Lactobacillus acidophilus and HKL Suspension Alleviates Ulcerative Colitis in Rats by Regulating Gut Microbiota, Suppressing TLR9, and Promoting Metabolism.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic non-specific inflammatory bowel disease with complex pathogenesis. The intestinal flora disturbance affects the homeostasis of the intestinal environment, leading to metabolic imbalance and immune abnormalities of the host, contributing to the perpetuation of intestinal inflammation. We suggest that the combination of anti-inflammatory therapy and the regulation of intestinal flora balance may help in the treatment process. Previously, we used a combination treatment consisting of Lactobacillus acidophilus (Lac) and Chinese medicine Huan Kui Le (HKL) suspension in a UC rat model, where the combined intervention was more effective than either treatment alone. Herein, the mechanism of action of this combined treatment has been investigated using 16S rRNA sequencing, immunohistochemistry, and ELISA methods in the colon, and untargeted metabolomics profiling in serum. Colon protein expression levels of IL-13 and TGF-ß were upregulated, whereas those of TLR9 and TLR4 were downregulated, consistent with an anti-inflammatory effect. In addition, gut microbiota structure changed, shown by a decrease in opportunistic pathogens correlated with intestinal inflammation, such as Klebsiella and Escherichia-Shigella, and an increase in beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacterium. The latter correlated positively with IL-13 and TGF-ß and negatively with IFN-γ. Finally, this treatment alleviated the disruption of the metabolic profile observed in UC rats by increasing short-chain fatty acid (SCFA)-producing bacteria in the colonic epithelium. This combination treatment also affected the metabolism of lactic acid, creatine, and glycine and inhibited the growth of Klebsiella. Overall, we suggest that treatment combining probiotics and traditional Chinese medicine is a novel strategy beneficial in UC that acts by modulating gut microbiota and its metabolites, TLR9, and cytokines in different pathways.

E.faecium QH06 alleviates TNBS-induced colonic mucosal injury in rats / 南方医科大学学报

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the effect of Enterococcus faecium QH06 on TNBS-induced ulcerative colitis (UC) in rats and explore the mechanisms in light of intestinal flora and intestinal immunity.@*METHODS@#Thirty-six male Wistar rats were randomized equally into control group, UC model group, and E.faecium QH06 intervention group. The rats in the latter two groups were subjected to colonic enema with 5% TNBS/ethanol to induce UC, followed by treatment with intragastric administration of distilled water or E.faecium QH06 at the dose of 0.21 g/kg. After 14 days of treatment, the rats were examined for colon pathologies with HE staining. The mRNA and protein expression levels of IL-4, IL-10, IL-12, and IFN-γ in the colon tissues were detected using RT-qPCR and ELISA, and the expression of TLR2 protein was detected with immunohistochemistry and ELISA. Illumina Miseq platform was used for sequencing analysis of the intestinal flora of the rats with bioinformatics analysis. The correlations of the parameters of the intestinal flora with the expression levels of TLR2 and cytokines were analyzed.@*RESULTS@#The rats with TNBS- induced UC showed obvious weight loss (P < 0.01) and severe colon tissue injury with high pathological scores (P < 0.01). The protein expression levels of IFN-γ, IL-12, and TLR2 (P < 0.01) and the mRNA expression levels of IFN-γ, IL-12 and IL-10 (P < 0.05) were significantly increased in the colon tissues of the rats with UC. Illumina Miseq sequence analysis showed that in UC rats, the Shannon index (P < 0.05) ACE (P < 0.01)and Chao (P < 0.05) index for the diversity of intestinal flora both decreased with a significantly increased abundance of Enterobacteriaceae (P < 0.01) and a lowered abundance of Burkholderiaceae (P < 0.05). Compared with the UC rats, the rats treated with E. faecium QH06 showed obvious body weight gain (P < 0.05), lessened colon injuries, lowered pathological score of the colon tissue (P < 0.05), decreased protein expressions of IFN- γ, IL- 12, and TLR2 and mRNA expressions of IFN- γ and IL-12 (P < 0.01 or 0.05), and increased protein expressions of IL- 4 (P < 0.05). The Shannon index ACE (P < 0.05) and Chao (P < 0.05) index of intestinal microflora were significantly increased, the abundance of Enterobacteriaceae was lowered and that of Burkholderiaceae and Rikenellaceae was increased in E.faecium QH06- treated rats (P < 0.01 or 0.05). Correlation analysis showed that IFN-γ was positively correlated with the abundance of Enterobacteriaceae, and IFN-γ was negatively correlated with the abundance of Prevotellaceae, Desulfovibrionaceae, norank_o_Mollicutes_RF39 and Clostridiales_vadinBB60_group; TLR2 was negatively correlated with Clostridiales_vadinBB60_group, norank_o_Mollicutes_RF39 and Prevotellaceae.@*CONCLUSION@#E.faecium QH06 can alleviate TNBS-induced colonic mucosal injury in rats, and its effect is mediated possibly by increasing the abundance of SCFA-producing bacteria such as Prevotellaceae and inhibiting abnormal immune responses mediated by TLR2.

Comparison of functional magnetic resonance imaging in cerebral activation between normal Uygur and Mandarin participants in semantic identification task.

PURPOSE: This study utilized blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) technology to study the activated cerebral regions in normal participants whose native language was Uyghur or Chinese. METHODS: We collected the fMRI data from 15 Uyghur-speaking volunteers and 15 Mandarin-speaking volunteers when executing the semantic identification task and compared the results of two groups. RESULTS: Statistically significant difference of brain activation was found primarily in the left anterior cingulate gyrus (BA23) and the midline precuneus (P<0.05). When performing the semantic identification task, the Uyghur group exhibited significant activation in these two regions, whereas the Chinese group demonstrated relatively weak activation in these areas. CONCLUSION: The cerebral regions activated by Uyghur and Chinese semantic identification are not identical, the dominant hemisphere for both languages is the left cerebral hemisphere. The left anterior cingulate gyrus might have a language function in Uyghur semantic processing.

The standardization of a Uighur Aphasia battery / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

Objective To study the reliability and validity of an aphasia battery of Uighur (ABU).Methods The Chinese Aphasia Battery (ABC) was translated into Uighur.Appropriate adaptation was made according to the features of Uyghur language,but the overall structure was unchanged.Three rounds of comments and revisions were conducted by experts and the ABU was back-translated into Chinese after language adjustment and pretesting.The ABU was then applied to evaluating 104 cases of stroke aphasia among Uighur speakers,among which 30 cases were retested one week later.The construct validity,internal reliability,retest reliability and splithalf reliability of the scale were tested using factor analysis and Spearman rank correlation analysis.Results The discrepancy between the original and back-translated ABC was less than 10％.The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value was 0.917 and the p value of the Bartlett's test for sphericity was ≤0.005.Three common factors were extracted using principal component analysis with a varimax orthogonal rotation:a writing factor;and a listening comprehension factor.Together they explained a total of 81％ of the variance.The Cronbach's α of the components were 0.969 for oral expression,0.922 for listening comprehension,0.966 for reading and 0.924 for writing,giving a total α coefficient of 0.978.The test-retest correlation coefficients of 22 items were greater than 0.8,with only another two below 0.7.The split-half reliability of the scale was 0.906.Conclusions The aphasia battery in Uighur has good validity and reliability,and can quantitatively reflect the functional status and language changes among Uighur's with stroke aphasia.It may also be suitable for application in the clinical rehabilitation of other sorts of Uighurspeaking aphasics.