The work focused on the study of the immunomodulatory and gutprotecting effect of humic substances (HS) in broilers. The diet of experimental chicks was enriched with 0.8% of HS. We noted that HS had a stimulatory effect on the phagocytic activity and the engulfing capacity of phagocytes, however, the level of oxidative burst of phagocytes was not affected. We observed a significant increase of CD4+: CD8+ lymphocyte ratio, an indicator of immune stimulation. HS did not influence the IgA gene expression. In contrast, we observed a significant increase in the expression of MUC-2 (intestinal mucin 2) gene, and a decrease in the expression of IGF-2 (insulin-like growth factor 2) and also AvBD2 (avian beta defensin 2) genes. A decreased Enterobacteriaceae counts in the gut of experimental animals showed a positive effect on intestinal microbiota. We confirmed a gut-protecting and an immunostimulatory effect of HS in broiler chickens.

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Cyclopentenediones (CPDs) are secondary metabolites of higher plants, fungi, algae, cyanobacteria and bacteria. A common denominator of CPDs is the cyclopent-4-ene-1,3-dione skeleton (1), which is modified by several functional groups. The heterogeneity of these substitutions is reflected in around one hundred CPDs reported to date. Most of the derivatives were isolated primarily from plant sources. Synthetic analogues were then prepared with new biological activities and more interesting pharmacological potential. Antifungal substances called coruscanones (2, 3) are the most studied of the CPDs. Other intensely investigated CPDs include lucidone (4), linderone (5), asterredione (6), involutone (7), nostotrebin 6 (8), TX-1123 (9), G2201-C (10), madindolines (11, 12) and many others. In addition to antibacterial and antifungal effects, a broad spectrum of biological activities for CPDs has been reported in the past two decades, especially anti-inflammatory, cytostatic and specific enzyme inhibitory activities. The CPD skeleton has been identified in a number of substances isolated from the plant kingdom; hence, CPDs can be referred to as a new group of natural bioactive substances. The main goal of this review is to define CPDs with respect to basic chemistry, isolation, synthetic approaches and description of their biological effects. Special attention is given to a detailed view into biological activities of CPDs in vitro and their phamacological potential.

The aim of this work was to determine levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cancer antigen (CA 15-3) in the blood serum of 45 bitches. A modified procedure was used to determine the CEA and CA 15-3 markers with the human kits using the radioimmunoassay method. Samples collected from extirpated tumour of mammary glands were histologically processed and classified as per WHO guidelines. The average age of animals with tumour was 10.00 ± 2.2 years; for healthy bitches average age was 4.2 ± 3.2 years. Values of CEA and CA 15-3 were considered positive, if they exceeded 0.23 ng mL(-1) and 7 IU mL(-1) , respectively. Average levels of CEA in the tumour group were 0.25 ± 0.06 versus 0.20 ± 0.03 in healthy bitches (P = 0.0001). The average CA 15-3 value in bitches with tumour was 8.58 ± 1.27 versus 5.14 ± 1.34 in healthy animals (P < 0.0001).