Use of milk fatty acids composition to discriminate area of origin of bulk milk.

The fatty acid composition of cow milk, collected in a survey from 19 dairy farms in the border area between Italy and Slovenia, was investigated for 2 consecutive years (2005 and 2006) to assess the possibility of discriminating the area of the origin of the milk. Farms were selected based on diet, animal breed, and farm management to represent the local variability of the systems. In Slovenian farms, grass silage and hay prevailed over corn silage and concentrate feeds, whereas in Italian farms, hay and concentrates were the predominant components of the diet. Fifty-three fatty acids were separated and quantified in Italian and Slovenian milks. Saturated fatty acids represented the most abundant class, followed by monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Significant differences were observed between Italian and Slovenian milks for the concentration of 40 fatty acids, whereas significant differences were observed between years of production for 15 fatty acids. Discriminant analysis was used to identify a classification criterion of milk, using country and year of production as grouping variables. Considering statistical results and the scatter plot of the scores of the first 2 functions, the best discriminant criteria were those based on unsaturated fatty acids and on fatty acids with several carbon atoms >or=18.

Transcriptome modification of white blood cells after dietary administration of curcumin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug in osteoarthritic affected dogs.

The dietary effect of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) or curcumin on the gene expression of peripheral white blood cells in osteoarthritis (OA) affected dogs was investigated using a 44K oligo microarray. Two groups of OA dogs and one group of healthy dogs (6 dogs each) were clinically evaluated and blood was sampled before (T0) and after 20days (T20) of dietary administration of NSAID (NSAID group) or curcumin (CURCUMIN group). Differentially expressed genes (P<0.05) in comparison to the control group were identified with MeV software and were functional annotated and monitored for signaling pathways and candidate biomarkers using the Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA). After 20days of treatment, the differentially expressed transcripts significantly (P<0.05) decreased from 475 to 173 in NSAID group and from 498 to 141 in CURCUMIN group. Genes involved in "inflammatory response" and in "connective tissue development and function" dramatically decreased at T20. Other genes, included in "cellular movement", "cellular compromise" and "immune cell trafficking", were differentially expressed at T0 but not at T20 in both groups. Specific molecular targets of CURCUMIN, not observed for NSAID, were the IkB up regulation in the "TNRF1 signaling pathway" and IL18 down regulation in the "role of cytokines in mediating communication between immune cells". The activity of CURCUMIN was also evidenced from the inhibition of macrophages proliferation (HBEGF), related to a strong down regulation of TNFα and to activation of fibrinolysis (SERPINE1). The results would suggest that curcumin offers a complementary antinflammatory support for OA treatment in dogs.

A rapid method for detection of fumonisins B1 and B2 in corn meal using Fourier transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy implemented with integrating sphere.

Fourier transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy is an analytical procedure generally used to detect organic compounds in food. In this work the ability to predict fumonisin B(1)+B(2) contents in corn meal using an FT-NIR spectrophotometer, equipped with an integration sphere, was assessed. A total of 143 corn meal samples were collected in Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Italy) and used to define a 15 principal components regression model, applying partial least square regression algorithm with full cross validation as internal validation. External validation was performed to 25 unknown samples. Coefficients of correlation, root mean square error and standard error of calibration were 0.964, 0.630 and 0.632, respectively and the external validation confirmed a fair potential of the model in predicting FB(1)+FB(2) concentration. Results suggest that FT-NIR analysis is a suitable method to detect FB(1)+FB(2) in corn meal and to discriminate safe meals from those contaminated.