Autophagy-induced RelB/p52 activation mediates tumour-associated macrophage repolarisation and suppression of hepatocellular carcinoma by natural compound baicalin

Open Access JournalThe plasticity of tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) has implicated an influential role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Repolarisation of TAM towards M1 phenotype characterises an immune-competent microenvironment that favours tumour regression. To investigate the role and mechanism of TAM repolarisation in suppression of HCC by a natural compound baicalin, Orthotopic HCC implantation model was used to investigate the effect of baicalin on HCC; liposome-clodronate was introduced to suppress macrophage populations in mice; bone marrow-derived monocytes (BMDMs) were induced to unpolarised, M1-like, M2-like macrophages and TAM using different conditioned medium. We observed that oral administration of baicalin (50 mg/kg) completely blocked orthotopic growth of implanted HCC. Suppression of HCC by baicalin was diminished when mice macrophage was removed by clodronate treatment. Baicalin induced repolarisation of TAM to M1-like phenotype without specific toxicity to either phenotype of macrophages. Baicalin initiated TAM reprogramming to M1-like macrophage, and promoted pro-inflammatory cytokines production. Co-culturing of HCC cells with baicalin-treated TAMs resulted in reduced proliferation and motility in HCC. Baicalin had minimal effect on derivation of macrophage polarisation factors by HCC cells, while directly induced repolarisation of TAM and M2-like macrophage. This effect was associated with elevated autophagy, and transcriptional activation of RelB/p52 pathway. Suppression of autophagy or RelB abolished skewing of baicalin-treated TAM. Autophagic degradation of TRAF2 in baicalin-treated TAM might be responsible for RelB/p52 activation. Our findings unveil the essential role of TAM repolarisation in suppressive effect of baicalin on HCC, which requires autophagy-associated activation of RelB/p52.published_or_final_versio

Determination of sodium fatty acid in soap Formulation Using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and multivariate calibrations.

Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy using an attenuated total reflectance (ATR) accessory has been investigated as a method for the determination of sodium-fatty acid (sodium-FA) in soap formulations. Multivariate calibrations namely partial least squares regression (PLS) and principle component regression (PCR) were developed for the prediction of sodium-FA using spectral ranges on the basis of relevant IR absorption bands related to sodium-FA. The sodium-FA content in soap formulations was predicted accurately at wavenumbers of 1,570–1,550 cm−1, which is specific for RCOO− Na+ vibration. The PLS method was found to be a consistently better predictor when both PLS and principal component regression (PCR) analyses were used for quantification of sodium-FA. Furthermore, FTIR spectroscopy can be an alternative technique to American oil Chemist Society methods which use a titrimetric technique because FTIR offers rapid, easy sample preparation and is friendly to the environment

Rheological, chemical and DSC thermal characteristics of different types of palm oil/palm stearin-based shortenings

This study was carried out to evaluate the physical and chemical properties of different types of shortenings, formulated by mixing refined, bleached, and deodorized palm oil and palm stearin (PO:PS) in the following ratios: 100:0, 80:20, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60 and 20:80 and 0:100. The properties of experimental and commercial shortenings were investigated using four different analytical techniques, namely high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and controlled stress rheometer. In addition, iodine value (IV) analysis was carried out. The results revealed that the prominent fatty acids in the products were palmitic (44.88-61.91%), oleic (26.24-39.14%) and linoleic (6.13-11.68%). At the same time, triacyglycerols (TAG), such as OOO, OOP and OOS, were found to decrease, while PPO increased due to the increase in the palm stearin content of the shortenings. Higher viscosity and more storage (G′) or loss (G″) modulus properties were noted in the experimental and commercial shortenings containing higher and lower concentrations of palm stearin and palm oil, respectively. Certain parameters such as the onset, peak and endset temperatures (ºC) were detected for both the melting and cooling data. However, increasing the palm stearin concentrations in the samples was shown to have caused increases in the endset temperature and peak height, and vice versa. Thus, chemical and physical properties of the formulated shortenings may influence the quality of baked products

Quantification and Classification of Corn and Sunflower Oils as Adulterants in Olive Oil Using Chemometrics and FTIR Spectra

