Volume 9, Issue 3

Subjects of bovine and porcine flocks are sometimes susceptible to death before time of slaughter, and some of those deaths may be due to cardiovascular problems connected with stress. The role of oxidative stress in farm animals is yet unexplored. Human fibrinogen seems to be highly susceptible to nitration. Peroxynitrite produced from superoxide and nitric oxide initiates noticeable changes in the structure of human fibrinogen molecule. The objective of this work is to compare the in vitro interactions of peroxynitrite with human fibrinogen and with fibrinogen from mammals of great economic importance, namely cows and pigs. Using western blots and ELISA we show that porcine fibrinogen is susceptible to tyrosine nitration induced by peroxynitrite whereas, bovine fibrinogen is more resistant. Moreover, porcine fibrinogen polymerization is susceptible to peroxynitrite action, whereas bovine fibrinogen is the least susceptible to inhibition of polymerization caused by peroxynitrite. These observed differences may result from differences in amino acid sequence of fibrinogen chains, mostly including tyrosine content and location in the Aα chain. Protection against toxic effects of peroxynitrite activity in the circulatory system seems to be important in avoiding cardiovascular diseases and may prevent production loss in pig breeding herds.

Literature data suggest possible link between influenza vaccination and development of autoimmune processes. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the effect of influenza vaccination on spatial learning in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). EAE was induced in eight-week-old C57BL/6J female mice by subcutaneous immunization (MOG35–55 in complete Freund’s adjuvant) and Pertussis vaccine injected intraperitoneally. Mice were vaccinated with influenza vaccine three days before MOG immunization. The hippocampal-dependent spatial learning test, Morris Water Maze test (MWM), was performed before and after EAE induction. Significant difference (P < 0.05) in the time for completing the Morris Water Maze task was found between mice with mild clinical signs of EAE when compared to other mice. However no significant difference was observed between mice with EAE and mice with EAE that were vaccinated with influenza vaccine. Hippocampal tissue lesions in EAE mice are in correlation with memory impairment. Study shows no influence of influenza vaccine on progression of clinical signs of EAE, spatial learning and memory impairment.

Adaptation to one environmental stressor sometimes provides protection against additional, more intensive type of stress, a phenomenon called cross-tolerance. We aimed to estimate theprotection provided by acute heat stress (AHS) over carbohydrate disturbances in streptozotocin-diabetic rats. We investigated changes in activity of some hepatic glycolitic and gluconeogenic enzymes, and concentration of some substrates in control and diabetic animals exposed to AHS (41±0.5°C / 1 h), with 1 h and 24 h recovery at room temperature before sacrifice or induction of streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetes, respectively. AHS with 1 h-recovery before sacrifice resulted in intensive glycogenolysis, directed to endogenous glucose production and further utilization of glucose by peripheral tissues, while 24 h recovery resulted in a slight tendency towards normalization of metabolic disturbances caused by AHS. Experimental diabetes caused a significant decrease of substrates and glycolytic enzymes, but an increase of gluconeogenic enzymes. In diabetic animals previously exposed to AHS we measured a less intensive decrease of liver glycogen and glucose-6-phosphate concentration and hexokinase activity, as well as less intensive increase of liver glucose concentration, glucose-6-phosphatase and fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase activity compared to control diabetic animals that had been maintained at room temperature. Prior AHS provided some protection over diabetes-induced alterations in carbohydrate-related parameters (see graphical apstract), indicating a possible development of cross-tolerance phenomenon between the two stressors, AHS and STZ-diabetes.

The NOS3 gene has been associated with athletic endurance performance and elite power athletic status. With respect to NOS3 G894T and its relation to athletic performance or status, results across various studies have not been consistent. Therefore, the lack of consistency among previous studies prompted us to design a case-control study in a Polish Caucasian population to examine the relationship between the NOS3 G894T polymorphism and athletes' status, i.e. type and intensity of exercise performed (poweroriented, “mixed” power/endurance activity, endurance-oriented) and the possible association between the G894T variant and athletic performance. The case-control study was performed in a group of 360 Polish athletes (cases) of the highest nationally competitive standard (male n=156 and female n=67) and 191 unrelated, sedentary control subjects. The G894T genotype and allele distributions differed significantly between power-oriented (P=0.009, P=0.003), “mixed” (P=0.021, P=0.009), endurance (P=0.043, P=0.014) athletes when compared to control subjects (P values for genotypes and alleles, respectively). There were no significant differences between elite and sub-elite athletes in any group. The over-representation of the GG genotype and G allele in all athletes suggests that the G894 allele may favour all types of sports, however, the strongest predisposition was seen among power-oriented athletes.

