内容: Infancy and toddlerhood are critical phases of life, as the gut microbiota is established here, which influences current and future health. During this period, the microbiota was relatively less stable and highly responsive to environmental factors. Therefore, it is important to understand how dietary factors affect this complex stage of microbial assembly. The effect of feeding practices (breast milk/formula) on microbial colonization in early infancy has been actively studied; however, studies on the effect of diet on the gut microbiota during the complementary feeding period are sparse. The introduction of complementary foods provides abundant new dietary compounds for the gut microbiota, which induces a shift in gut microbiota and metabolism from milk-adapted toward a more mature and diverse adult-like community. Herein, we discuss the impact of dietary nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals) on microbiome of infants and toddlers. Furthermore, this review summarizes the effects of complementary feeding patterns, specific foods (such as cereals; legumes and nuts; vegetables and fruits; meats; dairy products), food additives, and malnutrition (undernutrition or overnutrition) on gut microbiota of this populations. These findings might deepen our comprehension of the complex interactions between diets and the development and establishment of the gut microbiota. This may facilitate the tailoring of interventions aimed at promoting beneficial modifications within the gut microbial community. Furthermore, the insights gained could inform the design and implementation of safe and efficacious complementary feeding practices.

内容: Lipids are essential for normal life activities and biological functions of the human body, and disorders of lipid metabolism produce a lipotoxic environment, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, inflammation, and cell death, which can lead to a variety of diseases in the body. It has been found that lipid metabolism disorders are closely associated with brain injury disease, cancer, metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease (CVD), respiratory disease and infectious disease. In recent years, many medicinal and edible plants such as Pueraria lobata, Gardenia jasminoides, Curcuma longa, citrus fruits, peanuts, etc. have shown great potential in regulating lipid metabolism and some of the hidden active components showed innovative mechanisms. AMPK, PPARγ, SIRT1, Foxp3, NLRP3, and Keap1 are increasingly recognized as therapeutic targets in the field of regulating lipid metabolism. This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of natural lipid-regulating modulators in medicinal and edible plants and their mechanism of actions, which offer valuable references for the discovery of natural lipid metabolism modulators and a therapeutic strategy for treatment of lipid metabolism-related diseases.

内容: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common multifactorial skin disease characterized by chronic inflammation, unbearable itching, and significant physical and mental burden on patients. In recent years, there has been extensively studied on the use of natural polysaccharides in anti-inflammatory therapy, due to their low toxicity and multi-target pharmacological activity. The unique biological activities of polysaccharides from natural sources as functional food additives and cosmeceuticals present a new option for the treatment of AD. This review aims to summarize the pathogenesis of AD, the therapeutic effects, and the mechanisms of natural polysaccharides, as well as discuss the limitations and prospects of these compounds in the treatment of AD. The insights provided in this review can serve as references and inspiration for the development of applications of natural polysaccharides in the treatment of AD.

内容: Hyperlipidemia is associated with many diseases and considered the main contributing factor in the development of metabolic syndrome. The traditional Mongolian medicine Dracocephalum moldavica L. is commonly consumed as a tea (non-Camellia tea) for the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and other diseases. Here, we attempted to investigate the hypolipidemic activity and mechanisms underlying the active components of D. moldavica. First, the mechanism underlying the lipid accumulation-reducing effects of the D. moldavica ethanol extract was determined using in vitro experiments, and 4 polar fractions were screened for activity. Then, the effect of the ethyl acetate fraction of D. moldavica (EAD) on lowering blood lipid was confirmed in vivo. The combination of network pharmacological and serum pharmacochemistry analyses showed that apigenin, luteolin, and naringenin of EAD existed in prototype form in the drug-containing serum of rats. We also determined the content of the 3 active ingredients in EAD. Finally, in vitro experiments showed that apigenin, luteolin, and naringenin improved oleic acid-induced lipid accumulation in HepG2 cells by regulating the PPAR signaling pathway (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα), carnitine palmityl transferase I (CPT1), and fatty acid binding protein-3 (FABP3)). Our findings provide mechanistic insights and application prospects for the prevention and treatment of hypolipidemia using D. moldavica.