Commercially, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is subjected to be adulterated with low-price oils having similar color to EVOO. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometrics has been successfully used for classification and quantification of corn (CO) and sunflower oils (SFOs) in EVOO sets. The combined frequency regions of 3027–3000, 1076–860, and 790–698 cm−1 were used for classification and quantification of CO in EVOO; meanwhile, SFO was analyzed using frequency regions of 3025–3000 and 1400–985 cm−1. Discriminant analysis can make classification of pure EVOO and EVOO adulterated with CO and SFO with no misclassification reported. The presence of CO in EVOO was determined with the aid of partial least square calibration using FTIR normal spectra. The calibration and validation errors obtained in CO's quantification are 0.404 and 1.13%, respectively. Meanwhile, the first derivative FTIR spectra and PLS calibration model were preferred for quantification of SFO in EVOO with high coefficient of determination (R2) and low errors, either in calibration or in validation sample sets

Use of the SAW sensor electronic nose for detecting the adulteration of virgin coconut oil with RBD palm kernel olein.

An electronic nose (zNose™) was applied to the detection of adulteration of virgin coconut oil. The system, which is based on a surface acoustic wave sensor was used to generate a pattern of volatile compounds present in the samples. Virgin coconut oil was mixed with refined, bleached and deodorized palm kernel olein at a level of adulteration from 1 to 20% (wt/wt). Adulterant peaks were identified from the chromatogram profile and fitted to a curve using linear regression. The best relationship (R 2 = 0.91) was obtained between the peak tentatively identified as methyl dodecanoate and the percentage of palm kernel olein added. Pearson’s correlation coefficients (r) of 0.92 and 0.89 were obtained between adulterant peak methyl dodecanoate and of the iodine and peroxide values, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to differentiate between pure and adulterated samples. The PCA provided good differentiation of samples with 74% of the variation accounted for by PC 1 and 17% accounted for by PC 2. Pure samples formed a separate cluster from all of the adulterated samples

Determination of iodine value of palm oil based on triglyceride composition

The triglyceride (TG) composition of palm oil is normally determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The HPLC chromatograms indicated a good separation of most of the TG components in the oil. The TG can be classified based on either the TG groups, i.e., triunsaturated, monosaturated, disaturated, or trisaturated, or the number of double bonds, i.e., zero, one, two, three, or four double bonds. The more unsaturated the fatty acid, the greater the iodine value (IV). Therefore, it is hypothesized that the IV of an oil can be determined based upon the TG composition of the oil. Based on the TG groups, stepwise regression analysis showed that the areas of the disaturated, trisaturated, and triunsaturated TG peaks could predict the IV with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.990. The regression based on the number of double bonds yielded a good regression equation with R2=0.992. The important variables were the peak area of the fatty acids that contained zero, one, two, and three double bonds. This study concludes that the TG composition can be used to predict the IV of palm oil. The best prediction model is obtained by using the number of double bonds in the TG as the independent variable

Enzymatic hydrolysis of palm olein with mycelium-bound lipase of Aspergillus flavus Link (Hydrolysis minyak olein menggunakan lipase terikat miselium daripada Aspergillus flavus Link)

Abstrak Hidrolisis minyak olein menggunakan lipase-terikat miselium daripada Aspergillus flavus Link telah dikaji. Komposisi asid lemak, profil triasigliserol dan sifat lebur minyak olein sebelum dan selepas 72 jam tindak balas dibandingkan. Kepekatan asid palmitik didapati menurun sedikit diikuti dengan pertambahan asid oleik dan asid linolenik pada minyak tersebut. Kepekatan bandingan bagi triasigliserol tri-tak tepu, minyak olein terubahsuai yang mempunyai takat lebur rendah, seperti trioleoil gliserol, oleoil-dilinoleiol gliserol dan dioleoil oleoil gliserol, didapati meningkat, manakala kepekatan triasigliserol yang mempunyai takat lebur tinggi seperti dipalmitoil-oleoil gliserol dan palmitoil-oleoil steroil gliserol berkurangan kecuali tripalmitoil gliserol. Julat lebur bagi minyak olein terubah suai selepas tindak balas didapati menjadi lebar, iaitu apabila minyak mula lebur (X 1 ) pada suhu -28 °C dan lebur keseluruhannya (X 2 ) pada suhu 45 °C. Abstract Hydrolysis of palm olein was studied using mycelium-bound lipase of Aspergillus flavus Link. The fatty acid composition, triacylglycerol profile and melting properties of the palm olein before and after 72 h hydrolysis were compared. A slight decrease of palmitic acid and increase in oleic acid and linolenic acid concentrations in palm olein was noted. The relative concentration of triunsaturated triacylglycerol, low melting glycerides, such as trioleoyl glycerol, oleoyl-dilinoleoyl glycerol and dioleoyl-linoleoyl glycerol of modified palm olein was increased while the relative concentration of high melting glycerides e.g. dipalmitoyl-oleoyl glycerol and palmitoyl-oleoyl-steroyl glycerol was decreased except for tripalmitoyl glycerol. The melting range of modified palm olein tends to be broad, that is it starts melting (X 1 ) at -28 °C and totally melted (X 2 ) at 45 °C

