Intestinal permeability and the effect of NSAIDs on permeability were investigated in 14 irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients and 15 healthy subjects. In the study, 24-h urinary recoveries of ...orally administered polyethylene glycols (PEGs 400, 1500, and 4000) were not significantly different in healthy subjects and IBS patients before or after NSAID ingestion. Lactulose mannitol ratios in healthy subjects and IBS patients were not significantly different. Only time-dependent monitoring of PEG excretion showed that NSAIDs enhanced intestinal permeability for PEG 4000 in healthy subjects (P = 0.050) and for PEGs 400, 1500, and 4000 in IBS patients (P = 0.012, P = 0.041, and P = 0.012, respectively). These results show that intestinal permeability in IBS patients is not different from that in healthy subjects; NSAIDs compromise intestinal permeability in IBS patients to a greater extent than in healthy subjects, which suggests that IBS is associated with an altered response of the intestinal barrier to noxious agents.
Although the gut is often considered the motor of sepsis, the relation between systemic inflammation and intestinal permeability in humans is not clear. We analyzed intestinal permeability during ...experimental endotoxemia in humans. Before and during experimental endotoxemia (Escherichia coli LPS, 2 ng/kg), using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a permeability marker, intestinal permeability was analyzed in 14 healthy subjects. Enterocyte damage was determined by intestinal fatty acid binding protein. Endotoxemia induced an inflammatory response. Urinary PEGs 1,500 and 4,000 recovery increased from 38.8 +/- 6.3 to 63.1 +/- 12.5 and from 0.58 +/- 0.31 to 3.11 +/- 0.93 mg, respectively (P < 0.05). Intestinal fatty acid binding protein excretion was not affected by endotoxemia. The peak serum IL-10 concentrations correlated with the increase in PEG 1,500 recovery (r = 0.48, P = 0.027). Systemic inflammation results in an increased intestinal permeability. The increase in intestinal permeability is most likely caused by inflammation-induced paracellular permeability, rather than ischemia-mediated enterocyte damage.
This paper is based on a workshop held in Oslo, Norway in November 2013, in which experts discussed how to reach consensus on the healthiness of red and processed meat. Recent nutritional ...recommendations include reducing intake of red and processed meat to reduce cancer risk, in particular colorectal cancer (CRC). Epidemiological and mechanistic data on associations between red and processed meat intake and CRC are inconsistent and underlying mechanisms are unclear. There is a need for further studies on differences between white and red meat, between processed and whole red meat and between different types of processed meats, as potential health risks may not be the same for all products. Better biomarkers of meat intake and of cancer occurrence and updated food composition databases are required for future studies. Modifying meat composition via animal feeding and breeding, improving meat processing by alternative methods such as adding phytochemicals and improving our diets in general are strategies that need to be followed up.
To investigate the relationship between duodenojejunal motor activity and glucose absorption and to evaluate the effect of modification of duodenojejunal motility on glucose absorption by using the ...prokinetic drug cisapride.
We examined seven healthy males, mean age 22 years, who were treated with cisapride 10 mg t.i.d. and placebo during 3 days in a randomized order, with a 2-week time interval. Duodenojejunal manometry was performed after each treatment on the morning of day 3, using an 18-lumen catheter. A liquid nutrient (3 kcal/min) was administered intraduodenally for 30 min, followed by a bolus of the glucose analog 3-O-methylglucose (3-OMG). Plasma 3-OMG concentrations were measured to assess absorption kinetics.
The area under the 3-OMG concentration curve in the first 30 min after infusion was related to the number of antegrade propagated pressure waves (r = 0.49, P < 0.05), but not to the peak concentration, time to peak, and absorption fraction. The mean amplitude of pressure waves was higher during cisapride than placebo (P < 0.05), but the reoccurrence of interdigestive motility, numbers of pressure waves, and propagated pressure waves, as well as 3-OMG absorption characteristics, were not significantly different between the two treatments. During both treatments >60% of antegrade propagated pressure waves were propagated over a very short distance (1.5 cm).
