Toxicological Assessment of Arsenic-Induced Hematological Alterations and Chromosomal Aberrations in Tilapia Oreochromis mossambicus

Arsenic is an environmental contaminant and potential carcinogen. Toxicological assessment of As, which causes hematological alterations and chromosomal aberrations, was studied in freshwater fish Oreochromis mossambicus. Fish were exposed to 3 ppm, 28 ppm, and 56 ppm concentrations of sodium arsenite (NaAsO₂) and blood samples were collected after 48 h, 96 h, and 192 h of exposure. Hematological assay of exposed fish revealed abnormal mature and immature erythrocytes, deformed erythrocytes (spindle-shaped and triangular erythrocytes) and erythrocytes with segmented nuclei in all treatments. Arsenic exposure induced chromosomal aberration in a concentration-dependent manner, whereas, a decreasing trend was found after 192 h exposure. Observations on blood cells of exposed fish revealed chromosome breaks, chromatid breaks, and chromatid gaps. The alterations and aberrations of these parameters can be effectively used to assess toxicological effects of As on fish in the aquatic environment and at the same time this study elucidates the potential risks to humans who live in arsenic-contaminated areas.     

Studies on the role of goat heart galectin-1 as a tool for detecting post-malignant changes in glycosylation pattern

Galectins are mammalian lectins established to play a crucial role in the progression of various cancer types by the virtue of their differential expression in normal and cancerous cells. In the present study, goat heart galectin-1 (GHG-1) was purified and investigated for its potential role in the detection of post-malignant changes in glycosylation pattern. When exposed to superoxide radicals generated from a pyrogallol auto-oxidation system, GHG-1 treated erythrocyte suspension released higher amount of oxyhemoglobin than the unagglutinated erythrocytes. The extent of erythrocyte hemolysis was found to be directly proportional to concentrations of hypochlorous acid. GHG-1 was used to detect the change in the β-galactoside expression pattern in erythrocyte membrane from human donors suffering from prostate and breast cancer. No significant change was observed in the hemolysis of lectin agglutinated erythrocytes collected from pre-operated breast cancer patients, whereas significant increase was observed in normal healthy control and post-operated samples. Findings of this study proclaim GHG-1 as an important tool for the detection of post-malignant changes in glycosylation pattern.Abbreviations: Gal-1, galectin-1; GHG-1, goat heart galectin-1; HOCl, hypochlorous acid; OxyHb, oxyhemoglobin     

In-vitro diagnosis of single and poly microbial species targeted for diabetic foot infection using e-nose technology

Background

Effective management of patients with diabetic foot infection is a crucial concern. A delay in prescribing appropriate antimicrobial agent can lead to amputation or life threatening complications. Thus, this electronic nose (e-nose) technique will provide a diagnostic tool that will allow for rapid and accurate identification of a pathogen.

Results

This study investigates the performance of e-nose technique performing direct measurement of static headspace with algorithm and data interpretations which was validated by Headspace SPME-GC-MS, to determine the causative bacteria responsible for diabetic foot infection. The study was proposed to complement the wound swabbing method for bacterial culture and to serve as a rapid screening tool for bacteria species identification. The investigation focused on both single and poly microbial subjected to different agar media cultures. A multi-class technique was applied including statistical approaches such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), K Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) as well as neural networks called Probability Neural Network (PNN). Most of classifiers successfully identified poly and single microbial species with up to 90% accuracy.

Conclusions

The results obtained from this study showed that the e-nose was able to identify and differentiate between poly and single microbial species comparable to the conventional clinical technique. It also indicates that even though poly and single bacterial species in different agar solution emit different headspace volatiles, they can still be discriminated and identified using multivariate techniques.     

