Towards the development of an energy efficient microalgae biodiesel process

Biofuel is a powerful energy source to replace fossil fuels and has received much attention in recent years. This project used microalgae Chlorella Sorokiniana UTEX-1230 to produce the biodiesel. The process included cell cultivation, harvesting, lipid extraction, and transesterification. There are two different processes that have been evaluated in this project: the base line and the modified process. These two processes have the same biofuel production steps including cultivation, harvesting, lipid extraction, and transesterification. In this project, different conditions were used in cultivation and the highest lipid content obtained was ~50% (w/w) after eight cultivation days. After cultivation, the biomass was harvested for the lipid extraction and the transesterification. The base line process, which was the benchmark, was established using centrifugation followed by ultrasonication, and acid catalysed transesterification. This process can reach high lipid extraction yield (~50%) and conversion performance (90%), but the energy requirement was relatively high. Thus, a modified processes were established. A flocculation step was added before centrifugation to reduce the sample volume, which can reduce the energy requirement. Enzymes or ethanol were used in cell breaking stage and lipid conversion stage to decrease the energy input. Moreover, chloroform was replaced by hexane in the modified process during lipid extraction due to the low cost, easy of recovery, and low toxicity. Then, enzyme transesterification was used to replace the acid transesterification. The modified process aimed to have the same process performance and lower energy input than the base line. Two modified process where established in this project to reduce the energy input with wet biomass and have a similar FAME produce performance. The base line performance was 48.26%. The modified process 1 performance was 17.57% and modified process 2 performance was 17.26%. The performances of modified processes were still lower than that of base line. However, the energy requirements of modified process 1 (11.40% of base line) and modified process 2 (12.08% of base line) were much lower than base line. Besides, when not considering about the waste of cultivation material and with the same energy input, the power output ratio of modified process 1 to baseline was 325%. The power output ratio of modified process 2 to baseline was 275%. The power output ratio of modified process 2 was lower than modified process 1 and both modified processes were higher than the baseline. These results indicated that in this project, both modified processes can have higher energy output than the baseline when under same energy input

The Protecting Effects and Mechanisms of Baicalin and Octreotide on Heart Injury in Rats with SAP

Purpose. To observe the protecting effects and mechanisms of Baicalin and Octreotide on heart injury in rats with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). Methods. The SAP rat models were randomly divided into the model group, Baicalin-treated group, Octreotide treated group, and sham operation group. The contents of some inflammatory indexes in blood were determined. The rat mortality, pathological changes of heart, the changes of NF-κB, P-Selectin, Bax, Bcl-2, and Caspase-3 protein expression levels as well as apoptotic index were observed in all groups, respectively, at 3 hours, 6 hours, and 12 hours after operation. Results. The survival rate of model group was less than treated groups at 12 hours, difference was significant. The contents of some inflammatory indexes of the treated groups were lower than those of the model group to various degrees at different time points. The pathological myocardial changes under light microscope were milder in treated groups than in model group. The changes of NF-κB, P-Selectin, Bax, Bcl-2, and Caspase-3 protein expression levels in all groups were different. There was only a case of myocardial cell apoptosis in an Octreotide-treated group at 6 hours. Conclusion. Baicalin and Octreotide have protecting effects on heart injury of rats with SAP

Biphasic effects of perfluorooctanoic acid on steroidogenesis in mouse Leydig tumour cells

