Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone malignancy that occurs frequently in children and adolescents. Baicalein, a flavonoid that has attracted great attention in recent years with its strong antitumor activity, shows a wide range of biological and pharmaceutical effects. MicroRNAs have been found to be involved in many critical processes in cancers. This study aimed to investigate the effect of baicalein and miR-25 on Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway of osteosarcoma cell line Saos-2. Cell viability was assessed, and qRT-PCR and Western blot were performed to study the effects of baicalein on expression of Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway-realted genes (ß-catenin, GSK-3ß, and Axin2) of Saos-2 cells. Our results indicated that baicalein can inhibit the proliferation (IC50 value 35 µM), regulate Wnt/ß-catenin pathway and also increase miR-25 expression of Saos-2. Baicalein and also miR-25 decreased the expression of ß-catenin and Axin2, while increasing the expression of GSK-3ß. Down regulation of miR-25 decreased the expression of GSK-3ß, while ß-catenin and Axin2 expression increased. These findings demonstrate that baicalein may target genes related to the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway by regulating miR-25 expression and may be a potential Wnt/ß-catenin pathway inhibitor for osteosarcoma therapy.

Adrenomedullin, which is produced by the vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells and cardiomyocytes, is considered to be a local factor controlling vascular tone, cardiac contractility, and renal sodium excretion. Hypertension is the most common cause of cardiovascular disorders and diseases. Exercise has beneficial effects on hypertension, but pathophysiological factors involved in exercise‐mediated amelioration of hypertension are yet to be elucidated. We hypothesized that adrenomedullin produced through exercise could play an essential role in the protection from hypertension. For this study rats were subjected to swimming training for six weeks (1‐h per day and five times each week). Meanwhile, hypertension was induced by the oral administration of L‐NAME (60 mg/kg). Here, we show that L‐NAME administration per se leads to a significant increase in mean arterial blood pressure. Notably, the 6‐week swimming exercise causes a protective effect from the development of hypertension. In addition, the rats rescued from hypertension have high mRNA levels of renal adrenomedullin while they have low levels of adrenomedullin mRNA in the aorta. The obtained data indicate that a 6‐week exercise intervention rescues rats from high blood pressure by leading to changes in adrenomedullin levels in the aorta and kidney. The increased expression of adrenomedullin in the aorta might have been a result that compensates for the hypertensive effect of L‐NAME. On the other hand, exercise probably exerts its protective effects on hypertension by increasing adrenomedullin in the kidney. A more extended exercise period may give more apparent results regarding the level of adrenomedullin in different organs.

Milk-delivered postbiotics from Bifidobacterium animalis BB-12 modulate gut microbiota composition, increase short-chain fatty acid production, and regulate systemic immune responses in vivo .

Paraprobiotics offer safer alternatives to live probiotics without requiring cell viability. Here, heat-inactivated bacterial preparations (paraprobiotics) were produced from Lacticaseibacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei 431 (L. casei 431) using thermal treatments (65–121 °C). No viable colonies were detected by conventional plating in any treatment, and flow cytometry indicated that more than 96% of cells were membrane-compromised or dead. The most favorable condition (65 °C, 60 min) was identified using a TOPSIS multi-criteria ranking approach integrating loss of culturability with antimicrobial activity against Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli with inactivation efficiency. This paraprobiotic and the corresponding probiotic were subjected to in vitro gastrointestinal digestion and colonic fermentation, followed by short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) and 16S rRNA-based gut microbiota analysis. The fecal inoculum was pooled from five healthy donors and used to run three replicate fermentation vessels per group. Both probiotic and paraprobiotic supplementation significantly increased acetate, butyrate, and total SCFA concentrations compared with the control, and propionate and valerate concentrations were also significantly higher in the paraprobiotic group than in the control. Both interventions increased Chao1 richness and Simpson diversity (p < 0.05), although Shannon diversity did not differ significantly, and induced significant shifts in beta diversity, alongside marked enrichment of butyrate- and SCFA-producing taxa such as Roseburia, Anaerostipes, and Akkermansia muciniphila. However, not all observed microbial changes were unequivocally beneficial; increases in Bilophila wadsworthia and Collinsella aerofaciens warrant cautious interpretation given their context-dependent associations with host health. Spearman correlation analysis identified positive associations between enriched taxa and SCFA concentrations, which should be interpreted as exploratory rather than evidence of causal metabolic cross-feeding. Under the conditions of this in vitro fermentation model, no statistically significant differences were detected between the viable and heat-inactivated preparations for most measured outcomes, indicating that thermal inactivation did not markedly diminish the capacity of L. casei 431 to influence gut microbial composition and short-chain fatty acid production. The multi-criteria selection strategy offers a practical approach for optimizing paraprobiotic production for functional food applications.

Amaç: Bu araştırma, yetişkin bireylerin algılanan gıda okuryazarlığı (AGOY) düzeyleri ile sağlıklı beslenmeye ilişkin tutumları (SBİT) arasındaki ilişkiyi belirlemek amacıyla yürütülmüştür.Yöntem: Analitik kesitsel tasarımda yürütülen bu araştırmaya Ağustos 2022-Mayıs 2023 tarihleri arasında kartopu örnekleme yöntemiyle ulaşılan 627 gönüllü yetişkin birey (283 erkek, 344 kadın; yaş ortalaması: 34.44±10.72 yıl) katılmıştır. Veriler çevrimiçi anket formu aracılığıyla toplanmış; Sağlıklı Beslenmeye İlişkin Tutum Ölçeği (SBİTÖ) ve Algılanan Gıda Okuryazarlığı Ölçeği (AGOY) uygulanmıştır. Veriler bağımsız örneklemler t testi, tek yönlü varyans analizi (ANOVA), Pearson korelasyon analizi ve çoklu doğrusal regresyon analizi ile değerlendirilmiştir.Bulgular: Cinsiyet, eğitim düzeyi, BKİ, diyet öyküsü, beslenme bilgisi kaynağı, düzenli fiziksel aktivite ve etiket okuma sıklığı değişkenlerine göre SBİT puanları arasında anlamlı bir fark saptanmıştır. AGOY düzeyleri açısından ise yaş grubu, cinsiyet, eğitim düzeyi, medeni durum, çocuk sahibi olma, diyet öyküsü, BKİ, beslenme bilgisi kaynağı, fiziksel aktivite ve etiket okuma sıklığı açısından anlamlı fark saptanmıştır. SBİTÖ puanları ile AGOY düzeyleri arasında pozitif yönlü, orta düzeyde ve istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir ilişki belirlenmiştir (r = .428, p< .001). Çoklu doğrusal regresyon analizinde gıda okuryazarlığı ve eğitim düzeyinin SBİTÖ puanını anlamlı düzeyde yordadığı; cinsiyet, obezite, düzenli fiziksel aktivite yapmama ve beslenme bilgisini sosyal medyadan edinmenin ise AGOY düzeyini anlamlı düzeyde yordadığı belirlenmiştir.Sonuç: Yetişkin bireylerin AGOY düzeyi ile SBİTÖ puanları arasında anlamlı ve pozitif yönde bir ilişki olduğu görülmüştür. Toplum gıda okuryazarlığının geliştirilmesinde kanıta dayalı eğitim programlarıyla ulusal politikaların hayata geçirilmesi önerilmektedir.