The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of apple pomace (AP) and apple juice concentrate (AC) supplementation on body weight and fat loss as well as lipid metabolism in obese rats fed a high-fat diet. Diet-induced obese rats were assigned to three groups (n = 8 for each group): high fat diet (HFD) control, HFD containing 10% (w/w) AP, and HFD containing 10% (w/w) AC. There was also a normal diet group (n = 8). After 5 weeks, body weight gain, adipose tissue weight, serum and hepatic lipid profiles, liver morphology, and adipocyte size were measured. Body weight gain, white adipose tissue (WAT) weight, serum total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, epididymal adipocyte size, and lesion scores were significantly lower and serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration and brown adipose tissue weights were significantly higher in the AP and AC groups compared with the HFD group. In addition, atherogenic indices in the AP and AC groups were significantly lower than in the HFD group. These results indicate that supplementing apple products such as AP and AC may help suppress body weight and WAT gain, as well as improve lipid profiles in diet-induced obese rats.

The relationship between tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha level, body temperature, and pulmonary lesion score was determined in 3-week-old pigs inoculated intranasally with swine influenza virus (SIV) subtype H1N2. The expression of TNF-alpha was measured in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and lung tissues by immunohistochemistry. In BAL fluid, TNF-alpha concentration was maximal at 1 days post-inoculation (dpi), declined markedly by 3 dpi (P<0.05) and steady thereafter. Mean rectal temperatures were above 40 degrees C for the infected groups at 1 dpi and declined markedly by 3 dpi. The body temperatures were correlated with the levels of TNF-alpha in BAL fluids from pigs experimentally infected with SIV (r(s)=0.9754, P<0.05). The pulmonary lesion scores were correlated with the means of positive cells by immunohistochemistry for TNF- alpha (r(s)=0.9949, P<0.001). The results suggest that the expression of TNF-alpha protein plays an important role in induction of pulmonary lesion and clinical sign such as fever in SIV infection.

The aim of this study was to determine the immunoreactivity of normal small bronchial, bronchiolar, respiratory bronchiolar, and interalveolar epithelium using antibodies to six mucins: MUC1, MUC2, MUC4, MUC5AC, MUC5B, and MUC6. The large, gel-forming secreted mucins MUC2, MUC5AC, and MUC5B were widely expressed in the lower respiratory tract. The results of this study demonstrate that these secreted mucins form a gel to cover and protect the mucosal surface in the lower respiratory tract of pigs.

No abstract