Glucose absorption in the human small intestine is related to short-traveling propagated intestinal contractile activity. Cisapride increases the amplitude of pressure waves, but does not affect the organization of pressure waves or the absorption of 3-OMG.
Global climate change and a growing population require tackling the reduction in arable land and improving biomass production and seed yield per area under varying conditions. One of these conditions ...is suboptimal water availability. Here, we review some of the classical approaches to dealing with plant response to drought stress and we evaluate how research on RECEPTOR-LIKE KINASES (RLKs) can contribute to improving plant performance under drought stress. RLKs are considered as key regulators of plant architecture and growth behavior, but they also function in defense and stress responses. The available literature and analyses of available transcript profiling data indeed suggest that RLKs can play an important role in optimizing plant responses to drought stress. In addition, RLK pathways are ideal targets for nontransgenic approaches, such as synthetic molecules, providing a novel strategy to manipulate their activity and supporting translational studies from model species, such as Arabidopsis thaliana, to economically useful crops.
To determine the relation between intestinal barrier dysfunction, bacterial translocation, and clinical outcome in patients with predicted severe acute pancreatitis and the influence of probiotics on ...these processes.
Randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial on probiotic prophylaxis (Ecologic 641) in patients with predicted severe acute pancreatitis (PROPATRIA).
Excretion of intestinal fatty acid binding protein (IFABP, a parameter for enterocyte damage), recovery of polyethylene glycols (PEGs, a parameter for intestinal permeability), and excretion of nitric oxide (NOx, a parameter for bacterial translocation) were assessed in urine of 141 patients collected 24 to 48 h after start of probiotic or placebo treatment and 7 days thereafter.
IFABP concentrations in the first 72 hours were higher in patients who developed bacteremia (P = 0.03), infected necrosis (P = 0.01), and organ failure (P = 0.008). PEG recovery was higher in patients who developed bacteremia (PEG 4000, P = 0.001), organ failure (PEG 4000, P < 0.0001), or died (PEG 4000, P = 0.009). Probiotic prophylaxis was associated with an increase in IFABP (median 362 vs. 199 pg/mL; P = 0.02), most evidently in patients with organ failure (P = 0.001), and did not influence intestinal permeability. Overall, probiotics decreased NOx (P = 0.05) but, in patients with organ failure, increased NOx (P = 0.001).
Bacteremia, infected necrosis, organ failure, and mortality were all associated with intestinal barrier dysfunction early in the course of acute pancreatitis. Overall, prophylaxis with this specific combination of probiotic strains reduced bacterial translocation, but was associated with increased bacterial translocation and enterocyte damage in patients with organ failure.
When designing a new circular economy system, many aspects must be considered in order to benefit from all possible environmental improvements. The selection of the right market or use of the ...resulting product is of paramount importance to ensure the final implementation of the solution.
With this purpose, this study has undertaken the selection of a market that could absorb the large amounts of by-products generated in breweries, the optimization of the logistics for the collection of by-products, and the ecodesign of a valorisation process and the facility needed to set up the entire value chain.
This analysis has resulted in the ecodesign of a valorisation process of brewery's side streams aiming at the production of ingredients for the formulation of aquaculture feeds.
Life Cycle Assessment has been used to find an efficient and sustainable processing scheme and to ecodesign a Model Recovery Plant that uses the brewery's by-product as second-generation feedstuff to produce ingredients for aquafeed.
The overall ecodesign of the new circular economy scheme for Brewer's side streams reached a reduction of the environmental footprint of 6% in the resulting aquafeed products that account for the biggest part of the aquaculture footprint.
Display omitted
•Brewers' spent yeast and grain are valuable secondary raw materials that are currently undervalued or disposed as waste.•Aquaculture production is a growing market that could absorb a large quantity of ingredients.•LIFE-BREWERY has demonstrated that brewers' by-products are a valuable alternative to fishmeal in aquaculture feed.•Ecodesign methodology has been used to optimise the valorisation process, the logistics aspects and the facility design.•Comparison between LIFE BREWERY and commercial aquafeed ingredients showed significant environmental benefits.
