Effects of replacing inorganic trace minerals with organic trace minerals on the production performance, blood profiles, and antioxidant status of broiler breeders.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of replacing inorganic trace minerals (ITMs) with organic trace minerals (OTMs) on the production performance, blood profile, and antioxidative status of broiler breeders. A total of 600 healthy broiler breeder hens, aged 40 wk, were randomly divided into 5 treatments with 4 replicates in each treatment, and fed for 10 wk. Experimental treatments were: (1) commercial levels of inorganic minerals (COM); (2) L-ITM (50% of the COM, except for Se); (3) VL-OTM (37.5% of the COM, except for Se); (4) L-OTM (equivalent to L-ITM); and (5) OTM (62.5% of the COM, except for Se). The laying rate was 9.56% higher, feed-to-egg ratio was 7.83% lower, and rate of qualified eggs was 18.33% higher (P < 0.05) for L-OTM compared to L-ITM despite equal mineral levels. The fertility with COM was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than L-ITM, VL-OTM, or L-OTM treatments. OTM and COM treatments both had increased serum LH and P4. The relatively higher mineral levels fed in COM and OTM treatments increased blood total protein (P < 0.05). In addition, activities of serum GSH-Px, Mn-SOD, and T-SOD were higher (P < 0.01), while malondialdehyde (MDA) content was lower (P < 0.05), for COM and OTM birds as compared to L-ITM and VL-OTM. The serum T-SOD of L-OTM birds was significantly higher (9.81%; P < 0.01) than that of L-ITM birds. Higher (P < 0.05) activities of liver GSH-Px and T-SOD, and lower MDA concentrations (P < 0.01) were measured in the COM, L-OTM, and OTM treatments than the L-ITM treatment. Collectively, total replacement of high levels of ITMs by lower levels of OTMs in broiler breeder diets was beneficial for productive performance under the conditions of this study.

Two-year follow-up of a Chinese sample at clinical high risk for psychosis: timeline of symptoms, help-seeking and conversion.

BACKGROUND: Chinese psychiatrists have gradually started to focus on those who are deemed to be at 'clinical high-risk (CHR)' for psychosis; however, it is still unknown how often those individuals identified as CHR from a different country background than previously studied would transition to psychosis. The objectives of this study are to examine baseline characteristics and the timing of symptom onset, help-seeking, or transition to psychosis over a 2-year period in China. METHOD: The presence of CHR was determined with the Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS) at the participants' first visit to the mental health services. A total of 86 (of 117) CHR participants completed the clinical follow-up of at least 2 years (73.5%). Conversion was determined using the criteria of presence of psychotic symptoms (in SIPS). Analyses examined baseline demographic and clinical predictors of psychosis and trajectory of symptoms over time. Survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier) methods along with Log-rank tests were performed to illustrate the relationship of baseline data to either conversion or non-conversion over time. Cox regression was performed to identify baseline predictors of conversion by the 2-year follow-up. RESULTS: In total 25 (29.1%) of 86 completers transitioned to a psychotic disorder over the course of follow-up. Among the CHR sample, the mean time between attenuated symptom onset and professional help-seeking was about 4 months on average, and converters developed fully psychotic symptoms about 12 months after symptom onset. Compared with those CHR participants whose risk syndromes remitted over the course of the study, converters had significantly longer delays (p = 0.029) for their first visit to a professional in search of help. At baseline assessment, the conversion subgroup was younger, had poorer functioning, higher total SIPS positive symptom scores, longer duration of untreated prodromal symptoms, and were more often given psychosis-related diagnoses and subsequently prescribed antipsychotics in the clinic. CONCLUSIONS: Chinese CHR identified primarily by a novel clinical screening approach had a 2-year transition rate comparable with those of specialised help-seeking samples world-wide. Early clinical intervention with this functionally deteriorating clinical population who are suffering from attenuated psychotic symptoms, is a next step in applying the CHR construct in China.

Flavonoids health benefits and their molecular mechanism.

Flavonoids are a group of polyphenolic compounds, diverse in chemical structure and characteristics, found ubiquitously in plants. Until now, more than 9000 different flavonoid compounds were described in plants, where they play important biological roles by affecting several developmental processes. There has been increasing interest in the research of flavonoids from dietary sources, due to growing evidence of the versatile health benefits of flavonoids including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiproliferative and anticancer activity, freeradical scavenging capacity, antihypertensive effects, coronary heart disease prevention and anti-human immunodeficiency virus functions. This paper reviews the current advances in flavonoids in food with emphasis on mechanism aspects on the basis of the published literature, which may provide some guidance for researchers in further investigations and for industries in developing practical health agents.

Magnetic resonance imaging study of hippocampus structural alterations in post-traumatic stress disorder: a brief review (translated version).

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a disabling condition that may affect individuals who have been exposed to severe emotional or physically life-threatening traumatic events. The majority of neuroimaging studies of post-traumatic stress disorder have focused on potential abnormalities in the hippocampus, a brain area that plays a critical role in memory processing and biological response to stress. Most of the imaging studies have found smaller volume of the hippocampus as measured with magnetic resonance imaging in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder while others failed to reveal hippocampal volume loss. We reviewed magnetic resonance imaging researches which focused on the hippocampal structural alteration of post-traumatic stress disorder in different populations (adults and children), with different research design (cross-sectional and longitudinal), and using different volume measure protocols (hippocampal total volume and subfield volume).

Cytokine expression during acute graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic peripheral stem cell transplantation.

Acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) is one of the major problems following allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (allo-PBSCT). In order to investigate the pathogenesis of human aGVHD, we analyzed cytokine gene expression and cytokine secretion by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in 30 patients who underwent allo-PBSCT. In this study, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to explore the mRNA expression of interleukin (IL)-2, interferon (IFN)-gamma, IL-4, IL-10 and IL-12 in the PBMC of allo-PBSCT patients with aGVHD and in controls. The concentrations of these cytokines and of IL-18 were also measured by means of ELISA in medium obtained from cultured leukocytes after stimulation with PHA or LPS. Compared with the normal allo-PBSCT group (n=14), IL-2 and IFN-gamma were detected more frequently in aGVHD group (n=16). IL-12 and IL-18 were elevated, while IL-10 level decreased in the same group. There is no difference in IL-4 gene expression between patients with or without aGVHD, but the concentration of IL-4 for patients with grade II-IV aGVHD decreased. These data suggest that IL-2, IFN-gamma, IL-12 and IL-18 play important roles in the development of aGVHD in humans.

Ecology and prevention of a shellfish-associated hepatitis A epidemic in Shanghai, China.

During a shellfish-borne hepatitis A outbreak in Shanghai during the first quarter of 1988, 300,000 cases were reported in two months. Using cell culture and experimental infection of marmosets, hepatitis A virus (HAV) was isolated from clams collected from the market and the sea bed during the epidemic. A dose-response curve correlating the quantity of clams consumed to the attack rate of hepatitis A was well documented. The occurrence of the epidemic was associated with a good harvest of clams in a new area, serious pollution of this area with sewage and importation of the clams in large quantities into Shanghai where most young adults were susceptible. Clams can apparently be decontaminated by using a continuous water flow. In this way, HAV titres can be reduced by 90% in one day and by 99.9% in two weeks. An attenuated live HAV vaccine which has been developed in China has been shown to be safe and immunogenic and may be used for prevention of such epidemics in the future.