Impact of maternal high-fat diet on offspring gut microbiota during short-term high-fat diet exposure in mice.

Alterations in the gut microbiome have been linked to obesity, with maternal high-fat diet (HF) playing a role in shaping offspring microbiome composition. However, the sex-specific responses to maternal HF diet and the impact of subsequent dietary challenges remain unclear. This study investigated the effects of maternal HF diet on offspring gut microbiota structure and predicted functional profile in response to short-term postnatal HF diet exposure with a focus on sex-specific responses.

Protonophore treatment augments energy expenditure in mice housed at thermoneutrality.

Background: Sub-thermoneutral housing increases facultative thermogenesis in mice, which may mask the pre-clinical efficacy of anti-obesity strategies that target energy expenditure (EE). Here, we quantified the impact of protonophore treatment on whole-body energetics in mice housed at 30°C.

Methods: C57BL/6J mice ( = 48, 24M/24F) were housed at 24°C for 2 weeks; 32 (16M/16F) were then transitioned to 30°C for a further 4 weeks.

Western Diet Modifies Platelet Activation Profiles in Male Mice.

The correlation between obesity and cardiovascular disease has long been understood, yet scant investigations endeavored to determine the impact of an obesogenic diet on platelet activation or function. As platelets drive clot formation, the terminus of cardiovascular events, we aimed to elucidate the longitudinal effect of an obesogenic diet on platelet phenotype by assessing markers of platelet activation using flow cytometry. Male, weanling mice were fed either a Western diet (30% kcal sucrose, 40% kcal fat, 8.

Coordinated wound responses in a regenerative animal-algal holobiont.

Animal regeneration involves coordinated responses across cell types throughout the animal body. In endosymbiotic animals, whether and how symbionts react to host injury and how cellular responses are integrated across species remain unexplored. Here, we study the acoel Convolutriloba longifissura, which hosts symbiotic Tetraselmis sp.

Parental cardiorespiratory fitness influences early life energetics and metabolic health.

High cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is associated with a reduced risk of metabolic disease and is linked to superior mitochondrial respiratory function. This study investigated how intrinsic CRF affects bioenergetics and metabolic health in adulthood and early life. Adult rats selectively bred for low and high running capacity [low capacity runners (LCR) and high capacity runners (HCR), respectively] underwent metabolic phenotyping before mating.

Evaluation of a Plant-Based Infant Formula Containing Almonds and Buckwheat on Gut Microbiota Composition, Intestine Morphology, Metabolic and Immune Markers in a Neonatal Piglet Model.

A controlled-neonatal piglet trial was conducted to evaluate the impact of a plant-based infant formula containing buckwheat and almonds as the main source of protein compared to a commercially available dairy-based formula on the gut health parameters. Two day old piglets were fed either a plant-based or a dairy-based formula until day 21. Gut microbiome, cytokines, growth and metabolism related outcomes, and intestinal morphology were evaluated to determine the safety of the plant-based infant formula.

A modest change in housing temperature alters whole body energy expenditure and adipocyte thermogenic capacity in mice.

Typical vivarium temperatures (20-26°C) induce facultative thermogenesis in mice, a process attributable in part to uncoupling protein-1 (UCP1). The impact of modest changes in housing temperature on whole body and adipose tissue energetics in mice remains unclear. Here, we determined the effects of transitioning mice from 24°C to 30°C on total energy expenditure and adipose tissue protein signatures.

Gut Microbiome and Metabolome Modulation by Maternal High-Fat Diet and Thermogenic Challenge.

The gut microbiota plays a critical role in energy homeostasis and its dysbiosis is associated with obesity. Maternal high-fat diet (HFD) and β-adrenergic stimuli alter the gut microbiota independently; however, their collective regulation is not clear. To investigate the combined effect of these factors on offspring microbiota, 20-week-old offspring from control diet (17% fat)- or HFD (45% fat)-fed dams received an injection of either vehicle or β3-adrenergic agonist CL316,243 (CL) for 7 days and then cecal contents were collected for bacterial community profiling.

