婴儿肠道双歧杆菌多样性的研究进展

双歧杆菌是婴儿肠道中最丰富的微生物,对婴儿肠道微生物的成熟和稳定有显著影响,与婴儿健康紧密相关。大量研究表明,婴儿肠道中最广泛存在的双歧杆菌有长双歧杆菌、短双歧杆菌和两歧双歧杆菌。母婴之间垂直传递可直接影响婴儿肠道中双歧杆菌各种属的早期定植和相对丰度变化,特别是分娩方式和喂养方式会显著影响婴儿肠道双歧杆菌。此外,胎龄和辅食等因素对婴儿肠道中双歧杆菌的组成与多样性也有一定影响。本文对婴儿肠道双歧杆菌的种属组成、相对丰度变化以及影响其多样性的因素进行了综述,为婴儿双歧杆菌群落的认识提供一定的理论依据。     

藻类中多糖对双歧杆菌的促生长作用

目的 探讨藻类中提取多糖对双歧杆菌的促生长作用。方法 以时间和多糖浓度为影响因素，了解不同藻类中多糖对双歧杆菌的促生长作用，对其量效关系进行分析。结果 温度在37℃，多糖浓度在0％～2％，双歧杆菌数随多糖浓度的增加而上升；多糖浓度继续升高，则反而下降。结论 不同藻类中多糖在一定浓度下能很好地促进双歧杆菌生长。     

成都地区母乳双歧杆菌对婴儿肠道双歧杆菌构建的影响

目的 观察不同喂养方式婴儿肠道双歧杆菌的构建规律，初步探索母乳双歧杆菌与婴儿肠道双歧杆菌之间的相关性。方法 在四川大学华西第二医院纳入57对母婴志愿者，根据喂养方式分为母乳（BF）组（n=31）和混合喂养（MF）组（1月龄内添加奶粉时间>8 d,n=26），收集产妇产后0天、第30天的母乳，以及婴儿出生后0天、第7天、第30天的粪便。采用实时荧光定量PCR测定母乳和婴儿粪便中双歧杆菌属、角双歧杆菌（B. angulatum）、链双歧杆菌（B. catnulatum）、齿双歧杆菌（B. dentium）、短双歧杆菌（B.breve）、两歧双歧杆菌（B. bifidum）、长双歧杆菌长亚种（B. longum subsp. longum）、长双歧杆菌婴儿亚种（B.longum subsp. infantis）及青春双歧杆菌（B. adolescentis）的丰度。观察2组婴儿肠道双歧杆菌0―7―30天的构建规律；分析母乳双歧杆菌与婴儿肠道双歧杆菌之间的相关性。结果 0―7―30天2组婴儿肠道双歧杆菌构建过程存在差异。母乳双歧杆菌与婴儿肠道双歧杆菌存在相关：0 d时，BF组母乳B. a...     

抗生素对双歧杆菌影响的观察

本文观察了双歧杆菌对临床常用抗生素的敏感性及其Ｌ型形成和抗生素对动物体内双歧杆菌的影响,发现双歧杆菌对多种抗生素耐药或易形成Ｌ型。动物口服双歧杆菌同时给抗生素,６天后其粪便中仍有大量双歧杆菌或双歧杆菌Ｌ型存在,表明双歧杆菌可通过多种机制逃避抗生素的作用,在机体肠道内长期存在。     

双歧杆菌乳剂对正常人红细胞免疫功能的影响

双歧杆菌乳剂对正常人红细胞免疫功能的影响解放军１５０医院洛阳４７１０３１徐禹林，郭军凌近年研究表明，双歧杆菌活菌制品具有免疫增强作用，可明显刺激小鼠腹腔巨噬细胞，提高其吞噬功能。红细胞膜表面的Ｃ（３ｂ），受体（ＣＲ１）具有免疫粘附特性，籍此与白细胞相...     

