Dietary Chinese herbal formula supplementation improves yolk fatty acid profile in aged laying hens.

Chinese herbal formula (CHF) has the potential to improve the performance of aged laying hens through integrated regulation of various physiological functions. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary CHF supplementation on the yolk fatty acid profile in aged laying hens. A total of 144 healthy 307-day-old Xinyang black-feather laying hens were randomly allocated into two groups: a control group (CON, fed a basal diet) and a CHF group (fed a basal diet supplemented with 1% CHF; contained 0.30% Leonurus japonicus Houtt., 0.20% Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge., 0.25% Ligustrum lucidum Ait., and 0.25% Taraxacum mongolicum Hand.-Mazz. for 120 days). The fatty acid concentrations in egg yolks were analyzed using a targeted metabolomics technology at days 60 and 120 of the trial. The results showed that dietary CHF supplementation increased (p < .05) the concentrations of several saturated fatty acids (SFA, including myristic acid and stearic acid), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA, including petroselinic acid, elaidic acid, trans-11-eicosenoic acid, and cis-11-eicosenoic acid), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA, including linolelaidic acid, linoleic acid, γ-linolenic acid, α-linolenic acid, 11c,14c-eicosadienoic acid, eicosatrienoic acid, homo-γ-linolenic acid, arachidonic acid, and docosapentaenoic acid), and fatty acid indexes (total MUFA, n-3 and n-6 PUFA, PUFA/SFA, hypocholesterolemic/hypercholesterolaemic ratio, health promotion index, and desirable fatty acids) in egg yolks. Collectively, these findings suggest that dietary CHF supplementation could improve the nutritional value of fatty acids in egg yolks of aged laying hens, which would be beneficial for the production of healthier eggs to meet consumer demands.

Synthesis and characterization of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks nanocrystals and their application in adsorption and detoxification of gossypol in cottonseed oil.

Three zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) materials including ZIF-8 (H2O), ZIF-8 (methanol) and ZIF-L were synthesized and applied to the adsorption and detoxification of gossypol in cottonseed oil. The characterization results showed three ZIFs materials had good crystal structure, thermal stability and high specific surface area. The ZIFs materials had also good adsorption performance for gossypol and their adsorption processes can be described by the pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetic models. Adsorption isotherm analysis indicated that Langmuir model expressed a better conformity than Freundlich model, suggesting that the adsorption was the single-layer adsorption on a uniform site. Furthermore, the spiked experiment showed that the detoxification rate of ZIFs materials in vegetable oil was 72-86 %. A satisfied detoxification rate of 50-70 % was found in the detoxification experiment of real cottonseed oil samples. Therefore, these results demonstrate the great potential of using ZIFs materials as detoxification in cottonseed oil.

Maternal Probiotic or Synbiotic Supplementation Modulates Jejunal and Colonic Antioxidant Capacity, Mitochondrial Function, and Microbial Abundance in Bama Mini-piglets.

