Association between probiotics and enteral nutrition in an experimental acute pancreatitis model in rats.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Recently, a randomized controlled trial showed that probiotic prophylaxis was associated with an increased mortality in enterally fed patients with predicted severe pancreatitis. In a rat model for acute pancreatitis, we investigated whether an association between probiotic prophylaxis and enteral nutrition contributed to the higher mortality rate. METHODS: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were allocated to four groups: 1) acute pancreatitis (n = 9), 2) acute pancreatitis and probiotic prophylaxis (n = 10), 3) acute pancreatitis and enteral nutrition (n = 10), and 4) acute pancreatitis, probiotic prophylaxis and enteral nutrition (n = 11). Acute pancreatitis was induced by intraductal glycodeoxycholate and intravenous cerulein infusion. Enteral nutrition, saline, probiotics and placebo were administered through a permanent jejunal feeding. Probiotics or placebo were administered starting 4 days before induction of pancreatitis and enteral nutrition 1 day before start until the end of the experiment, 6 days after induction of pancreatitis. Tissue samples and body fluids were collected for microbiological and histological examination. RESULTS: In all animals, serum amylase was increased six hours after induction of pancreatitis. After fulfilling the experiment, no differences between groups were found in histological severity of pancreatitis, degree of discomfort, weight loss, histological examination of small bowel and bacterial translocation (all p > 0.05). Overall mortality was 10% without differences between groups (p = 0.54). CONCLUSION: No negative association was found between prophylactic probiotics and enteral nutrition in acute pancreatitis. No new clues for a potential mechanism responsible for the higher mortality and bowel ischaemia in the PROPATRIA study were found.

The TB vaccine development pathway - An innovative approach to accelerating global TB vaccine development.

Two proof of concept clinical trials with TB vaccines demonstrate that new approaches can prevent sustained TB infection in adolescents (BCG revaccination) and TB disease in adults (M72/ASO1E) (Nemes et al., 2018; Tait et al., 2019) [1,2]. Both approaches are in late stage development and provide motivation and rationale to invest into a global TB vaccine pipeline. This pipeline needs to be diverse to address TB-specific challenges including variation in target populations, uncertainties in animal model predictivity and lack of immune correlates of protection. It requires that individual vaccine candidates must be advanced rationally and that the global pipeline must be managed in the most nimble and resource-efficient way, especially in the current constrained funding environment. The TB Vaccine Development Pathway is a webtool which has been developed as an offer to the field to provide a source of information and guidance covering vaccine development from discovery to implementation. It is underpinned by generic and TB vaccine-specific guidelines, regulatory frameworks and best practice, and was compiled by a multi-disciplinary team of scientific and technical experts with the input of the TB vaccine community. The Pathway is a unique tool to guide and accelerate the development of TB vaccine candidates and may be useful for other vaccine development fields.

Mechanical ventilation of mice under general anesthesia during experimental procedures.

Mechanical ventilation is frequently used in patients under general anesthesia during invasive procedures. Invasive animal experiments similarly require the maintenance of normal hemodynamic and pulmonary parameters during long-term general anesthesia. The authors describe a method for mechanical ventilation of mice. Mice were ventilated and monitored for up to 8 h of general anesthesia during surgery. Hemodynamic and pulmonary parameters remained within the normal ranges. The authors believe that this ventilation technique can be of great value for experimental procedures in mice that require general anesthesia.