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a persistent organic pollutant, which may possess endocrine disrupting properties. Herein, we investigated the possible mechanism(s) of toxicity and steroidogenesis in mouse Leydig cells. MLTC-1 (mouse Leydig tumour cells) cells were exposed to 0, 50, 100 or 200 μM PFOA for 48 h to ascertain their effects on the nuclear (membrane) receptor responses, steroidogenesis pathway and related regulated gene expression and steroid hormone secretion profiles. Our results reveal that nuclear receptors PXR, SR-B1 and LHR are sensitive to PFOA exposure. PFOA can accumulate in mitochondria and alter cholesterol precursor (fatty acid) mitochondrial transport process-related gene expression and thus inhibit steroid hormone precursor (cholesterol) production. In particular, PFOA exhibits biphasic effects on testosterone and progesterone production at differing levels of exposure. These findings indicate the potential endocrine-related effects of PFOA on steroid hormone secretion in Leydig cells and point to a novel disruption model. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Opportunities and Challenges for ChatGPT and Large Language Models in Biomedicine and Health

ChatGPT has drawn considerable attention from both the general public and domain experts with its remarkable text generation capabilities. This has subsequently led to the emergence of diverse applications in the field of biomedicine and health. In this work, we examine the diverse applications of large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, in biomedicine and health. Specifically we explore the areas of biomedical information retrieval, question answering, medical text summarization, information extraction, and medical education, and investigate whether LLMs possess the transformative power to revolutionize these tasks or whether the distinct complexities of biomedical domain presents unique challenges. Following an extensive literature survey, we find that significant advances have been made in the field of text generation tasks, surpassing the previous state-of-the-art methods. For other applications, the advances have been modest. Overall, LLMs have not yet revolutionized the biomedicine, but recent rapid progress indicates that such methods hold great potential to provide valuable means for accelerating discovery and improving health. We also find that the use of LLMs, like ChatGPT, in the fields of biomedicine and health entails various risks and challenges, including fabricated information in its generated responses, as well as legal and privacy concerns associated with sensitive patient data. We believe this first-of-its-kind survey can provide a comprehensive overview to biomedical researchers and healthcare practitioners on the opportunities and challenges associated with using ChatGPT and other LLMs for transforming biomedicine and health

Phthalates Induce Androgenic Effects at Exposure Levels That Can Be Environmentally Relevant in Humans

Although anti-androgenic activity of various lipophilic chain phthalate acid esters (PAEs) has been reported in high-dose animal studies, their male reproductive risk remains a matter of debate because of conflicting epidemiological observations. Recently, we showed that PAEs acted as a preventative factor in male infertility, which implies these chemicals are androgenic in human steroidogenesis. To verify the androgenic observation, a reproductive age healthy male cohort (n = 84) was recruited by following a cross-sectional study design, in which infertility or clinical selection-introduced bias was avoided. Urine was used for both PAE exposure monitoring and androgen measurements, and sampling uncertainty was greatly reduced. Eight selected metabolites (i.e., MMP, MEP, MBP, MEHP, MBzP, MEHHP, MECPP, and MEOHP) and two androgens, i.e., androstenedione (ASD) and testosterone, were measured by using HPLC–MS/MS. Except for MBzP, the selected phthalates can be detected in all samples at concentrations (median [5th–95th percentile]) of 36.4 [2.0–261.0], 36.7 [5.6–318.5], 75.3 [13.1–301.0], 3.2 [1.1–10.2], 3.8 [0.6–11.9], 13.6 [1.6–51.1], and 7.4 [0.9–31.8] ng/mL for MMP, MEP, MBP, MEHP, MEOHP, MECPP, and MEHHP, respectively. Urinary PAE metabolites generally correlated with ASD and testosterone in positive ways; the trends are most significant for MMP, MEP, MBP, and ∑DEHP versus ASD and for ∑DEHP versus testosterone. This study reveals that the phenotypic effect of our participants’ exposure to PAEs at the typical environmental relevant exposure level is androgenic, which counters the notion of the well-accepted anti-androgenic effect

Enhancement of Innate Immune Function in Mice by Bifidobacterium bifidum FL-228.1

