A low cost, simplified, and scaleable pneumotachograph and face mask for neonatal mouse respiratory measurements

Development of special nutritional balanced food 3D printing products based on the mixing of animals/plants materials: research progress, applications, and trends

Food 3D printing brings food processing technology into the digital age. This is a vast field that can provide entertainment experience, personalized food and specific nutritional needs. However, the limited availability of suitable food raw materials has restricted the extensive use of 3D food printing processing technique. The search for novel nutritious and healthy food materials that meet the demand for 3D food printing processing technology is core of the sustainable development of this emerging technology. The printing mechanism, precise nutrition, future outlooks and challenges of 3D food printing technology application in hybrid plant and animal food materials are also analyzed.The results demonstrate that selecting suitable animal and plant materials and mixing them into 3D food printing ingredients without adding food additives can result in printable inks, which can also improve the nutritive value and eating quality of 3D food printed products. Sustainability of novel food materials such as animal cell culture meat and microbial protein mixed with conventional food materials to realize 3D printed food can be a potential research direction. Some other issues should also be considered in future research, such as evaluation of the nutritional efficacy of the product, product stability, shelf life, production efficiency and convenience of process operation.

The microbiome is dispensable for normal respiratory function and chemoreflexes in mice

Increasing evidence indicates an association between microbiome composition and respiratory homeostasis and disease, particularly disordered breathing, such as obstructive sleep apnea. Previous work showing respiratory disruption is limited by the methodology employed to disrupt, eliminate, or remove the microbiome by antibiotic depletion. Our work utilized germ-free mice born without a microbiome and described respiratory alterations. We used whole-body flow through barometric plethysmography to assay conscious and unrestrained C57BL/6J germ-free (GF, n = 24) and specific-pathogen-free (SPF, n = 28) adult mice (with an intact microbiome) in normoxic (21% O2,79% N2) conditions and during challenges in hypercapnic (5% CO2, 21% O2, 74% N2) and hypoxic (10% O2, 90% N2) environments. Following initial plethysmography analysis, we performed fecal transplants to test the ability of gut microbiome establishment to rescue any observed phenotypes. Data were comprehensively analyzed using our newly published respiratory analysis software, Breathe Easy, to identify alterations in respiratory parameters, including ventilatory frequency, tidal volume, ventilation, apnea frequency, and sigh frequency. We also considered possible metabolic changes by analyzing oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, and ventilatory equivalents of oxygen. We also assayed GF and SPF neonates in an autoresuscitation assay to understand the effects of the microbiome on cardiorespiratory stressors in early development. We found several differences in baseline and recovery cardiorespiratory parameters in the neonates and differences in body weight at both ages studied. However, there was no difference in the overall survival of the neonates, and in contrast to prior studies utilizing gut microbial depletion, we found no consequential respiratory alterations in GF versus SPF adult mice at baseline or following fecal transplant in any groups. Interestingly, we did see alterations in oxygen consumption in the GF adult mice, which suggests an altered metabolic demand. Results from this study suggest that microbiome alteration in mice may not play as large a role in respiratory outcomes when a less severe methodology to eliminate the microbiome is utilized.