The positive effects of postbiotic (SWF concentration®) supplemented diet on skin mucus, liver, gut health, the structure and function of gut microbiota of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fed with high-fat diet.

Postbiotics are an emerging research interest in recent years, which shows that metabolites, lysate extracts, cell wall components and even culture supernatants of probiotics can also exhibit significant prebiotic effects. In this study postbiotic stress worry free concentration® (SWFC) were prepared from the composition of culture supernatant of Cetobacterium somerae and Lactococcus lactis. The positive effects of SWFC supplemented diets on the growth performance, skin mucus, liver and gut health, and intestinal microbiota profile of Cyprinus carpio fed with high fat diets were investigated. 180 C. carpio with an average body weight of (3.01 ± 0.01) g were selected and randomly divided into three groups. They were fed with one of the three experimental diets supplemented with SWFC of 0 (control), 0.2 and 0.3 g/kg for 98 days, afterwards indexes were detected. The results revealed that, addition of SWFC had no significant effect on growth performance of C. carpio, while it can improve the health of the fish remarkably. In addition, SWFC improved mucosal C3, T-AOC, SOD activities, and decreased lipid peroxidation product MDA level, which were notably better than those in the control group (P < 0.05). In terms of the liver health systems, C. carpio fed on the diet supplemented with 0.2 g/kg of SWFC, showed significant improvement of the liver injured by HFD and reduce the contents of serum ALT and AST, and liver TAG (P < 0.05; P < 0.01). The expression of inflammation-related and lipid synthesis genes revealed that SWFC0.2 group could noteworthy enhance antioxidant capacity, reduced the expression of pro-inflammatory factors (TNF-α, IL-1ß) and lipid synthesis genes (ACC, FAS, PPAR-ß, PPAR-γ), and up-regulated the expression of anti-inflammatory factors (TGF-ß). Additionally, intestinal morphology arose inflammatory cell infiltration, while intestinal integrity was better in SWFC groups compared with the control. Furthermore, the contents of serum LPS and LBP were remarkably lower in the SWFC0.2 group compared with the control (P < 0.01). The mRNA expression of genes related to gut health indicated that SWFC supplementation noteworthy up-regulated the expression of antioxidant (Nrf2, CAT, GPX), immune (Hepcidin, IL-10) and tight junction protein-related (ZO-1, Occludin). Simultaneously, the results of GF-zebrafish showed that the relative expression of anti-inflammatory genes (IL-1ß, TGF-ß) and antioxidant related genes (Nrf2, HO-1) were significantly up-regulated in SWFC groups. Data on intestinal microbiota profile verified that, at the phylum level, the abundance of Fusobacteria was remarkably elevated in the SWFC groups (P < 0.05), whereas the abundance of Firmicutes was declined noteworthy in SWFC0.2 and SWFC0.3 compared to the control group (P < 0.05; P < 0.01) respectively. At the genus level, the abundance of Cetobacterium in the SWFC groups were notably higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05), while the Vibrio content in the SWFC groups was significantly decreased (P < 0.05). PCoA result indicated that the intestinal microflora of SWFC0.2 group was abundant and diverse. Our results elucidate that dietary supplementation of SWFC protects C. carpio from HFD induced inflammatory response and oxidative stress, ameliorate skin mucus, liver and gut health, and improve the gut microbiota balance. Therefore, SWFC could be considered as an improving-fish-health additive, when supplemented to aquatic animal feed. With regards to how SWFC regulates the immunity and inflammatory responses and which signal transductions are involved remains unclear and more scientific evidences are needed to address these issues.

Influences of dietary Eucommia ulmoides leaf extract on the hepatic lipid metabolism, inflammation response, intestinal antioxidant capacity, intestinal microbiota, and disease resistance of the channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus).

