes and their responses to 6-BA, salicylic acid, and silver nitrate in inflorescence buds of tung trees were evaluated using qRT-PCR. Notably, the expression of two VfPR-4 genes was found to be particularly high in leaves and early stages of tung seeds. These results suggest that VF16136 and VF16135 may have significant roles in the development of leaves and seeds in tung trees. Furthermore, these genes were found to be responsive to 6-BA, salicylic acid, and silver nitrate in the development of inflorescence buds. This research provides valuable insights for future investigation into the functions of PR-4 genes in tung trees.
Abstract
The gut has a network of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) that can recognize nutrients, other chemicals, and microbes and then initiate a cascade of signals to regulate nutrition, gut ...function, and metabolism. Calcium sensing receptors (CaSR) belong to the GPCR family and are expressed in various animal tissues, and CaSR plays important role in nutrient sensing and the physiology, growth, and development of animals. Our results demonstrated that pCaSR is widely expressed in different tissues including intestinal segments in weaned piglets and the ileum has a higher expression level of pCaSR. However, pCaSR is not expressed in either isolated porcine ileal enterocytes or intestinal porcine enterocyte cell lines (IPEC-J2). We also found that the activation of pCaSR showed biased agonism through multiple signaling with a dual-luciferase reporter assay system. Besides, α-casein (90-95) and L-Tryptophan (L-Trp) are type II agonists for pCaSR. We investigated the roles of pig calcium-sensing receptor (pCaSR) ligands in gut hormone secretion and mechanism and the effects of pCaSR ligands on inflammation response, nutrient absorption and barrier function in the intestinal epithelial cells co-culture system challenged with peptidoglycan (PGN). Our results demonstrated that the pCaSR ligands (L-Trp and α-casein (90-95)) to STC-1 cells could induce the secretion of gut hormones through the regulation of CaSR in STC-cells. Plus, the GLP-1 secretion triggered by L-Trp and α-casein (90-95) in STC-cells attenuated the inflammation response, improved the nutrient absorption and barrier function in the IPEC-J2 cells. Further research is still needed to elucidate the roles of L-Trp and α-casein (90-95) on nutrient absorption and barrier function in pigs under physiological challenges. Collectively, the pCaSR is widely expressed in the porcine tissues, and the activation of pCaSR has the potential to improve gut health and growth performance in swine production.
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