Sex-dependent modulation of T and NK cells and gut microbiome by low sodium diet in patients with primary aldosteronism.

Background: High dietary sodium intake is a major cardiovascular risk factor and adversely affects blood pressure control. Patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) are at increased cardiovascular risk, even after medical treatment, and high dietary sodium intake is common in these patients. Here, we analyze the impact of a moderate dietary sodium restriction on microbiome composition and immunophenotype in patients with PA.

Gut microbiota prevents small intestinal tumor formation due to bile acids in gnotobiotic mice.

The gut microbiota is implicated in the development of intestinal tumors. Furthermore, Western diet is a risk factor for colorectal cancer and induces alterations in both the microbiota and bile acid metabolism. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the causal role of Western diet-induced changes in the microbiota and secondary bile acid production, which were linked to disease exacerbation in pigs.

Gut microbiota genome features associated with brain injury in extremely premature infants.

Severe brain damage is common among premature infants, and the gut microbiota has been implicated in its pathology. Although the order of colonizing bacteria is well described, the mechanisms underlying aberrant assembly of the gut microbiota remain elusive. Here, we employed long-read nanopore sequencing to assess abundances of microbial species and their functional genomic potential in stool samples from a cohort of 30 extremely premature infants.

Rapid quantification of murine bile acids using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Interest in bile acids (BAs) is growing due to their emerging role as signaling molecules and their association with various diseases such as colon cancer and metabolic syndrome. Analyzing BAs requires chromatographic separation of isomers, often with long run times, which hinders BA analysis in large studies. Here, we present a high-throughput method based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to quantify BAs in mouse samples.

Protocol to study human gut bacterial communities and rhythmicity ex vivo using a chemostat system.

Chemostat systems can be used to cultivate complex intestinal microbial communities ex vivo. Here, we present a protocol to transfer bacteria from human fecal material into chemostat systems as well as settings to simulate infant or adult colonic conditions. We describe the experimental setup, media design, donor selection, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, and circadian analysis of bacterial abundance.

Sex-specific response of the human plasma lipidome to short-term cold exposure.

Cold-induced lipolysis is widely studied as a potential therapeutic strategy to combat metabolic disease, but its effect on lipid homeostasis in humans remains largely unclear. Blood plasma comprises an enormous repertoire in lipids allowing insights into whole body lipid homeostasis. So far, reported results originate from studies carried out with small numbers of male participants.

Exploring the Potential Probiotic Properties of Bifidobacterium breve DSM 32583-A Novel Strain Isolated from Human Milk.

Human milk is the best nutrition for infants, providing optimal support for the developing immune system and gut microbiota. Hence, it has been used as source for probiotic strain isolation, including members of the genus Bifidobacterium, in an effort to provide beneficial effects to infants who cannot be exclusively breastfed. However, not all supplemented bifidobacteria can effectively colonise the infant gut, nor confer health benefits to the individual infant host; therefore, new isolates are needed to develop a range of dietary products for this specific age group.

Faecal microbiota and cytokine profiles of rural Cambodian infants linked to diet and diarrhoeal episodes.

The gut microbiota of infants in low- to middle-income countries is underrepresented in microbiome research. This study explored the faecal microbiota composition and faecal cytokine profiles in a cohort of infants in a rural province of Cambodia and investigated the impact of sample storage conditions and infant environment on microbiota composition. Faecal samples collected at three time points from 32 infants were analysed for microbiota composition using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and concentrations of faecal cytokines.

Towards prediction of maturation-dependent kokumi taste in cheese by comprehensive high throughput quantitation of glutamyl dipeptides.

The study focuses on the comprehensive analysis of glutamyl dipeptides in cheese, particularly their formation during the cheese ripening process and the influence of various factors, such as origin, the use of various mold cultures, and cheese types. For the first time, all three subgroups of glutamyl dipeptides, namely α-Glu-X, X-Glu, and γ-Glu-X, are covered in a comprehensive analytical LC-MS/MS method offering robust quantitation of all 56 glutamyl dipeptides. The workflow includes a simplified extraction protocol and an optimized separation of the analytes on the stationary phase.

Cold-induced phosphatidylethanolamine synthesis in liver and brown adipose tissue of mice.

Increasing energy expenditure in brown adipose (BAT) tissue by cold-induced lipolysis is discussed as a potential strategy to counteract imbalanced lipid homeostasis caused through unhealthy lifestyle and cardiometabolic disease. Yet, it is largely unclear how liberated fatty acids (FA) are metabolized. We investigated the liver and BAT lipidome of mice housed for 1 week at thermoneutrality, 23 °C and 4 °C using quantitative mass spectrometry-based lipidomics.

CCL28 modulates neutrophil responses during infection with mucosal pathogens.

The chemokine CCL28 is highly expressed in mucosal tissues, but its role during infection is not well understood. Here, we show that CCL28 promotes neutrophil accumulation in the gut of mice infected with and in the lung of mice infected with . Neutrophils isolated from the infected mucosa expressed the CCL28 receptors CCR3 and, to a lesser extent, CCR10, on their surface.

An Optimized High-Resolution Mapping Method for Glucocorticoid Receptor-DNA Binding in Mouse Primary Macrophages.

ChIP-exo is a powerful tool for achieving enhanced sensitivity and single-base-pair resolution of transcription factor (TF) binding, which utilizes a combination of chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and lambda exonuclease digestion (exo) followed by high-throughput sequencing. ChIP-nexus (chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments with nucleotide resolution through exonuclease, unique barcode, and single ligation) is an updated and simplified version of the original ChIP-exo method, which has reported an efficient adapter ligation through the DNA circularization step. Building upon an established method, we present a protocol for generating NGS (next-generation sequencing) ready and high-quality ChIP-nexus library for glucocorticoid receptor (GR).