In this study, eight potential functional strains were selected to interfered with RAW264.7 murine macrophages and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Then, changes in phagocytic activity of RAW264.7 cells and natural killer (NK) cell activity were detected and the screened potential probiotics were further intervened in BALB/c mice to explore their immunomodulatory efficacy in vivo. In cell experiments, the results showed that the intervention of different strains significantly increased the phagocytic activity of RAW264.7 cells (P0.05). In conclusion, Bifidobacterium bifidum FL-228.1 can improve innate immune function and have a more comprehensive effect on the immune system by regulating immune cell activity, cytokine expression and mRNA levels of immune molecules related to antimicrobial peptides

Gene-environment interactions between GSTs polymorphisms and targeted epigenetic alterations in hepatocellular carcinoma following organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) exposure

Exposure to environmental pollutant organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and the role of tumour suppressor GSTs gene polymorphisms as well as epigenetic alterations have all been well reported in hepatocarcinogenesis. However, the interplay between environmental risk factors and polymorphic tumour suppressor genes or epigenetic factors in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development remains ambiguous. Herein, we investigated the relationship of three GSTs polymorphisms (GSTT1 deletion, GSTM1 deletion, GSTP1 rs1695) as well as GSTP1 promoter region DNA methylation and HCC risk with a particular focus on the interaction with OCPs exposure among 90 HCC cases and 99 controls in a Chinese population. Serum samples were analysed for OCPs exposure employing gas chromatography coupled with mass selective detector (GC-MS). GSTs polymorphisms and epigenetic alterations were determined using high-resolution melting PCR (HRM PCR) and DNA sequencing. After adjusting for confounders (HBV infection, smoking, alcohol consumption, BMI, age, gender), OCPs exposure and GSTP1 methylation is significantly associated with elevated risk of HCC, while no significance is observed for GSTs polymorphisms. Moreover, the effects of OCPs exposure on HCC risk are more pronounced amongst GSTP1 (Ile/Val + Val/Val) and GSTP1 promoter methylation subjects than those who were GSTP1 (Ile/Ile) and unmethylated subjects. The interactions between OCPs exposure and GSTP1 genotype as well as GSTP1 epigenetic status are statistically significant. The current study demonstrates the importance of gene-environment interactions in the multifactorial development of HCC. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Phthalate side side-chain structures and hydrolysis metabolism associated with steroidogenic effects in MLTC-1 Leydig cells

Although it is well acknowledged that the anti-androgenic phthalate diesters can be readily hydrolysed into their monoester counterparts, their metabolites’ toxicology remains obscure. Herein, we tested the hypothesis that hydrolysis of one of the two ester bonds can mediate phthalate diesters’ potential endocrine effects in MLTC-1 Leydig cells, in line with their ability to disrupt androgen secretion in humans. Five diesters (DMP, DEP, DBP, DBzP and DEHP) and five monoesters (MMP, MEP, MBP, MBzP and MEHP) phthalates as mixtures or individually were applied to cell lines to investigate differences in phthalates’ hydrolysis associated with varying side-chain structures and steroidogenic effects. Short-chain diesters DMP, DEP and DBP are more readily hydrolysed compared to the long-chain DEHP, while aromatic alkyl chain DBzP cannot be metabolized completely in vitro. When the hydrolysis processes are interrupted, the diester phthalates’ steroidogenic effects can be influenced via regulating related steroidogenic pathway genes. With 10 to 100 μM treatment exposures, androgenic effects were observed only with DMP or DEP but not for MMP or MEP; while the phthalate diesters DBP, DBzP or DEHP generally exhibited more complex steroidogenic effects than their corresponding monoester counterparts (i.e., biphasic androgen and anti-androgen effects for diesters but monotonic androgen effects for monoesters were observed). DBP elicited hydrolysis-related steroidogenic modulation, in which the anti-androgenic effects of diester DBP reversed into the androgenic effects of monoester MBP at 100 μM. Phthalate metabolites appear to exert different effects at an endocrine level compared to parent compounds, and deeper insights into how the hydrolytic process is related to this alternating toxicity would improve our understanding of a risk assessment for these widespread contaminants in male reproduction