双歧杆菌表达ETEC CFA／I的免疫电镜定位分析

目的研究双歧杆菌表达的CFA／I在细胞中的分布。方法将培养8～10h的重组双歧杆菌固定后制作电镜切片，镜检合格后用镍网捞取3-5个切片与金标抗体作用，镜检CFA／I在双歧杆菌中的表达分布。结果自制的胶体金颗粒均匀，与抗体结合后能够示踪CFA／I在双歧杆菌中的表达分布。结论双歧杆菌表达的CFA／I主要集中在靠近细胞膜的周质腔一侧，利于向外分泌和释放。     

灭活的双歧杆菌对肠上皮细胞粘附及其影响因素的研究

目的 观察灭活的青春双歧杆菌对人大肠癌细胞系ＣＣＬ－２２９的粘附以及影响粘附的因素。方法 通过与双歧杆菌活菌比较,灭活的双歧杆菌同样能粘附于肠上皮细胞,并且耗尽培养上清有利于双歧杆菌粘附。结果 粘附具有显著的浓度效应;粘附效果与孵育环境的ｐＨ值有关;高温处理耗尽培养上清对粘附无明显影响。结论 灭活的双歧杆菌可能具有与活菌相同的生态效应。     

不同浓度的中药合剂对双歧杆菌增殖的影响

本实验测定了２１种不同浓度的中药合剂对双歧杆菌增殖的影响,结果显示：①其中１１种中药对双歧杆菌具有不同程度的促增殖作用。②某些药物对各个浓度虽均有一定的促双歧作用,但在其中某一个浓度下作用最强。③有些药物在不同浓度,对双歧杆菌增殖的影响截然不同,分别表现出促进、无影响或抑制。从此提示：在测试中药对细菌的作用时,应尽可能多选择几个浓度。     

双歧杆菌对食管癌细胞增殖的抑制作用及细胞周期的影响

目的探讨青春双歧杆菌对食管癌EC109细胞的增殖抑制作用及对细胞周期的影响。方法用MTT比色法测定EC109细胞活性,用流式细胞仪测定EC109细胞周期。结果青春双歧杆菌对EC109细胞具有显著的增殖抑制作用,并呈剂量和时间依赖性;经青春双歧杆菌处理后,EC109细胞周期发生变化：细胞分裂阻滞于G1期。结论青春双歧杆菌可通过影响细胞周期抑制食管癌EC109细胞的生长。     

双歧杆菌的开发应用

双歧杆菌的开发应用曹虎（江苏省东海县教育局２２２３０）近年来，各国科学家对双歧杆菌的研究逐渐深人，发现了它与肠道生理共生菌的一些新功能，并迅速在食品和医药工业中进行生物工程开发，取得了令人瞩目的进展。互双歧杆菌开发现状１．回双歧杆菌因子的开发与应用微...     

microRNA-34a is tumor suppressive in brain tumors and glioma stem cells

We recently found that microRNA-34a (miR-34a) is downregulated in human glioma tumors as compared to normal brain, and that miR-34a levels in mutant-p53 gliomas were lower than in wildtype-p53 tumors. We showed that miR-34a expression in glioma and medulloblastoma cells inhibits cell proliferation, G1/S cell cycle progression, cell survival, cell migration and cell invasion, but that miR-34a expression in human astrocytes does not affect cell survival and cell cycle. We uncovered the oncogenes c-Met, Notch-1 and Notch-2 as direct targets of miR-34a that are inhibited by miR-34a transfection. We found that c-Met levels in human glioma specimens inversely correlate with miR-34a levels. We showed that c-Met and Notch partially mediate the inhibitory effects of miR-34a on cell proliferation and cell death. We also found that mir-34a expression inhibits in vivo glioma xenograft growth. We concluded that miR-34a is a potential tumor suppressor in brain tumors that acts by targeting multiple oncogenes. In this extra view, we briefly review and discuss the implications of these findings and present new data on the effects of miR-34a in glioma stem cells. The new data show that miR-34a expression inhibits various malignancy endpoints in glioma stem cells. Importantly, they also show for the first time that miR-34a expression induces glioma stem cell differentiation. Altogether, the data suggest that miR-34a is a tumor suppressor and a potential potent therapeutic agent that acts by targeting multiple oncogenic pathways in brain tumors and by inducing the differentiation of cancer stem cells.     

Tau phosphorylation: physiological and pathological consequences

The microtubule-associated protein tau, abundant in neurons, has gained notoriety due to the fact that it is deposited in cells as fibrillar lesions in numerous neurodegenerative diseases, and most notably Alzheimer's disease. Regulation of microtubule dynamics is the most well-recognized function of tau, but it is becoming increasingly evident that tau plays additional roles in the cell. The functions of tau are regulated by site-specific phosphorylation events, which if dysregulated, as they are in the disease state, result in tau dysfunction and mislocalization, which is potentially followed by tau polymerization, neuronal dysfunction and death. Given the increasing evidence that a disruption in the normal phosphorylation state of tau plays a key role in the pathogenic events that occur in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions, it is of crucial importance that the protein kinases and phosphatases that regulate tau phosphorylation in vivo as well as the signaling cascades that regulate them be identified. This review focuses on recent literature pertaining to the regulation of tau phosphorylation and function in cell culture and animal model systems, and the role that a dysregulation of tau phosphorylation may play in the neuronal dysfunction and death that occur in neurodegenerative diseases that have tau pathology.     

