scholarly journals Mulberry (Morus atropurpurea) Supplementation Relieve Constipation in Mice Based on Gut Microbiota Regulation

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 795-795
Author(s):  
Yuxiao Zou ◽  
Tenggen Hu ◽  
Sentai Liao

Abstract Objectives Mulberry (Morus atropurpurea) has long been used to treat gastro-intestinal ailments; however, the functional basis of its therapeutic effects remains unclear. Methods The aim of this study was to measure the effects of mulberry (administered by gavage) on diphenoxylate-induced constipation in mice and elucidate the mechanisms underlying these effects using constipation and physicochemical indexes, histological morphology and 16S rDNA amplicon analysis of fecal microbiota. Sixty Kunming mice were randomly divided into the following six groups (n = 10 per group): normal control, constipation model, positive control, and low-, mid- and high-dose mulberry groups. After 14 days of treatment, constipation was induced over 5 days and measurements were conducted. Results The results show that mulberry treatment prevented constipation by increasing the fecal water content, shortening the first red fecal defecation time, promoting gastric evacuation, and increasing the gastric-intestinal transit rate (P < 0.05). Compared with the constipation model group, the mulberry-treated groups showed decreased aquaporin gene expression (Aqp3, Aqp4, Aqp8 and Aqp9), decreased serum levels of inhibitory neurotransmitters (nitric oxide and vasoactive intestinal peptide) (P < 0.05), and increased serum levels of excitability neurotransmitters (acetyl choline, substance P, and motilin). The histological morphology of the colon showed that mulberry treatment increased the number of mucus cells (P < 0.05). Mulberry treatment also increased the concentrations of acetic, propionic, butyric, valeric and isovaleric acids (P < 0.05), increased the abundance of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium in feces, and decreased the abundance of Helicobacter and Prevotellaceae in feces. Conclusions Our findings indicate that mulberry consumption effectively prevents constipation in mice and is a promising therapeutic candidate for constipation. Funding Sources We acknowledge the Applied Research & Development Special Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2015B020234006), the Science and Technology Plan Project of Guangdong Province (No. 2017A050501022).

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 1057-1060
Author(s):  
Ye Jin ◽  
Jian-hua Zheng

Purpose: To study the effect of traditional Chinese Medicine formula Taoren-Quyu decoction (TQD) on endometriosis. Method: Fifty female Wistar rats were randomly separated into five groups (10 rats/group): normal control, model (untreated) group, positive control (danazol), 200 mg/kg/day (low dose) or 400 mg/kg/day (high dose). All rats were prepared into endometriosis except for normal control rats. TDQ groups rats were orally administered of TQD for 5 weeks. After treatment, the rats were sacrificed by cervical dislocation. The number of total endometriotic lesions were counted. Serum levels of cancer antigen 125 (CA-125), interleukin 13 (IL-13), interleukin 18 (IL-18) and peritoneal fluid tumor necrosis factoralpha (TNF-α) were measured by ELISA kits. Result: Compared with control rats, TQD reduced the number of total endometriotic lesions significantly (12.7 ± 1.2, p < 0.01), as well as serum levels of CA-125 (6.4 ± 1.2 U/mL), IL-18 (118.6 ± 7.4 pg/mL), IL13 (6.3 ± 0.8 pg/mL) and peritoneal fluid TNF-α (231.5 ± 11.7 pg/mL) (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The results reveal that TQD exerts anti-endometriotic effect in rats by inhibiting inflammatory factors. Therefore, TQD has potentials for use in the treatment of endometriosis.


Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1926
Author(s):  
Cedrick N. Shili ◽  
Jonathan N. Broomhead ◽  
Shelby C. Spring ◽  
Mike B. Lanahan ◽  
Adel Pezeshki

The objective of this study was to assess the effect of a novel corn-expressed phytase (CEP) on growth, nutrients digestibility, bone characteristics and fecal microbiota of pigs fed with very low-protein, -calcium (Ca) and -phosphorous (P) diets. Forty-eight barrows were subjected to 6 groups for 4 weeks: positive control-adequate protein (PC), negative control-reduced protein (NC), NC + low-dose CEP, i.e., 2000 FTU/kg (LD), NC + high-dose CEP, i.e., 4000 FTU/kg (HD), LD with 0.12% unit reduced Ca and 0.15% unit reduced available P (LDR), and HD with 0.12% unit reduced Ca and 0.15% unit reduced available P (HDR). Compared to NC, LD and HDR had a higher average daily gain (ADG) and gain:protein ratio (G:P), HD and HDR had greater apparent fecal digestibility of Ca and P and bone mineral density and LDR and HDR had lower serum osteocalcin. The feces of LD was enriched in Lachnospiraceae, while the HD had a higher abundance of Succinvibrio and LDR had a higher abundance of Bifidobacterium and Actinobacteria. In conclusion, supplementation of protein-restricted diets with a CEP decreased their negative effects on ADG and G:P ratio, increased the digestibility of Ca and P regardless of the levels of these minerals in the diet, improved bone characteristics and produced differential effects on fecal bacterial population.


