Effects of a diet supplemented with polysaccharides from Pogostemon cablin on growth performance, meat quality, and antioxidant capacity in Chongren Partridge chickens.

In this study, the Pogostemon cablin polysaccharides (PCPs) were heteropolysaccharides with molecular weights of 63.17 kDa and 8.99 kDa, and their total carbohydrate content was 76.17 ± 0.23%, uronic acid content was 19.92 ± 0.42%, and protein content was 1.24 ± 0.07%. PCP is composed of arabinose, galactose, glucose, and glucuronic acid, with a molar ratio of 0.196:0.249:0.451:0.104. In addition, we further investigated the effects of the diet supplemented with different doses of PCP on growth performance, meat quality, and anti-oxidant capacity in Chongren Partridge chickens. A total of 200 chickens were randomly allocated into 4 treatments, and fed with a basal diet of 0 (CON), 200 (LPCP), 400 (MPCP), and 800 (HPCP) mg/kg PCP for a 14-day prefeeding period and a formal experimental period of 56 days. Results showed that dietary PCP significantly increased final body weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG), and decreased feed-to-gain ratio (F/G) from days 1 to 56. Meanwhile, dietary PCP reduced yellowness (b∗) values and increased redness (a∗) values at 24 h in breast muscles (p < 0.05). Furthermore, LPCP and MPCP significantly increased the level of guanylic acid (GMP) (p < 0.05). MPCP increased the content of free amino acids (isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, threonine, valine, alanine, glutamic acid, serine, cysteine), total essential amino acid (EAA), total flavor amino acid (FAA), total AA, the content of fatty acids (c14:1, c16:1, and c22:2), and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) in the breast muscle when compared to CON (p < 0.05). In addition, MPCP significantly reduced the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and increased the transcript abundances of fatty acid desaturase 2 (FADS2), fatty acid synthase (FAS), lipoprotein lipase (LPL), and sterol regulatory element binding protein-1 (SREBP-1) in the breast muscles of the chickens (p < 0.05). In light of the aforementioned results, PCP at 400 mg/kg could be used as an effective additive because it not only promotes the growth performance of Chongren Partridge chickens but also shows a conducive role in meat quality, especially in meat flavor.

Chimonanthus nitens Oliv Polysaccharides Modulate Immunity and Gut Microbiota in Immunocompromised Mice.

To investigate the immunomodulatory activities of Chimonanthus nitens Oliv polysaccharides (COP1), an immunosuppressive mouse model was generated by cyclophosphamide (CY) administration and then treated with COP1. The results demonstrated that COP1 ameliorated the body weight and immune organ (spleen and thymus) index of mice and improved the pathological changes of the spleen and ileum induced by CY. COP1 strongly stimulated the production of inflammatory cytokines (IL-10, IL-12, IL-17, IL-1ß, and TNF-α) of the spleen and ileum by promoting the mRNA expressions. Furthermore, COP1 had immunomodulatory activity by increasing several transcription factors (JNK, ERK, and P38) in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Related to the above immune stimulatory effects, COP1 positively affected the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and the expression of ileum tight junction (TJ) protein (ZO-1, Occludin-1, and Claudin-1), upregulated the level of secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) in the ileum and microbiota diversity and composition, and improved intestinal barrier function. This study suggests that COP1 may provide an alternative strategy for alleviating chemotherapy-induced immunosuppression.

[Different combination of drugs regarding the damage on organs targeting salt sensitivity or non-salt-sensitive hypertension].

OBJECTIVE: To study the damage on organs from salt sensitivity hypertension or non-salt-sensitive hypertension and the selection of drug combination. METHODS: 120 hypertensive patients including 60 cases salt-sensitive (SS) and 60 non-salt-sensitive (NSS) groups were selected in our hospital and their salt load tested. These two groups were randomly divided into two groups, each group with 30 patients, one was given felodipine and perindopril and the others were given indapamide sustained release tablets and perindopril to facilitate the 12-week treatment. Before and after the treatment, patients were tested for physiological indicators, such as sitting blood pressure, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure, insulin resistance index, comparing changes of various sub-index etc. RESULTS: Significantly different were seen in indices as fasting blood glucose and serum creatinine (P < 0.01), fasting insulin, left ventricular mass index, urinary albumin, body mass index, insulin resistance indices, while between the SS group and the NSS group (P < 0.05). In the SS group, when patients with various sub-indicators were using perindopril combined with indapamide treatment, the related detected indicators tended to be normal and with statistically significant differences (P < 0.05). In the NSS group, those related indexes also tended to be more normal when using felodipine combined with perindopril. However, there were statistically significant differences between the two groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: On SS hypertensive patients with target organ damages, perindopril and indapamide seemed to be more effective in NSS patients, indicating that the use of perindopril and felodipine combination, seemed to be more suitable.