C-section increases cecal abundance of the archetypal bile acid and glucocorticoid modifying Lachnoclostridium [clostridium] scindens in mice.

In humans and animal models, Cesarean section (C-section) has been associated with alterations in the taxonomic structure of the gut microbiome. These changes in microbiota populations are hypothesized to impact immune, metabolic, and behavioral/neurologic systems and others. It is not clear if birth mode inherently changes the microbiome, or if C-section effects are context-specific and involve interactions with environmental and other factors.

Evaluation of the Safety of a Plant-Based Infant Formula Containing Almonds and Buckwheat in a Neonatal Piglet Model.

A randomized neonatal piglet trial was conducted to evaluate the safety and the effects of a plant-based formula containing almonds and buckwheat as the main ingredients on growth and plasma parameters. From postnatal day (PND) 2 to 21, the piglets were fed a dairy-based milk formula (Similac Advance) or a plant-based formula (Else Nutrition) and all piglets were euthanized at day 21. No diarrhea was observed after PND 8 and all the piglets completed the trial.

Genital Chlamydia infection in hyperlipidemic mouse models exacerbates atherosclerosis.

Background And Aims: Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease, and recent studies have shown that infection at remote sites can contribute to the progression of atherosclerosis in hyperlipidemic mouse models. In this report, we tested the hypothesis that genital Chlamydia infection could accelerate the onset and progression of atherosclerosis.

Methods: Apolipoprotein E (Apoe) and LDL receptor knockout (Ldlr) mice on a high-fat diet were infected intra-vaginally with Chlamydia muridarum.

Regeneration in spiralians: evolutionary patterns and developmental processes.

Animals differ markedly in their ability to regenerate, yet still little is known about how regeneration evolves. In recent years, important advances have been made in our understanding of animal phylogeny and these provide new insights into the phylogenetic distribution of regeneration. The developmental basis of regeneration is also being investigated in an increasing number of groups, allowing commonalities and differences across groups to become evident.

IL-12 secretion by Langerhans cells stimulated with Candida skin test reagent is mediated by dectin-1 in some healthy individuals.

Objective: Our group and others have shown that serial intra-lesional injections of common warts with skin testing reagents such as Candida, mumps and Trichophyton are effective in regressing injected and non-injected warts. Anti-HPV T-cell responses appear to be induced. The goal of this study was to understand the mechanisms of how Candida skin testing reagent enhances immune responses.

Restoration of anterior regeneration in a planarian with limited regenerative ability.

Variability of regenerative potential among animals has long perplexed biologists. On the basis of their exceptional regenerative abilities, planarians have become important models for understanding the molecular basis of regeneration. However, planarian species with limited regenerative abilities are also found.

Significant role of IL-1 signaling, but limited role of inflammasome activation, in oviduct pathology during Chlamydia muridarum genital infection.

IL-1β has been implicated in the development of oviduct pathology during Chlamydia muridarum genital infection in the mouse model. The goal of this study was to characterize the role of IL-1 signaling and the inflammasome-activation pathways during genital chlamydial infection. Compared with control mice, IL-1R-deficient mice displayed delayed clearance and increased chlamydial colonization.

Interferon regulatory transcription factor 3 protects mice from uterine horn pathology during Chlamydia muridarum genital infection.

Mice with the type I interferon (IFN) receptor gene knocked out (IFNAR KO mice) or deficient for alpha/beta IFN (IFN-α/β) signaling clear chlamydial infection earlier than control mice and develop less oviduct pathology. Initiation of host IFN-β transcription during an in vitro chlamydial infection requires interferon regulatory transcription factor 3 (IRF3). The goal of the present study was to characterize the influence of IRF3 on chlamydial genital infection and its relationship to IFN-β expression in the mouse model.

