Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) fats

Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) fruit is rich in carbohydrates, lipids, phosphorus, vitamin C, niacin, iron, calcium, copper, protein and fiber. Rambutan seed kernel fat (RSKF) can be a promising alternative edible fat that has the potential to be used in the food industry, especially to replace hydrogenated fat. The main fatty acids in RSKF are arachidic acid (38.3%) and oleic acid (37.1%). These two fatty acids covered 75.7% of the total fatty acids. RSKF exhibited several nutritional, biological and health promoting effects. This chapter reports on the chemical composition and health promoting impacts of RSKF

Expression of Proopiomelanocortin, Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone (CRH), and CRH Receptor in Melanoma Cells, Nevus Cells, and Normal Human Melanocytes

Proopiomelanocortin (POMC) is a 31kDa prohormone that is processed to various bioactive peptides, including adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), melanotropins (α, β, γ-MSH), lipotropins, and endorphins. POMC is expressed not only in the pituitary gland but also in a variety of nonpituitary organs and tumors, including melanomas. We previously showed that normal human melanocytes produce and secrete α-MSH and ACTH, and furthermore, that advanced melanoma cells generally produce higher amounts of POMC peptides that correlate with tumor progression. To elucidate the mechanism of this upregulation, the expression of genes encoding corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and its receptor, CRHR, as well as POMC and the MSH receptor (MC1-R), was evaluated by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction using cultured human melanoma cells, nevus cells, and normal melanocytes. Our results show that all melanocytic cells express CRH, CRH-R, POMC, and MC1-R, with highest intensities in melanoma cells. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry shows that CRH as well as POMC is strongly expressed in advanced melanomas, such as vertically growing lesions of acral lentiginous, nodular and metastatic melanomas, in contrast to negative expression in nevus cells. These results indicate that tumor progression accentuates CRH, CRH-R, and POMC expression by melanoma cells