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of Eucommia ulmoides leaf extract (ELE) on the common occurrence of liver steatosis, chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, disturbance of gut microbiota, and disease susceptibility in high-fat diet-fed channel catfish. Channel catfish fed three diets, including a high-fat diet (11% crude fat) and ELE-supplemented diets containing 1‰ or 2‰ ELE for 4 weeks. The results showed the contents of liver triacylglycerol of 1‰ and 2‰ ELE groups were reduced, and ELE treatments decreased the expression of lipogenesis related genes (srebp-1c, pparγ, and acc-1), and increased the expression of lipolysis related genes (pparα). In addition, the supplementation of ELE improved the inflammatory response of the liver and intestine. ELE could improve the destruction of intestinal morphology structure and increase the expression level of hif-1a and tight junction proteins (Occludin, Claudin2, Claudin15). 2‰ ELE significantly enhanced the antioxidant capacity of intestine by increasing the activity of SOD enzyme. Moreover, the supplement of ELE significantly increased the abundance of Cetobacterium and Romboutsia (p < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the expression of immune factor nf-κb had a significant decrease, and il-1ß showed a tendency to decrease in the ELE supplement groups after pathogenic bacteria challenge. In conclusion, the ELE alleviated fatty liver disease and inflammation response, improved the oxidative capacity and physiological structure of intestine, and improved the structure of intestinal microbiota and disease resistance in HFD-fed channel catfish.

Manipulation-free cultures of human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes offer a novel screening method for cardiotoxicity.

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based cardiac regenerative medicine requires the efficient generation, structural soundness and proper functioning of mature cardiomyocytes, derived from the patient's somatic cells. The most important functional property of cardiomyocytes is the ability to contract. Currently available methods routinely used to test and quantify cardiomyocyte function involve techniques that are labor-intensive, invasive, require sophisticated instruments or can adversely affect cell vitality. We recently developed optical flow imaging method analyses and quantified cardiomyocyte contractile kinetics from video microscopic recordings without compromising cell quality. Specifically, our automated particle image velocimetry (PIV) analysis of phase-contrast video images captured at a high frame rate yields statistical measures characterizing the beating frequency, amplitude, average waveform and beat-to-beat variations. Thus, it can be a powerful assessment tool to monitor cardiomyocyte quality and maturity. Here we demonstrate the ability of our analysis to characterize the chronotropic responses of human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes to a panel of ion channel modulators and also to doxorubicin, a chemotherapy agent with known cardiotoxic side effects. We conclude that the PIV-derived beat patterns can identify the elongation or shortening of specific phases in the contractility cycle, and the obtained chronotropic responses are in accord with known clinical outcomes. Hence, this system can serve as a powerful tool to screen the new and currently available pharmacological compounds for cardiotoxic effects.

Screening and characterization of oleaginous Chlorella strains and exploration of photoautotrophic Chlorella protothecoides for oil production.

The growth and oil production of nine Chlorella strains were comparatively assessed and Chlorellaprotothecoides CS-41 demonstrated the greatest lipid production potential. The effects of different nitrogen forms and concentrations, phosphorus concentrations and light intensities on growth and oil production were studied in laboratory columns. C. protothecoides CS-41 accumulated lipids up to 55% of dry weight, with triacylglycerol and oleic acid being 71% of total lipids and 59% of total fatty acids, respectively. High biomass and lipid productivities were achieved in outdoor panel PBRs, up to 1.25 and 0.59 g L(-1) day(-1), or 44. 1 and 16.1 g m(-2) day(-1), respectively. A two-stage cultivation strategy was proposed to enhance the algal biomass and lipid production. This is the first comprehensive investigation of both indoor and outdoor photoautotrophic C. protothecoides cultures for oil production, and C. protothecoides CS-41 represents a promising biofuel feedstock worthy of further exploration.

Coordinated regulation of gene expression for carotenoid metabolism in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Carotenoids are important plant pigments for both light harvesting and photooxidation protection. Using the model system of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, we characterized the regulation of gene expression for carotenoid metabolism by quantifying changes in the transcript abundance of dxs, dxr and ipi in the plastidic methylerythritol phosphate pathway and of ggps, psy, pds, lcyb and bchy, directly involved in carotenoid metabolism, under different photoperiod, light and metabolite treatments. The expression of these genes fluctuated with light/dark shifting. Light treatment also promoted the accumulation of transcripts of all these genes. Of the genes studied, dxs, ggps and lcyb displayed the typical circadian pattern by retaining a rhythmic fluctuation of transcript abundance under both constant light and constant dark entrainments. The expression of these genes could also be regulated by metabolic intermediates. For example, ggps was significantly suppressed by a geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate supplement and ipi was upregulated by isopentenyl pyrophosphate. Furthermore, CrOr, a C. reinhardtii homolog of the recently characterized Or gene that accounts for carotenoid accumulation, also showed co-expression with carotenoid biosynthetic genes such as pds and lcyb. Our data suggest a coordinated regulation on carotenoid metabolism in C. reinhardtii at the transcriptional level.