In vitro and in vivo antioxidant activities of inulin.

This study was designed to investigate the in vitro and in vivo antioxidant activities of inulin. The in vitro assays demonstrated that the antioxidant activities of inulin, including the DPPH radical scavenging activity, ABTS scavenging activity and ferric reducing power, were weak and significantly lower than those of Vitamin C (P < 0.05). The influence of dietary supplementation with inulin on the antioxidant status of laying hens was evaluated with in vivo antioxidant assays. The results indicated that inulin supplementation quadratically improved the egg production rate of the laying hens (P < 0.01). The antioxidant enzyme activities in the serum, including SOD, CAT, and GSH-Px, and the total antioxidant capacity increased quadratically as inulin levels increased (P < 0.001). The levels of MDA in the serum decreased quadratically as inulin levels increased (P < 0.001). These findings suggest that inulin has the potential to improve the antioxidant status of laying hens.

Extraction optimization and influences of drying methods on antioxidant activities of polysaccharide from cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.).

Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to investigate the extraction condition of polysaccharide from cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.) (named CPP). Water to raw material ratio (10-30 mL/g), extraction time (40-80 min) and extraction temperature (60-100°C) were set as the 3 independent variables, and their effects on the extraction yield of CPP were measured. In addition, the effects of drying methods including hot air drying (HD), vacuum drying (VD) and freeze drying (FD) on the antioxidant activities of CPP were evaluated. The results showed that the optimal condition to extract CPP was: water to raw material ratio (15 mL/g), extraction time (61 min), and extraction temperature (97°C), a maximum CPP yield of 6.49% was obtained under this condition. CPP drying with FD method showed stronger reducing power (0.943 at 6 mg/mL) and radical scavenging capacities against DPPH radical (75.71% at 1.2 mg/mL) and ABTS radical (98.06 at 1.6 mg/mL) than CPP drying with HD and VD methods. Therefore, freeze drying served as a good method for keeping the antioxidant activities of polysaccharide from cup plant. The polysaccharide from cup plant has potential to use as a natural antioxidant.

[Intensity loss of two-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy images of mouse oocyte chromosomes].

As an optical microscope with high resolution, two-photon excitation (TPE) fluorescence microscope is widely used in noninvasive 3D optical imaging of biological samples. Compared with confocal laser scanning microscope, TPE fluorescence microscope provides a deeper detecting depth. In spite of that, the image quality of sample always declines as the detecting depth increases when a noninvasive 3D optical imaging of thicker samples is performed. Mouse oocytes with a large diameter, which play an important role in clinical and biological fields, have obvious absorption and scattering effects. In the present paper, we performed compensation for two-photon fluorescence images of mouse oocyte chromosomes. Using volume as a parameter, the attenuation degree of these chromosomes was also studied. The result of our data suggested that there exists a severe axial intensity loss in two-photon microscopic images of mouse oocytes due to the absorption and scattering effects. It is necessary to make compensation for these images of mouse oocyte chromosomes obtained from two-photon microscopic system. It will be specially needed in studying the quantitative three-dimensional information of mouse oocytes.