PhD defense Yang Cai

PhD defense Yang Cai
31 October 2021 CCC

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).

PhD defense Yan Cai