The PhD employed within the CarboKinetics program, Yang Cai, defended his thesis October 6th in Utrecht. Yang Cai focused on the anti-inflammatory and anti-infective properties of non-digestible carbohydrates (NDCs) in respiratory infections in calves naturally exposed to respiratory pathogens, with a possible translation to human respiratory infections. Based on the in vivo and ex vivo models (link to paper: doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69982-0), we are now one step closer to understanding the main mechanisms related to anti-inflammatory effects of galacto-oligosaccharides and fructo-oligosaccharides (link to paper: doi.org/10.3390/nu13103514). Due to these mechanisms, (oral or intranasal) NDCs (partly) relieved lung infections and suppressed airway and systemic inflammation in calves (link to thesis: doi.org/10.33540/276). The obtained knowledge might contribute to reducing the future use of antibiotics in livestock species and humans and need to be incorporated into the evolving knowledge of microbiota-dependent or -independent effects of NDCs (link to paper: doi.org/10.1111/bph.14871).
