Corrigendum: Lobectomy may be more appropriate for patients with early-stage medullary thyroid cancer older than 60 years old.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2022.1015319.].

Effects of in vitro digestion on protein degradation, phenolic compound release, and bioactivity of black bean tempeh.

The nutritional value and bioactivity of black beans are enhanced when fermented as tempeh, but their bioaccessibility and bioactivity after ingestion remain unclear. In this study, black bean tempeh and unfermented black beans were digested in vitro and changes in protein degradation, phenolic compound release, angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory activity, and antioxidant activity between the two groups were compared. We observed that the soluble protein content of digested black bean tempeh was generally significantly higher than that of digested unfermented black beans at the same digestion stage (P < 0.05). The degree of protein hydrolysis and the content of <10 kDa peptides were also significantly higher in the digested black bean tempeh than in digested unfermented black beans (P < 0.05). SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) analysis showed that most macromolecular proteins in tempeh had been degraded during fermentation and more of the small peptides were released from black bean tempeh during digestion, respectively. Compared to that of the unfermented black beans, the level of ACE inhibition of black bean tempeh was lower, but this significantly increased to 82.51% following digestion, closing the gap with unfermented black beans. In addition, the total respective levels of phenolics, flavonoids, and proanthocyanidins released from black bean tempeh were 1.21, 1.40, and 1.55 times those of unfermented black beans following in vitro digestion, respectively. Antioxidant activity was also significantly higher in digested black bean tempeh than in digested unfermented black beans and showed a positive correlation with phenolic compound contents (P < 0.05). The results of this study proved that, compared to unfermented black beans, black bean tempeh retained protein and phenolic compound bioaccessibility and antioxidant activity and showed an improved ACE-inhibitory activity even after consumption.

Preparation, partial characterization and biological activity of exopolysaccharides produced from Lactobacillus fermentum S1.

A high slime-producing Lactobacillus fermentum strain (named as L. fermentum S1) was isolated from traditional fermented Fuyuan pickle, which was made of white turnip and collected from Fuyuan county, Yunnan province, China. We extracted and purified the exopolysaccharides from L. fermentum S1, and investigated their preliminary structure characteristics and biological activities. Three purified exopolysaccharide fractions, designated as EPS1, EPS2 and EPS3, were obtained from the culture supernatant of L. fermentum S1 by ethanol precipitation, anion exchange and gel filtration chromatography. The EPS2 and EPS3 were homogeneous with molecular weights of 4.45 × 106 and 2.82 × 106 Da, respectively. All the purified EPS fractions were composed of glucose, galactose, mannose and arabinose, but with different molar ratios. EPS1, EPS2 and EPS3 presented different surface morphologies and their degradation temperatures were 302.7°C, 316.3°C and 316.9°C, respectively. Bioactivity research showed that L. fermentum S1 EPS elicited free radical scavenging capacity and ferric reducing antioxidant power, and 1 mg/mL of EPS significantly improved the gastrointestinal transit tolerance of non EPS-producing strain L. fermentum LG1. Moreover, S1 EPS had a favorable anti-biofilm activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. These results indicated that S1 EPS could be explored as a promising functional adjunct for application in foods.

Long noncoding RNA linc-UBC1 promotes tumor invasion and metastasis by regulating EZH2 and repressing E-cadherin in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

PURPOSE: Recent reports have shown that long noncoding (lnc) RNAs are critical during tumorigenesis. This study focused on the influence of linc-UBC1 on the metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and the underlying mechanism. METHODS: In 50 ESCC tissues and 5 ESCC cell lines, linc- UBC1 expression was detected by RT-qPCR. Moreover, correlation analysis was conducted between linc-UBC1 expression level and clinicopathological features. Overall survival of these ESCC patients was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method. In addition, wound healing assay and cell invasion assay were utilized to identify whether linc-UBC1 could affect the migration and invasion ability of ESCC cells. Western blotting and luciferase assay were used to explore the potential mechanism. RESULTS: In ESCC tissues, linc-UBC1 expression level was significantly higher and was remarkably related with clinical features such as TNM stage and nodal metastasis. Meanwhile, overall survival of ESCC patients with high expression of linc-UBC1 was significantly worse than that of patients with low expression. Besides, the migration and invasion ability of ESCC cells was inhibited via knockdown of linc-UBC1. Further study showed that knockdown of linc-UBC1 could suppress the protein level of EZH2 and promote the protein level of E-cadherin. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that linc-UBC1 is a novel oncogene in tumorigenesis and could promote the metastasis via EZH2 and E-cadherin, which may offer a possible therapeutic target in ESCC.

Hepatic Resection is Safe for Metachronous Hepatic Metastases from Ovarian Cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the efficacy of hepatic resection (HR) in a relatively unselected group of patients with ovarian cancer liver metastases (OCLM). METHODS: A study was conducted between September 2000 and September 2011 on 60 ovarian cancer patients with hepatic metastases (24 solitary and 36 multiple), 40 of whom had extrahepatic metastases. HR was done in all patients provided that curative hepatic resection was feasible, and extrahepatic disease was controlled with medical and/or surgical therapy. RESULTS: Most patients (n=54; 90.0%) had a negative hepatic margin (R0), whereas 6 patients (10.0%) had microscopic disease at the margin (R1). The prognostic value of each study variable was assessed using log rank tests for univariate analysis and Cox proportional hazard models for multivariate analysis. The result was a median survival of 39 months and 5-year overall survival rate of 30%. Univariate analysis showed that surgery result (P=0.001), disease free interval (P=0.018) and the number of hepatic lesions (P=0.018) were significantly related to survival. Furthermore, the surgery result (P=0.004) remained significant for prognosis in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: For patients with OCLM, HR is safe and may provide a significant survival benefit compared with medical therapy alone. A long interval time, the number of hepatic lesions, and surgery results are key prognostic factors. Favorable outcomes can be achieved even in patients with medically controlled or surgically resectable extrahepatic disease, indicating that surgery should be considered more frequently in the multidisciplinary care of patients with OCLM.