Extra arginine supplementation during the suckling period alleviates weaning stress through the regulation of dendritic cells and Notch2 signaling in piglets.

This study aims to study the effects of extra arginine (Arg) supplementation during the suckling period on the weaning stress and intestinal barrier function of breastfed piglets. Forty 7-day-old breastfed piglets divided into the control group (CON) and Arg group (Arg) were fed with extra saline or Arg (250 mg per kg per d body weight), respectively. All piglets were weaned when they were 21 days old. Eight piglets from each group were sacrificed before weaning and on the 3rd-day after weaning, respectively. The results showed that Arg improved the average daily weight gain of piglets before weaning (P < 0.01) and decreased the average daily weight loss after weaning (P < 0.05). Weaning decreased the ratio of the villus length versus crypt depth (V/C) in the SI (P < 0.001), while Arg increased the V/C of the jejunum (P < 0.05). Arg increased the levels of immunoglobulins in the serum and SI (P < 0.05), decreased pro-inflammatory cytokines and increased anti-inflammatory cytokines in the SI (P < 0.05). In addition, Arg supplementation increased the numbers of SWC3a+CD40+ (P < 0.01) and SWC3a+SLAII+ DCs (P < 0.05), down-regulated Notch2 expression and up-regulated Jagged1 expression in the ilea of weaning piglets (P < 0.05). In conclusion, Arg supplementation during the suckling period decreased the LDH leakage in the SI, improved the intestinal morphology, down-regulated the contents of pro-inflammatory cytokines, accelerated the accumulation of DC precursors before weaning and increased the number of mature DCs after weaning, and thus improved the growth performance and reduced the weaning stress of piglets, and this might be associated with the regulation of Notch2 signaling.

The effect of hypothermia during cardiopulmonary bypass on three electro-encephalographic indices assessing analgesia and hypnosis during anesthesia: consciousness index, nociception index, and bispectral index.

The depth of anesthesia is commonly assessed in clinical practice by the patient's clinical signs. However, during cardiopulmonary bypass and hypothermia, common symptoms of nociception such as tachycardia, hypertension, sweating, or movement have low sensitivity and specificity in the description of the patient nociception and hypnosis, in particular, detecting nociceptive stimuli. Better monitoring of the depth of analgesia during hypothermia under cardiopulmonary bypass will avoid underdosage or overdosage of analgesia, especially opioids. Induced hypothermia has a multifactorial effect on the level of analgesia and hypnosis. Thermoregulatory processes appear essential for the activation of analgesic mechanisms, ranging from a physiological strong negative affiliation between nerve conduction velocity and temperature, until significant repercussions on the pharmacological dynamics of the analgesic drugs, the latter decreasing the clearance rate with a subsequent increase in the effect-site concentrations. Under the hypothesis that deep hypothermia induces massive effects on the analgesia and hypnosis levels of the patient, we studied whether hypothermia effects were mirrored by several neuromonitoring indices: two hypnosis indices, consciousness index and bispectral index, and a novel nociception index designed to evaluate the analgesic depth. In this clinical trial, 39 patients were monitored during general anesthesia with coronary atherosclerosis cardiopathy who were elective for on-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery under hypothermia. The changes and correlation between the consciousness index, bispectral index, and nociception index with respect to the temperature were compared in different timepoints at basic state, during cardiopulmonary bypass and after cardiopulmonary bypass. While the three neuromonitoring indices showed significant correlations with respect to the temperature, the nociception index and consciousness index showed the strongest sensitivities, indicating that these two indices could be an important means of intraoperative neuromonitoring during induced hypothermia under cardiopulmonary bypass.

A generic strategy based on gas phase decomposition of protonated and ammoninted precursors producing predictable MRM-MS ion pairs and collision energies for direct analysis of plant triterpene glycosides.

Optimization of multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (MRM-MS) parameters of triterpene glycosides (TGs) using traditional infusion methods remains to be labor-intensive. However, it was found that mild gas phase decompositions of protonated and ammoninted precursors (DPAP) of TGs could produce a series of abundant dehydrated product ions of aglycones ([A+H-nH2O]+ (n = 0, 1, 2, 3…)) with high efficiency and stability. Based on these considerations and findings, an innovative ESI+-MRM-DPAP-MS strategy was devised on a QTRAP 4000 instrument allowing for rapid the qualitative and quantitative analysis of plant TGs. A detailed study of 85 model compounds from 20 herbal medicines was implemented for validation and evaluation of the ESI+-MRM-DPAP-MS strategy proposed. The central composition design confirmed that collision energy (CE) played more significant roles than declustering potentials (DP) for the formation of these Q1/Q3 ion pairs based on MRM-DPAP-MS. It is also noted that Q1 and Mw were the most important factors for the prediction of CE values by a partial least square regression model. Here, we demonstrated this generic workflow and its merits in: (1) early prediction and selection of MRM ion pairs, no matter which type of TGs, employing a new-found Q1/Q3 calculation formula (Q1=[M+H/NH4]+ and Q3= [A+H-nH2O]+ (n = 0, 1, 2, 3…)); (2) direct determination of practicable CE values using TGs-specific CE-estimating linear equations; (3) appearances of excellent sensitivity, stability and repeatability through real application in Aralia elata, Panax notoginseng and Caulophyllum robustum; (4) seamless application of optimal CE parameters in other triple quadrupole MS instruments such as Thermo TSQ Quantum Ultra. The ESI+-MRM- DPAP-MS may service as an effective and feasible approach for analytical characterization of biological TGs from herbal medicines.

Simultaneous Determination of Multiple Classes of Hydrophilic and Lipophilic Components in Shuang-Huang-Lian Oral Liquid Formulations by UPLC-Triple Quadrupole Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry.

The Shuang-Huang-Lian (SHL) oral liquid is a combined herbal prescription used in the treatment of acute upper respiratory tract infection, acute bronchitis and pneumonia. Multiple constituents are considered to be responsible for the therapeutic effects of SHL. However, the quantitation of the multi-components from multiple classes is still unsatisfactory because of the high complexity of constituents in SHL. In this study, an accurate, rapid, and specific UPLC-MS/MS method was established for simultaneous quantification of 18 compounds from multiple classes in SHL oral liquid formulations. Chromatographic separation was performed on a HSS T3 (1.8 µm, 2.1 mm × 100 mm) column, using a gradient mobile phase system of 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid in water at a flow rate of 0.2 mL·min-1; the run time was 23 min. The MS was operated in negative electrospray ionization (ESI-) for analysis of 18 compounds using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. UPLC-ESI--MRM-MS/MS method showed good linear relationships (R² > 0.999), repeatability (RSD < 3%), precisions (RSD < 3%) and recovery (84.03-101.62%). The validated method was successfully used to determine multiple classes of hydrophilic and lipophilic components in the SHL oral liquids. Finally, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to classify and differentiate SHL oral liquid samples attributed to different manufacturers of China. The proposed UPLC-ESI--MRM-MS/MS coupled with PCA has been elucidated to be a simple and reliable method for quality evaluation of SHL oral liquids.