Evaluation of Porcine Intestinal Epitheliocytes as an In vitro Immunoassay System for the Selection of Probiotic Bifidobacteria to Alleviate Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

The use of in vitro systems that allow efficient selection of probiotic candidates with immunomodulatory properties could significantly minimize the use of experimental animals. In this work, we generated an in vitro immunoassay system based on porcine intestinal epithelial (PIE) cells and dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) administration that could be useful for the selection and characterization of potential probiotic strains to be used in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Our strategy was based on two fundamental pillars: on the one hand, the capacity of PIE cells to create a monolayer by attaching to neighboring cells and efficiently mount inflammatory responses and, on the other hand, the use of two probiotic bifidobacteria strains that have been characterized in terms of their immunomodulatory capacities, particularly in mouse IBD models and patients. Our results demonstrated that DSS administration can alter the epithelial barrier created in vitro by PIE cells and induce a potent inflammatory response, characterized by increases in the expression levels of several inflammatory factors including TNF-α, IL-1α, CCL4, CCL8, CCL11, CXCL5, CXCL9, CXCL10, SELL, SELE, EPCAM, VCAM, NCF2, and SAA2. In addition, we demonstrated that Bifidobacterium breve M-16V and B. longum BB536 are able to regulate the C-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) intracellular signalling pathway, reducing the DSS-induced alterations of the in vitro epithelial barrier and differentially regulating the inflammatory response in a strain-dependent fashion. The good correlation between our in vitro findings in PIE cells and previous studies in animal models and IBD patients shows the potential value of our system to select new probiotic candidates in an efficient way.

Isolation and structural elucidation of antifungal compounds from Curcuma amada

Objective: To isolate and identify the antifungal compounds from Curcuma amada. Methods: The antifungal activity was measured by the diameter of colonies grown on Petri dish, microscopic observation, and CLSI microdilution methods. The antifungal compounds were isolated through bioactivity guided purification by using silica gel and high-performance liquid chromatography. Structural identification of the antifungal compounds was conducted using

Adsorption of divalent heavy metal ion by mesoporous-high surface area chitosan/poly (ethylene oxide) nanofibrous membrane.

In this study, chitosan/poly (ethylene oxide) nanofibres were fabricated at different chitosan:PEO weight ratio by electrospinning process. The effects of chitosan/PEO composition onto adsorption capability for Cu(II), Zn(II) and Pb(II) ions were studied. Formation of beadless fibres were achieved at 60:40 chitosan:PEO ratio. Average fiber diameter, maximum tensile strength and the specific surface area of the beadless fibres were found to be 115±31nm, 1.58MPa and 218m2/g, respectively. Chitosan/PEO composition that produced beadless fibres tend to possess higher hydrophilicity and maximum specific surface area. These characteristics lead the beadless fibres to the maximum adsorption capability. Adsorption equilibrium data were analysed by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm. Freundlich isotherm showed the better fit with the experimental data and proved the existence of the monolayer adsorption conditions. The maximum adsorption capacity of the beadless fibres for Cu(II), Zn(II) and Pb(II) ions were found to be 120, 117 and 108mgg-1, respectively.