The placenta contains multiple biologically active substances, which exert antioxidation, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and delayed aging effects. Its extract can improve hepatic morphology and function: on the one hand, it can reduce liver interstitial collagen deposition, lipogenesis, and inflammatory cell infiltration and improve fibrosis; on the other hand, it can prevent hepatocellular degeneration by scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inhibiting inflammatory cytokine production, further improve hepatocyte apoptosis and necrosis, and promote hepatocyte regeneration, making it a promising liver-protective agent. Current research on placenta extract (PE) mainly focuses on treating a specific type of liver injury, and there are no systematic reports. Therefore, this review comprehensively summarizes the treatment reports of PE on liver injury and analyzes its mechanism of action.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) can improve human and animal health, particularly including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, neurological, and visual functions. Schizochytrium sp. is a marine heterotrophic protist producing oil with high DHA content, which is widely used in animal and food production. However, different fermentation conditions have intensive impacts on the growth and DHA content of Schizochytrium sp. Thus, this study aimed to enhance the DHA yield and concentration of Schizochytrium sp. I-F-9 by optimizing the fermentation medium. First, a single-factor design was conducted to select a target carbon and nitrogen source from several generic sources (glucose, sucrose, glycerol, maltose, corn syrup, yeast extract, urea, peptone, and ammonium sulfate). The Plackett–Burman design and the central composite design (CCD) were utilized to optimize the fermentation mediums. Schizochytrium sp. in 50-mL fermentation broth was cultured in a 250 mL shake flask at 28 °C and 200 rpm for 120 h before collecting the cell pellet. Subsequently, the cell walls were destroyed with hydrochloric acid to extract the fatty acid using n-hexane. The DHA content was detected by gas chromatography. The single-factor test indicated that glucose and peptone, respectively, significantly improved the DHA content of Schizochytrium sp. compared to the other carbon and nitrogen sources. Glucose, sodium glutamate, and sea crystal were the key factors affecting DHA production in the Plackett–Burman test (P = 0.0247). The CCD result showed that DHA production was elevated by 34.73% compared with the initial yield (from 6.18 ± 0.063 to 8.33 ± 0.052 g/L). Therefore, the results of this study demonstrated an efficient strategy to increase the yield and content of DHA of Schizochytrium sp.

Background: Neonatal calf diarrhea (NCD) is typically treated with antibiotics, while long-term application of antibiotics induces drug resistance and antibiotic residues, ultimately decreasing feed efficiency. Pueraria polysaccharide (PPL) is a versatile antimicrobial, immunomodulatory, and antioxidative compound. This study aimed to compare the therapeutic efficacy of different doses of PPL (0.2, 0.4, 0.8 g/kg body weight (BW)) and explore the effect of plasma metabolites in diarrheal calves by the best dose of PPL. Results: PPL could effectively improve the daily weight gain, fecal score, and dehydration score, and the dosage of 0.4 g/kg BW could reach curative efficacy against calf diarrhea (with effective rates 100.00%). Metabolomic analysis suggested that diarrhea mainly affect the levels of taurocholate, DL-lactate, LysoPCs, and intestinal flora-related metabolites, trimethylamine N-oxide; however, PPL improved liver function and intestinal barrier integrity by modulating the levels of DL-lactate, LysoPC (18:0/0:0) and bilirubin, which eventually attenuated neonatal calf diarrhea. It also suggested that the therapeutic effect of PPL is related to those differential metabolites in diarrheal calves. Conclusions: The results showed that 0.4 g/kg BW PPL could restore the clinical score of diarrhea calves by improving the blood indexes, biochemical indexes, and blood metabolites. And it is a potential medicine for the treatment of calf diarrhea.