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Effects of orally administered galacto-oligosaccharides on immunological parameters in foals: a pilot study

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Veterinary Research, November 2014
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Title
Effects of orally administered galacto-oligosaccharides on immunological parameters in foals: a pilot study
Published in
BMC Veterinary Research, November 2014
DOI 10.1186/s12917-014-0278-4
Pubmed ID
Authors

Johannes Cornelis Vendrig, Luc Edgar Coffeng, Johanna Fink-Gremmels

Abstract

BackgroundIn the first phase of life, in which the immune system is primed and the bacterial colonization of epithelial surfaces takes place, foals are highly susceptible to bacterial infections. Next to strategies to optimize maternally acquired immunity in individual foals, current research explores other options to modulate immune responses in foals. During the past decades, oligosaccharide supplements were developed to mimic beneficial properties of the oligosaccharides, which are present in colostrum and milk. In human infants and laboratory animal species, dietary supplementation with galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) has been shown to result in prebiotic and immunomodulating effects, with long-term beneficial consequences for both defensive and allergic immune responses. As yet, no studies are published concerning the in vivo effects of GOS in horses. The current study was designed as a pilot study to investigate the effects of an orally applied, commercially available GOS product in a group of pony foals. The treatment and the control group consisted of six and four foals, respectively. Foals were treated during the first four weeks of life and subsequently followed up for another ten weeks.ResultsIn peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) derived from GOS-treated foals at day 28, a standardized lipopolysaccharide challenge resulted in significantly lower relative mRNA expression levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interferon-¿ and interleukin-6 compared with PBMCs of control foals. In the 98-day period of investigation, no significant effects of the GOS supplement were observed on clinical and blood parameters for immunity and general health in these foals.ConclusionsBased on these first results, we can conclude that this dose regimen of GOS was well accepted by the foals and did not result in any detectable undesirable side effects. More clinical trials are required to confirm the attenuating effects of GOS treatment on equine pro-inflammatory immune responses and to implement this into practice.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 38 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Netherlands 1 3%
Unknown 37 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 6 16%
Student > Ph. D. Student 5 13%
Student > Doctoral Student 3 8%
Researcher 3 8%
Other 2 5%
Other 3 8%
Unknown 16 42%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 7 18%
Social Sciences 3 8%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 2 5%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 2 5%
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine 2 5%
Other 4 11%
Unknown 18 47%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 November 2014.
All research outputs
#20,243,777
of 22,771,140 outputs
Outputs from BMC Veterinary Research
#2,415
of 3,045 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#303,395
of 362,502 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Veterinary Research
#87
of 101 outputs
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So far Altmetric has tracked 3,045 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 3.8. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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