MyD88 deficiency leads to decreased NK cell gamma interferon production and T cell recruitment during Chlamydia muridarum genital tract infection, but a predominant Th1 response and enhanced monocytic inflammation are associated with infection resolution.

We have previously shown that MyD88 knockout (KO) mice exhibit delayed clearance of Chlamydia muridarum genital infection compared to wild-type (WT) mice. A blunted Th1 response and ineffective suppression of the Th2 response were also observed in MyD88 KO mice. The goal of the present study was to investigate specific mechanisms whereby absence of MyD88 leads to these effects and address the compensatory mechanisms in the genital tract that ultimately clear infection in the absence of MyD88.

Acoel and platyhelminth models for stem-cell research.

Acoel and platyhelminth worms are particularly attractive invertebrate models for stem-cell research because their bodies are continually renewed from large pools of somatic stem cells. Several recent studies, including one in BMC Developmental Biology, are beginning to reveal the cellular dynamics and molecular basis of stem-cell function in these animals.

Latent regeneration abilities persist following recent evolutionary loss in asexual annelids.

Regeneration abilities have been repeatedly lost in many animal phyla. However, because regeneration research has focused almost exclusively on highly regenerative taxa or on comparisons between regenerating and nonregenerating taxa that are deeply diverged, virtually nothing is known about how regeneration loss occurs. Here, we show that, following a recent evolutionary loss of regeneration, regenerative abilities can remain latent and still be elicited.

Making heads from tails: development of a reversed anterior-posterior axis during budding in an acoel.

The anterior-posterior axis is a key feature of the bilaterian body plan. Although axis specification during embryogenesis has been studied extensively, virtually nothing is known about how this axis can be established post-embryonically, as occurs in budding animals. We investigated bud formation in the acoel Convolutriloba retrogemma, which reproduces by a remarkable process involving the formation of animals with linked but completely opposite body axes.

Host chemokine and cytokine response in the endocervix within the first developmental cycle of Chlamydia muridarum.

The initial host response in a primary chlamydial infection is the onset of acute inflammation. However, we still know very little about the early temporal events in the induction of the acute inflammatory response and how these events relate to the initial chlamydial developmental cycle in an actual genital infection. Because it was critical to initiate a synchronous infection in the endocervix in the first 24 h to evaluate the sequential expression of the host response, we developed the surgical methodology of depositing Chlamydia muridarum directly on the endocervix.

Critical role for interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) during Chlamydia muridarum genital infection and bacterial replication-independent secretion of IL-1beta in mouse macrophages.

Recent findings have implicated interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) as an important mediator of the inflammatory response in the female genital tract during chlamydial infection. But how IL-1beta is produced and its specific role in infection and pathology are unclear. Therefore, our goal was to determine the functional consequences and cellular sources of IL-1beta expression during a chlamydial genital infection.

Radical modification of the A-P axis and the evolution of asexual reproduction in Convolutriloba acoels.

Acoel worms in the genus Convolutriloba are remarkable in that closely related, morphologically very similar species reproduce asexually by dramatically different processes. Transverse fission, longitudinal fission, and reversed-polarity budding all occur within this genus, indicating an unparalleled ability to alter the A-P axis. Convolutriloba thus offers an exceptional opportunity to investigate the development and evolution of asexual reproduction.

Type I interferon signaling exacerbates Chlamydia muridarum genital infection in a murine model.

Type I interferons (IFNs) induced during in vitro chlamydial infection exert bactericidal and immunomodulatory functions. To determine the precise role of type I IFNs during in vivo chlamydial genital infection, we examined the course and outcome of Chlamydia muridarum genital infection in mice genetically deficient in the receptor for type I IFNs (IFNAR(-/-) mice). A significant reduction in chlamydial shedding and duration of lower genital tract infection was observed in IFNAR(-/-) mice in comparison to the level of chlamydial shedding and duration of infection in wild-type (WT) mice.