Relative rates of synonymous substitutions in the mitochondrial, chloroplast and nuclear genomes of seed plants

Previous studies have estimated that, in angiosperms, the synonymous substitution rate of chloroplast genes is three times higher than that of mitochondrial genes and that of nuclear genes is twelve times higher than that of mitochondrial genes. Here we used 12 genes in 27 seed plant species to investigate whether these relative rates of substitutions are common to diverse seed plant groups. We find that the overall relative rate of synonymous substitutions of mitochondrial, chloroplast and nuclear genes of all seed plants is 1:3:10, that these ratios are 1:2:4 in gymnosperms but 1:3:16 in angiosperms and that they go up to 1:3:20 in basal angiosperms. Our results show that the mitochondrial, chloroplast and nuclear genomes of seed plant groups have different synonymous substitutions rates, that these rates are different in different seed plant groups and that gymnosperms have smaller ratios than angiosperms.     

Alfin1 transcription factor overexpression enhances plant root growth under normal and saline conditions and improves salt tolerance in alfalfa

Plant root development is an essential determinant of plant growth and crop yield that could be enhanced by induced changes in the expression of root-specific regulatory factors. We reported previously that Alfin1 binds DNA in a sequence-specific manner and that Alfin1 overexpression in transgenic alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) enhances expression of the salt-inducible MsPRP2 gene in roots, suggesting that Alfin1 functions to regulate gene expression in roots. Here we show that Alfin1 is an essential gene for root growth and that its overexpression in transgenic plants confers a many-fold increase in root growth under normal and saline conditions. Alfin1-binding sites occur in promoters of genes expressed in roots of a wide variety of plant species and we propose that it is a general root growth regulator. Even though Alfin1 overexpression was under the control of the CaMV 35S promoter, plant shoot growth was not adversely affected. We show further that introduction of the Alfin1 transgene in plants confers a dominant characteristic that significantly increases plant growth and salt tolerance.     

The neural and cognitive correlates of aimed throwing in chimpanzees: a magnetic resonance image and behavioural study on a unique form of social tool use

It has been hypothesized that neurological adaptations associated with evolutionary selection for throwing may have served as a precursor for the emergence of language and speech in early hominins. Although there are reports of individual differences in aimed throwing in wild and captive apes, to date there has not been a single study that has examined the potential neuroanatomical correlates of this very unique tool-use behaviour in non-human primates. In this study, we examined whether differences in the ratio of white (WM) to grey matter (GM) were evident in the homologue to Broca's area as well as the motor-hand area of the precentral gyrus (termed the KNOB) in chimpanzees that reliably throw compared with those that do not. We found that the proportion of WM in Broca's homologue and the KNOB was significantly higher in subjects that reliably throw compared with those that do not. We further found that asymmetries in WM within both brain regions were larger in the hemisphere contralateral to the chimpanzee's preferred throwing hand. We also found that chimpanzees that reliably throw show significantly better communication abilities than chimpanzees that do not. These results suggest that chimpanzees that have learned to throw have developed greater cortical connectivity between primary motor cortex and the Broca's area homologue. It is suggested that during hominin evolution, after the split between the lines leading to chimpanzees and humans, there was intense selection on increased motor skills associated with throwing and that this potentially formed the foundation for left hemisphere specialization associated with language and speech found in modern humans.     

Absence of Spatial Tuning in the Orbitofrontal Cortex

There is limited data in the literature to explicitly support the notion that neurons in OFC are truly action-independent in their coding. We set out to specifically test the hypothesis that OFC value-related neurons in area 13 m of the monkey do not carry information about the action required to obtain that reward – that activity in this area represents reward values in an abstract and action-independent manner. To accomplish that goal we had two monkeys select and execute saccadic eye movements to 81 locations in the visual field for three different kinds of juice rewards. Our detailed analysis of the response fields indicates that these neurons are insensitive to the amplitude or direction of the saccade required to obtain these rewards. Our data thus validate earlier proposals that neurons of 13 m in the OFC encode subjective value independent of the saccadic action required to obtain that reward.     

