scholarly journals Choline: Exploring the Growing Science on Its Benefits for Moms and Babies

Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hunter W. Korsmo ◽  
Xinyin Jiang ◽  
Marie A. Caudill

The importance of ensuring adequate choline intakes during pregnancy is increasingly recognized. Choline is critical for a number of physiological processes during the prenatal period with roles in membrane biosynthesis and tissue expansion, neurotransmission and brain development, and methyl group donation and gene expression. Studies in animals and humans have shown that supplementing the maternal diet with additional choline improves several pregnancy outcomes and protects against certain neural and metabolic insults. Most pregnant women in the U.S. are not achieving choline intake recommendations of 450 mg/day and would likely benefit from boosting their choline intakes through dietary and/or supplemental approaches.

2008 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 701 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Cassar-Malek ◽  
B. Picard ◽  
C. Bernard ◽  
J.-F. Hocquette

In the context of sustainable agriculture and animal husbandry, understanding animal physiology remains a major challenge in the breeding and production of livestock, especially to develop animal farming systems that respond to the new and diversified consumer demand. Physiological processes depend on the expression of many genes acting in concert. Considerable effort has been expended in recent years on examining the mechanisms controlling gene expression and their regulation by biological and external factors (e.g. genetic determinants, nutritional factors, and animal management). Two main strategies have been developed to identify important genes. The first one has focussed on the expression of candidate genes for key physiological pathways at the level of both the transcripts and proteins. An original strategy has emerged with the advent of genomics that addresses the same issues through the examination of the molecular signatures of all genes and proteins using high-throughput techniques (e.g. transcriptomics and proteomics). In this review, the application of the gene expression studies in livestock production systems is discussed. Some practical examples of genomics applied to livestock production systems (e.g. to optimise animal nutrition, meat quality or animal management) are presented, and their outcomes are considered. In the future, integration of the knowledge gained from these studies will finally result in optimising livestock production systems through detection of desirable animals and their integration into accurate breeding programs or innovative management systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Hoa Ho ◽  
Annarita Patrizi

AbstractChoroid plexus (ChP), a vascularized secretory epithelium located in all brain ventricles, plays critical roles in development, homeostasis and brain repair. Reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) is a popular and useful technique for measuring gene expression changes and also widely used in ChP studies. However, the reliability of RT-qPCR data is strongly dependent on the choice of reference genes, which are supposed to be stable across all samples. In this study, we validated the expression of 12 well established housekeeping genes in ChP in 2 independent experimental paradigms by using popular stability testing algorithms: BestKeeper, DeltaCq, geNorm and NormFinder. Rer1 and Rpl13a were identified as the most stable genes throughout mouse ChP development, while Hprt1 and Rpl27 were the most stable genes across conditions in a mouse sensory deprivation experiment. In addition, Rpl13a, Rpl27 and Tbp were mutually among the top five most stable genes in both experiments. Normalisation of Ttr and Otx2 expression levels using different housekeeping gene combinations demonstrated the profound effect of reference gene choice on target gene expression. Our study emphasized the importance of validating and selecting stable housekeeping genes under specific experimental conditions.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1272
Author(s):  
Judit Tajti ◽  
Magda Pál ◽  
Tibor Janda

Oat (Avena sativa L.) is a widely cultivated cereal with high nutritional value and it is grown mainly in temperate regions. The number of studies dealing with gene expression changes in oat continues to increase, and to obtain reliable RT-qPCR results it is essential to establish and use reference genes with the least possible influence caused by experimental conditions. However, no detailed study has been conducted on reference genes in different tissues of oat under diverse abiotic stress conditions. In our work, nine candidate reference genes (ACT, TUB, CYP, GAPD, UBC, EF1, TBP, ADPR, PGD) were chosen and analysed by four statistical methods (GeNorm, Normfinder, BestKeeper, RefFinder). Samples were taken from two tissues (leaves and roots) of 13-day-old oat plants exposed to five abiotic stresses (drought, salt, heavy metal, low and high temperatures). ADPR was the top-rated reference gene for all samples, while different genes proved to be the most stable depending on tissue type and treatment combinations. TUB and EF1 were most affected by the treatments in general. Validation of reference genes was carried out by PAL expression analysis, which further confirmed their reliability. These results can contribute to reliable gene expression studies for future research in cultivated oat.


Endocrinology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 151 (3) ◽  
pp. 1375-1380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brasilina Caroccia ◽  
Ambrogio Fassina ◽  
Teresa Maria Seccia ◽  
Chiara Recarti ◽  
Lucia Petrelli ◽  
...  

We detected intense CD56 immunostaining in the zona glomerulosa (ZG) and medulla of the normal human adrenal gland and therefore identified CD56, the neural cell adhesion molecule, as a membrane antigen specific for the ZG, aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA), and chromaffin cells. The APA and pheochromocytoma cells, which are histogenetically derived from the ZG and medulla, respectively, also showed intense CD56 immunostaining. Based on these findings we developed a strategy for isolating cells from the ZG and APA using CD56 immunobinding to magnetic beads. Morphology, gene expression studies, and aldosterone measurement confirmed that CD56 positive (+) cells were ZG and APA cells. Analysis of CD56+ cells under light and phase contrast microscopy evidenced that these cells formed clumps, as the ZG cells usually do; with electron microscopy they showed multiple features typical of a steroidogenic phenotype. Expression levels of the CD56 and the aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) gene were markedly higher in CD56+ cells than CD56− cells (+1600 and +2100% increase, respectively). Moreover, aldosterone secretion was higher (+1380%) from CD56+ cells than from CD56− cells. Hence, this novel methodology allows isolation of a pure population of ZG and APA cells exhibiting multiple characteristics of the aldosterone-producing cells.


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