AMB Express ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haoyu Wu ◽  
Tianjiao Gao ◽  
Yiwei Cao ◽  
Jiayu Diao ◽  
Fengjun Chang ◽  
...  

Abstract Atherosclerosis is a severe cardiovascular disease characterized by narrowing of the lumen, plaque formation, and blood flow turbulence as a result of cholesterol and lipid accumulation in the inner lining of arteries. Bishkhapra (Trianthema portulacastrum Linn.) is a well-known common weed belonging to the family Aizoaceae. Several bioactive compounds have been isolated from this weed and widely used against several diseases. The present study evaluated the protective and therapeutic efficacies of T. portulacastrum against atherosclerosis in a rat model. The animals were divided into the sham, control (diabetes- + atherosclerosis-inducing diet), 100 mg/kg T. portulacastrum treatment, 200 mg/kg T. portulacastrum treatment, and positive control groups. Blood glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, and other lipid parameters, as well as the expression of G-protein-coupled receptor 124 (GPR124), were measured. Glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides were significantly reduced to near normal levels. The serum levels of fibrinogen, sVCAM-1, and oxidized low density lipoproteins were substantially increased in control rats. Treatment with the T. portulacastrum extract reversed these levels to near normal levels. The mRNA expression of GPR124 was increased by 150% in the control group. However, treatment with T. portulacastrum extract decreased the mRNA expression up to 40% compared with the control group. Rats treated with 100 and 200 mg/kg T. portulacastrum extract showed a decrease in GPR124 protein expression by 9.5% and 33.3%, respectively. Taken together, the results suggest that an extract of T. portulacastrum is effective against atherosclerosis in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.


2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
Lidija Kandolf-Sekulović

Abstract Toxic epidermal necrolysis is an idiosyncratic drug reaction which manifests with extensive epidermal detachment due to the massive keratinocyte apoptosis, mucous membrane involvement, and potentially lethal outcome. It is caused by adverse reactions to drugs, mostly idiosyncratic, unpredictable and independent of the applied dose, which develops 7-21 days after initiation of the drug, and is most commonly caused by the following drugs: sulfonamides, allopurinol, carbamazepine, phenobarbitone, phenytoin and oxycam group of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The treatment outcome depends on several factors, while older age, multiple drug use, late exclusion of the drug inducing toxic epidermal necrolysis, raised serum levels of urea, creatinine and cytopenia are poor prognostic indicators which are rated in SCORTEN scoring which proved to be of great help in the assessment of disease outcome. The basic approach to the treatment is early diagnosis, immediate suspension of the probable inducing drug, and emergency transport to the closest burn center, since treatment in burn units is associated with a lower risk of infection and mortality of these patients. Exclusion of the drug that induced toxic epidermal necrolysis, and supportive therapy, is the first and only therapy for which there is a consensus in different centers. Various forms of adjuvant therapy are also applied: in France, supportive therapy is a standard of care, in Germany it is short-term use of high-dose corticosteroids, while in USA, in the last decade high-dose intravenous immunoglobulins are the most widely accepted treatment modalities. Case reports and small patients’ series described therapeutic effects of plasmapheresis, cyclosporine and other immunosuppressants. In conclusion, elimination of the possible causal agent, rapid transport to the burn unit, and multidisciplinary approach to treatment are of utmost importance for favorable outcome of the disease with 20-30% mortality rate. An update on diagnosis and the treatment of toxic epidermal necrolysis is provided in this review.


