Hematology and clinical chemistry values of normal and euthymic hairless adult male Dunkin-Hartley guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus)

Hematology and serum chemistry measurements were performed on blood specimens from 12 male Dunkin-Hartley hairless guinea pigs Crl:IAF(HA)BR and 10 haired Dunkin-Hartley male guinea pigs Crl:(HA)BR. Significantly higher activities of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, amylase, and creatine kinase were observed in the hairless guinea pigs as compared to the haired strain. Alkaline phosphatase activity was found to be lower in the hairless guinea pig. The hairless guinea pigs were found to have serum urea concentrations approximately 46% higher than the normal guinea pig strain. The erythrocytic mean cell volume of the hairless strain was found to be smaller, with a greater hemoglobin content. Hairless guinea pigs were found to have approximately 40% fewer leukocytes with a reversed lymphocyte:neutrophil ratio compared to the haired guinea pigs which had much higher lymphocyte counts.     

Analysis of antioxidative phenolic compounds in artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.)

Artichoke leaf is an herbal medicine known for a long time. A systematic antioxidant activity-directed fractionation procedure was used to purify antioxidative components from the aqueous methanol extractions of artichoke heads and leaves in this study. Seven active polyphenolic compounds were purified from artichoke, and structural elucidation of each was achieved using MS and NMR. Two of these compounds, apigenin-7-rutinoside and narirutin, were found to be unique to artichoke heads, this represents the first report of these compounds in the edible portion of this plant. The contents of these antioxidants and total phenols in dried artichoke samples from leaves and immature and mature heads of three varieties, Imperial Star, Green Globe, and Violet, were then analyzed and compared by colorimetric and validated HPLC methods. Significant differences by variety and plant organ were observed.     

Probing individual environmental bacteria for viruses by using microfluidic digital PCR

Viruses may very well be the most abundant biological entities on the planet. Yet neither metagenomic studies nor classical phage isolation techniques have shed much light on the identity of the hosts of most viruses. We used a microfluidic digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach to physically link single bacterial cells harvested from a natural environment with a viral marker gene. When we implemented this technique on the microbial community residing in the termite hindgut, we found genus-wide infection patterns displaying remarkable intragenus selectivity. Viral marker allelic diversity revealed restricted mixing of alleles between hosts, indicating limited lateral gene transfer of these alleles despite host proximity. Our approach does not require culturing hosts or viruses and provides a method for examining virus-bacterium interactions in many environments.