内容: Plasma-activated water (PAW) indicated promising potential in controlling the biological contamination of Bacillus cereus, which eliminated its evolutionary endospore that improves its survival ability. However, the spore inactivation mechanism by PAW at molecular level was not well understood. The mechanism of the B. cereus endospore against PAW at proteomic levels was demonstrated. The Tandem Mass Tag (TMT) labeling was performed. By comparing the treatment groups with control (including PAW and PAW added superoxide dismutase (SOD)), the expression of 251 proteins (with the number of 207 up- and 44 down-regulated) and 379 proteins (with the corresponding number of 238 and 141) were drastically affected, separately. The 6 categories based on the protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks included oxidation-reduction, transport, sporulation and DNA topological change, gene expression, metabolism, and others. The 3 dehydrogenases (genes hisD, BC_2176, and asd) in PAW while oxidoreductase (genes BC_0399 and BC_2529) in SOD were activated to maintain the antioxidation of spores. The proteins (BC_4271 and BC_2655) in SOD were dramatically activated, which were involved in the carbohydrate, amino acid, and energy-coupling transport. All the small, acid-soluble spore proteins were activated in both groups to protect the spores’ DNA. In SOD, genes metG2 and rpmC also were considered important factors in translation while this role was played in gene groES but not rpmF in PAW. The PAW activated the biogenesis of cell wall/membrane/envelope and phosphorelay signal transduction system to contribute to the survival of spores whereas the SOD damaged these 2 processes as well as cell division, chromosome separation, organic acid phosphorylation, base- and nucleotide-excision repairs to lead to the death of spores. This would promise to lay the foundation for advancing the study of the intrinsic mechanism of spore killing against PAW and can also provide a reference for future verification.

内容: Dietary phosphatidylcholine (PC) is an ideal source of bioactive lipids showing efficacy to alleviate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In this study, the lipidomic profiles of nonalcoholic steatosis in mice and HepG2 cells treated with PC isolated from eggs (EPC) and soybean (SPC) were evaluated. EPC and SPC could significantly ameliorate fatty liver disease by down-regulating triglyceride (TG) and diglyceride (DG) levels. Remarkably, EPC exhibited better performance in regulating the hepatic lipid profile leading to decreased PC and TG, ceramides, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine levels. A total of 117 and 20 lipid biomarkers in liver and HepG2 cells involved in glycerophospholipid metabolism were screened out, respectively. The regulatory mechanism of EPC may be attributed to a decrease in the expression of ACACA and SREBP-1c. EPC, via suppressing lipogenic gene expression, which was superior to that of SPC in alleviating nonalcoholic steatosis. Overall, EPC and SPC attenuated HFD-induced NAFLD by improving the hepatic lipid profile. The more significant effect observed with EPC may be attributed to its modulation of glycerophospholipid metabolism.

内容: Given the severe toxicity and widespread presence of cadmium (Cd) in staple foods such as rice, accurate dietary exposure assessments are imperative for public health. In vitro bioavailability is commonly used to adjust dietary exposure levels of risk factors; however, traditional planar Transwell models have limitations, such as cell dedifferentiation and lack of key intestinal components, necessitating a more physiologically relevant in vitro platform. This study introduces an innovative three-dimensional (3D) intestinal organoid model using a microfluidic chip to evaluate Cd bioavailability in food. Caco-2 cells were cultured on the chip to mimic small intestinal villi’s 3D structure, mucus production, and absorption functions. The model’s physiological relevance was thoroughly characterized, demonstrating the formation of a confluent epithelial monolayer with well-developed tight junctions (ZO-1), high microvilli density (F-actin), and significant mucus secretion (Alcian blue staining), closely resembling the physiological intestinal epithelium. Fluorescent particle tracking confirmed its ability to simulate intestinal transport and diffusion. The Cd bioavailability in rice measured by the 3D intestinal organoid model ((9.07 ± 0.21)%) was comparable to the mouse model ((12.82 ± 3.42)%) but significantly lower than the Caco-2 monolayer model ((26.97 ± 1.11)%). This 3D intestinal organoid model provides a novel and reliable strategy for in vitro assessment of heavy metal bioavailability in food, with important implications for food safety and risk assessment.