2016 ◽  
pp. 74-80
Author(s):  
Phuong Phung ◽  
Thi Thuy Nguyen

ackground and Objectives: Nowadays, the incidence of cancer is constantly increasing in the world as well as in Vietnam. The treatment of cancer is based on multimodality principle. Among those principal modalities, chemotherapy is widely used for different purposes such as neoadjuvant, andjuvant and palliation. However, chemotherapy can induce activation of latent infections, including hepatitis B. Vietnam is in the endemic region of hepatitis B so the reactivation of hepatitis B on cancer patients with chemotherapy has emerged a concerned problem. However, few interests were gained on this problem in the aspect of clinical setting or researching. Aims: to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B reactivation (HBV) in cancer patients treating with chemotherapy and to detect some risks factors of this situation. Subjects and methods: descriptive prospective. The study included 33 cancer patients with inactive HBV infection who are treating with chemotherapy. We define HBV reactivation by ALT > 3 ULN and HBV DNA copies > 10 positive control limit. Results: We found 6 patients with reactivated HBV, accounting for 18.18 %. Among reactivated HBV patients, age less than 60 accounts 83,33%. Rate of reactivated HBV in males was 25,00% while this rate in females was 14,28%. Rate of reactivated HBV in lymphoma, lung cancer and breast cancer was 33,33%, 25% và 22,22% respectively. Clinial manifestation of reactivated HBV includes jaundice (33,33%), fulminant hepatic failure (6%) and death (5%). The reactivated rate was higher in patients got high dose of corticoid (28,57%) vs low dose (15,38%). This rate was 29,41% in patients treated with anthracyclines which was higher than in group without anthracyclines. The reactivated rate of HBV was dramatically higher in patients treated with rituximab (75%). Conclusion: the reactivation of hepatitis B on cancer patients with chemotherapy is common. We found 6 patients with reactivated HBV of 33 subjects of the study which accounts 18.18 %. We recognized that reactivated HBV rate was higher subgroups of age < 60 years old, males, patients with lymphoma, lung cancer, breast cancer. Reactivated HBV may be more prevalent in patients with high-dose corticotherapy, anthracyclines and Rituximab. Key words: HBV reactivation, chemotherapy, cancer, hepatitis B


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-98
Author(s):  
Zheng Yue ◽  
Zhang Wen-Cheng ◽  
Wu Ze-Yu ◽  
Fu Chuan-Xiang ◽  
Gao Han ◽  
...  

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the anti-fatigue activity of maca hydroalcoholic extract (ME), which mainly contains macamides and polysaccharides. ME was prepared by circumfluence extraction with enzymatic pre-treatment. Anti-fatigue activity of ME was investigated in weight-loaded forced swimming mice, with pure macamides and commercially available maca tablet as positive control. Compared with normal group, pure macamides treatment group could prolong the swimming time to exhaustion, but there was no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05); while ME (middle-dose and high-dose groups) could effectively prolong the swimming durations (P < 0.05). Supplementation with pure macamides significantly decreased blood lactic acid (BLA), whereas ME significantly increased hepatic glycogen (HG), decreased BLA, and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) compared with those in normal control (P < 0.05). The results suggested that the anti-fatigue effect of ME was better than that of pure macamides, which can be explained by the increase of glycogen storage and the reduction of metabolites accumulation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (24) ◽  
pp. 4506-4536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris E. Allijn ◽  
René P. Brinkhuis ◽  
Gert Storm ◽  
Raymond M. Schiffelers

Traditionally, natural medicines have been administered as plant extracts, which are composed of a mixture of molecules. The individual molecular species in this mixture may or may not contribute to the overall medicinal effects and some may even oppose the beneficial activity of others. To better control therapeutic effects, studies that characterized specific molecules and describe their individual activity that have been performed over the past decades. These studies appear to underline that natural products are particularly effective as antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents. In this systematic review we aimed to identify potent anti-inflammatory natural products and relate their efficacy to their chemical structure and physicochemical properties. To identify these compounds, we performed a comprehensive literature search to find those studies, in which a dose-response description and a positive control reference compound was used to benchmark the observed activity. Of the analyzed papers, 7% of initially selected studies met these requirements and were subjected to further analysis. This analysis revealed that most selected natural products indeed appeared to possess anti-inflammatory activities, in particular anti-oxidative properties. In addition, 14% of the natural products outperformed the remaining natural products in all tested assays and are attractive candidates as new anti-inflammatory agents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Senthil Nagarajan ◽  
Jae Kwon Lee

AbstractSesamolin is one of the lignans derived from sesame oil. It has demonstrated significant antioxidant, anti-aging, and anti-mutagenic properties. It also reportedly augments natural killer (NK) cell lysis activity. We previously reported that sesamolin also exerts anticancer effects in vitro and induces enhanced NK cell cytolytic activity against tumor cells. Herein, we aimed to determine the mechanism by which sesamolin prevents and retards tumorigenesis in BALB/c mouse models of leukemia induced by murine (BALB/c) myelomonocytic leukemia WEHI-3B cells. Banded neutrophils, myeloblasts, and monocytic leukemic cells were more abundant in the leukemia model than in normal mice. Sesamolin decreased the number of leukemic cells by almost 60% in the leukemia model mice in vivo; additionally, sesamolin and the positive control drug, vinblastine, similarly hindered neoplastic cell proliferation. Spleen samples were ~ 4.5-fold heavier in leukemic mice than those obtained from normal mice, whereas spleen samples obtained from leukemic mice treated with sesamolin had a similar weight to those of normal mice. Moreover, sesamolin induced a twofold increase in the cytotoxic activity of leukemic mouse NK cells against WEHI-3B cells. These results indicated that sesamolin exerts anti-leukemic effects in vivo.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 934.3-934
Author(s):  
M. Kim ◽  
Y. Choe ◽  
H. Lee ◽  
Y. H. Cheon ◽  
S. I. Lee