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of maternal probiotic or synbiotic supplementation during gestation and lactation on antioxidant capacity, mitochondrial function, and intestinal microbiota abundance in offspring weaned piglets. A total of 64 pregnant Bama mini-sows were randomly allocated into the control group (basal diet), antibiotic group (basal diet + 50 g/t virginiamycin), probiotic group (basal diet + 200 mL/d probiotics per pig), or synbiotic group (basal diet + 200 mL/d probiotics per pig + 500 g/t xylo-oligosaccharides). On day 30 of post-weaning, eight piglets per group with average body weight were selected for sample collection. The results showed that maternal probiotic supplementation increased the catalase (CAT) activity in plasma and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities in plasma, jejunum, and colon of piglets while decreased the malondialdehyde (MDA) and H2O2 concentrations in plasma compared with the control group (P < 0.05). Moreover, maternal synbiotic supplementation increased the plasma CAT activity, jejunal glutathione and GSH-Px activities, jejunal and colonic total antioxidant capacity activity, and plasma and colonic SOD activity while decreased the colonic MDA concentration of offspring piglets compared with the control group (P < 0.05). The mRNA levels of antioxidant enzyme-related genes (copper- and zinc-containing superoxide dismutase, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 1, and nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2) and mitochondrial-related genes (adenosine triphosphate synthase alpha subunit, adenosine triphosphate synthase ß, and mitochondrial transcription factor A) in the jejunal mucosa were significantly upregulated, while the level of colonic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1α was downregulated by maternal synbiotic supplementation (P < 0.05). Maternal probiotic supplementation increased (P < 0.05) the Bacteroidetes abundance in the jejunum and Bifidobacterium abundance in the jejunum and colon, and synbiotic supplementation increased (P < 0.05) the abundances of Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Bifidobacterium, and Lactobacillus in the jejunum of piglets. Furthermore, correlation analysis revealed that intestinal microbiota abundances were significantly correlated with antioxidant enzyme activities and mitochondrial-related indexes. These findings indicated that maternal probiotic or synbiotic supplementation might be a promising strategy to improve the antioxidant capacity and mitochondrial function of offspring weaned piglets by altering the intestinal microbiota.

Recent advances in analytical techniques for the detection of adulteration and authenticity of bee products - A review.

Bee products have been considered as functional foods for a long time in China because of their wide range of biological activity. China has the largest number of bee colonies and the highest production of bee products in the world. Major bee products include honey, royal jelly, propolis and bee pollen. In recent years, consumption of bee products in China has been increasing due to an increased public awareness of their nutritional and health benefits. With the development of the Chinese economy and the improvement of people's living standards, high-end and gift-oriented products have become more popular and bee products are one of the options. However, the production of bee products cannot increase rapidly in short term and this is a driver for substantial economic-motivated adulteration. This is compounded by globalisation of supply chains which has also resulted in a rise in bee products fraud. These illicit products are eroding market prices and consumer trust, causing significant damage to the beekeeping industry. In order to provide information or solutions for regulators and consumers, in this article, we review he characteristics of bee products in China and the current situation regarding adulteration and authenticity of bee products. Moreover, advances in analytical techniques for detection of adulteration and authenticity of bee products including sensory techniques, DNA methods, isotope ratio mass spectrometry, spectroscopic techniques and mass spectrometry are reviewed. Finally, the applications and limitations of analytical methods in authentication are critically assessed. Suggestions are also put forward for the future management of China's bee products industry.

Toxicity Assessment of Chinese Herbal Medicine Cynomorium songaricum Rupr.

Cynomorium songaricum Rupr, known as Suo Yang, is most commonly used to treat fatigue, protect the liver, and invigorate kidneys in Northwest China. Given the wide medicinal utilisation and lack of safety evaluation, this work evaluated the acute toxicity, genetic toxicity, and 90-day repeated oral toxicity of Suo Yang. Twenty Kunming mice were orally given Suo Yang once and observed for 14 days in the acute toxicity test. The genetic toxicity of Suo Yang was tested using in vivo and vitro assays (bacterial reverse mutation test, mouse bone marrow micronucleus assay, and spermatocyte chromosomal aberration assay). In the 90-day repeated oral toxicity study, 80 SD rats were randomly divided into 4 groups and then orally given Suo Yang at different concentrations (1.04, 2.08 or 4.16 g/kg), while the control group was given sterile water. In the acute toxicity test, no abnormal behaviour or mortality was found in mice. The results suggest that the maximum tolerable dose of Suo Yang is greater than 15 g/kg. In the genotoxicity studies, no revertant colonies were produced in vitro. In the in vivo assays, no increased frequencies of micronuclei or structural abnormalities of spermatocyte chromosomes were found. In the 90-day repeated oral toxicity study, no significant toxicological manifestations were observed in haematological parameters or clinical and pathological examinations. In summary, these results suggest that Suo Yang at the given doses does not cause adverse effects in animals. Thus, Suo Yang can reasonably be considered a safe herbal medicine.

