Recent studies have demonstrated the impact of diet on microbiota composition, but the essential need for the optimization of production rates and costs forces farms and aquaculture production to carry out continuous dietary tests. In order to understand the effect of total fishmeal replacement by vegetable-based feed in the sea bream (Sparus aurata), the microbial composition of the stomach, foregut, midgut and hindgut was analysed using high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing, also considering parameters of growth, survival and nutrient utilisation indices.A total of 91,539 16S rRNA filtered-sequences were analysed, with an average number of 3661.56 taxonomically assigned, high-quality sequences per sample. The dominant phyla throughout the whole gastrointestinal tract were Actinobacteria, Protebacteria and Firmicutes. A lower diversity in the stomach in comparison to the other intestinal sections was observed. The microbial composition of the Recirculating Aquaculture System was totally different to that of the sea bream gastrointestinal tract. Total fishmeal replacement had an important impact on microbial profiles but not on diversity. Streptococcus (p-value: 0.043) and Photobacterium (p-value: 0.025) were highly represented in fish fed with fishmeal and vegetable-meal diets, respectively. In the stomach samples with the vegetable diet, reads of chloroplasts and mitochondria from vegetable dietary ingredients were rather abundant. Principal Coordinate Analysis showed a clear differentiation between diets in the microbiota present in the gut, supporting the presence of specific bacterial consortia associated with the diet.Although differences in growth and nutritive parameters were not observed, a negative effect of the vegetable diet on the survival rate was determined. Further studies are required to shed more light on the relationship between the immune system and sea bream gastrointestinal tract microbiota and should consider the modulation of the microbiota to improve the survival rate and nutritive efficacy when using plant-based diets.

Alterations in muscle play an important role in common diseases and conditions. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated during hindlimb unloading due, at least in part, to the activation of xanthine oxidase (XO). The major aim of this study was to determine the mechanism by which XO activation causes unloading-induced muscle atrophy in rats, and its possible prevention by allopurinol, a well-known inhibitor of this enzyme. For this purpose we studied one of the main redox sensitive signalling cascades involved in skeletal muscle atrophy i.e. p38 MAPKinase, and the expression of two well known muscle specific E3 ubiquitin ligases involved in proteolysis, the Muscle atrophy F-Box (MAFbx; also known as atrogin-1) and Muscle RING (Really Interesting New Gene) Finger-1 (MuRF-1). We found that hindlimb unloading induced a significant increase in XO activity and in the protein expression of the antioxidant enzymes CuZnSOD and Catalase in skeletal muscle. The most relevant new fact reported in this paper is that inhibition of XO with allopurinol, a drug widely used in clinical practice, prevents soleus muscle atrophy by ∼20% after hindlimb unloading. This was associated with the inhibition of the p38 MAPK-MAFbx pathway. Our data suggest that XO was involved in the loss of muscle mass via the activation of the p38MAPK-MAFbx pathway in unloaded muscle atrophy. Thus, allopurinol may have clinical benefits to combat skeletal muscle atrophy in bedridden, astronauts, sarcopenic, and cachexic patients.

but food conversion ratio (FCR) was not significantly affected, and a quadratic 22 significant trend was observed for the feed intake (FI) in relation to dietary soybean 23 level. At the end of second phase on day 309, fish weight was in the interval 303 and 24 349 g, but specific growth rate and food conversion ratio were similar for all diets, and 25 ranged between 0.64 and 0.69 % d -1 , and 1.95 and 2.10 % d -1 respectively. Final 26 biometric parameters were not affected by the diets, although levels of some free amino 27 2 acids in the muscle were affected. Sensory differences were detected by panellists in 1 fish fed diet 20% as compared those fed diet 50%, which had a less marine flavour and 2 juicy. The global growth results suggest the possibility of feeding sea bream weighing 3 less than 80 g with 30% soybean meal, and for fish weighing more than 80 g, a 50% 4 dietary soybean meal can be used until the fish reach commercial weight, with no 5 negative effects on growth or feed efficiency. Nevertheless, when sensory analysis and 6 economic aspects are considered, the maximum inclusion level of soybean was 20-22%. 7 8

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: Simultaneous inhibition of TNF-alpha production and xanthine oxidase activity greatly reduced local and systemic inflammatory response in acute pancreatitis and decreased mortality rate. These effects were associated with blockade of the 3 major MAPKs.

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Oxidative stress is involved in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis, therefore antioxidants may be of therapeutic value. Clinical work indicates that Nacetylcysteine (NAC) may be beneficial in this disease. The activity of this antioxidant was examined on bleomycin-induced lung damage, mucus secretory cells hyperplasia and mucin Muc5ac gene expression in rats.NAC (3 mmol?kg -1 ?day -1 ) or saline was given orally to Sprague-Dawley rats for 1 week prior to a single intratracheal instillation of bleomycin (2.5 U?kg -1 ) and for 14 days postinstillation.NAC decreased collagen deposition in bleomycin-exposed rats (hydroxyproline content was 4,257¡323 and 3,200¡192 mg?lung -1 in vehicle-and NAC-treated rats, respectively) and lessened the fibrotic area assessed by morphometric analysis. The bleomycin-induced increases in lung tumour necrosis factor-a and myeloperoxidase activity were reduced by NAC treatment. The numbers of mucus secretory cells in airway epithelium, and the Muc5ac messenger ribonucleic acid and protein expression, were markedly augmented in rats exposed to bleomycin. These changes were significantly reduced in NAC-treated rats.These results indicate that bleomycin increases the number of airway secretory cells and their mucin production, and that oral N-acetylcysteine improved pulmonary lesions and reduced the mucus hypersecretion in the bleomycin rat model. Eur Respir J 2003; 22: 900-905.