Dietary creatine supplementation lowers hepatic triacylglycerol by increasing lipoprotein secretion in rats fed high-fat diet

Recent studies have shown that dietary creatine supplementation can prevent lipid accumulation in the liver. Creatine is a small molecule that plays a large role in energy metabolism, but since the enzyme creatine kinase is not present in the liver, the classical role in energy metabolism does not hold in this tissue. Fat accumulation in the liver can lead to the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a progressive disease that is prevalent in humans. We have previously reported that creatine can directly influence lipid metabolism in cell culture to promote lipid secretion and oxidation. Our goal in the current study was to determine whether similar mechanisms that occur in cell culture were present in vivo. We also sought to determine whether dietary creatine supplementation could be effective in reversing steatosis. Sprague–Dawley rats were fed a high-fat diet or a high-fat diet supplemented with creatine for 5 weeks. We found that rats supplemented with creatine had significantly improved rates of lipoprotein secretion and alterations in mitochondrial function that were consistent with greater oxidative capacity. We also find that introducing creatine into a high-fat diet halted hepatic lipid accumulation in rats with fatty liver. Our results support our previous report that liver cells in culture with creatine secrete and oxidize more oleic acid, demonstrating that dietary creatine can effectively change hepatic lipid metabolism by increasing lipoprotein secretion and oxidation in vivo. Our data suggest that creatine might be an effective therapy for NAFLD.     

Extracellular superoxide dismutase inhibits inflammation by preventing oxidative fragmentation of hyaluronan

Extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD) is expressed at high levels in lungs. EC-SOD has a polycationic matrix-binding domain that binds to polyanionic constituents in the matrix. Previous studies indicate that EC-SOD protects the lung in both bleomycin- and asbestos-induced models of pulmonary fibrosis. Although the mechanism of EC-SOD protection is not fully understood, these studies indicate that EC-SOD plays an important role in regulating inflammatory responses to pulmonary injury. Hyaluronan is a polyanionic high molecular mass polysaccharide found in the extracellular matrix that is sensitive to oxidant-mediated fragmentation. Recent studies found that elevated levels of low molecular mass hyaluronan are associated with inflammatory conditions. We hypothesize that EC-SOD may inhibit pulmonary inflammation in part by preventing superoxide-mediated fragmentation of hyaluronan to low molecular mass fragments. We found that EC-SOD directly binds to hyaluronan and significantly inhibits oxidant-induced degradation of this glycosaminoglycan. In vitro human polymorphic neutrophil chemotaxis studies indicate that oxidative fragmentation of hyaluronan results in polymorphic neutrophil chemotaxis and that EC-SOD can completely prevent this response. Intratracheal injection of crocidolite asbestos in mice leads to pulmonary inflammation and injury that is enhanced in EC-SOD knock-out mice. Notably, hyaluronan levels are increased in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid after asbestos-induced pulmonary injury, and this response is markedly enhanced in EC-SOD knock-out mice. These data indicate that inhibition of oxidative hyaluronan fragmentation probably represents one mechanism by which EC-SOD inhibits inflammation in response to lung injury.     

The Sonic Hedgehog-Gli pathway regulates dorsal brain growth and tumorigenesis.

The mechanisms that regulate the growth of the brain remain unclear. We show that Sonic hedgehog (Shh) is expressed in a layer-specific manner in the perinatal mouse neocortex and tectum, whereas the Gli genes, which are targets and mediators of SHH signaling, are expressed in proliferative zones. In vitro and in vivo assays show that SHH is a mitogen for neocortical and tectal precursors and that it modulates cell proliferation in the dorsal brain. Together with its role in the cerebellum, our findings indicate that SHH signaling unexpectedly controls the development of the three major dorsal brain structures. We also show that a variety of primary human brain tumors and tumor lines consistently express the GLI genes and that cyclopamine, a SHH signaling inhibitor, inhibits the proliferation of tumor cells. Using the in vivo tadpole assay system, we further show that misexpression of GLI1 induces CNS hyperproliferation that depends on the activation of endogenous Gli1 function. SHH-GLI signaling thus modulates normal dorsal brain growth by controlling precursor proliferation, an evolutionarily important and plastic process that is deregulated in brain tumors.