Biomarkers of intestinal barrier function in multiple sclerosis are associated with disease activity.

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence suggests a role for the gut-brain axis in the pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis (MS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied biomarkers of intestinal permeability in 126 people with MS (57 relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and 69 progressive MS) and in a group of healthy controls for comparison. Serum/plasma concentrations of zonulin (a regulator of enterocyte tight junctions), tight junction proteins (ZO-1 and occludin), intestinal fatty acid binding protein (IFABP)/ileal bile acid binding protein (IBABP), D-lactate, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) binding protein were measured. RESULTS: Zonulin concentrations were significantly higher when a concurrent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmed the presence of blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption (Gad+ RRMS) and were correlated with tight junction proteins. IBABP and D-lactate were elevated in people with RRMS compared to controls, but did not discriminate between Gad+ and Gad- subgroups. Baseline zonulin concentrations were associated with 1-year disease progression in progressive MS. CONCLUSIONS: People with MS have altered biomarkers of intestinal barrier integrity. Zonulin concentrations are associated with 1-year disease progression in progressive MS and closely mirror BBB breakdown in RRMS. Zonulin may mediate breakdown of both the intestinal barrier and the BBB in gut dysbiosis through the regulation of tight junctions. This could explain how the gut-brain axis modulates neuroinflammation in MS.

4-Year Trajectory of Visceral Adiposity Index in the Development of Type 2 Diabetes: A Prospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Our aim was to evaluate whether visceral adiposity index (VAI) could predict the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in different genders and to compare the predictive ability between VAI and other fatness indices. METHODS: Four thousand seventy-eight participants including 1,817 men and 2,261 women, aged 18 and older and free of T2D at baseline were enrolled in 2010 and followed up for 4 years. New cases of T2D were identified via the annual medical examination. Cox regression analysis was used to assess the association between VAI and incidence of T2D. Receiver operating characteristic curve and area under the curves (AUC) were applied to compare the prediction ability of T2D between VAI and other fatness indices. RESULTS: During the 4-year follow-up, 153 (8.42%) of 1,817 men and 88 (3.89%) of 2,261 women developed T2D. The multivariable-adjusted hazards ratios for developing T2D in the highest tertile of VAI scores were 2.854 (95% CI 1.815-4.487) in men and 3.551 (95% CI 1.586-7.955) in women. The AUC of VAI was not higher than that of other fatness indices. CONCLUSIONS: VAI could predict the risk of T2D among Chinese adults, especially in women. However, the prediction ability of T2D risk for VAI was not higher than that of the other fatness indices.

Comparison of the effect of high fruit and soybean products diet and standard diet interventions on serum uric acid in asymptomatic hyperuricemia adults: an open randomized controlled trial.

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of high fruit and soybean products diet and standard diet interventions on serum uric acid (SUA) in asymptomatic hyperuricemia adults. A total of 187 Chinese adults (20-59 years old) with asymptomatic hyperuricemia participated in this randomized trial and were assigned to receive the standard diet recommended by guideline (group 1) and high fruit and soybean products diet (group 2) for 3 months. The outcome of SUA was assessed before and at the end of the intervention period. After 3 months, the SUA in group 1 and group 2 was significant reduced, whereas the SUA was not significantly changed in-between groups. These data suggest that over a 3-month period, although the high fruit and soybean products diet and standard diet interventions yield no different effects on SUA, the high fruit and soybean products dietary intervention could be an effective alternative to a standard diet for achieving clinically important reductions in SUA for asymptomatic hyperuricemia patients.

Dietary patterns and changes in cardiovascular risk factors in apparently healthy Chinese women: a longitudinal study.

