Flammulina velutipes polysaccharides (FVP) have been reported to exhibit excellent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. This study further investigated the efficacy and mechanism of action of FVP in alleviating vascular injury induced by benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) in mice. The expression of vascular inflammatory cytokines was assessed through immunohistochemistry analysis. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the proportion of pro-inflammatory cells in the peripheral blood and spleen as well as the composition of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) subsets in bone marrow. The results demonstrated that FVP treatment mitigated the expression of vascular pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 in mice induced by BaP. Moreover, FVP treatment significantly inhibited the increases in the proportions of monocytes, macrophages and neutrophils in the peripheral blood and those of macrophages and neutrophils in the spleen of BaP-induced mice. Further analysis of bone marrow HSC subsets revealed that BaP exposure elevated the proportions of hematopoietic progenitor cells and granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells in mouse bone marrow, while reducing the proportions of hematopoietic stem cells and common myeloid progenitor cells, which were reversed by FVP treatment, thus restoring bone marrow HSC subsets to the level of the healthy control group. At the cellular level, FVP suppressed BaP-induced oxidative stress in Raw264.7 cells. Taken together, FVP alleviate BaP-induced vascular inflammatory injury by maintaining the homeostasis of the bone marrow hematopoietic system, thereby regulating the output of pro-inflammatory cells into the circulatory system, and down-regulating the proportion of peripheral pro-inflammatory cells.

Meat and meat products are an essential part of the human diet. Being nutritious, they are easily contaminated by foodborne pathogens, which causes serious damage to human health. Therefore, the prevention and control of foodborne pathogen contamination in meat and meat products is of great importance for food safety. In order to deeply understand the relationship between foodborne pathogens and epithelial cells in the whole infection process, it is a prerequisite to establish an effective intestinal evaluation model. Accordingly, this paper summarizes the infection status of common foodborne pathogens in meat and meat products, and discusses the in vivo and in vitro models currently used to assess the infection of foodborne pathogens. Among them, intestinal organoids, a new model to evaluate the infection mechanism of foodborne pathogens, have great potential in the research of the pathogenic mechanism, cell and tissue tropism. Therefore, this paper focuses on the current status of the application of intestinal organoid models in research on the infection mechanism of foodborne pathogens, and discusses the characteristics and problems of the current intestinal organoid models as well as future development directions.

Microplastics (MPs) in food have aroused widespread concern, and it has been clarified that MPs have toxic effects on cells, animals and human organoids, and that the cytotoxicity is inversely proportional to the particle size of MPs, and positively proportional to the concentration of MPs and the time of exposure; in experimental animal models, the toxic effects of MPs mainly occur in the digestive, nervous, respiratory, reproductive, and cardiovascular systems; the hazardous effects of MPs have also been identified in the human organoids of liver, intestine, heart and brain. The contamination of MPs in dairy products may occur at different stages of the production process. This paper reviews the sources, toxicological effects and detection methods of MPs contamination in dairy products, with the aim of providing a reference for the risk prevention and control of MPs in dairy products and for future research.

A droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) method for the quantitative detection Acetobacter aceti in fermented milk was established. Specific primers and probes were designed according to the internally transcribed spacer (ITS) gene sequence of Acetobacter aceti, and annealing temperature was optimized. The specificity of the method was verified by applying it on various strains, the limit of detection (LOD) was determined for artificially inoculated Acetobacter aceti, and the absolute quantification was systematically investigated by comparing the results of ddPCR and the counting results. The experimental results showed that the optimal annealing temperature was 54.6 ℃, the method had strong specificity and high sensitivity, and the LOD was 7.2 × 10¹ CFU/mL. The quantitative deviation rate was 23.73%. This method can meet the demand for quantitative detection of Acetobacter aceti in fermented milk.

Plant protein beverage adulteration occurs frequently, which may cause health problems for consumers due to the hidden allergens. Hence, a novel method was developed for authentication by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Almond, peanut, walnut and soybean were hydrolyzed, followed by separation by NanoLC-Triple TOF MS. The obtained fingerprints were identified by ProteinPilot^TM combined with Uniprot, and 16 signature peptides were selected. Afterwards, plant protein beverages treated by trypsin hydrolysis were analyzed with UPLC-MS/MS. This method showed a good linear relationship with R² > 0.99403. The limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.015, 0.01, 0.5 and 0.05 g/L for almond, peanut, walnut and soybean, respectively. Mean recoveries ranged from 84.77% to 110.44% with RSDs < 15%. The developed method was successfully applied to the adulteration detection of 31 plant protein beverages to reveal adulteration and false labeling. Conclusively, this method could provide technical support for authentication of plant protein beverages to protect the rights and health of consumers.

Inflammatory stimulation plays a significant role in the development and worsening of insulin-resistant diabetes. Therefore, it is crucial to identify therapeutic agents that can alleviate insulin resistance by targeting inflammation. Here, we present evidence that Bakuchiol (BL), a monoterpene phenolic compound first discovered from Psoralea corylifolia L. as traditional Chinese medicine, can effectively improve insulin resistance in diabetic mice through anti-inflammation. Our findings demonstrate that BL alleviates inflammation by inhibiting the toll-like receptor 4/nuclear factor κB/mitogen-activated protein kinase axis, consequently enhancing insulin receptor signaling through the c-Jun N-terminal kinase/suppressors of cytokine signaling 3/insulin receptor substrate1 pathway and improving glucolipid homeostasis. Furthermore, the insulin recovery achieved with BL (60 mg/kg) was comparable to that of metformin (200 mg/kg). These results provide further support for considering BL as a potential treatment option for insulin-resistant diabetes mellitus.