Inhibitor screening of lactate dehydrogenase C4 from black-lipped pika in the Western Sichuan Plateau.

Studies indicated that lactate dehydrogenase C4 (LDH-C4) was a good target protein for development of contraceptive drugs. Virtual screening and in vitro enzyme assay using pika LDH-C4 as target protein revealed NSC61610, NSC215718, and NSC345647 with Ki of 7.8, 27, and 41 µM separately. This study might be helpful for development of pika contraceptive drugs.

Metabolomic analysis of amino acid metabolism in colitic rats supplemented with lactosucrose.

Intestinal inflammation causes metabolic disorders. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of dietary supplementation with lactosucrose (LS) on the serum metabolome and intestinal luminal content of fatty acids in colitic rats. Colitis was induced in rats using trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid. Subsequently, rats received intragastric administration of either 250 mg LS/kg body weight or saline (the control group) every day for 5 weeks. Short-chain fatty acids in the intestinal lumen, blood profile, and metabolites in serum were measured, respectively, using gas chromatography, biochemistry analyzer, and nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomics combined with multivariate statistics. Metabolic effects of LS included: (1) decreases in concentrations of branched-chain amino acids (isoleucine and valine), alanine, citric acid, trimethylamine oxide and taurine, and the abundance of aspartate aminotransferase in serum; (2) increases in concentrations of glucose metabolites (including succinate) in serum; and (3) altered concentrations of butyrate in the cecal content and of butyrate and acetate in the colon content. The results indicate that LS supplementation to colitic rats affects whole-body metabolism of amino acids and release of aspartate aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase from tissues into the blood circulation, and enhances the production of short-chain fatty acids in the intestinal lumen.

Decoding the neuroanatomical basis of reading ability: a multivoxel morphometric study.

As a relatively recent cultural invention in human evolution, reading is an important gateway to personal development and socioeconomic success. Despite the well documented individual differences in reading ability, its neuroanatomical correlates have not been well understood, largely due to the fact that reading is a complex skill that consists of multiple components. Using a large sample of 416 college students and 7 reading tasks, the present study successfully identified three uncorrelated components of reading ability: phonological decoding, form-sound association, and naming speed. We then tried to predict individuals' scores in these components from their gray matter volume (GMV) on a subset of participants (N = 253) with high-quality structural images, adopting a multivariate support vector regression analysis with tenfold cross-validation. Our results revealed distinct neural regions that supported different aspects of reading ability: whereas phonological decoding was associated with the GMV in the left superior parietal lobe extending to the supramarginal gyrus, form-sound association was predicted by the GMV in the hippocampus and cerebellum. Naming speed was associated with GMV in distributed brain regions in the occipital, temporal, parietal, and frontal cortices. Phonological decoding and form-sound association were uncorrelated with general cognitive abilities. However, naming speed was correlated with intelligence and processing speed, and some of the regions that were predictive of naming speed also predicted these general cognitive abilities. These results provide further insights on the cognitive and neural architecture of reading and the structural basis of individual differences in reading abilities.

Dietary supplementation with l-arginine partially counteracts serum metabonome induced by weaning stress in piglets.

Arginine plays an important role in preventing intestinal dysfunction and metabolic disorders caused by early weaning stress. However, little is known about how arginine mitigates early weaning stress. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of weaning stress and dietary arginine supplementation on the metabonome in the serum of piglets using (1)H NMR spectroscopy in conjunction with multivariate data analysis. Thirty castrated male piglets aged 21 d were evenly divided into three groups and fed in three different regimes: sow-fed (SF), weaned with l-alanine supplementation (ALA), and weaned with arginine supplementation (ARG). We found that early weaning stress led to a significantly reduced bodyweight gain (15.6%) and that supplementation with arginine can improve growth rates in piglets by 5.6% (P < 0.05). The early weaning stress was associated with marked alterations in lipid and amino acid metabolisms and perturbations in population and/or activities of gut microorganisms, which were manifested in increased levels of organic acids, amino acids, and acetyl-glycoproteins and reduced levels of choline metabolism and lipoproteins. Dietary supplementation with arginine could partially counteract the changes of metabolites induced by weaning stress, such as lipid and amino acid metabolisms. However, arginine was not able to restore disturbed gut microbiota. These results demonstrate the central role of arginine supplementation in regulating the metabolisms of weaned piglets.