The histone deacetylase inhibitor butyrate improves metabolism and reduces muscle atrophy during aging

Sarcopenia, the loss of skeletal muscle mass and function during aging, is a major contributor to disability and frailty in the elderly. Previous studies found a protective effect of reduced histone deacetylase activity in models of neurogenic muscle atrophy. Because loss of muscle mass during aging is associated with loss of motor neuron innervation, we investigated the potential for the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor butyrate to modulate age‐related muscle loss. Consistent with previous studies, we found significant loss of hindlimb muscle mass in 26‐month‐old C57Bl/6 female mice fed a control diet. Butyrate treatment starting at 16 months of age wholly or partially protected against muscle atrophy in hindlimb muscles. Butyrate increased muscle fiber cross‐sectional area and prevented intramuscular fat accumulation in the old mice. In addition to the protective effect on muscle mass, butyrate reduced fat mass and improved glucose metabolism in 26‐month‐old mice as determined by a glucose tolerance test. Furthermore, butyrate increased markers of mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle and whole‐body oxygen consumption without affecting activity. The increase in mass in butyrate‐treated mice was not due to reduced ubiquitin‐mediated proteasomal degradation. However, butyrate reduced markers of oxidative stress and apoptosis and altered antioxidant enzyme activity. Our data is the first to show a beneficial effect of butyrate on muscle mass during aging and suggests HDACs contribute to age‐related muscle atrophy and may be effective targets for intervention in sarcopenia and age‐related metabolic disease.     

Efficacy of a Cladosporium sp. fungus against Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), other insect pests and beneficial insects of cotton

A strain of the fungus Cladosporium sp. (RM16) from an egg of Helicoverpa armigera Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) was assessed as a potential biocontrol agent for this pest. Pathogenicity of the fungus was tested against H. armigera eggs and larvae, cotton aphids (Aphis gossypii Glover; Homoptera: Aphididae), and silverleaf whitefly type B (Bemisia tabaci Gennadius; Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae). The pathogenicity of the fungus to the predatory red and blue beetles (Dicranolaius bellulus Guérin-Méneville; Coleoptera: Melyridae), transverse ladybird beetles (Coccinella transversalis Fabricius; Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), green lacewings (Mallada signatus Schneider; Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) and damsel bugs (Nabis kinbergii Reuter; Hemiptera: Nabidae), was also assessed in the laboratory. Fungus treatment resulted in failure to hatch of up to 64% of H. armigera eggs (compared with 11% in the controls) and mortality of 54% of first instar H. armigera larvae (compared with 5% in the controls). In contrast, it was not pathogenic to later instar H. armigera larvae. Cladosporium RM16 was also efficacious against the sap-sucking insect pests of cotton that were tested. No significant harmful effect of the fungus was found on any of the four beneficial predatory insects assessed in this study. Cladosporium RM16 has the potential as biological control agent to support integrated pest management in cotton farming systems, although this needs intensive study.     

Intersubspecific subcongenic mouse strain analysis reveals closely linked QTLs with opposite effects on body weight

A previous genome-wide QTL study revealed many QTLs affecting postnatal body weight and growth in an intersubspecific backcross mouse population between the C57BL/6J (B6) strain and wild Mus musculus castaneus mice captured in the Philippines. Subsequently, several closely linked QTLs for body composition traits were revealed in an F₂ intercross population between B6 and B6.Cg-Pbwg1, a congenic strain on the B6 genetic background carrying the growth QTL Pbwg1 on proximal chromosome 2. However, no QTL affecting body weight has been duplicated in the F₂ population, except for mapping an overdominant QTL that causes heterosis of body weight. In this study, we developed 17 intersubspecific subcongenic strains with overlapping and nonoverlapping castaneus regions from the B6.Cg-Pbwg1 congenic strain in order to search for and genetically dissect QTLs affecting body weight into distinct closely linked loci. Phenotypic comparisons of several developed subcongenic strains with the B6 strain revealed that two closely linked but distinct QTLs that regulate body weight, named Pbwg1.11 and Pbwg1.12, are located on an 8.9-Mb region between D2Mit270 and D2Mit472 and on the next 3.6-Mb region between D2Mit205 and D2Mit182, respectively. Further analyses using F₂ segregating populations obtained from intercrosses between B6 and each of the two selected subcongenic strains confirmed the presence of these two body weight QTLs. Pbwg1.11 had an additive effect on body weight at 6, 10, and 13?weeks of age, and its castaneus allele decreased it. In contrast, the castaneus allele at Pbwg1.12 acted in a dominant fashion and surprisingly increased body weight at 6, 10, and 13?weeks of age despite the body weight of wild castaneus mice being 60% of that of B6 mice. These findings illustrate the complex genetic nature of body weight regulation and support the importance of subcongenic mouse analysis to dissect closely linked loci.