Molecular mechanisms by which casein glycomacropeptide maintains internal homeostasis in mice with experimental ulcerative colitis.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which food-derived casein glycomacropeptide (CGMP) maintains internal homeostasis in the intestinal mucosa and to investigate the effects of CGMP on the intestinal mucosal immunological barrier and related signal transduction pathways. METHODS: In this study, a famoxadone (OXZ)-induced mouse experimental ulcerative colitis (UC) model was built. The experimental UC mice were intragastrically administered milk-derived CGMP for four consecutive days. The molecular mechanisms by which milk-derived CGMP improved and restored the inflammatory status in UC symptoms were elucidated by H&E staining, immunohistochemical staining and western blotting. RESULTS: The results indicated that CGMP (50 mg/(kg bw·d)) could significantly improve morphological injury to intestinal mucosa in OXZ-induced UC mice to the same extent that did sulfasalazine (SASP, 40 mg/(kg bw·d)), a medicine used to treat UC, in the control group. The study found that CGMP could significantly reduce the expression of Human mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule-1 (MAdCAM-1), Cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) and Cluster of differentiation 8 (CD8) in the lamina propria of the intestinal mucosa and significantly stimulate the secretion of sIgA to increase intestinal immunity. Furthermore, CGMP was found to be directly involved in inhibiting the MAPK pathway and activating the TGF-ß1/Smad signal transduction cascade, which could maintain immunological regulation of the intestinal mucosa and protect the functions of the intestinal mucosal barrier. CONCLUSIONS: This study elucidated the molecular mechanisms by which CGMP maintained homeostasis of the intestinal mucosa and further confirmed its pharmaceutical value as a food-derived functional component with promising potential for further exploration/utilization.

Analysis of reasons for sow culling and seasonal effects on reproductive disorders in Southern China.

Sow culling rates have a direct correlation to the economic efficiency of both breeding herd and commercial herd. Analyzing the reasons of sow culling could lead to improve production efficiency of farms. This study, which involved inspections of four farms in Southern China, manifested that the rate of unplanned sow-culling has reached to 78.1% in total culls. In which, reproductive disorders and lameness accounted for 35.3% and 22.5%, respectively. The average parity of culled sows was 4.9, but a high proportion (19.6%) of sows was culled at their first parity. Anestrus, the highest proportion of reproductive disorders, accounting for 47.7%, occurred in July followed by June (17.7% and 11.8% respectively). The frequency of culling due to reproductive disorders in Southern China was higher than others regions, which suffered from the high temperature and humidity in Southern China. The frequency of sow culling reached its peak in the summer, specifically in July (12.3%), which means that hot weather has an adverse effect on sow culling. Pig farmers should take effective measures to reduce heat stress as nutrition strategies or cooling systems in gestation and/or farrowing sow herds between May and July in Southern China.

Human FcRn can mediate the transport across intestinal mucosal barrier and prolong the half-life of rabbit IgG in vivo

FcRn (neonatal Fc receptor) plays an important role in IgG transportation, antigen presentation and signal transmission. In this study, the complement fixation test and flow cytometry test were performed to verify whether the heterologous antibody could be transmitted to the serum or leukocyte with FcγR (Fc gamma receptor) across the intestinal mucosa. The results showed that rabbit anti-bovine IgG could be detected in both the serum and the leukocytes, which indicated that the heterologous antibody could transport across the intestinal mucosa to enter the blood and be effectively delivered to the leukocytes with FcγR. In addition, the results also showed that the rabbit anti-bovine IgG still could be detected in the leukocyte group (P=0.044<0.05) after 21 days. It indicated that the rabbit IgG could exist in the body for a long term (up to 21 days) after being transported to the cells containing FcγR.

Curcumin inhibits aerobic glycolysis and induces mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis through hexokinase II in human colorectal cancer cells in vitro.

Curcumin, the major pigment of the dietary spice turmeric, has the potential for chemoprevention by promotion of apoptosis. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanisms of curcumin in glycolytic inhibition and apoptotic induction in human colorectal cancer HCT116 and HT29 cells. On the one hand, curcumin downregulated the expression and activity of hexokinase II (HKII) in HCT116 and HT29 cells in a concentration-dependent manner, but had little effect on the other key glycolytic enzymes (PFK, PGM, and LDH). On the other, curcumin induced dissociation of HKII from the mitochondria, resulting in mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis. Furthermore, the phosphorylation of mitochondrial HKII through AKT was responsible for the curcumin-induced dissociation of HKII, which was different from the mechanism of HKII inhibitor 3-BrPA. These results have important implications for the metabolism reprogramming effect and the susceptibility to curcumin-induced mitochondrial cytotoxicity through the regulation of HKII, and provide a molecular basis for the development of naturally compounds as novel anticancer agents for colorectal carcinoma.

[Effects of mitomycin C on the expression and transport of ice-nuclei proteins of Erwinia herbicola].

Abstract: In this paper, Mitomycin C (MMC) was added to different kinds of medium to study the effects of different cultural conditions on the Erwinia herbicola 10025A. For the first time it was confirmed that the expressed activity of the ice-nuclei active protein was different from its transportable manner from the ice nucleation active bacteria (Erwinia herbicola 10025A). The findings indicated that MMC could stimulate the SOS response,and induce the synthesis of some enzymes and proteins, which take part in repairing the damaged DNA. The effects of the MMC on the E. herbicola under different media were different. It could increase the ice nucleation activity of the E. herbicola, forming new small vesicles, which are secreted to the outside of membrane. The importance of this research for study the living mechanism of cells ander poor condition was discussed.

[Study on PVA-alginate co-immobilization of Xanthomonas ampelina TS206].

Ice nucleation activity and anti-leaking capability are both important technical parameters in INA (Ice nucleation active bactetia) bacteria immobilization which can be adopted on freezing concentrate. Both PVA and alginate are good medium for immobilization. They can be used on co-immobilization of ice nucleation-active bacteria (Xanthomonas ampelinaTS206). The results showed that quantity of embedding affects ice nucleation activity greatly. The order of importance to comprehensive scores of technical standard should be concentration of Sodium alginate > Boric acid > PVA > CaCl2. The optimized concentration are PVA 8%, sodium alginate 1%, CaCl2 1.1% and boric acid 5%. A conclusion can be draw that ice nucleation activity increases with the number of beads and shows little pertinency with the time of immobilization, whereas anti-leaking capability can be influenced faintly by the number of beads and the time of immobilization.