Effect of different drying techniques on the nutritional values of oyster mushroom (pleurotus sajor-caju)

Mushrooms are basically fungi, which have fleshy and spore-bearing fruiting body. This family of fungi literally has thousands of varieties of mushroom throughout the world. Oyster mushrooms are uniquely distinctive and they do look like oysters. Drying these mushroom confer a stabilizing property to it and then can be stored for a longer period. The nutritional values of the dried oyster mushroom with different drying techniques were thus determined. There were three different drying techniques used. These include low heat air blow (LHAB, AnjaadTM), sun drying (SD) and gas laboratory oven (LO) drying. All three samples were analyzed for beta-glucan content, water activity, colour, proximate analysis and dietary fibre concentration. The result showrd that LHAB method confers the lowest water activity compared with the other two drying methods. It also has the lowest colour measurement for brightness. Mushroom samples dried by LHAB techniques contain the highest concentration of both fat and carbohydrate compared with the other two methods. Besides, SD method confers the highest beta-glucan content. On the other hand, dietary fibres observed in LO dried samples contain the highest fibre content among the three drying treatments. In conclusion, LHAB method is recommended in reducing water activity and increasing proximate contents while both SD and LO are good in preserving beta-glucan and dietary fibre contents, respectively

Effect of partial replacement of wheat flour with oyster mushroom (Pleurotus sajor-caju) powder on nutritional composition and sensory properties of butter biscuit

Nutrient composition and sensory investigation of butter biscuits incorporated with various levels of grey oyster mushroom (Pleurotus sajor-caju, PSC) powder were studied. The biscuits were formulated with 0, 2, 4 or 6% of PSC powder to partially replace wheat flour. Our results showed that butter biscuit formulated with 6% PSC powder significantly (p≤ 0.05) recorded the highest protein content (6.94%) as compared with control (6.50%). Meanwhile, the addition of 2% PSC powder in biscuit does not affect the fat content (20.71%) compared with control (20.52%). Both biscuits containing 4% and 6% PSC powder recorded 5.34 g/ 100 g and 5.52 g/ 100 g total dietary fibre (TDF), respectively and significantly higher (p≤0.05) than control biscuit (4.84 g/ 100 g). Biscuits formulated with 4% and 6% PSC powder had significantly higher β-glucan concentration at 0.72 and 0.79 g/ 100 g than control biscuit (0.66 g/ 100 g). In the sensory evaluation, biscuits incorporated with 2% PSC powder had the highest scores for all sensory attributes except for crispiness and flavor. Butter biscuit containing 4% PSC powder had score values of 5.5 and 4.5 for crispiness and flavor, respectively. The present study suggested that incorporation of PSC powder up to 4% to replace wheat flour improved crispiness and flavour, increased concentration of protein, dietary fibre and β-glucan but did not affect the fat content of butter biscuit

Pencirian dan aktiviti antibakteria endofit Streptomyces sp. dari Hutan Simpan Penyelidikan UKM Bangi

Endofit yang bersimbiosis dengan tumbuhan merupakan mikroorganisma yang terdapat dalam satu sistem jaringan tumbuhan seperti pada akar, daun, batang atau ranting. Ianya dapat menghasilkan metabolit sekunder yang berpotensi untuk digunakan dalam bidang kesihatan sebagai sumber penghasilan antibiotik. Kajian ini bertujuan memencilkan endofit Streptomyces sp. daripada pelbagai tumbuhan ubatan endemik. Kesemua pencilan telah dikenalpasti melalui pemerhatian secara makroskopik dan mikroskopik. Sebanyak 28 pencilan (32%) yang bercirikan Streptomyces sp. telah berjaya dipencilkan menggunakan media pemencil ISP2. Kesemua pencilan adalah bergram positif, mempunyai filamen bercabang serta berbau tanah yang merupakan ciri penting Streptomyces sp. Daripada pemerhatian secara makroskopik, didapati kebanyakan koloni yang terbentuk mempunyai permukaan yang tidak rata serta bersifat kering berkapur. Warna miselium udara pencilan adalah berbeza iaitu kelabu, putih kuning, putih serta hijau kelabu. Selain itu, warna miselium substrat ialah putih kuning, coklat, jingga tua, hijau zaitun dan kelabu muda. Amat menarik kerana terdapat beberapa pencilan yang berbeza cirinya telah dipencilkan daripada pokok yang sama. Selain dari itu, terdapat beberapa pencilan yang mempunyai aktiviti antibakteria yang memberikan perencatan 100% terhadap bakteria ujian

Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif, Kuantitatif, dan Eksperimen

ilus, viii, 132 hlm, 21 cm

Prostate cancer cell proliferation is influenced by LDL-cholesterol availability and cholesteryl ester turnover