内容: Given severe health-hazardous effects of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) widely occurring in cereal grains and animal feeds, it is highly urgent to develop analytical methods for its rapid screening. In this work, we proposed a simple and high-throughput method for the determination of AFB1 in millet and buckwheat samples using high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) linked to fluorescence densitometry. The first step was to optimize the solid-liquid extraction for the crude clean-up of the samples. The QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Robust and Safe) extraction strategy was used and different solvent systems for their extraction efficiency of AFB1 from the samples were evaluated. Then, trichloromethane:ethyl acetate (7:3, V/V) was used as the mobile phase to realize the separation of the targeted compound from background noises on silica gel plates. Quantification was readily performed with densitometry in fluorescence mode. In order to fix the optimal excitation wavelength, spectra scanning ranging 250−400 nm was carried out, revealing that 364 nm light gave the highest signal. With the optimized optical system, high sensitivity to AFB1 was achieved, with a limit of detection (LOD) at 3 μg/kg. Apart from that, good linearity (0.999) was obtained within the range of 1−80 ng/band of AFB1. To assess the analysis accuracy, 2 levels of AFB1 (50 and 100 μg/kg) were spiked into real grain samples. The obtained results showed that the recovery rates were within the range of 81.6%−114.0%. The proof-of-concept results of this work evidenced that HPTLC is a promising analytical tool for the screening of mycotoxin in difficult samples.

内容: Three-dimensional (3D) bio-printing is an emerging tissue engineering technology, and its printing parameters have been upgraded to enable in-depth application in cell-cultured meat. However, excellent printable and edible bio-inks for cell-cultured meat are in urgent need of development. Therefore, a low-cost bio-ink based on albumin and gelatin was developed. At first, suitable printability of the bio-ink was determined by rheology analysis, excellent mechanical stability, and excellent mechanical stability of the printed scaffold was also proved by water absorption and degradation rate. Next, the biocompatibility of the scaffold and its interaction with cells were clarified through cell proliferation culture, cell status research and omics analysis. Notably, AG7 demonstrated better printability and AGS7 provided better conditions for cell attachment, proliferation and migration, S-shaped exponential growth curve further revealed the significant advantages of AGS7 scaffolds in cell culture. More importantly, the tissue culture process of muscle cells was simulated to organoid culture, which elucidated the interaction information between cells and scaffolds. This work has filled the vacancy in the industry and provides a novel strategy for the development of production of cell cultured meat.

内容: Lycium barbarum, known as wolfberry or goji berry, is consumed by humans as a medicine and a food homology product. Conventionally grown wolfberry is often treated extensively with pesticides, which could pose a hazard to humans. Here, the degradation dynamics of dinotefuran and its 2 metabolites (1-methyl-3-(tetrahydro-3-furylmethyl) urea (UF) and 1-methyl-3-(tetrahydro-3-furylmethyl) guanidine (DN)), during wolfberry cultivation and processing was investigated. The half-life (T1/2) of dinotefuran was 11.36 and 9.76 days, respectively, under the recommended dosage and double the recommended dosage. During the oven and sun drying processes, processing factors (PFs) of dinotefuran were 1.07−1.34, implying the enrichment of pesticide residues. Decoction process made the removal rate of dinotefuran reach 87.48%, which is higher than that of the brewing process (14.7%), while dinotefuran remained in the wine with high ethanol content in the alcohol soaking process. The hazard quotient (HQ) of dinotefuran, as determined via dietary risk assessment combined with PFs, was < 1, indicating an acceptable risk for human consumption. Bioaccessibility of dinotefuran in the three digestive stages were intestinal (18.20%−88.08%) > gastric (5.45%−86.72%) > oral (23.18%) via in vitro simulated digestive system. These findings provide scientific evidence for reasonable application and risk assessment of dinotefuran residues in wolfberry.