Background:Histamine-releasing factor/translationally controlled tumor protein (HRF/TCTP) stimulates cancer progression and allergic responses. Increased expression of HRF/TCTP occurs in joints of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, but the role of HRF/TCTP in RA remains undefinedObjectives:In this study, we explored the pathogenic significance of HRF/TCTP and evaluated therapeutic effects of HRF/TCTP blockade in RA.Methods:HRF/TCTP transgenic (TG) and knockdown (KD) mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) were used to determine experimental phenotypes of RA. HRF/TCTP levels were measured in sera and joint fluids in patients with RA and compared to those with osteoarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Behcet disease, and healthy controls. HRF/TCTP expression was also assessed in synovium and fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) obtained from RA or OA patients. Finally, we assessed effects of HRF/TCTP and dimerized HRF/TCTP binding peptide-2 (dTBP2), an inhibitor of HRF/TCTP, in RA-FLS and CIA mice.Results:Our clinical, radiological, histological, and biochemical analyses indicate that inflammatory responses and joint destruction were increased in HRF/TCTP TG mice, and decreased in KD mice compared to wild-type littermates. HRF/TCTP levels were higher in sera, synovial fluid, synovium, and FLS of patients with RA than in control groups. Serum levels of HRF/TCTP correlated well with disease activity in RA. Tumor-like aggressiveness of RA-FLS was exacerbated by HRF/TCTP stimulation and ameliorated by dTBP2 treatment. dTBP2 exerted protective and therapeutic effects in CIA mice, and had no detrimental effect in a murine tuberculosis model.Conclusion:Our results indicate that HRF/TCTP represents a novel biomarker and therapeutic target for diagnosis and treatment of RA.References:N/AAcknowledgments :National Research Foundation of KoreaKorea Health Industry Development InstituteDisclosure of Interests:None declared


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Pallikadavath ◽  
R Patel ◽  
CL Kemp ◽  
M Hafejee ◽  
N Peckham ◽  
...  

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Introduction Cardiovascular adaptations as a result of exercise conducted at high-intensity and high-volume are often termed the ‘Athlete’s heart’. Studies have shown that these cardiovascular adaptations vary between sexes. It is important that both sexes are well represented in this literature. However, many studies assessing the impact of high-dose exercise on cardiovascular outcomes under-recruit female participants. Purpose This scoping review aimed to evaluate the representation of females in studies assessing the impact of high-dose exercise on cardiovascular outcomes and demonstrate how this has changed over time. Methods The scoping review protocol as outlined by Arksey and O’Malley was used. OVID and EMBASE databases were searched and studies independently reviewed by two reviewers. Studies must have investigated the effects of high-dose exercise on cardiovascular outcomes. To assess how the recruitment of females has changed over time, two methods were used. One, the median study date was used to categorise studies into two groups. Two, studies were divided into deciles to form ten equal groups over the study period. Mean percentage of female recruitment and percentage of studies that failed to include females were calculated. Results Overall, 250 studies were included. Over half the studies (50.8%, n = 127) did not include female participants. Only 3.2% (n = 8) did not include male participants. Overall, mean percentage recruitment was 18.2%. The mean percentage of recruitment was 14.5% before 2011 and 21.8% after 2011. The most recent decile of studies demonstrated the highest mean percentage of female recruitment (29.3%) and lowest number of studies that did not include female participants (26.9%). Conclusion Female participants are significantly underrepresented in studies assessing cardiovascular outcomes caused by high-dose exercise. The most recent studies show that female recruitment may be improving, however, this still falls significantly short for equal representation. Risk factors, progression and management of cardiovascular diseases vary between sexes, hence, translating findings from male dominated data is not appropriate. Future investigators should aim to establish barriers and strategies to optimise fair recruitment. Mean percentage females recruited per study (%) Percentage studies that do not include women (%) Overall (n = 250) 18.2 50.8 (n = 127) Studies before 2011 (n = 121) 14.5 59.5 (n = 72) Studies after 2011 (n = 129) 21.8 42.6 (n = 55) Table 1: Female recruitment characteristics. The year 2011 (median study year) was chosen as this divides all included studies into two equal groups.


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