Project description:Interventions: Black seed capsule (containing fresh black seed powder) in the amount of 1000 mg three times a day (it is better to take black seed capsule 2 hours before or 2 hours after a meal)..
Primary outcome(s): Cancer antigen 19-9 (CA19-9). Timepoint: Baseline, 3 months following the treatment and the end of treatment. Method of measurement: Blood test.;Carcino Embryonic Antigen (CEA). Timepoint: Baseline, 3 months following the treatment and the end of treatment. Method of measurement: Blood test.
Study Design: Randomization: N/A, Blinding: Not blinded, Placebo: Not used, Assignment: Single, Purpose: Treatment.
Project description:Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize agriculture by developing engineered nanomaterials to be used as biostimulants, fertilizers, pesticides or smart sensors. Seed priming may represent an opportunity for nano-enabled plant technology to match economic, agronomic and environmental needs. This study investigates the effects of seed priming mediated by iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in plants. We performed a multilevel integrated study to understand the basic interactions between MNPs and seeds in pepper (Capsicum annuum). Moreover, phenotypic, physiological and molecular analyses were performed to elucidate the biological impact of MNPs from seed to plant development. Interestingly, our findings show positive effects of MNPs on vegetative growth and a profound impact on pepper gene expression patterns. Indeed, we found 2,204 differentially expressed transcripts in nanoprimed seeds, most of them involved in plant defence mechanisms, potentially establishing a seed memory that might enhance the plant's capacity to counteract diverse forms of stress. In conclusion, this work provides a comprehensive investigation about nanoparticle-seed interactions with interesting implications for agricultural technology.
Project description:White bass (Morone chrysops) are a popular sportfish throughout the southern United States, and one parent of the commercially successful hybrid striped bass (M. chrysops x M. saxatilis). Currently, white bass are cultured using diets formulated for other carnivorous fish, such as largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) or hybrid striped bass and contain a significant percentage of marine fish meal. Since there are no studies regarding the utilization of alternative proteins in this species, we evaluated global gene expression of white bass fed diets in which fish meal was partially or totally replaced by various combinations of soybean meal, poultry by-product meal, canola meal, soy protein concentrate, wheat gluten, or a commercial protein blend (Pro-Cision). Significant differential expressed genes and gene ontology of pairwise comparisons between control diet and each test diet are presented and discussed.
Project description:Despite the existence of a number of studies investigating the effect of insect meal on the growth performance of broilers, knowledge about the metabolic effects of insect meal in broilers is still scarce. Thus, the present study investigated the effect of partial replacement of soybean meal with Hermetia illucens (HI) larvae meal on the liver transcriptome, the plasma metabolome and the cecal microbiome in broilers. For the study, 72 male one-day-old Cobb 500 broilers were divided into three groups (n = 12) and fed three different diets with either 0% (HI0), 7.5% (HI7.5) or 15% (HI15) defatted HI meal for 35 d. While body weight (BW) gain, feed intake, and feed:gain ratio did not differ between groups, breast muscle weight, carcass yield and apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of 12 amino acids were higher in group HI15 than in group HI0 (P > 0.05). Indicators of α-diversity (Chao1 and Observed) in the cecal digesta were higher in groups HI15 and HI7.5 than in group HI0 (P < 0.05). The abundance of 5 families and 18 genera, all of which belonged to the Firmicutes phylum, in the cecal digesta differed among groups (P < 0.05). Concentrations of butyric acid, valeric acid and isobutyric acid in the cecal digesta were lower in group HI15 than in the other two groups (P > 0.05), whereas those of total and other short-chain fatty acids were not different between groups. Liver transcriptomics revealed a total of 70 and 61 differentially expressed transcripts between groups HI15 vs. HI0 and between groups HI7.5 vs HI0, respectively, (P > 0.05). Targeted metabolomics identified 138 metabolites, most of which were triglyceride species, being different between the three groups (FDR < 0.05). According to this study, dietary inclusion of HI larvae meal has no detrimental impact but increases breast muscle weight and carcass weight in broilers suggesting that HI larvae meal can be recommended as a sustainable alternative protein source for broilers.
Project description:There is few data about effects of temporal segmentation of meal composition on the metabolic response in humans. The meal-induced hormonal secretion in humans strongly depends on the meal composition and on the day time and may be involved in the circadian entrainment of metabolic gene expression. Our study investigated effects of two different diurnal patterns of meal composition (carbohydrate-rich meals in the morning and fat-rich meals in the evening or vice versa) on the gene expression in human subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT).
Project description:Consumption of a high fat meal can increase neutrophilic airway inflammation in asthma. This study investigates the molecular mechanisms driving airway neutrophilia following a high fat meal in asthma.
Project description:The Mixed Meal Model is a physiology based mathematical model describing the post-meal interplay between glucose, insulin, triglycerides and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA).The Mixed Meal Model can be fit to meal response data by estimating nine model parameters from measured plasma glucose, insulin, triglyceride, and NEFA trajectories. These estimated model parameters have been shown to capture features of insulin resistance, beta-cell functionality, and liver fat accumulation from the meal response data.
Project description:Modern humans spend most of their time having eaten recently. The purpose of the current project is to understand how the blood, which contains immune cells, responds in the hours after eating a meal that is moderately high in fat. We used a sequencing method to observe the expression of all the genes in blood cells in five participants who were each fed a high fat meal on three separate days. The results are reported in the manuscript, “Temporal changes in postprandial blood transcriptomes reveal subject-specific pattern of expression of innate immunity genes after a high-fat meal."