The cecal microbial community plays an important role in chicken growth and development via effective feed conversion and essential metabolite production. The aim of this study was to define the microbial community’s variants in chickens’ ceca and to explore the most significant association between the microbiome compositions and poultry farming productivity. The meta-analysis included original data from 8 control broiler chicken groups fed with a standard basic diet and 32 experimental groups supplemented with various feed additives. Standard Illumina 16S-RNA gene sequencing technology was used to characterize the chicken cecal microbiome. Zootechnical data sets integrated with the European Production Effectiveness Factor (EPEF) were collected. Analysis of the bacterial taxa abundance and co-occurrence in chicken cecal microbiomes revealed two alternative patterns: Bacteroidota-dominated with decreased alpha biodiversity; and Bacillota-enriched, which included the Actinomycetota, Cyanobacteriota and Thermodesulfobacteriota phyla members, with increased biodiversity indices. Bacillota-enriched microbiome groups showed elevated total feed intake (especially due to the starter feed intake) and final body weight, and high EPEF values, while Bacteroidota-dominated microbiomes were negatively associated with poultry farming productivity. The meta-analysis results lay the basis for the development of chicken growth-promoting feed supplementations, aimed at the stimulation of beneficial and inhibition of harmful bacterial patterns, where relevant metagenomic data can be a tool for their control and selection.

Androgenic alopecia (AGA) is the most common type of progressive hair loss in man. The search for reliable predictors of the conservative treatment’s effectiveness is an urgent problem today. Forty-eight patients with AGA, stages I–IV by the Norwood–Hamilton scale, were treated for 4 months with 5% topical minoxidil joints with corrections for trace element and vitamin imbalances. In most cases, the positive therapy’s effect was shown in the parietal but not in the occipital area, whereas that effect was observed in others. The attempts to associate the therapy’s effectiveness with initially defined genetic, hormonal, and metabolic parameters showed the absence of differences between groups with positive and negative outcomes. Among the studied nutrient parameters (Zn, Cu, Mg, Ca, Fe, and Se, as well as vitamins B12, E, D, and folic acid), differences between these groups was shown in zinc content only. The starting point from a zinc plasma level above 10 µmol/L likely provides the success of the subsequent conservative therapy and correlates with an increase in the hair density and diameter in the parietal area. The integral predictive value of the Zn plasma level was assessed as 72.3% (positive predictive value: −88%; and negative predictive value: −55%).

The current study presents a meta-analysis of the detailed relationship between the composition of 25 essential and toxic elements in chicken tissues examined by ICP-MS and the gut microbial community analyzed using NGS techniques. The examination of chicken liver and meat revealed typical elemental compositions, called the “elementomes”. The α-elementomes showed high contents of macro elements (Na, K, Mg, Ca, P), majority trace elements (Sr, Se, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn) and some toxic elements (B, Pb, Ni, Cd); β-elementomes indicated accumulation of Si, V and Cr; γ-elementomes indicated accumulation of Al, As and Hg. Characterization of the microbiomes’ structure showed two distinct enterotypes, designated “microbiome patterns”; the first was enriched in the phylum Bacteroidota, and the second was dominated by Bacillota and coupled with members of the phyla Actinomycetota, Cyanobacteriota and Thermodesulfobacteriota. A comparison of elementomes and microbiomes demonstrated a clear correspondence between the α- and γ-elementomes belonging to the Bacteroidota-enriched pattern, while the β-elementome was predominantly found in chicken groups belonging to the Bacillota + ACT pattern. This insight proposes a novel strategy to improve deficiency or excess of certain elements in the host by gut microbiome modulation, which needs to be verified with further in vivo experiments.

Background. Preeclampsia (PE) complicates 28% of pregnancies worldwide, negatively impacting the pregnant woman and the fetus. Therefore, its prevention remains relevant. It is believed that the cause of PE, especially early PE, is a placentation disorder. It warrants studying drugs that can improve placenta development. The leadership in this matter is maintained by acetylsalicylic acid, which, according to the ASPRE study, reduced the incidence of PE at 34 weeks of pregnancy by 82%. The use of low molecular weight heparins (LMWH), dipyridamole, and antioxidants for PE prevention remains controversial and continues to be studied by foreign and Russian scientists. Aim. To assess the efficacy of acetylsalicylic acid, LMWH, dipyridamole (Curantyl), and bovine blood derivates (Actovegin) in the Russian population of pregnant women at high risk for PE prevention. Materials and methods. The study included 244 patients. We reviewed the archived case records of 103 patients diagnosed with severe PE, who delivered in 2019 at the State Clinical Hospital №24, and 141 pregnant women from the Maternity clinic №3 at the Veresaev Moscow State Clinical Hospital, where the risk of PE was assessed as high, according to the results of extended combined screening of the first trimester of pregnancy. Eighty-nine pregnant women received acetylsalicylic acid at a dose of 75 mg and 54 at a dose of 150 mg. In addition, 22 patients received LMWH, 6 dipyridamole, and 3 Actovegin. The absolute risks, the risk ratio, and statistical significance when taking drugs in each risk group were calculated to assess the efficacy of acetylsalicylic acid and other drugs for PE prevention in the above risk groups. Results. The resulting weak inverse correlation (r=-0.31) between the PE severity at delivery and the dose of acetylsalicylic acid indicates that an increase in the acetylsalicylic acid dose was associated with a decrease in the PE severity. The effectiveness of combinations of various drugs for PE prevention was assessed by analyzing factor correspondences. Two-dimensional scaling of the most likely combinations showed that most patients received acetylsalicylic acid in the high-risk group with no PE. Additional use of LMWH, Curantyl, and Actovegin did not reduce the risk of PE. Conclusion. Acetylsalicylic acid is the only pharmaceutical method for preventing PE in high-risk groups. Higher doses of acetylsalicylic acid are associated with lower PE severity.