Lunasin and Bowman-Birk Protease Inhibitor Concentrations of Protein Extracts from Enzyme-Assisted Aqueous Extraction of Soybeans

Lunasin and Bowman-Birk protease inhibitor (BBI) are two soybean peptides to which health-promoting properties have been attributed. Concentrations of these peptides were determined in skim fractions produced by enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction processing (EAEP) of extruded full-fat soybean flakes (an alternative to extracting oil from soybeans with hexane) and compared with similar extracts from hexane-defatted soybean meal. Oil and protein were extracted by using countercurrent twostage EAEP of soybeans at 1:6 solids-to-liquid ratio, 50C, pH 9.0, and 120 rpm for 1 h. Protein-rich skim fractions were produced from extruded full-fat soybean flakes using different enzyme strategies in EAEP: 0.5% protease (wt/g extruded flakes) used in both extraction stages; 0.5% protease used only in the second extraction stage; no enzyme used in either extraction stage. Countercurrent two-stage protein extraction of air-desolventized, hexane-defatted soybean flakes was used as a control. Protein extraction yields increased from 66% to 89-96% when using countercurrent two-stage EAEP with extruded full-fat flakes compared to 85% when using countercurrent two-stage protein extraction of air-desolventized, hexane-defatted soybean flakes. Extruding full-fat soybean flakes reduced BBI activity. Enzymatic hydrolysis reduced BBI contents of EAEP skims. Lunasin, however, was more resistant to both enzymatic hydrolysis and heat denaturation. Although using enzymes in both EAEP extraction stages yielded the highest protein and oil extractions, reducing enzyme use to only the second stage preserved much of the BBI and Lunasin

Extraction of coconut oil with Lactobacillus plantarum 1041 IAM

Extraction of coconut oil with a pure culture of Lactobacillus plantarum 1041 IAM was investigated. Grated coconut meat and water at 30, 50, and 70°C were mixed in various ratios (1:1, 1:2, and 1:3) and allowed to settle for 2–6 h. The most efficient coconut cream separation was obtained at the 1:1 ratio of grated coconut meat to water at 70°C, followed by 6 h settling time. Fermentation was then conducted on coconut cream emulsion with the sample from 1:1 ratio, 70°C, and 6-h settling time. Oil yield from the fermentation process with 5% inoculum of L. plantarum 1041 IAM after 10 h at 40°C was 95.06% Quality characteristics of the extracted oil were as follows: moisture content, 0.04%; peroxide value, 5.8 meq oxygen/kg; anisidine value, 2.10; free fatty acid, 2.45%; iodine value, 4.9; and color, 0.6 (Y + 5R). Extraction of coconut oil from coconut meat with L. plantarum 1041 IAM was significantly improved in both oil yield and quality over the traditional wet process

Determination of free fatty acids in crude palm oil and refined-bleached-deodorized palm olein using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

A rapid direct Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic method using a 100 µ BaF2 transmission cell was developed for the determination of free fatty acid (FFA) in crude palm oil (CPO) and refined-bleached-deodorized (RBD) palm olein, covering an analytical range of 3.0–6.5% and 0.07–0.6% FFA, respectively. The samples were prepared by hydrolyzing oil with enzyme in an incubator. The optimal calibration models were constructed based on partial least squares (PLS) analysis using the FTIR carboxyl region (C=O) from 1722 to 1690 cm−1. The resulting PLS calibrations were linear over the range tested. The standard errors of calibration (SEC) obtained were 0.08% FFA for CPO with correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.992 and 0.01% FFA for RBD palm olein with R2 of 0.994. The standard errors of performance (SEP) were 0.04% FFA for CPO with R2 of 0.998 and 0.006% FFA for RBD palm olein with R2 of 0.998, respectively. In terms of reproducibility (r) and accuracy (a), both FTIR and chemical methods showed comparable results. Because of its simpler and more rapid analysis, which is less than 2 min per sample, as well as the minimum use of solvents and labor, FTIR has an advantage over the wet chemical method