Background/Aims: Cholesterol crystallizes more rapidly in gallbladder than in hepatic biles, supposedly due to formation of cholesterol-supersaturated vesicles in concentrated gallbladder biles ...because of preferential micellization of phospholipids compared to cholesterol. We therefore aimed to compare lipid solubilization in hepatic and gallbladder biles.
Methods: Mixed micellar and vesicular phases were separated from hepatic and associated gallbladder biles of seven cholesterol gallstone patients by using state-of-the-art gel filtration with bile salts at intermixed micellar/intervesicular compositions and concentrations in the eluant.
Results: Vesicles were found in 6 out of 7 hepatic biles, but only in 2 of the corresponding gallbladder biles. Both percentage (7.8±5.1
vs. 36.3±7.6%;
p=0.01) and amount (0.9±0.2
vs. 1.7±0.3 mM;
p=0.06) of vesicular cholesterol were lower in gallbladder biles. Similar results were found for vesicular phospholipids (1.3±0.8
vs. 11.6±6.0%;
p=0.05; and 0.3±0.1
vs. 1.1±0.5 mM;
p=0.07). The vesicular cholesterol/phospholipid ratio was 1.7±0.5 in hepatic bile but 4.3 and 1.8 in the 2 gallbladder biles which contained vesicles. Mixed micelles in gallbladder biles had a higher cholesterol saturation index than mixed micelles in hepatic biles (1.43±0.11
vs. 1.15±0.07;
p=0.02).
Conclusions: Concentration of bile in the gallbladder leads to decreased vesicular lipid contents. The finding of supersaturated mixed micelles in the absence of vesicles in a significant number of patients points to the possibility of non-vesicular modes of crystallization.
PlantACT! – how to tackle the climate crisis Hirt, Heribert; Al-Babili, Salim; Almeida-Trapp, Marilia ...
Trends in plant science,
05/2023, Letnik:
28, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Agriculture contributes to global climate change by producing 20–25% of greenhouse gases (GHGs).CO2 is released from deforestation and land conversion, methane from rice paddy fields, and nitrous ...oxides from overfertilization.An increasing world population requires a change in the agro food systems, including a reduction in chemical fertilizers and pesticides as well as the production and access to food.
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have created a global climate crisis which requires immediate interventions to mitigate the negative effects on all aspects of life on this planet. As current agriculture and land use contributes up to 25% of total GHG emissions, plant scientists take center stage in finding possible solutions for a transition to sustainable agriculture and land use. In this article, the PlantACT! (Plants for climate ACTion!) initiative of plant scientists lays out a road map of how and in which areas plant scientists can contribute to finding immediate, mid-term, and long-term solutions, and what changes are necessary to implement these solutions at the personal, institutional, and funding levels.
Background. The ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa has resulted in 28 646 suspected, probable, and confirmed Ebola virus infections. Nevertheless, malaria remains a large public health burden in ...the region affected by the outbreak. A joint Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Institutes of Health diagnostic laboratory was established in Monrovia, Liberia, in August 2014, to provide laboratory diagnostics for Ebola virus. Methods. All blood samples from suspected Ebola virus–infected patients admitted to the Médecins Sans Frontières ELWA3 Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia were tested by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction for the presence of Ebola virus and Plasmodium species RNA. Clinical outcome in laboratory-confirmed Ebola virus–infected patients was analyzed as a function of age, sex, Ebola viremia, and Plasmodium species parasitemia. Results. The case fatality rate of 1182 patients with laboratory-confirmed Ebola virus infections was 52%. The probability of surviving decreased with increasing age and decreased with increasing Ebola viral load. Ebola virus–infected patients were 20% more likely to survive when Plasmodium species parasitemia was detected, even after controlling for Ebola viral load and age; those with the highest levels of parasitemia had a survival rate of 83%. This effect was independent of treatment with antimalarials, as this was provided to all patients. Moreover, treatment with antimalarials did not affect survival in the Ebola virus mouse model. Conclusions. Plasmodium species parasitemia is associated with an increase in the probability of surviving Ebola virus infection. More research is needed to understand the molecular mechanism underlying this remarkable phenomenon and translate it into treatment options for Ebola virus infection.
PDF