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation in Adipose Tissue and Adipocytes: How to Proceed and Optimize the Protocol for Transcription Factor DNA Binding.

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) coupled to qPCR or sequencing is a crucial experiment to determine direct transcriptional regulation under the control of specific transcriptional factors or co-regulators at loci-specific or pan-genomic levels.Here we provide a reliable method for processing ChIP from adipocytes or frozen adipose tissue collection, isolation of nuclei, cross-linking of protein-DNA complexes, chromatin shearing, immunoprecipitation, and DNA purification. We also discuss critical steps for optimizing the experiment to perform a successful ChIP in lipid-rich cells/tissues.

Characterization of the gastrointestinal microbiome of the Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) and comparison to data from mice.

Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) have been increasingly used as rodent models in recent years, especially for SARS-CoV-2 since the pandemic. However, the physiology of this animal model is not yet well-understood, even less when considering the digestive tract. Generally, the gastrointestinal microbiome influences the immune system, drug metabolism, and vaccination efficacy.

Assessing a Fermented Whey Beverage Biofortified with Folate as a Potential Folate Source for Humans.

Folate, a vital water-soluble vitamin (B), requires specific attention as its recommended daily intake frequently is not reached in countries without mandatory fortification. In this regard, biofortification with microorganisms like Bifidobacterium and Streptococcus offers a compelling approach for enhancing food with natural folates. A randomized, nonblinded, and monocentric human pilot study is conducted to assess the bioavailability of a folate-biofortified fermented whey beverage, comprising 3 intervention days and a controlled replenishment phase before and during the assay.

BMAL1-HIF2α heterodimers contribute to ccRCC.

Circadian disruption enhances cancer risk, and many tumors exhibit disordered circadian gene expression. We show rhythmic gene expression is unexpectedly robust in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Furthermore, the clock gene is higher in ccRCC than in healthy kidneys, unlike in other tumor types.

Exploring the genomic traits of infant-associated microbiota members from a Zimbabwean cohort.

Introduction: Our understanding of particular gut microbiota members such as Bifidobacterium and Enterococcus in low-middle-income countries remains very limited, particularly early life strain-level beneficial traits. This study addresses this gap by exploring a collection of bacterial strains isolated from the gut of Zimbabwean infants; comparing their genomic characteristics with strains isolated from infants across North America, Europe, and other regions of Africa.

Materials And Method: From 110 infant stool samples collected in Harare, Zimbabwe, 20 randomly selected samples were used to isolate dominant early-life gut microbiota members Bifidobacterium and Enterococcus.

Development of a Global Metabo-Lipid-Prote-omics Workflow to Compare Healthy Proximal and Distal Colonic Epithelium in Mice.

A multimetabo-lipid-prote-omics workflow was developed to characterize the molecular interplay within proximal (PC) and distal (DC) colonic epithelium of healthy mice. This multiomics data set lays the foundation to better understand the two tissue types and can be used to study, for example, colon-related diseases like colorectal cancer or inflammatory bowel disease. First, the methyl -butyl ether extraction method was optimized, so that from a single tissue biopsy >350 reference-matched metabolites, >1850 reference-matched lipids, and >4500 proteins were detected by using targeted and untargeted metabolomics, untargeted lipidomics, and proteomics.

The HuMet Repository: Watching human metabolism at work.

Metabolism oscillates between catabolic and anabolic states depending on food intake, exercise, or stresses that change a multitude of metabolic pathways simultaneously. We present the HuMet Repository for exploring dynamic metabolic responses to oral glucose/lipid loads, mixed meals, 36-h fasting, exercise, and cold stress in healthy subjects. Metabolomics data from blood, urine, and breath of 15 young, healthy men at up to 56 time points are integrated and embedded within an interactive web application, enabling researchers with and without computational expertise to search, visualize, analyze, and contextualize the dynamic metabolite profiles of 2,656 metabolites acquired on multiple platforms.

Mitochondrial perturbation in the intestine causes microbiota-dependent injury and gene signatures discriminative of inflammatory disease.

Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). To understand how microbial-metabolic circuits contribute to intestinal injury, we disrupt mitochondrial function in the epithelium by deleting the mitochondrial chaperone, heat shock protein 60 (Hsp60). This metabolic perturbation causes self-resolving tissue injury.

Geosmin, a Food- and Water-Deteriorating Sesquiterpenoid and Ambivalent Semiochemical, Activates Evolutionary Conserved Receptor OR11A1.

Geosmin, a ubiquitous volatile sesquiterpenoid of microbiological origin, is causative for deteriorating the quality of many foods, beverages, and drinking water, by eliciting an undesirable "earthy/musty" off-flavor. Moreover, and across species from worm to human, geosmin is a volatile, chemosensory trigger of both avoidance and attraction behaviors, suggesting its role as semiochemical. Volatiles typically are detected by chemosensory receptors of the nose, which have evolved to best detect ecologically relevant food-related odorants and semiochemicals.

Targeting the intestinal circadian clock by meal timing ameliorates gastrointestinal inflammation.

The expression of clock genes has been observed to be impaired in biopsies from patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Disruption of circadian rhythms, which occurs in shift workers, has been linked to an increased risk of gastrointestinal diseases, including IBD. The peripheral circadian clock in intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) was previously shown to balance gastrointestinal homeostasis by regulating the microbiome.