Project description:Given that different diets could alter cow milk yield and composition, the effects of different feed formula on milk extracellular vesicle (EV) miRNAs were detected. Cow milk EVs contained various small RNAs, including miRNAs, snRNAs, tiRNAs, Cis-regulatory elements, and piRNAs. Two hundred and seventy-six known bos taurus miRNAs were identified by sequencing in bovine milk EVs. There were 13 immune-related miRNAs in the top 20 miRNAs in milk EVs. Nine differently expressed known miRNAs were detected in responding to different feed formulations. Cow milk EVs are abundant of small RNAs, especially miRNAs, which might be closely related to the development of maternal mammary gland and neonatal immune maturity.
Project description:The severity of negative energy balance (NEB) in high-producing dairy cows has a high incidence among health diseases. The periparturient period is crucial for the health status and reproductive performance of dairy cows. During this period, dairy cows experience a transition from a pregnant, non-lactating state to a non-pregnant, lactating state. At the beginning of lactation, the energy needs for milk production are higher than the available energy consumed from feed intake, resulting in a negative energy balance (NEB)]. While in a NEB, cows mobilise their reserves from adipose tissue, resulting in elevated plasma concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs), which are used as a fuel source by peripheral tissues and the mammary gland for milk fat synthesis. Thus, white adipose tissue is one of the main tissue involved in the energy production during this transition period. So the objectives of our study were to dentify mRNA differentially expressed in white adipose before and after calving in dairy cow fed with low (LE) and high (HE) energy diet.
Project description:Mastitis, the inflammation of the mammary gland, is one of the most prevalent diseases in dairy farming worldwide. Unfortunately, the disease is most often present in a subclinical type with no clear symptoms. The sooner the infection is detected, the less opportunities for the disease to progress and the more treatment options remain available. Milk microRNA (miRNA) encapsulated in extracellular vesicles (EV) have been proposed as potential biomarkers of different mammary gland conditions, including subclinical mastitis. However, little is known about the robustness of EV analysis regarding sampling time-point or natural infections. In order to estimate the reliability of EV measurements in raw bovine milk, we first evaluated the changes in EV size, concentration and miRNA cargo during three consecutive days. Then, we compared milk EV differences from natural infected quarters with high somatic cell count (SCC) with their healthy adjacent quarters with low SCC and quarters from uninfected udders. We found that milk EV miRNA cargo is very stable along three days and that infected quarters do not induce relevant changes in milk EV of adjacent healthy quarters, making them suitable controls. We observed cow-individual changes in immunoregulatory miRNA in quarters with chronic subclinical mastitis, pointing towards infection-specific alterations. Finally, we proposed bta-miR-223 as a potential indicator of subclinical mastitis prognosis in raw milk.
Project description:Complex oligosaccharides found in human milk play a vital role in gut microbiome development for the human infant. Bovine milk oligosaccharides (BMO) have similar structures with those derived from human milk, but have not been well studied for their effects on the healthy adult human gut microbiome. Healthy human subjects consumed BMO over two-week periods at two different doses and provided fecal samples. Metatranscriptomics of fecal samples was conducted to determine microbial and host gene expression in response to the supplement. Fecal samples were also analyzed by mass spectrometry to determine levels of undigested BMO. No changes were observed in microbiome activity across all participants. Repeated sampling enabled subject-specific analyses: four of six participants had minor, yet statistically significant, changes in microbial activity. No significant change was observed in the gene expression of host cells in stool. Levels of BMO excreted in feces after supplementation were not significantly different from placebo and were not correlated with dosage or expressed microbial enzyme levels. Collectively, these data suggest that BMO is fully digested in the human gastrointestinal tract prior to stool collection. Participants’ gut microbiomes remained stable but varied between individuals. Additionally, the unaltered host transcriptome provides further evidence for the safety of BMO as a dietary supplement or food ingredient.
Project description:Somatic cells surrounding the oocyte were sampled at the following stages: developmentally incompetent or poorly competent prophase I oocytes (NC1 oocytes), developmentally competent prophase I oocytes (C1 oocytes), and developmentally competent metaphase II oocytes (C2 oocytes). NC1 cumulus cells (CC) were sampled from immature calf oocytes, C1 samples from immature cow oocytes, and C2 samples from in vivo matured cow oocytes.
Project description:Previous studies have investigated the peptidomic changes occurring in cow milk during mastitis; however, these focused mainly on clinical mastitis, either spontaneous (Mansor et al., 2013) or induced by experimental infection (Thomas et al., 2016). Mansor and coworkers were the first to use mass spectrometry to demonstrate that several peptides found increased in milk from cows with clinical S. aureus or E. coli mastitis were mainly derived from aS1- and b-casein. In that study, 48 peptides were significantly different between the milks of healthy and mastitic cows. Non-mastitic samples were confirmed to be non-mastitic by having SCC <100,000 cells/mL (Mansor et al., 2013). Thomas and coworkers expanded the peptidomic repertoire in a study evaluating the kinetics of experimental S. uberis infection, and found signature peptides with potential as mastitis markers (Thomas et al., 2016). Only one study evaluated the milk peptidome in subclinical mastitis (Guerrero et al., 2015) demonstrating that even subclinical infections can cause significant increases in the total number of released peptides when compared to uninfected milk. However, neither the IMI agents nor the somatic cell counts were reported. With the aim of understanding high abundance protein and peptidomic changes due to subclinical CNS mastitis, to identify signature peptides with potential for subclinical mastitis detection, and to compare the proteomic and peptidomic findings with those reported in clinical mastitis, we investigated the influence of CNS IMI on high abundance milk proteins by SDS-PAGE and densitometric analysis, followed by a detailed characterization of the milk peptidome by means of high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry and bioinformatic analysis.