Discolored Red Seaweed Pyropia yezoensis with Low Commercial Value Is a Novel Resource for Production of Agar Polysaccharides

The red seaweed Pyropia yezoensis has been demonstrated to be a novel resource for the production of high-quality agar. P. yezoensis is grown for the food industry in large-scale Japanese mariculture operations. However, discolored P. yezoensis is mostly discarded as an industrial waste, although it has some kind of utility values. Here, we evaluated the utility of discolored P. yezoensis as a resource for agar production. The quality of agar from the discolored seaweed was comparable to that from normal seaweed. In addition, as a distinguishing characteristic, agar yield was higher from discolored seaweeds than from normal types. Moreover, we successfully used agar from discolored P. yezoensis for bacterial plate media and DNA electrophoresis gels without agarose purification. Thus, our results demonstrate that discolored P. yezoensis is suitable for agar production and use in life science research. Diverting discolored P. yezoensis from disposal to agar production provides a solution to the current industrial waste problem in mariculture, as well as a secure source of agar for research purposes

Optimization of yield and quality of agar polysaccharide isolated from the marine red macroalga Pyropia yezoensis

The marine red seaweed Pyropia yezoensis is grown on a large scale in Japan using mariculture for production of nori sheets. Here, we optimized the isolation of agar from P. yezoensis and evaluated its yield, physical properties, and product applications. An alkali pre-treatment of seaweeds before agar extraction increased the weight-average molecular weight of the agar and promoted the conversion of L-galactose sulfate to 3,6-anhydrogalactose, which in turn reduced the sulfate contents, thus altering the gel strength of the agar. This ability to adjust agar quality by altering the alkali concentration during material pre-treatment allowed production of agar with properties similar to those of agar from the red seaweed Gelidium sp., which is widely used for industrial agar applications. We demonstrate the suitability of P. yezoensis agar in production of solid plates for bacterial growth. In addition, the P. yezoensis agar was particularly useful as a gel material, with the capacity for excellent size separation of DNA by electrophoresis even without agarose purification, because of quite low contents of sulfate. These findings support the applicability and usefulness of P. yezoensis for agar production. The established large-scale cultivation methods for P. yezoensis can generate sufficient biomass to produce agar to support medical and biological studies

Long-Term Survival in a Case of Pleomorphic Carcinoma with a Brain Metastasis

Pleomorphic carcinoma (PC) is a rare malignant lung tumor with a poorer prognosis compared to other histological types of non-small cell lung cancer. However, several recent immunohistochemical studies revealed that a low MIB-1 index is a good prognostic marker in patients with PC. We report the case of a patient with PC and a single brain metastasis that achieved long-term recurrence-free survival following treatment with combined modality therapy. In this case, the MIB-1 index was reduced by gemcitabine-based chemotherapy, which may have led to long-term disease-free survival. The MIB-1 index may be a useful biomarker for the response to chemotherapy

Surgical and survival outcomes of lung cancer patients with intratumoral lung abscesses

Abstract Background Intratumoral lung abscess is a secondary lung abscess that is considered to be fatal. Therefore, surgical procedures, although high-risk, have sometimes been performed for intratumoral lung abscesses. However, no studies have examined the surgical outcomes of non-small cell lung cancer patients with intratumoral lung abscesses. The aim of this study was to investigate the surgical and survival outcomes of non-small cell lung cancer patients with intratumoral lung abscesses. Methods Eleven consecutive non-small cell lung cancer patients with intratumoral lung abscesses, who had undergone pulmonary resection at our institution between January 2007 and December 2015, were retrospectively analysed. The post-operative prognoses were investigated and prognostic factors were evaluated. Results Ten of 11 patients were male and one patient was female. The median age was 64 (range, 52–80) years. Histopathologically, 4 patients had Stage IIA, 2 patients had Stage IIB, 2 patients had Stage IIIA, and 3 patients had Stage IV tumors. The median operative time was 346 min and the median amount of bleeding was 1327 mL. The post-operative morbidity and mortality rates were 63.6% and 0.0%, respectively. Recurrence of respiratory infections, including lung abscesses, was not observed in all patients. The median post-operative observation period was 16.1 (range, 1.3–114.5) months. The 5-year overall survival rate was 43.3%. No pre-operative, intra-operative, or post-operative prognostic factors were identified in the univariate analyses. Conclusion Surgical procedures for advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer patients with intratumoral lung abscesses, although high-risk, led to satisfactory post-operative mortality rates and acceptable prognoses

Preoperative detection of pleural adhesions by respiratory dynamic computed tomography

Abstract Background Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) plays an important role in thoracic surgery because it is less invasive. However, the existence of severe pleural adhesions may make VATS difficult and complicated. The aim of this study was to assess the utility of inspiration and expiration computed tomography (respiratory dynamic CT (RD-CT)) in evaluation of pleural adhesions preoperatively. Methods RD-CT was performed on 107 patients undergoing thoracotomies (both VATS and open). We assessed synchronous motion during respiration on RD-CT. Comparing the results of RD-CT and intraoperative findings, we assessed the utility of preoperative evaluation. Results A negative correlation between sliding score and adhesion grade was revealed. Sliding score in adhesion negative patients was significantly higher than that in adhesion positive patients (P < 0.0001). The sensitivity of RD-CT was 63.6%, specificity was 74.1%, and accuracy was 72%. Among 62 patients with a CT-Respiration Ratio of less than 0.65, the sensitivity of RD-CT was 77.8%, specificity was 86.8%, and accuracy was 85.5%. Conclusions RD-CT may be clinically useful for detecting the presence of pleural adhesions. It can be adopted as one of the criteria for deciding the surgical approach