Post-partum metritis is among the most prevalent disease in dairy cows affecting animal welfare and inflicting considerable economic loses. While post-partum contamination of the uterus is rife in dairy cows, only a fraction of these animals will develop metritis. Our main objective was to compare the bacterial communities and the inflammatory response in the endometrium of healthy and metritic dairy cows. Holstein–Friesian cows (n = 35) were sampled immediately following clinical classification as healthy (n = 21), suffering from metritis (n = 13) or septic metritis (n = 1), based on veterinary examination at 5–10 days post-partum. Polymorphonuclear cells (PMN) percentage in endometrial cytology was significantly higher in cows with metritis. Full-thickness uterine biopsy analysis revealed that the luminal epithelium in inter-caruncle areas was preserved in healthy cows, but in metritis it was compromised, with marked PMN infiltration particularly in the apical endometrium. Gram staining revealed that bacterial load and spatial distribution was associated with disease severity. 16S-rDNA bacterial community analysis revealed unique endometrial bacterial community composition in metritic cows, as compared to more diverse communities among healthy cows. The most abundant phyla in healthy cows were Proteobacteria (31.8 ± 9.3%), Firmicutes (27.9 ± 8.4%) and Bacteroidetes (19.7 ± 7.2%), while Bacteroidetes (60.3 ± 10.3%), Fusobacteria (13.4 ± 5.9%) and Firmicutes (10.5 ± 3.3%) were most abundant in the endometrial mucosa of metritic cows. Relative abundance of Bacteroidetes (19.7 ± 7.2% vs. 60.3 ± 10.3%), Fusobacteria (7.5 ± 5.2% vs. 13.4 ± 5.9%) and Proteobacteria (31.8 ± 9.3% vs. 7.3 ± 5.6%) phyla differed significantly between healthy and metritic cows. In summary, endometrial PMN abundance, spatial distribution and bacterial communities differed between healthy and metritic dairy cows at early post-partum.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13567-018-0570-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Low molecular mass organogels are nonconventional polymeric structures in which a minute amount of low molecular weight compound can reversibly gelify the whole solution without forming covalent bonds between the monomers. In this article, we demonstrate that certain electron acceptors (taking dinitrobenzoates as model compounds) that are incapable of gelifying the solvent on their own can assemble as much as a 15-16-fold larger amount of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and form two-component donor-acceptor organogels in different solvents. At the core of the long-range order stand donor-acceptor pairs. We assess our claims by detailed 1H NMR, spectrophotometry, fluorescence, and time-resolved fluorescence methods. The thermodynamics of the gelation process is described on the basis of temperature dependent 1H NMR studies. We believe that, in this case, 1H NMR provides direct quantification of the dissolved concentrations of the different species and therefore provides a direct way to measure the enthalpy, entropy, and free energy associated with gel formation.
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