Fermented calcium butyrate supplementation in post-peak laying hens improved ovarian function and tibia quality through the "gut-bone" axis.

The compromised egg quality and leg abnormality during the end of the laying cycle (after 40 weeks) have been leading to poor animal welfare and substantial economic losses. Therefore, the effects of fermented calcium (Ca) butyrate, produced by fermentation by Clostridium butyricum, on production, eggshell quality, and tibial property of hens were explored. A total of 192 Hy-line brown laying hens at 50-week-old were assigned to a basal diet or the basal diet with 300 mg/kg of the fermented Ca butyrate from 50 to 58 weeks of age. Each treatment had 6 replicates with 16 hens each. The diet supplemented with 300 mg/kg fermented Ca butyrate notably increased egg weight, ovarian follicle number, and eggshell strength (P = 0.072) as compared to the basal diet, which were associated with cytokine secretion, toll-like receptor signaling pathways, and intestinal immunity based on the RNA-seq data from the granulosa. Dietary Ca butyrate inclusion decreased the expression of ileal tumor necrosis factor-alpha and serum pro-inflammatory cytokine concentration, as well as increased the content of serum immunoglobulin A when compared to the basal diet (both P < 0.05). The birds that received fermented Ca butyrate diets exhibited higher villus height (P < 0.05) and upregulated expression of tight junction proteins, whereas it did not alter the composition of cecal microbiota (P > 0.05). In addition, the diet with fermented Ca butyrate reduced the number of osteoclasts in the proximal tibia and the level of C-terminal cross-linked telopeptide of type I collagen, a bone resorption marker (P < 0.05), whereas it tended to increase the concentration of the procollagen type I N-terminal propeptide that reflects bone formation marker in serum. Moreover, the layers fed fermented Ca butyrate diets possessed higher (P < 0.05) bone area and trabecular number of the proximal tibia, yield load, and ultimate load than those that consumed basal diets. Collectively, dietary fermented Ca butyrate supplementation in post-peak layer diets improved the ovarian function and tibia quality, which might be related to enhancing intestinal integrity and consequently decreasing inflammation mediated bone resorption.

Dietary lysozyme improves growth performance and intestinal barrier function of weaned piglets.

Lysozyme (LZ) is a purely natural, nonpolluting and nonspecific immune factor, which has beneficial effects on the healthy development of animals. In this study, the influences of LZ on the growth performance and intestinal barrier of weaned piglets were studied. A total of 48 weaned piglets (Landrace × Yorkshire, 22 d old) were randomly divided into a control group (basal diet) and a LZ group (0.1% LZ diet) for 19 d. The results showed that LZ could significantly improve the average daily gain (ADG, P < 0.05) and average daily feed intake (ADFI, P < 0.05). LZ also improved the intestinal morphology and significantly increased the expression of occludin in the jejunum (P < 0.05). In addition, LZ down-regulated the expression of interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß, P < 0.05) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α, P < 0.05), and inhibited the expression of the genes in the nuclear factor-k-gene binding (NF-κB, P < 0.05) signaling pathway. More importantly, the analysis of intestinal flora showed LZ increased the abundance of Firmicutes (P < 0.05) and the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidota (P = 0.09) at the phylum level, and increased the abundance of Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 (P < 0.05) and reduced the abundance of Olsenella and Prevotella (P < 0.05) at the genus level. In short, this study proved that LZ could effectively improve the growth performance, relieve inflammation and improve the intestinal barrier function of weaned piglets. These findings provided an important theoretical basis for the application of LZ in pig production.

Comparison of postoperative visual performance between trifocal intraocular lens and monofocal intraocular lens.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the subjective and objective visual quality more comprehensively after surgery of the commonly used multifocal intraocular lenses (IOL) and monolocal IOL implants through long-term systematic clinical observation, providing reference and basis for clinical application. METHODS: Non-randomized controlled trial. A total of 91 (138 eyes) patients between June 2020 and December 2020 were implanted trifocal IOL or monofocal IOL after phacoemulsification in a tertiary class hospital in Wuhan. Monocular testing 3 months after surgery included best-spectacles corrected and uncorrected visual at distant, intermediate, and near vision; spherical equivalent (SE); defocus curve; modulation transfer function (MTF); dysfunctional lens index (DLI); Strehl ratio (SR); mesopic contrast sensitivity function; quality-of-life, spectacles independence, visual disturbance, and surgical satisfaction surveys 3 months post-surgery. RESULTS: There was statistically better uncorrected vision acuity with trifocal IOLs in all range, while monofocal IOL had statistically better mesopic contrast sensitivity at specific spatial frequencies and statistically worse defocus curves, spectacles independence, and surgical satisfaction. The trifocal IOL performed better in subjective quality of vision and life and spectacles independence questionnaires, and the objective quality of vision had no statistical significance. CONCLUSION: Compared to monofocal IOL, trifocal IOL could provide a full range of clear vision for the majority of patients with simple cataracts, improve the rate of spectacles independence and patient satisfaction. And the objective quality of vision did not show any difference.

Dietary cinnamaldehyde with carvacrol or thymol improves the egg quality and intestinal health independent of gut microbiota in post-peak laying hens.