Little is known of the relationships between dietary patterns and cardiovascular risk factors in China. We therefore designed a 3-year longitudinal study to evaluate the impacts of dietary patterns on changes in these factors among Chinese women. A total of 1,028 subjects who received health examination in 2011 and 2014 were recruited. Three major dietary patterns ("vegetable pattern", "meat pattern", and "animal offal-dessert-and-alcohol pattern") were derived by principal component analysis based on validated food frequency questionnaires. Cardiovascular risk factors were standardized to create within-cohort z-scores and the changes in them were calculated as the differences between 2011 and 2014. Relationships between dietary patterns and changes in cardiovascular risk factors were assessed using general linear model. After adjustment for potential confounders, changes in total cholesterol and fasting blood glucose decreased across the tertiles of vegetable pattern (p for trend = 0.01 and 0.04, respectively). While, changes in diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol increased across the tertiles of animal offal-dessert-and-alcohol pattern (p for trend = 0.02, 0.01, and 0.02, respectively). The findings suggest that vegetable pattern was beneficially related to cardiovascular risk factors, whereas animal offal-dessert-and-alcohol pattern was detrimental related to these factors among apparently healthy Chinese women.

Feasibility study to assess lesion repair in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: A randomized controlled pilot clinical trial of domperidone add-on treatment.

BACKGROUND: Identification of therapies to promote repair in multiple sclerosis is challenged by the lack of an accepted trial model and associated outcome measures. The goal of this study was to determine the feasibility of a new trial model that enrolls disease modifying therapy (DMT)-treated relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) participants who have enhancing lesions on clinically indicated brain MRI, and to explore estimates of lesion repair using MRI. METHODS: This was a single site randomized controlled clinical trial. Recruitment took place between November 2015 and January 2019, with final follow-up in February 2019. DMT-treated RRMS participants aged 18-60 years with at least one gadolinium-enhancing lesion on clinically indicated brain MRI were included. Participants were randomized 2:1 to oral domperidone add-on 10-mg three times daily for 16 weeks or no add-on treatment (control). The primary outcomes were feasibility of the model pre-defined as recruitment of 24 participants within 36 months with a 79 % completion rate, and MRI outcomes of lesion repair measured at 16 and 32 weeks using texture analysis, magnetization transfer imaging (MTI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The impact of domperidone on serum prolactin at 6 and 16 weeks was also evaluated. RESULTS: Of 237 RRMS participants screened, 17 (14 women) were randomized: 12 to domperidone add-on and 5 to control. All completed the study. Median (range) age was 38.9 (26.7-55.9) years; EDSS was 1.5 (1.0-3.5); and disease duration was 12.9 (2.9-23.3) years. Both groups showed improvement in MRI texture and diffusion fractional anisotropy (FA) at 32 weeks, and the domperidone group demonstrated additional recovery at 16 weeks in both texture and FA. There was no significant group difference in any MRI outcome. Of the 12 domperidone participants, 7 had ≥4x higher serum prolactin than normal. There were no serious adverse events. CONCLUSION: The recruitment target was not met and therefore the trial model was not feasible despite a full completion rate. The imaging techniques performed well, especially MRI texture analysis, suggesting the sample size being sufficient for estimating lesion repair. The main challenge of this trial model may be recruiting gadolinium-enhancing lesions in DMT-treated RRMS participants. Prolactin is safe and may hold promise as a remyelination therapy. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02493049.

Genomic comparison of Salmonella typhimurium DT104 with non-DT104 strains.

DT104 emerged as a new branch of Salmonella typhimurium with resistance to multiple antimicrobials. To reveal some general genomic features of DT104 for clues of evolutionary events possibly associated with the emergence of this relatively new type of this pathogen, we mapped 11 independent DT104 strains and compared them with non-DT104 S. typhimurium strains. We found that all 11 DT104 strains contained three insertions absent in non-DT104 strains, i.e., the previously reported ST104, ST104B and ST64B. However, SGI-1, a genomic island known to be responsible for DT104 multidrug resistance, was not present in all DT104 strains examined in this study: one DT104 strain did not contain SGI-1 but carried a 144 kb plasmid, suggesting possible evolutionary relationships between the two DNA elements in the development of antimicrobial resistance.

