The intestinal microbiota changes throughout pregnancy and influences maternal metabolic adaptations to support fetal growth. Obesity induces alterations to the microbiota that include decreased microbial diversity and shifts in microbial composition, though specific species changes are...

Mercury contamination in food poses a significant threat to human health. In this article, we propose a novel approach to solve this problem by enhancing the function of gut microbiota against mercury using a synthetically engineered bacterial strain. An engineered Escherichia coli biosensor MerR...

Years of use of the antidiabetic drug metformin has long been associated with the risk of vitamin B12 (B12) deficiency in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients, although the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Accumulating evidence has shown that metformin may exert beneficial effects by altering the...

Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient, and animals biosynthesize selenoproteins from various selenocompounds such as inorganic salts and organic selenocompounds as a Se source. In addition to the inorganic and organic forms of Se, it is also known that elemental Se is biologically synthesized ...

We investigated the modulating effect of α-(1→3)-glucooligosaccharides (GOS), i.e. a product of fungal α-(1→3)-d-glucan hydrolysis, on the gut microbiota composition. Mice were fed with a GOS-supplemented diet and two control diets for 21 days, and fecal samples were collected at 0, 1, and 3-week...

Constipation is a widespread gastrointestinal issue. This work aimed to investigate anti-constipation capacities of 9 novel strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium using in vitro experiments for initial exploration and then further confirmed through in vivo models including both zebrafish and...

Gut microbiota has been established as a main regulator of health. However, how changes in gut microbiota are directly associated with physiological and cellular alterations has been difficult to tackle on a large-scale basis, notably because of the cost and labor-extensive resources required for...

Diarrhoea caused by pathogens such as enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) is a serious threat to the health of young animals and human infants. Here, we investigated the protective effect of fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) on the intestinal epithelium with ETEC challenge in a weaned piglet model....

Objective: To determine whether the prokaryotic expression product of the red rice OsPrx3 gene, which encodes a peroxiredoxin, can enhance oxidative stress resistance in animals. Methods: OsPrx3 was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. After ingestion of the target protein, the animal model...

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli is the most common bacterial agent causing diarrhea by binding to the intestinal mucosa and producing heat-labile enterotoxins. The aim of this study was to elucidate the interaction of two forms of dextran exopolysaccharides (molecular weights of (11-9 kDa) and...