👤 C F Millette

Type 2 diabetes presents significant public health challenges. The gut microbiome has emerged as a potential factor influencing glucose metabolism. We performed a randomized, double-blind, single-center trial involving patients with type 2 diabetes and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) concentration of 7 % or greater. Patients were randomly assigned to receive 100 billion colony-forming units (CFUs) of probiotic supplementation daily or placebo. The primary efficacy endpoint was the change in HbA1c from baseline to 12 weeks, and secondary endpoints included lipid and inflammatory markers. A total of 130 patients were included. HbA1c was 7.63 ± 0.54 % at baseline and 7.63 ± 0.63 % at 12 weeks in the probiotic group and 7.71 ± 0.74 % and 7.81 ± 0.84 % in the placebo group (p = 0.29 between treatment groups). There were also no significant differences between treatment groups in plasma glucose (p = 0.60) and insulin (p = 0.41), as well as in LDL-cholesterol (p = 0.90) and triglycerides (p = 0.32). The adjusted geometric mean percent change (95 % confidence interval) in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein was 1.59 % (-15.71, 22.44) in the probiotic group and -1.37 % (-18.04, 18.70) in the placebo group (p = 0.82). Gastrointestinal adverse events occurred in 38.5 % and 46.2 % of patients in the probiotic group and placebo group respectively (p = 0.48). Probiotic supplementation for 12 weeks did not improve glycemic control, lipid or inflammatory markers in patients with type 2 diabetes. Further research is needed to determine the potential benefits and underlying mechanisms of probiotics in subsets of patients. gov Identifier no. NCT03239366. Show less

A procedure is described which permits the isolation from the prepuberal mouse testis of highly purified populations of primitive type A spermatogonia, type A spermatogonia, type B spermatogonia, preleptotene primary spermatocytes, leptotene and zygotene primary spermatocytes, pachytene primary spermatocytes and Sertoli cells. The successful isolation of these prepuberal cell types was accomplished by: (a) defining distinctive morphological characteristics of the cells, (b) determining the temporal appearance of spermatogenic cells during prepuberal development, (c) isolating purified seminiferous cords, after dissociation of the testis with collagenase, (d) separating the trypsin-dispersed seminiferous cells by sedimentation velocity at unit gravity, and (e) assessing the identity and purity of the isolated cell types by microscopy. The seminiferous epithelium from day 6 animals contains only primitive type A spermatogonia and Sertoli cells. Type A and type B spermatogonia are present by day 8. At day 10, meiotic prophase is initiated, with the germ cells reaching the early and late pachytene stages by 14 and 18, respectively. Secondary spermatocytes and haploid spermatids appear throughout this developmental period. The purity and optimum day for the recovery of specific cell types are as follows: day 6, Sertoli cells (purity>99 percent) and primitive type A spermatogonia (90 percent); day 8, type A spermatogonia (91 percent) and type B spermatogonia (76 percent); day 18, preleptotene spermatocytes (93 percent), leptotene/zygotene spermatocytes (52 percent), and pachytene spermatocytes (89 percent), leptotene/zygotene spermatocytes (52 percent), and pachytene spermatocytes (89 percent). Show less