Development of an immunoassay for rapid screening of vardenafil and its potential analogues in herbal products based on a group specific monoclonal antibody.

Vardenafil is a phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE-5) inhibitor for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). Undeclared vardenafil and related analogues adulterated in herbal products are a threat to public health. To screen vardenafil and its analogues in herbal matrix rapidly, an immunoassay based on a group specific monoclonal antibody (McAb) was developed. Glutaraldehyde was used to link vardenafil to immunogen and coating-antigen, respectively. Through the assessment of the structural specificity of eight anti-vardenafil McAbs, the McAb of 4B9 was characterized as being specific to the common structure of vardenafil and its analogues. An indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ic-ELISA) was established based on this McAb, the limit of detection of vardenafil was 5.0 ng mL(-1), the calibration curve was linear from 5.0 to 40 ng mL(-1) (R(2)=0.952) with an IC(50) value of 18.2 ng mL(-1). In the extracts of 20 Chinese traditional drugs, the detection capability (CCbeta) of vardenafil was 0.08 mg g(-1), the recoveries were 76-116% and the coefficients of variation (CV%) were 9.7%-16.2%. The ic-ELISA was in good agreement with LC-UV when detected herbal products containing vardenafil and its analogue. The method is a suitable tool for screening vardenafil and its analogues as illegal additives in herbal products.

Metabolomic analysis of the response of growing pigs to dietary L-arginine supplementation.

Arginine plays an important role regulating nutrient metabolism, but the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. This study was conducted to determine the effect of dietary arginine supplementation on the metabolome in serum of growing pigs using (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Sixteen 120-day-old pigs (48 +/- 1 kg) were randomly assigned to one of two groups, representing supplementation with 0 or 1.0% L: -arginine to corn- and soybean meal-based diets. Serum was collected after a 46-day period of treatment. Dietary arginine supplementation decreased fat deposition and increased protein accretion in the body. Principal component analysis showed that serum concentrations of low density lipoprotein, very low density lipoprotein, and urea were lower, but concentrations of creatinine, tricarboxylic acid cycle metabolites, ornithine, lysine and tyrosine were greater in arginine-supplemented than in control pigs. Additionally, the arginine treatment affected serum concentrations of nitrogenous and lipid signaling molecules (glycerophosphorylcholine and myo-inositol) and intestinal bacterial metabolites (formate, ethanol, methylamine, dimethylamine, acetate, and propionate). These novel findings suggest that dietary arginine supplementation alters the catabolism of fat and amino acids in the whole body, enhances protein synthesis in skeletal muscle, and modulates intestinal microbial metabolism in growing pigs.

Neural predictors of auditory word learning.

The present fMRI study aimed to identify neurofunctional predictors of auditory word learning. Twenty-four native Chinese speakers were trained to learn a logographic artificial language (LAL) for 2 weeks and their behavioral performance was recorded. Participants were also scanned before and after the training while performing a passive listening task. Results showed that, compared to 'poor' learners (those whose performance was below average during the training), 'good' (i.e. above-average) learners showed more activation in the left MTG/STS and less activation in the right IFG during the pretraining scan. These results confirmed the hypothesis that preexisting individual differences in neural activities can predict the efficiency in learning words in a new language.

[Progress in the research of neural interface technology].

Neural interface technology researches, which constitute the intercross science relating to neurophysiology, computational science, microelectronic technology and so on, are of important value in rehabilitation engineering. In this paper, the concept and significance of neural interface were introduced. The applications and methods of different kinds of neural interface system were expounded. Related animal experiments were citated. The recent studies and trends in neural interface technology were also discussed.