Dietary nutrient intake and metabolic syndrome risk in Chinese adults: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Because human diets are composed of a wide variety of nutrients that may work synergistically to prevent or promote disease, assessing dietary nutrient intake status may be informative. The purpose of this study was to assess the dietary nutrient intake status of Chinese adults with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and to evaluate its possible role in MetS. METHODS: This case-control study was conducted from March 2010 to January 2011. A total of 123 patients with MetS and 135 controls participated in this study at the Health Examination Center of Heping District in Tianjin, China. Dietary intake was estimated by 24-h dietary recalls. We used principal component factor analysis to derive nutrient groups from 17 major nutrients. We examined the odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals using logistic regression models to test the relationship between tertiles of dietary nutrient pattern and MetS. RESULTS: There were 4 major dietary nutrient patterns in this study: "vitamin B group", "protein and lipids", "vitamin E and minerals", and "antioxidant vitamins". After adjustment for potential confounders, the highest tertile of the nutrient pattern factor score for the "vitamin B group" (odds ratio: 0.16; 95% confidence interval: 0.05-0.47) was negatively associated with MetS compared with the lowest tertiles. No relationships were found between other dietary nutrient patterns and MetS. CONCLUSIONS: The "vitamin B group" pattern was inversely associated with MetS in Chinese adults. This finding supports the hypothesis that the "vitamin B group" pattern may have a potentially beneficial effect on the prevention of MetS.

Distinct characteristics and severity of brain magnetic resonance imaging lesions in women and men with multiple sclerosis assessed using verified texture analysis measures.

Background and goal: In vivo characterization of brain lesion types in multiple sclerosis (MS) has been an ongoing challenge. Based on verified texture analysis measures from clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), this study aimed to develop a method to identify two extremes of brain MS lesions that were approximately severely demyelinated (sDEM) and highly remyelinated (hREM), and compare them in terms of common clinical variables. Method: Texture analysis used an optimized gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) method based on FLAIR MRI from 200 relapsing-remitting MS participants. Two top-performing metrics were calculated: texture contrast and dissimilarity. Lesion identification applied a percentile approach according to texture values calculated: ≤ 25 percentile for hREM and ≥75 percentile for sDEM. Results: The sDEM had a greater total normalized volume yet smaller average size, and worse MRI texture than hREM. In lesion distribution mapping, the two lesion types appeared to overlap largely in location and were present the most in the corpus callosum and periventricular regions. Further, in sDEM, the normalized volume was greater and in hREM, the average size was smaller in men than women. There were no other significant results in clinical variable-associated analyses. Conclusion: Percentile statistics of competitive MRI texture measures may be a promising method for probing select types of brain MS lesion pathology. Associated findings can provide another useful dimension for improved measurement and monitoring of disease activity in MS. The different characteristics of sDEM and hREM between men and women likely adds new information to the literature, deserving further confirmation.

Advanced diffusion MRI and image texture analysis detect widespread brain structural differences between relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.

Introduction: Disease development in multiple sclerosis (MS) causes dramatic structural changes, but the exact changing patterns are unclear. Our objective is to investigate the differences in brain structure locally and spatially between relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and its advanced form, secondary progressive MS (SPMS), through advanced analysis of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and image texture. Methods: A total of 20 patients with RRMS and nine patients with SPMS from two datasets underwent 3T anatomical and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The DTI was harmonized, augmented, and then modeled, which generated six voxel- and sub-voxel-scale measures. Texture analysis focused on T2 and FLAIR MRI, which produced two phase-based measures, namely, phase congruency and weighted mean phase. Data analysis was 3-fold, i.e., histogram analysis of whole-brain normal appearing white matter (NAWM); region of interest (ROI) analysis of NAWM and lesions within three critical white matter tracts, namely, corpus callosum, corticospinal tract, and optic radiation; and along-tract statistics. Furthermore, by calculating the z-score of core-rim pathology within lesions based on diffusion measures, we developed a novel method to define chronic active lesions and compared them between cohorts. Results: Histogram features from diffusion and all but one texture measure differentiated between RRMS and SPMS. Within-tract ROI analysis detected cohort differences in both NAWM and lesions of the corpus callosum body in three measures of neurite orientation and anisotropy. Along-tract statistics detected cohort differences from multiple measures, particularly lesion extent, which increased significantly in SPMS in posterior corpus callosum and optic radiations. The number of chronic active lesions were also significantly higher (by 5-20% over z-scores 0.5 and 1.0) in SPMS than RRMS based on diffusion anisotropy, neurite content, and diameter. Conclusion: Advanced diffusion MRI and texture analysis may be promising approaches for thorough understanding of brain structural changes from RRMS to SPMS, thereby providing new insight into disease development mechanisms in MS.

