Procyanidin A1 alleviates DSS-induced ulcerative colitis via regulating AMPK/mTOR/p70S6K-mediated autophagy.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a recurrent chronic inflammatory disease. The symptom of UC is mainly diarrhea including bloody stools. Increasing evidence has suggested that procyanidin A1 (PCA1) exerts an anti-inflammatory effect in several diseases. However, the role of PCA1 in UC is still a mystery. In our study, we explored the effect of PCA1 in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced UC mice and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated HT-29 and IEC-6 cells. Then, cell proliferation, apoptosis, the production of proinflammatory cytokines, and autophagy-related markers were determined. Furthermore, the AMPK/mTOR/p70S6K signaling pathway was assayed by Western blot assay. In in vivo study, we found that PCA1 administration alleviated DSS-induced UC, as evidenced by reducing weight loss, clinical scores, colon weight/length ratio, histological damage, proinflammatory cytokines, and apoptosis. Moreover, we showed that the expression of Beclin-1 and LC3II/I ratio was increased, whereas the level of p62 was decreased after PCA1 treatment in vivo. Meanwhile, the reduced AMP/ATP ratio, enhanced expression of p-AMPK, and decreased p-p70S6K and p-mTOR levels indicate the activation of AMPK/mTOR/p70S6K signaling pathway. In in vitro study, PCA1 promoted cell proliferation and inhibited cell apoptosis in LPS-stimulated HT-29 and IEC-6 cells. Pro-inflammatory cytokines and autophagy-related factors exhibited the same trend as in in vivo results. Mechanically, PCA1 activated the AMPK/mTOR/p70S6K signaling pathway. The treatment with an AMPK inhibitor compound C significantly reversed the anti-inflammatory effect of PCA1 in LPS-stimulated cells. Taken together, these data indicated that PCA1 alleviated UC through induction of AMPK/mTOR/p70S6K-mediated autophagy.

Overview of Metabolomic Analysis and the Integration with Multi-Omics for Economic Traits in Cattle.

Metabolomics has been applied to measure the dynamic metabolic responses, to understand the systematic biological networks, to reveal the potential genetic architecture, etc., for human diseases and livestock traits. For example, the current published results include the detected relevant candidate metabolites, identified metabolic pathways, potential systematic networks, etc., for different cattle traits that can be applied for further metabolomic and integrated omics studies. Therefore, summarizing the applications of metabolomics for economic traits is required in cattle. We here provide a comprehensive review about metabolomic analysis and its integration with other omics in five aspects: (1) characterization of the metabolomic profile of cattle; (2) metabolomic applications in cattle; (3) integrated metabolomic analysis with other omics; (4) methods and tools in metabolomic analysis; and (5) further potentialities. The review aims to investigate the existing metabolomic studies by highlighting the results in cattle, integrated with other omics studies, to understand the metabolic mechanisms underlying the economic traits and to provide useful information for further research and practical breeding programs in cattle.

Strictosamide alleviates the inflammation in an acute ulcerative colitis (UC) model.

The ulcerative colitis (UC) is a typical inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) causing great damages, while strictosamide (STR) is a natural alkaloid that possesses strong anti-inflammatory property in infection and inflammation-related diseases. Our study is aimed at evaluating the anti-inflammatory activity of STR in the course of UC. Briefly, male Balb/c mice were treated with 3.5% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) for 6 consecutive days to establish an acute model of UC, and the administration of gradient concentrations of STR was subsequently performed. Accordingly, colonic pathological alterations including the reduced ratio of colon weight/length, decreased disease activity index (DAI), and attenuated H&E damage were found in UC mice after STR treatment. Based on the analyses of real-time PCR and western blot, downregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1ß, and IL-6) was also determined in the colonic tissue of UC mice after the treatment of STR. ELISA and immunohistochemical staining further suggest the relief of inflammation in UC mice with decreased expressions of MPO and iNOS after STR treatment. In addition, STR was also validated to significantly inhibit NF-κB signaling in UC mice by western blot and Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay (EMSA). Meanwhile, restricted inflammation was also determined in STR-treated IEC6 and HT-29 cells. The utilization of PDTC, an inhibitor of NF-κB, further demonstrated that STR ameliorated the inflammation by inhibiting the NF-κB signaling in vitro. In summary, our study suggests that STR could be a potential candidate for IBD therapy.

Expression profiles of the MXD3 gene and association of sequence variants with growth traits in Xianan and Qinchuan cattle.

Max dimerization protein 3 (MXD3) belongs to the MYC superfamily of basic helix-loop-helix leucine zipper transcription factors, and MXD3-MAX heterodimers can bind to promoters of target genes to modulate their expression. The aim of this study was to determine the MXD3 mRNA expression levels in various cattle tissues comprising heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, Longissimus dorsi muscle and subcutaneous fat in Chinese Qinchuan and Xianan cattle breeds. The RT-qPCR data showed that the MXD3 gene was variably expressed between all tissues and at levels that were significantly different between two breeds (p < .05). We used the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method to investigate the possible association between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) within the MXD3 gene and five different growth traits in cattle. We found two intronic SNPs (g.2694 C>T and g.3801 T>C) and one SNP in 3'untranslated region (3'UTR) (g.6263 G>A) of MXD3 gene. Association analysis revealed strong associations between pairwise and triple SNP combinations and the growth traits. Based on these results, we suggest that MXD3 polymorphisms could be useful as molecular markers in the Chinese beef cattle breeding program.