Ultrasonography was used as a noninvasive method for quantitative estimation of the subcutaneous and abdominal adipose tissue depots in dairy cattle. The prediction model was created and validated with a total of 29 German Holstein cows; 6 were in early lactation (≤100 d in milk [DIM]) and 16 were in advanced lactation (101 to 292 DIM). Seven cows were nonpregnant and nonlactating and had been off milk for 350 to 450 d. Transcutaneous assessment of the thickness of subcutaneous and retroperitoneal adipose tissue was done at 16 sites on the body surface of all cows. After completion of the ultrasonographic measurements, the cows were slaughtered and the adipose depots were separately weighed. A stepwise multivariate regression analysis of the ultrasonographic variables was performed to estimate the slaughter weights of the different fat depots. Slaughter weights of the fat depots ranged from 5.0 to 43.0 kg for subcutaneous adipose tissue (SCAT), from 13.7 to 98.8 kg for abdominal adipose tissue (AAT), from 3.4 to 30.3 kg for retroperitoneal adipose tissue (RPAT), from 5.2 to 39.6 kg for omental adipose tissue (OMAT), and from 4.0 to 35.8 kg for mesenteric adipose tissue (MAT). The relationship between calculated amount of fat and slaughter weight of fat had coefficients of determination () and root mean square errors (kg) of 0.88 and 3.4, respectively, for SCAT; 0.94 and 6.1, respectively, for AAT; 0.94 and 1.7, respectively, for RPAT; 0.83 and 3.2, respectively, for OMAT; and 0.95 and 1.6, respectively, for MAT. The accuracy of ultrasonographic measurement of the different fat depots appears sufficient for the quantitative assessment of internal and subcutaneous fat stores in cows. This method is noninvasive and therefore allows safe and repeated monitoring of the amount of stored fat in different adipose tissue depots of German Holsteins cows.
It has been demonstrated that alterations of adipocytokines can alter immune status in type 2 diabetes. The present study investigated changes of adipocytokine plasma concentrations and cellular immune status in overweight men, suffering from non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetes (n=14, age 61.0±8.7 years, BMI 31.1±3.5 kg/cm2). Subjects underwent a 3 months endurance exercise intervention (twice per week for up to 45 min) cycling at a heart rate corresponding to a 2 mmol/l lactate threshold. Before and after the intervention testing for adipocytokines (leptin, adiponectin, resistin) and cellular immune status (including T memory-cells and regulative T-cells) was performed by RIA and FACS accordingly.The exercise intervention improved anthropometric and metabolic parameters of all subjects. We observed a significant decline for resistin and for the CD19+ B-cells. The CD4+CD25+CD127low Treg-cells decreased, however not statistically significant. All other parameters remained unchanged.In conclusion, even though only training twice a week, the exercise affected parts of the cellular immune system as well as resistin levels in men suffering from non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetes.
Periparturient hypocalcaemia (milk fever) is a disorder of Ca metabolism in dairy cattle primarily affecting multiparous cows. The major reasons for the rapid decrease of blood Ca concentration after calving are the prompt increase of Ca secretion into the colostrum and the delayed activation of Ca regulation mechanisms including calcitriol, a metabolite of vitamin D. In man, vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms are reported to be associated with disturbances of Ca metabolism, whereas data confirming the same in dairy cows are still missing. Moreover, polymorphisms that only affect non-coding regions are sometimes difficult to ascribe to a specific disorder as pathways and unequivocal links remain elusive. Therefore, the idea of the present study was to investigate in a small group of dairy cows with documented clinical records whether polymorphisms in the coding regions of the VDR gene existed and whether these potentially found variations were correlated with the incidence of periparturient hypocalcaemia. For this purpose, blood DNA was isolated from 26 dairy cows in their 4th to 6th lactation, out of which 17 had experienced hypocalcaemia at least once, whereas 9 cows had never undergone periparturient hypocalcaemia in their lifetime. The 10 VDR exons and small parts of adjacent introns were sequenced and compared with the Bos taurus VDR sequence published on NCBI based on the DNA of one Hereford cow. In total, 8 sequence alterations were detected in the fragments, which were primarily heterozygous. However, only 4 of them were really located on exons thereby potentially causing changes of the encoded amino acid of the VDR protein, but were not correlated with the incidence of periparturient hypocalcaemia. Certainly, this lack of statistical correlation could be due to the small number of animals included; anyhow, it was not encouraging enough to initiate a larger study with hundreds of cows and document blood Ca levels post partum for at least four lactations.
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