We hypothesized that the mechanism responsible for the anti-atherosclerotic action of bilberry extract (BE) is linked to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential, and investigated its direct effect on the regulation of apolipoprotein E (apoE) and cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) secretion from lipid-loaded macrophages. Human THP-1 macrophages were loaded with lipids by incubation with human copper-oxidized LDL (oxLDL) and then exposed to different concentrations of BE (1–5 µg mL−1) obtained from bilberries (mechanically homogenized and solubilized in ethanol). Cellular and secreted proteins, the phosphorylation level of NF-κB and protein kinase A (PKA) were quantified by Western blot and gene expression was evaluated by Real-time PCR. The results showed that BE induced in lipid-loaded macrophages has: (i) an antioxidant effect by reducing the expression of NADPH oxidase subunits, p22phox, p47phox and NOX4, (ii) an anti-inflammatory effect by diminishing the secretion of CRP, MCP-1 and IL-1β and (iii) cholesterol efflux by increasing the secretion of apoE and CETP and by reducing cellular cholesterol content. BE exerted these effects by inhibition of NF-κB and activation of PKA signaling pathways. Our study supports BE therapeutic administration to decrease oxidative and inflammatory stress by a molecular mechanism regulated by NF-κB and PKA signaling pathways in lipid-loaded macrophages.

Calcium phosphate bioceramics have been studied as bone filler materials for years and have become a component of many commercial products. It is widely known that surface-reactive biomaterials may cause changes in the concentration of crucial ions in the surrounding environment, thereby affecting cell metabolism and viability. The aim of this study was to produce five cement-type biomaterials and characterize their phase composition using X-ray diffraction method, and porosity and pore size distribution using mercury intrusion porosimeter. We then evaluated ion interactions of the novel biomaterials with the surrounding environment (culture medium). A commercially available bone substitute, HydroSet™ (Stryker®), was used as a reference. MTT and NRU cytotoxicity tests were performed to assess the effect of changes in the concentration of crucial ions (calcium, magnesium, phosphate) on osteoblast metabolism and viability in vitro. Our study clearly indicated that various biomaterials demonstrated different ion reactivity and consequently may cause changes in ion concentration in the local environment. Critically low or high values of calcium, magnesium, and phosphate concentrations in the medium exerted cytotoxic effects on the cultured cells. Moreover, we discovered that the chemical composition of the culture medium had a substantial influence on ion interactions with biomaterials.

Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) catalyzes the first reaction in biosynthesis pathway of flavonoids and plays an important role in plant stress resistance. In this study, the 5’ flanking region of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase gene was isolated from Fagopyrum tataricum by thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR method, named PFtPal (GenBank: KF463139). To investigate the functional properties of PFtPal, we constructed a series of plant expression vectors that contained different promoter fragments resulting from nest deletions and had successfully transformed them into tobacco leaves by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Histochemical assay of GUS suggested that PFtPal could drive GUS gene expression in leaves and roots, while GUS activity was not detected in the stem. In addition, the region of −274 bp to −1 bp was enough to drive normal expression of GUS gene. Low temperature treatment of transgenic tobacco plants demonstrated that PFtPal conferred cold-induced expression. Taken together, our study will help to better understand the Pal promoter, and provides a candidate promoter for molecular breeding in Fagopyrum plants.

Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels from the existing blood vessels and is involved in both physiological and pathological events. Pathological angiogenesis provokes in several important diseases as in inflammatory diseases, ischemic conditions, diabetic neuropathy and cancer. The discovery of new drugs from phyto-chemicals has a long history and anti-angiogenic agents from plant sources provide a platform for the development of phyto-medicines to treat/control pathological angiogenesis. The current project was designed to determine the efficacy of different concentrations of aqueous extract from Opuntia dillenii (OD) on angiogenesis by employing chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay. Computer based 3D image probing was utilized to quantify anti-angiogenic effects of OD extract. Extremely aggravated dose dependent anti-angiogenic response was recorded in all groups treated with OD extract with significant reduction (P<0.01) in total area, diameter of the primary, secondary, tertiary blood vessels and capillary plexuses. Analysis of 3D parameters of OD treated CAMs revealed deteriorated angular spectrum and reduction in the height of Abbott curves. In addition, histological data revealed thinning of ectodermal layer and damaged extracellular matrix. The results spotlight that OD extract possess considerable anti-angiogenic potential and further characterization/isolation of diverse phyto-chemicals would turn up with the discovery of novel phyto-agents to control/mitigate pathological angiogenesis.

The adaptiveness of plasticity of digestive enzyme responses to allelochemical stress was tested on 32 full-sib families of gypsy moth larvae from an oak forest population (the Quercus population) and 26 families from a locust-tree forest (the Robinia population), reared either on control diet, or on tannin-supplemented diet. Using the duration of larval development as an indirect measure of fitness, phenotypic selection analyses revealed that lower specific activities of total proteases and trypsin, and higher specific activity of leucine aminopeptidase were adaptive for both populations in the control environment. Plasticity was only shown to be costly for total proteases and trypsin activity in Quercus larvae. In a stressful environment, the most apparent adaptive response was a significant increase in lipase activity. There was no plasticity cost for lipase activity. The two populations differed in the direction of selection acting on α-glucosidase activity, which favoured decreased activity in Quercus larvae and increased activity in Robinia larvae in the control environment. α-glucosidase activity in Quercus larvae is characterized by cost of homeostasis, while cost of plasticity was shown for Robinia larvae. The results obtained on the plasticity of digestive enzyme activity indicate how this generalist species copes with variation in plant allelochemicals.

The study was conducted on six sites that are dominated by Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica) and that vary in the level of industrialization and habitat transformation by humans. The aim of the research was to investigate the chemical-physical features of soil under a closed and dense canopy of R. japonica, the chemical composition of the R. japonica leaves, and to compare the content of certain elements in the soil-plant-soil system. The soil organic carbon (Corg) content varied from 1.38±0.004% to 8.2±0.047% and the maximum in leaves was 49.11±0.090%. The lowest levels of total nitrogen (Ntot) in soil were recorded on the heavily disturbed sites (till 0.227±0.021%). Soil pH varied greatly, ranging from acidic (pH=4.0) to neutral (pH=7.7). Heavy metal content differed significantly among the study sites. At all of the sites, both in the case of soil and plant leaves, Zn was a dominant element and its concentration ranged from 41.5 to 501.2 mg·kg−1 in soils and from 38.6 to 541.7 mg·kg−1 in leaves. Maximum accumulations of P (2103.3±15.3 mg·kg−1) and S (2571.7±17.6 mg·kg−1) were observed on the site that had been influenced by agricultural practices. The results obtained showed that R. japonica is able to accumulate high levels of heavy metals.

Mechanical damage to seeds occurring during harvesting and threshing, especially in naked cultivars, is one of the main factors decreasing the size and quality of yield. The objective of this study was to assess the susceptibility of naked oat cultivars to mechanical damage, considering the biometric parameters of seeds determined on the basis of computer image analysis and weight tests. The testing was carried out on eight cultivars harvested between 2008 and 2010 at 15% moisture and threshed at either 1.6 or 2.4 m·s−1 threshing drum speed. A 50% increase in the threshing speed caused an average 19% increase in the frequency and a 29% increase in the area of microdamage to seeds. There was a corresponding 4.1 mm2 change in the microdamage area when using the threshing speed of 1.6 m·s−1, and a 6.1 mm2 change when using the threshing speed of 2.4 m·s−1 was 53% and 68%, respectively, determined by a decreasing seed shape coefficient indicating seed elongation. The greatest resistance to mechanical damage was found on the Bullion cultivar, which was also characterized by the largest total projected area of seeds (7.14 mm2), as well as the greatest seed density (63.8 kg·hL−1) and thousand kernel weight (TKW) (28.2 g).