Alterations in Intestinal Antioxidant and Immune Function and Cecal Microbiota of Laying Hens Fed on Coated Sodium Butyrate Supplemented Diets.

This study was designed to evaluate the effects of dietary coated sodium butyrate (CSB) on the intestinal antioxidant, immune function, and cecal microbiota of laying hens. A total of 720 52-week-old Huafeng laying hens were randomly allocated into five groups and fed a basal diet supplemented with CSB at levels of 0 (control), 250 (S250), 500 (S500), 750 (S750), and 1000 (S1000) mg/kg for eight weeks. The results revealed that CSB supplementation quadratically decreased the malondialdehyde content and increased the superoxide dismutase activity of the jejunum as well as the total antioxidative capacity activity of the ileum (p < 0.05). Dietary CSB supplementation linearly decreased the diamine oxidase and D-lactic acid content of the serum (p < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the addition of CSB resulted in linear and/or quadratic effects on the mRNA expression of inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-10 in the jejunum and ileum (p < 0.05). The short-chain fatty acid concentrations increased quadratically as supplemental CSB improved (p < 0.05). Additionally, dietary CSB levels had no effect on microbial richness estimators, but ameliorated cecal microbiota by raising the abundance of probiotics and lowering pathogenic bacteria enrichment. In conclusion, our results suggest that dietary supplementation with CSB could improve the intestinal health of laying hens via positively influencing the antioxidant capacity, inflammatory cytokines, short-chain fatty acids, and gut microbiota. In this study, 500 mg/kg CSB is the optimal supplement concentration in the hens' diet.

Network pharmacology-based identification of the key mechanism of quercetin acting on hemochromatosis.

Hemochromatosis is an iron overload disease, which lacks nutritional intervention strategies. This study explored the protective effect of quercetin on hemochromatosis and its possible mechanism through network pharmacology. We used Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man to screen the disease targets of hemochromatosis, and further constructed a potential protein interaction network through STITCH. The above-mentioned targets revealed by Gene enrichment analysis have played a significant role in ferroptosis, mineral absorption, basal cell carcinoma, and related signal pathways. Besides, the drug likeness of quercetin obtained by Comparative Toxicogenomics Database was evaluated by Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology, and potential drug targets identified by PharmMapper and similar compounds identified by PubChem were selected for further research. Moreover, gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis revealed the relationship between quercetin and glycosylation. Furthermore, we performed experiments to verify that the protective effect of quercetin on iron overload cells is to inhibit the production of reactive oxygen species, limit intracellular iron, and degrade glycosaminoglycans. Finally, iron-induced intracellular iron overload caused ferroptosis, and quercetin and fisetin were potential ferroptosis inhibitors. In conclusion, our study revealed the correlation between hemochromatosis and ferroptosis, provided the relationship between the target of quercetin and glycosylation, and verified that quercetin and its similar compounds interfere with iron overload related disease. Our research may provide novel insights for quercetin and its structurally similar compounds as a potential nutritional supplement for iron overload related diseases.

Role of Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness and Optic Disk Measurement by OCT on Early Diagnosis of Glaucoma.

PURPOSE: Glaucoma is an eye disease that can lead to irreversible optic nerve damage and cause blindness. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows an early diagnosis of glaucoma by the measurements of the retinal nerve fiber and optic disc parameters. A retrospective study was designed to analyze the effects of the measurement of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness and the optic disc tomography by spectral-domain OCT on the early diagnosis of suspected glaucoma and primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). METHODS: This was a clinical case-control study. The RNFL thickness around the optic disc and optic disk tomographic parameters of the control (n = 51, 98 eyes), suspected glaucoma (n = 81, 146 eyes), and POAG groups (n = 55, 106 eyes) were measured by OCT. The parameters included superior, inferior, nasal and temporal mean RNFL thickness, disc area (DA), cup area (CA), rim area (RA), disc volume (DV), cup volume (CV), rim volume (RV), cup/disc area ratio (CA/DA), rim/disc area ratio (RA/DA), cup/disc volume ratio (CV/DV) and rim/disc volume ratio (RV/DV). RESULTS: Superior, nasal, and mean RNFL parameters, DA, CA,RA, DV, CV, CA/DA, RA/DA, CV/DV and RV/DV significantly differed among three groups by single-factorial ANOVA. Inferior and temporal RNFL thickness significantly differed between the control and POAG groups. No significant difference was observed in RV among three groups. In the POAG group, the maximum area under the ROC curve (AROC) of mean RNFL thickness was 0.845. The maximum AROC of optic disk parameters was RA/DA (0.998), followed by CA/DA (0.997). The AROC of CA, RA, CV, and DV were all > 0.900. CONCLUSION: OCT may serve as a useful diagnostic modality in distinguishing suspected glaucoma from POAG.