Lactoferrin (Lf), existing widely in human and mammalian milk, is a multifunctional glycoprotein with many functions, such as immune regulation, anti-inflammation, antibacterial, antiviral, and antioxidant. These extensive functions largely attribute to its ability to chelate iron and interfere with the cellular receptors of pathogenic microorganisms and their hosts. Moreover, it is non-toxic and has good compatibility with other supplements. Thus, Lf has been widely used in food nutrition, drug carriers, biotechnology, and feed development. Although Lf has been continuously explored and studied, a more comprehensive and systematic compendium is still required. This review presents the recent advances in the structure and physicochemical properties of Lf as well as clinical studies on human diseases, with the aim of providing a reference for further research of Lf and the development of its related functional products.

Unsaturated fatty acids, particularly omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, have garnered increasing scientific interest due to their therapeutic potential in chronic disease management. Dietary sources such as milk provide essential unsaturated fatty acids, including linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid. Current evidence indicates that these compounds and their derivatives regulate critical physiological processes, such as neurodevelopment, visual function, immune modulation, and cardiovascular homeostasis. Their multifunctional roles encompass the structural maintenance of biological membranes, cardioprotective effects, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activities, and metabolic regulation. However, despite established associations between unsaturated fatty acids and chronic diseases, the mechanistic contributions of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids to complex neuropsychiatric disorders remain poorly characterized. Furthermore, the controversial role of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in chronic disease pathogenesis necessitates urgent clarification. This review systematically examines the structural properties, molecular mechanisms, and therapeutic applications of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, dermatological conditions, neurodegenerative disorders, and depression. By integrating recent advances in dietary science, this work aims to address knowledge gaps in their neuropsychiatric implications and refine evidence-based strategies for chronic disease intervention through optimized nutritional approaches.

Background: Changshun green-shell laying hens are unique to Guizhou Province, China, and have high egg quality. Improving egg production performance has become an important breeding task, and in recent years, the development of high-throughput sequencing technology provides a fast and exact method for genetic selection. Therefore, we aimed to use this technology to analyze the differences between the ovarian mRNA transcriptome of low and high-yield Changshun green-shell layer hens, identify critical pathways and candidate genes involved in controlling the egg production rate, and provide basic data for layer breeding. Results: The egg production rates of the low egg production group (LP) and the high egg production group (HP) were 68.00 ± 5.56 % and 93.67 ± 7.09 %, with significant differences between the groups (p < 0.01). Moreover, the egg weight, shell thickness, strength and layer weight of the LP were significantly greater than those of the HP (p < 0.05). More than 41 million clean reads per sample were obtained, and more than 90 % of the clean reads were mapped to the Gallus gallus genome. Further analysis identified 142 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), and among them, 55 were upregulated and 87 were downregulated in the ovaries. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis identified 9 significantly enriched pathways, with the neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway being the most enriched. GO enrichment analysis indicated that the GO term transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity, and the DEGs identified in this GO term, including PRLR, NRP1, IL15, BANK1, NTRK1, CCK, and HGF may be associated with crucial roles in the regulation of egg production. Conclusions: The above-mentioned DEGs may be relevant for the molecular breeding of Changshun green-shell laying hens. Moreover, enrichment analysis indicated that the neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway and receptor protein tyrosine kinases may play crucial roles in the regulation of ovarian function and egg production.

Low-coverage sequencing (LCS) followed by imputation has been proposed as a cost-effective genotyping approach for obtaining genotypes of whole-genome variants. Imputation performance is essential for the effectiveness of this approach. Several imputation methods have been proposed and successfully applied in genomic studies in human and other species. However, there are few reports on the performance of these methods in livestock. Here, we evaluated a variety of imputation methods, including Beagle v4.1, GeneImp v1.3, GLIMPSE v1.1.0, QUILT v1.0.0, Reveel, and STITCH v1.6.5, with varying sequencing depth, sample size, and reference panel size using LCS data of Holstein cattle. We found that all of these methods, except Reveel, performed well in most cases with an imputation accuracy over 0.9; on the whole, GLIMPSE, QUILT, and STITCH performed better than the other methods. For species with no reference panel available, STITCH followed by Beagle would be an optimal strategy, whereas for species with reference panel available, QUILT would be the method of choice. Overall, this study illustrated the promising potential of LCS for genomic analysis in livestock.