Objective To explore changes in the gut microbiota (GM), urine metabolome and plasma proteome in individuals with allergies using multiomics analyses, and identify the key components and mechanism. Methods This was a cross-sectional study. All subjects were recruited to collect fecal, urine and blood samples. 16S rDNA sequencing was used to analyze the structure and function of the GM, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry was used to quantify metabolites in the urine, and data-independent acquisition quantitative proteome analysis was used to detect proteins in the plasma. Differences in GM, urine metabolites and plasma proteins between allergic and healthy individuals were displayed using principal component analysis (PCoA) and heatmap, and the co-occurrence network was visualized in Cytoscape using Spearman correlation among differential predominant genera, metabolites and proteins. The functional analysis was performed according to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) dataset. The allergy-related cytokines, IL-4, IL-6 and IL-13, were measured to evaluate the effect of indole derivatives on LPS-induced macrophage activation. Results GM α indexes, β distances and the relative abundance of the core differential genera in the allergic group were different from those of healthy individuals, which resulted in a separate distribution in the PCoA and enterotypes. Similarly, the concentrations of 393 metabolites and 144 proteins were different between allergic and healthy individuals. Then, 634 significant correlations were identified among 6 predominant differential genera, 24 differential metabolites and 104 differential proteins, 301 of which were negative and 333 of which were positive. Notably, a core network centered on tryptophan metabolites, indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and indole-3-lactic acid (ILA), displayed high consistency with the results of KEGG pathway analysis. In the LPS-stimulated macrophages, IBA reduced the expression of IL-4 and IL-6, and ILA inhibited the upregulation of IL-6. Conclusion The GM, urine metabolome and plasma proteome underwent systematic change in allergic individuals compared to healthy individuals, among which indole derivatives from tryptophan metabolism might play key roles in the progression of allergies and could serve as therapeutic targets of allergy.
The rapidly changing social situation in the latter part of the 20th century, such as revolutionary movement for women’s equal rights, significantly affects the women consumer behaviors as well as improves their social status. The awakening of female consumer’s consciousness during the recent years leads to alteration of consumer behavior, and influences the women’s usual conception for pursuing fashion and cosmetics application, in fact, the makeup practice has already been regarded as a social politeness and necessary requirement for interpersonal activities. By employing the Means-End Chain theory, this study intends to explore the attribute, result, and value attached importance by female consumer towards cosmetic products, in order to realize consumer’s cosmetics application process. The female consumers in Hsinchu are taken as research targets for this study to conduct variable analysis of their lifestyle and demographic statistics. Totally 550 questionnaires were released and 390 copies are effective among the retrieved ones. Methods as factor analysis and ANOVA are applied for examining various study hypotheses. Moreover, the implementation of Means-End Chain theory allows cosmetics industry to better understand the signification of product attribute valued by consumers so as to anticipate the details of consumer result and value recognition experienced by consumers
Cultural resources are the essence of indigenous tourism. Tourist's sincere attitudes toward indigenous culture are critical to successfully manage and develop indigenous tourism. This study proposes examining the seriousness of tourists toward indigenous tourism to better explore the distinguishing and meaningful subgroups of indigenous tourists. Based on the 'serious leisure perspectives' (SLPs), this study first developed a measurement of seriousness toward indigenous tourism and applied it to further segmentation analysis. Study results indicate that indigenous tourists can be divided into three segments: 'expert', who are driven by a serious leisure interest (indigenous culture); 'interested', who are curious about indigenous appeals; and 'apathetic' type, who are not interested in aboriginal culture at all. These three segments differ significantly in terms of marital status, travel motives, and preferences for culture-based tourism product. Managerial implications are drawn based on the nature of SIT and their differences among segments. Finally, this study discusses the application of SLP to indigenous tourism.
Radix Astragali (RA) herb with warm property and significant “tonifying qi” effects is indicated for the syndrome of internal cold due to Yang deficiency. The purpose of this research was to explore effects of Radix Astragali (RA) through PPAR signaling pathway on gene expression profiles related to energy metabolism in rats with the Yang-deficiency cold (YDC) syndrome, for identifying the pathological mechanism of Yang-deficiency cold (YDC) syndrome and the effects mechanism of RA. The results indicated that RA could significantly increase body weight (BM), cold and heat tendency (CT), overall temperature (OT), rectum temperature (RT), toe temperature (TT), energy intake (EI), and V(O2)/V(CO2) ratio (which indicates basal metabolism, BM) (P<0.05), enhancing the depressed metabolic function in YDC syndrome model rat. Our data also indicated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to energy metabolism involving lipids, carbohydrates, and amino acids metabolic process; the expression of CPT-1 and FABP4 (ap2) was improved; PPAR, Glycolysis, Wnt, cAMP, MAPK, AMPK, and fatty acid degradation signaling pathway may be related to energy metabolism. However, the Chinese herbal medicine RA plays a certain role in promoting the metabolism of substances and energy in rats by its warming and beneficial effect. Our results suggest that the mechanism underlying the function of RA may take effect through the regulation of PPAR signaling pathway and related gene expression. Lipids, carbohydrates, and amino acids metabolic process may be affected to adjust the reduced metabolic function in the model animals. In general, results indicate that RA could promote energy metabolism in rats with the YDC syndrome via PPAR signaling pathway regulating the expression of CPT-1 and FABP4 (ap2), which reflected the warm and qi tonifying properties of RA.
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