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer growth is driven by androgen receptor signaling, and advanced disease is initially treatable by depleting circulating androgens. However, prostate cancer cells inevitably adapt, resulting in disease relapse with incurable castrate-resistant prostate cancer. Androgen deprivation therapy has many side effects, including hypercholesterolemia, and more aggressive and castrate-resistant prostate cancers typically feature cellular accumulation of cholesterol stored in the form of cholesteryl esters. As cholesterol is a key substrate for de novo steroidogenesis in prostate cells, this study hypothesized that castrate-resistant/advanced prostate cancer cell growth is influenced by the availability of extracellular, low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-derived, cholesterol, which is coupled to intracellular cholesteryl ester homeostasis. METHODS: C4-2B and PC3 prostate cancer cells were cultured in media supplemented with fetal calf serum (FCS), charcoal-stripped FCS (CS-FCS), lipoprotein-deficient FCS (LPDS), or charcoal-stripped LPDS (CS-LPDS) and analyzed by a variety of biochemical techniques. Cell viability and proliferation were measured by MTT assay and Incucyte, respectively. RESULTS: Reducing lipoprotein availability led to a reduction in cholesteryl ester levels and cell growth in C4-2B and PC3 cells, with concomitant reductions in PI3K/mTOR and p38MAPK signaling. This reduced growth in LPDS-containing media was fully recovered by supplementation of exogenous low-density lipoprotein (LDL), but LDL only partially rescued growth of cells cultured with CS-LPDS. This growth pattern was not associated with changes in androgen receptor signaling but rather increased p38MAPK and MEK1/ERK/MSK1 activation. The ability of LDL supplementation to rescue cell growth required cholesterol esterification as well as cholesteryl ester hydrolysis activity. Further, growth of cells cultured in low androgen levels (CS-FCS) was suppressed when cholesteryl ester hydrolysis was inhibited. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, these studies demonstrate that androgen-independent prostate cancer cell growth can be influenced by extracellular lipid levels and LDL-cholesterol availability and that uptake of extracellular cholesterol, through endocytosis of LDL-derived cholesterol and subsequent delivery and storage in the lipid droplet as cholesteryl esters, is required to support prostate cancer cell growth. This provides new insights into the relationship between extracellular cholesterol, intracellular cholesterol metabolism, and prostate cancer cell growth and the potential mechanisms linking hypercholesterolemia and more aggressive prostate cancer.Nikki L. Raftopulos, Tinashe C. Washaya, Andreas Niederprüm, Antonia Egert, Mariam F. Hakeem-Sanni, Bianca Varney ... et al

Extracellular fatty acids are the major contributor to lipid synthesis in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer cells exhibit altered cellular metabolism but, notably, not the hallmarks of Warburg metabolism. Prostate cancer cells exhibit increased de novo synthesis of fatty acids (FA); however, little is known about how extracellular FAs, such as those in the circulation, may support prostate cancer progression. Here, we show that increasing FA availability increased intracellular triacylglycerol content in cultured patient-derived tumor explants, LNCaP and C4-2B spheroids, a range of prostate cancer cells (LNCaP, C4-2B, 22Rv1, PC-3), and prostate epithelial cells (PNT1). Extracellular FAs are the major source (∼83%) of carbons to the total lipid pool in all cell lines, compared with glucose (∼13%) and glutamine (∼4%), and FA oxidation rates are greater in prostate cancer cells compared with PNT1 cells, which preferentially partitioned extracellular FAs into triacylglycerols. Because of the higher rates of FA oxidation in C4-2B cells, cells remained viable when challenged by the addition of palmitate to culture media and inhibition of mitochondrial FA oxidation sensitized C4-2B cells to palmitate-induced apoptosis. Whereas in PC-3 cells, palmitate induced apoptosis, which was prevented by pretreatment of PC-3 cells with FAs, and this protective effect required DGAT-1-mediated triacylglycerol synthesis. These outcomes highlight for the first-time heterogeneity of lipid metabolism in prostate cancer cells and the potential influence that obesity-associated dyslipidemia or host circulating has on prostate cancer progression. IMPLICATIONS: Extracellular-derived FAs are primary building blocks for complex lipids and heterogeneity in FA metabolism exists in prostate cancer that can influence tumor cell behavior.Seher Balaban, Zeyad D. Nassar, Alison Y. Zhang, Elham Hosseini-Beheshti, Margaret M. Centenera, Mark Schreuder, Hui-Ming Lin, Atqiya Aishah, Bianca Varney, Frank Liu-Fu, Lisa S. Lee, Shilpa R. Nagarajan, Robert F. Shearer, Rae-Anne Hardie, Nikki L. Raftopulos, Meghna S. Kakani, Darren N. Saunders, Jeff Holst, Lisa G. Horvath, Lisa M. Butler, and Andrew J. Ho