Screening and stability analysis of reference genes in fasting caecotrophy model in rabbits

Clostridium butyricum Ameliorates the Effect of Coprophagy Prevention on Hepatic Lipid Synthesis in Rabbits via the Gut-Liver Axis

Coprophagy prevention (CP) affects the growth performance, hepatic lipid synthesis, and gut microbiota in rabbits. Supplementation with Clostridium butyricum (C. butyricum, Strain number: CCTCC M 2019962) has been found to improve growth performance in rabbits. However, it remains unknown whether C. butyricum can ameliorate the effects of CP on hepatic lipid synthesis and the underlying mechanisms are yet to be elucidated. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of CP on hepatic lipid synthesis and the underlying mechanism based on the gut-liver axis. The findings revealed that supplementation with C. butyricum could reverse CP-related growth performance, lipid accumulation, bile acid synthesis, and inflammation. Furthermore, C. butyricum exerted protective effects on the gut by preserving intestinal barrier integrity and modulating gut microbiota composition; these factors may represent potential mechanisms through which C. butyricum improves CP-related outcomes. Specifically, C. butyricum reshaped the microbiota by increasing butyric acid levels, thereby maintaining secondary bile acid (deoxycholic acid, chenodeoxycholic acid) balance and attenuating the inhibitory effects of the FXR/SHP pathway on lipid synthesis (SREBP1c/ApoA1). Moreover, the activation of butyrate/GPR43pathway by C. butyricum reduced damage to the intestinal barrier (ZO-1/Occludin/Claudin1) and restored the gut immune microenvironment in CP rabbits. In summary, supplementation with C. butyricum can alleviate the adverse effects of CP on growth performance and hepatic lipid synthesis by modulating the gut-liver axis.

Identification and Validation of Common Reference Genes for Normalization of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Gene Expression Profiles

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the subtypes of esophageal cancer with Chinese characteristics, and its five-year survival rate is less than 20%. Early diagnosis is beneficial to improving the survival rate of ESCC significantly. Quantitative Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction is a high-throughput technique that can quantify tumor-related genes for early diagnosis. Its accuracy largely depends on the stability of the reference gene. There is no systematic scientific basis to demonstrate which reference gene expression is stable in ESCC and no consensus on the selection of internal reference. Therefore, this research used four software programs (The comparative delta-Ct method, GeNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper) to evaluate the expression stability of eight candidate reference genes commonly used in other tumor tissues and generated a comprehensive analysis by RefFinder. Randomly selected transcriptome sequencing analysis confirmed the SPP1 gene is closely related to ESCC. It was found that the expression trend of SPP1 obtained by RPS18 and PPIA as internal reference genes were the same as that of sequencing. The results show that RPS18 and PPIA are stable reference genes, and PPIA + RPS18 are a suitable reference gene combination. This is a reference gene report that combines transcriptome sequencing analysis and only focuses on ESCC, which makes the quantification more precise, systematic, and standardized, and promotes gene regulation research and the early diagnosis of ESCC in the future.