Jitendra Kumar

By Jitendra Kumar, Chander Datt, Surya Kant Verma and Kavita Rani

In agriculture and food industry, nanotechnology can be utilized to improve crop yield, food quality, shelf life, safety, cost and nutritional benefits. Zinc is a trace element and its deficiency causes health problems in human beings and animals. The use of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) is growing exponentially in food industry, biomedicine and nanofertilizer segment. A remarkable presence of nanomaterials in ecosystem and consumer products can cause adverse effects. Hence, it is an important challenge for the use of nanoparticles in agriculture as fertilizer to enhance plant yield on one hand and their interaction with the cells of the innate immune system in animals on the other hand. So, public concern about their potential toxicity is increasing. ZnO NPs interact with cells and produce harmful effects in a dose dependent manner. The reactive oxygen species generation might be a reason for the toxicity of ZnO NPs. The toxicity is caused due to dissolved Zn++ ions by absorption which causes adverse effect on phagocytosis and oxidative stress by free radical while Withania somnifera induced the phagocytosis activity by antioxidant mechanism thus having protective effects. It is emphasized that further research is needed on the use of nanoparticles in agriculture, animal husbandry, and human health sector so that their safer levels for use could be ascertained.

Part of the book: Biochemical Toxicology

By Kavita Rani, Jitendra Kumar, Sonia Sangwan, Nampher Masharing, Murli Dhar Mitra and H.B. Singh

Food is a basic requirement for human life and well-being. On the other hand, diet is necessary for growth, health and defense, as well as regulating and assisting the symbiotic gut microbial communities that inhabit in the digestive tract, referred to as the gut microbiota. Diet influences the composition of the gut microbiota. The quality and quantity of diet affects their metabolism which creates a link between diet. The microorganisms in response to the type and amount of dietary intake. Dietary fibers, which includes non-digestible carbohydrates (NDCs) are neither neither-digested nor absorbed and are subjected to bacterial fermentation in the gastrointestinal tract resulting in the formation of different metabolites called SCFAs. The SCFAs have been reported to effect metabolic activities at the molecularlevel. Acetate affects the metabolic pathway through the G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) and free fatty acid receptor2 (FFAR2/GPR43) while butyrate and propionate transactivate the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARγ/NR1C3) and regulate the PPARγ target gene Angptl4 in colonic cells of the gut. The NDCs via gut microbiota dependent pathway regulate glucose homeostasis, gut integrity and hormone by GPCR, NF-kB, and AMPK-dependent processes. In this chapter, we will focus on dietary fibers, which interact directly with gut microbes and lead to the production of metabolites and discuss how dietary fiber impacts gut microbiota ecology, host physiology, and health and molecule mechanism of dietary fiber on signaling pathway that linked to the host health.

Part of the book: Dietary Fibers

By Jitendra Kumar, Priya Sharma, Murli Dhar Mitra, Sonia Sangwan and Haribrahma Singh

Food contains several components that are essential for health. Dietary fibres are nondigestible foods that play an important role in the maintenance of health. Nondigestible carbohydrates are an important constituent of the diet. Intestinal immunity is the bedrock of host health and holistic health maintained by nutrition and the existence of the host supported by immunity. The gastrointestinal immune barrier is exposed to the environment or food, and immunity is maintained by several factors. Dietary fibres exert molecular effects through the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and gut microbiota. Dietary fibres and microbial communities secrete metabolites that have the potential to regulate intestinal immunity. The gastrointestinal immune barrier is a primary target for dietary fibre metabolites, and these molecules exert a signalling effect on immune cells in the intestine. In the proposed chapter, we will discuss the molecular impact of dietary fibers on intestinal immunity and how innate immune response and gut microbiota are regulated by metabolites.

Part of the book: Immunology of the GI Tract