Biology subjects

Damian, J. P.

Publications and source records attributed to Damian, J. P..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Diet-dependent effects of kombucha on the gut microbiome and its neuroactive potential: Associations with reduced anxiety and depressive-like behaviors in mice

Fermented foods are increasingly recognized for their health-boosting potential, yet the mechanisms involved are not fully resolved. Here, we tested whether kombucha reshapes the gastrointestinal microbiome and whether these changes are associated with stress-related behaviors under contrasting dietary backgrounds. Male C57BL/6 mice were fed either a total Western diet (TWD) or a control diet (CTRL) supplemented with kombucha or water three times weekly for seven weeks. Depressive-like and anxiety-related behaviors were evaluated using the forced swimming (FST) and marble burying tests (MBT). Ileum, cecum, and colon microbiomes were profiled via 16S rRNA, ITS2, and shotgun metagenomics, while feces and whole brains were profiled by LC-MS metabolomics. Serum cytokines were measured by ELISA. Results highlight diet-dependent effects of Kombucha on behavioral, microbial and metabolic outcomes. Kombucha reduced immobility in the FST under both diets, whereas fewer marbles buried were observed only under TWD. Kombucha intake enriched Bifidobacterium pseudolongum in the ileum under CTRL and TWD diets, while cecal microbial functions related to amino acid metabolism were stimulated mainly under CTRL. Only CTRL mice receiving kombucha showed higher fecal acetate and butyrate together with lower fecal levels of neurochemically relevant amino acids, including glutamine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, and tyrosine. Under TWD, kombucha was associated with lower spleen weight and altered brain tryptophan/kynurenine profiles. These findings identify kombucha as a food intervention that can remodel gastrointestinal microbial and neuroactive metabolism in a diet depending manner. Associations with reduced depressive and anxiety-related behaviors are promising but warrant further exploration. Key HighlightsO_LIKombucha supplementation reshaped the mice gastrointestinal microbiome and its neuroactive potential C_LIO_LIKombucha intake was associated reduced depressive and anxious like behaviors C_LIO_LIThe potential of kombucha to modulate microbial, metabolic and behavioral outcomes may be dependent on subject dietary background C_LI

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2026

Null Subtraction Imaging for Functional Ultrasound Brain Activation Mapping

Null Subtraction Imaging (NSI) is a nonlinear beamforming approach that combines multiple receive apodizations and subtraction to improve spatial resolution in ultrasound imaging. In NSI, a DC offset parameter is introduced in the apodization design to control the sharpening of the effective beam pattern and, therefore, the degree of spatial-resolution enhancement. Here, we investigate the use of NSI in functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging of the mouse brain and compare its performance with conventional delay-and-sum (DAS) beamforming across a range of DC offset values. fUS acquisitions were performed in three anesthetized wild-type mice during periodic vibrissae stimulation. Activation maps were computed by correlating cerebral blood volume (CBV) signals with the stimulation pattern. Activation area, edge gradient, Dice similarity coefficient, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were used to evaluate spatial localization, boundary sharpness, vascular alignment and signal stability, respectively. NSI yielded more spatially confined activation maps than DAS and produced sharper activation boundaries. However, for low DC offsets (DC < 0.5), the CBV signal exhibited increased fluctuations, which reduced temporal stability and limited the reliability of the functional maps. As the DC offset increased, temporal SNR improved, while the spatial-resolution gain progressively decreased. In our imaging configuration, intermediate DC values around DC {approx} 0.5 provided the most favorable compromise between improved spatial localization and sufficient temporal stability for reliable functional activation detection. These results demonstrate the feasibility of applying NSI to functional ultrasound imaging and provide a quantitative framework for selecting the DC parameter in fUS studies.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2023

Identification Of Candidate Genes And Pathways Linked To The Temperament Trait In Sheep

Temperament can be defined as the emotional variability among animals of the same species in response to the same stimulus, thus being able to group animals by reactivity as nervous, intermediate or calm. The main objective for this study was to identify genomic regions with the temperament phenotype measured by the Isolation Box Test (IBT) by single-step genome wide association studies (ssGWAS). The database used consisted of 4,317 animals with temperament records, and 1,697 genotyped animals with 38,268 effective SNP after quality control. We identified three genomic regions that explained the greatest percentage of the genetic variance, resulting in 25 SNP associated with candidate genes on chromosomes 6, 10 and 21. A total of nine candidate genes are reported for the temperament trait, which are: PYGM, SYVN1, CAPN1, FADS1, SYT7, GRID2, GPRIN3, EEF1A1 and FRY, linked to energetic activity of the organism, synaptic transmission, meat tenderness and calcium associated activities. This is the first study to identify these genetic variants associated with temperament in sheep, leading the opportinuty to potential applications of these molecular markers in future behavioral research.

genomics↗