Nutraceuticals in the management of autonomic function and related disorders: A comprehensive review.

Nutraceuticals have been described as phytocomplexes when derived from foods of plant origin or a pool of secondary metabolites when derived from foods of animal origin, which are concentrated and administered in an appropriate form and can promote beneficial health effects in the prevention/treatment of diseases. Considering that pharmaceutical medications can cause side effects, there is a growing interest in using nutraceuticals as an adjuvant therapeutic tool for several disorders involving autonomic dysfunction, such as obesity, atherosclerosis and other cardiometabolic diseases. This review summarizes and discusses the evidence from the literature on the effects of various nutraceuticals on autonomic control, addressing the gut microbiota modulation, production of secondary metabolites from bioactive compounds, and improvement of physical and chemical properties of cell membranes.

A Cross-Sectional Quantitative Metabolomics Study Evidencing the Metabolic Signature in Six Organs during a 14-Week High-Fat High-Sucrose and Standard Diet in Mice.

Obesity is a risk factor for many diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. In line with the need for precision medicine, the search for biomarkers reporting the progression of obesity- and diet-associated disorders is urgent. We used NMR to determine the metabolomics profile of key organs (lung, liver, heart, skeletal muscle, kidney, and brain) and serum from male C57Bl/6J mice (5 weeks old) fed for 6, 10, and 14 weeks on a high-fat and high-sucrose diet (HFHSD) vs.

Inhibition of intestinal FXR activity as a possible mechanism for the beneficial effects of a probiotic mix supplementation on lipid metabolism alterations and weight gain in mice fed a high fat diet.

Supplementation with probiotics has emerged as a promising therapeutic tool to manage metabolic diseases. We investigated the effects of a mix of subsp. LA804 and LA806 on high-fat (HF) diet -induced metabolic disease in mice.

Glycine Supplementation in Obesity Worsens Glucose Intolerance through Enhanced Liver Gluconeogenesis.

Interactions between mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum, known as MAMs, are altered in the liver in obesity, which contributes to disruption of the insulin signaling pathway. In addition, the plasma level of glycine is decreased in obesity, and the decrease is strongly correlated with the severity of insulin resistance. Certain nutrients have been shown to regulate MAMs; therefore, we tested whether glycine supplementation could reduce insulin resistance in the liver by promoting MAM integrity.

Major transcriptomic, epigenetic and metabolic changes underlie the pluripotency continuum in rabbit preimplantation embryos.

Despite the growing interest in the rabbit model for developmental and stem cell biology, the characterization of embryos at the molecular level is still poorly documented. We conducted a transcriptome analysis of rabbit preimplantation embryos from E2.7 (morula stage) to E6.

Metformin treatment for 8 days impacts multiple intestinal parameters in high-fat high-sucrose fed mice.

Although the mechanism of action of the antidiabetic drug metformin is still a matter of discussions, it is well accepted that the gut plays an important role. To gain more insights into the mechanisms occurring in the different regions of the intestine, adult male mice were fed a high-fat-high sucrose (HFS) diet for 8 days and treated with metformin by gavage (300 mg/day/kg body weight) during the HFS diet. Metformin counteracted HFS diet-induced overexpression of a network of genes involved in the transport of glucose and fatty acids in the different regions of the small intestine.

Epigenetic status of H19/IGF2 and SNRPN imprinted genes in aborted and successfully derived embryonic stem cell lines in non-human primates.

The imprinted genes of primate embryonic stem cells (ESCs) often show altered DNA methylation. It is unknown whether these alterations emerge while deriving the ESCs. Here we studied the methylation patterns of two differentially methylated regions (DMRs), SNRPN and H19/IGF2 DMRs, during the derivation of monkey ESCs.

Induced pluripotent stem cells derived from rabbits exhibit some characteristics of naïve pluripotency.

Not much is known about the molecular and functional features of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) in rabbits. To address this, we derived and characterized 2 types of rabbit PSCs from the same breed of New Zealand White rabbits: 4 lines of embryonic stem cells (rbESCs), and 3 lines of induced PSCs (rbiPSCs) that were obtained by reprogramming adult skin fibroblasts. All cell lines required fibroblast growth factor 2 for their growth and proliferation.

A short G1 phase is an intrinsic determinant of naïve embryonic stem cell pluripotency.

A short G1 phase is a characteristic feature of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). To determine if there is a causal relationship between G1 phase restriction and pluripotency, we made use of the Fluorescence Ubiquitination Cell Cycle Indicator (FUCCI) reporter system to FACS-sort ESCs in the different cell cycle phases. Hence, the G1 phase cells appeared to be more susceptible to differentiation, particularly when ESCs self-renewed in the naïve state of pluripotency.

Meiotic progression of rat spermatocytes requires mitogen-activated protein kinases of Sertoli cells and close contacts between the germ cells and the Sertoli cells.

Progression of germ cells through meiosis is regulated by phosphorylation events. We previously showed the key role of cyclin dependent kinases in meiotic divisions of rat spermatocytes co-cultured with Sertoli cells (SC). In the present study, we used the same culture system to address the role of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in meiotic progression.

Glial cell-line-derived neurotropic factor and its receptors are expressed by germinal and somatic cells of the rat testis.

Glial cell-line-derived neurotropic factor (GDNF) and its receptors glial cell-line-derived neurotropic factor alpha (GFR1alpha) and rearranged during transformation (RET) have been localized in the rat testis during postnatal development. The three mRNAs, and GDNF and GFR1alpha proteins were detected in testis extracts from 1- to 90-day-old rats by reverse transcriptase PCR and Western blotting respectively. The three mRNAs were present in Sertoli cells from 20- and 55-day-old rats, pachytene spermatocytes (PS), and round spermatids (RS).

Key role for cyclin-dependent kinases in the first and second meiotic divisions of rat spermatocytes.

In all systems examined so far, the G2/M phase transition is controlled by the M-phase promoting factor (MPF), a complex of cdc2 (CDK1) and cyclin B1. Histone H1 kinase activity and MPF components are present in pachytene spermatocytes (PS). However, it has not been demonstrated yet that direct inhibition of MPF activity prevents the G2/M transition in these cells.