Essential oils have been proven to exert multiple effects on growth performance, production quality, and health status in poultry nutrition, which is dependent on the component and/or dose of essential oils. Diets with the optimal combination of essential oils might be able to improve the performance traits and welfare of laying hens. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary essential oils, which are composed of cinnamaldehyde with carvacrol or thymol, on performance, egg quality, and intestinal health in post-peak laying hens. A total of 384, 50-week-old Hy-line brown laying hens were randomly divided into three groups with 8 replicates of 16 birds each: (1) a basal diet (Ctrl), (2) a basal diet with 100 mg/kg of essential oils consisting of 4.5% cinnamaldehyde with 13.5% carvacrol (CAR+CIN), and (3) a basal diet containing 100 mg/kg of essential oils composed of 4.5% cinnamaldehyde with 13.5% thymol (THY+CIN). The CAR+CIN diet increased the feed consumption from 52 to 55 weeks more than the Ctrl and the THY+CIN diet. Compared with the Ctrl group, the addition of essential oils decreased the dirty egg rate (P = 0.07) in the whole trial period. Regarding egg quality, the birds that received the CAR+CIN and THY+CIN diets increased the eggshell strength (P = 0.099) or Haugh unit (HU, p = 0.03) at 54 weeks, respectively. Supplementation of both CAR+CIN and THY+CIN diets significantly increased the ratio of villus height to crypt depth in the duodenum through increasing villus height and decreasing crypt depth as well as upregulated the mRNA abundances of duodenal occluding and cadherin (P < 0.05). However, the treatment with dietary essential oils did not notably change the proportion of cecal microbiota and bacterial diversity. This study suggested that dietary supplementation of cinnamaldehyde with carvacrol or thymol, the active components of essential oils, could promote egg quality in post-peak laying hens, which might be associated with improved intestinal development and barrier.

Combination of Cinnamaldehyde with Carvacrol or Thymol Improves the Mechanical Properties of Tibia in Post-Peak Laying Hens.

Roles of plant-derived cinnamaldehyde, carvacrol, and thymol in the gut and bone health of laying hens was evaluated in the present study. After acclimation for 2 weeks, a total 384 of 52-week-old laying hens were allocated into three groups for 6 weeks: (1) basal diet group (Ctrl), (2) combination of cinnamaldehyde with carvacrol group (CAR+CIN), and (3) blend of cinnamaldehyde with thymol (THY+CIN). The dietary essential oil level was 100 mg/kg. Each treatment group had eight replicate pens (16 birds/pen). The stiffness and ultimate load of the tibiae from both the CAR+CIN and THY+CIN groups were higher than that of the Ctrl group (p < 0.05), along with comparable tibia ash, calcium, and phosphorus content among groups. At the same time, the manipulation of essential oils upregulated the transcription abundances of intestinal barrier proteins to varying degrees, whereas the experimental treatment failed to affect the composition in phyla of cecal microbiota. When compared to the Ctrl group, birds fed the CAR+CIN and THY+CIN diet displayed decreased bone resorption markers, reduced interleukin-1 concentrations, and increased transforming growth factor beta levels in serum. These findings suggest that cinnamaldehyde with carvacrol or thymol in feed of hens could enhance intestinal barrier and improve the mechanical properties of tibiae through structural modelling but not increase the mineral density, which might be involved in suppressing inflammation-mediated bone resorption.

The anti-angiogenesis role of FBXW7 in diabetic retinopathy by facilitating the ubiquitination degradation of c-Myc to orchestrate the HDAC2.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most prevalently occurring microvascular complication in diabetic patients that triggers severe visual impairments. The anti-angiogenesis role of FBXW7 has been identified in breast cancer. Therefore, this study intends to decipher the mechanism of FBXW7 in angiogenesis of DR. DR model was induced on mice using high-glucose (HG) and high-fat diet, and retinal microvascular endothelial cells (RMECs) isolated from normal mice were induced with HG, followed by evaluation of FBXW7, Ki67, HIF-1α and VEGF expression by immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry or Western blot analysis. After gain- and loss-of-function assays in normal and DR mice, angiogenesis was assessed by CD31 fluorescence staining and Western blot analysis. After ectopic expression and silencing experiments in HG-induced RMECs, RMEC proliferation, migration and angiogenesis were, respectively, determined by EdU, Transwell and in vitro angiogenesis assays. The impact of FBXW7 on the ubiquitination of c-Myc was studied by cycloheximide chase assay and proteasome inhibition, and the binding of c-Myc to HDAC2 promoter by dual-luciferase reporter gene experiment. DR mice and HG-induced RMECs possessed down-regulated FBXW7 and up-regulated Ki67, HIF-1α and VEGF. Silencing FBXW7 enhanced angiogenesis in normal mouse retinal tissue, but overexpressing FBXW7 or silencing c-Myc diminished angiogenesis in DR mouse retinal tissue. Overexpressing FBXW7 or silencing c-Myc depressed proliferation, migration and angiogenesis in HG-induced RMECs. FBXW7 induced c-Myc ubiquitination degradation, and c-Myc augmented HDAC2 expression by binding to HDAC2 promoter. Conclusively, our data provided a novel sight of anti-angiogenesis role of FBXW7 in DR by modulating the c-Myc/HDAC2 axis.