This study established a method using gas chromatography-electrostatic field Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (Orbitrap GC-MS) for the simultaneous determination of 70 organic pollutants across four categories: organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and phthalates (PAEs) in infant cereal-based supplementary foods. Techniques integrating cryogenic centrifugation and lipid and protein adsorbent (LPAS) purification were employed. The precise mass numbers of target compounds were determined by Orbitrap GC-MS in full-scan mode (Full MS), which effectively minimized matrix interferences in these foods. Method validation on rice flour samples demonstrated that the 70 compounds exhibited excellent linearity within their respective mass concentration ranges, with correlation coefficients all exceeding 0.995. The detection limits for this method ranged from 0.10-1.0 μg/kg, while the quantification limits varied from 0.3-3.0 μg/kg, meeting the established detection requirements. The average spike recovery of the 70 compounds at three spiked levels (5, 20, and 100 μg/kg) ranged from 75.3%-119.3%, with relative standard deviations ranging from 1.8%-10.8%. Both inter-day and intra-day precision demonstrated relative standard deviation values below 15%. This method was applied to analyze 100 samples of commercial infant cereal-based supplementary food, revealing the presence of PAEs and PAHs in 12.0% of the samples. Notably, no OCPs or PCBs were detected. The detected concentrations of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) were (4.2 ± 0.1) μg/kg and (1.8 ± 0.3) μg/kg, respectively. This method is straightforward, highly sensitive, and suitable for the rapid screening and confirmation of 70 organic pollutants in infant cereal-based supplementary foods.

Inflammation caused by obesity, particularly in adipose tissue and the liver, can lead to insulin resistance (IR) and trigger type 2 diabetes (T2DM). It is crucial to identify therapeutic agents that alleviate IR by reducing inflammation. Here, we report that isobavachromene (IB), a flavonoid derived from Psoralea corylifolia Linn., ameliorates IR in 3T3-L1 adipocytes by inhibiting the MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway. We first found that IB could promote glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes by activating the PI-3K/Akt signaling pathway and was more effective than the positive control sodium orthovanadate at concentrations ranging from 25 to 100 μmol/L. Additionally, IB inhibited RAW264.7 macrophage infiltration into 3T3-L1 adipocytes and suppressed the secretion of inflammatory factors from RAW264.7 macrophages, as well as the phosphorylation levels of key proteins (NF-κB P65, ERK1/2, JNK, and P38) in the NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways. In summary, IB improves glucose uptake in IR adipocytes, activates the PI-3K/Akt signaling pathway, inhibits the JNK and NF-κB inflammatory signaling pathways, and reduces adipocyte inflammation, thereby improving of IR in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.

Intermittent fasting can benefit breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or immunotherapy. However, it is still uncertain how to select immunotherapy drugs to combine with intermittent fasting. Herein we observed that two cycles of fasting treatment significantly inhibited breast tumor growth and lung tissue metastasis, as well as prolonged overall survival in mice bearing 4T1 and 4T07 breast cancer. During this process, both the immunosuppressive monocytic- (M-) and granulocytic- (G-) myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC) decreased, accompanied by an increase in interleukin (IL) 7R⁺ and granzyme B⁺ T cells in the tumor microenvironment. Interestingly, we observed that Ly6G^low G-MDSC sharply decreased after fasting treatment, and the cell surface markers and protein mass spectrometry data showed potential therapeutic targets. Mechanistic investigation revealed that glucose metabolism restriction suppressed the splenic granulocyte-monocyte progenitor and the generation of colony-stimulating factors and IL-6, which both contributed to the accumulation of G-MDSC. On the other hand, glucose metabolism restriction can directly induce the apoptosis of Ly6G^low G-MDSC, but not Ly6G^high subsets. In summary, these results suggest that glucose metabolism restriction induced by fasting treatment attenuates the immune-suppressive milieu and enhances the activation of CD3⁺ T cells, providing potential solutions for enhancing immune-based cancer interventions.

Human normal flora is a source of probiotics. The safety characteristics of a specific isolate determine its application in foods or drugs. The food-borne-pathogen antagonist strain Lactobacillus gasseri HMV18 is one of the isolates from normal human f lora. In this work, we assessed the in vitro pH tolerance, bile tolerance, biogenic amine production, mucin utilization, and safety of in vivo administration to mice to evaluate general health, organ-body weight index, organ histopathological change, whether L. gasseri HMV18 can colonize in the gut or modulate the gut microbiota after oral administration. The results suggest that L. gasseri HMV18 can tolerate pH 3 for 2 h, 3% bile for 3 h, biogenic amine negative, mucin usage negative, does not encode verif ied toxins, and cause no visible change in mice’s organs. L. gasseri HMV18 might not colonize in mice’s gut, but can signif icantly affect the structure of gut microbiota. A bibliographical survey suggested that there were as few as 8 opportunistic infection cases from 1984 to 2022 and that the possibility for L. gasseri to cause infection is relatively low. Therefore, this work provides a basis for the foods or drugs application of L. gasseri HMV18 and gives a map of experiments for the safety assessment of probiotics.