Advanced Analysis of Diffusion Tensor Imaging Along With Machine Learning Provides New Sensitive Measures of Tissue Pathology and Intra-Lesion Activity in Multiple Sclerosis.

Tissue pathology in multiple sclerosis (MS) is highly complex, requiring multi-dimensional analysis. In this study, our goal was to test the feasibility of obtaining high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) metrics through single-shell modeling of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data, and investigate how advanced measures from single-shell HARDI and DTI tractography perform relative to classical DTI metrics in assessing MS pathology. We examined 52 relapsing-remitting MS patients who had 3T anatomical brain MRI and DTI. Single-shell HARDI modeling yielded 5 sub-voxel-based metrics, totalling 11 diffusion measures including 4 DTI and 2 tractography metrics. Based on machine learning of 3-dimensional regions of interest, we evaluated the importance of the measures through several tissue classification tasks. These included two within-subject comparisons: lesion versus normal appearing white matter (NAWM); and lesion core versus shell. Further, by stratifying patients as having high (above 75% ile ) and low (below 25% ile ) number of MS lesions, we also performed 2 classifications between subjects for lesions and NAWM respectively. Results showed that in lesion-NAWM analysis, HARDI orientation distribution function (ODF) energy, DTI fractional anisotropy (FA), and HARDI orientation dispersion index were the top three metrics, which together achieved 65.2% accuracy and 0.71 area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). In core-shell analysis, DTI mean diffusivity (MD), radial diffusivity, and FA were the top three metrics, and MD dominated the classification, which achieved 59.3% accuracy and 0.59 AUROC alone. Between patients, FA was the leading feature in lesion comparisons, while ODF energy was the best in NAWM separation. Collectively, single-shell modeling of common diffusion data can provide robust orientation measures of lesion and NAWM pathology, and DTI metrics are most sensitive to intra-lesion abnormality. Combined analysis of both advanced and classical diffusion measures may be critical for improved understanding of MS pathology.

Multiple genetic switches spontaneously modulating bacterial mutability.

BACKGROUND: All life forms need both high genetic stability to survive as species and a degree of mutability to evolve for adaptation, but little is known about how the organisms balance the two seemingly conflicting aspects of life: genetic stability and mutability. The DNA mismatch repair (MMR) system is essential for maintaining genetic stability and defects in MMR lead to high mutability. Evolution is driven by genetic novelty, such as point mutation and lateral gene transfer, both of which require genetic mutability. However, normally a functional MMR system would strongly inhibit such genomic changes. Our previous work indicated that MMR gene allele conversion between functional and non-functional states through copy number changes of small tandem repeats could occur spontaneously via slipped-strand mis-pairing during DNA replication and therefore may play a role of genetic switches to modulate the bacterial mutability at the population level. The open question was: when the conversion from functional to defective MMR is prohibited, will bacteria still be able to evolve by accepting laterally transferred DNA or accumulating mutations? RESULTS: To prohibit allele conversion, we "locked" the MMR genes through nucleotide replacements. We then scored changes in bacterial mutability and found that Salmonella strains with MMR locked at the functional state had significantly decreased mutability. To determine the generalizability of this kind of mutability 'switching' among a wider range of bacteria, we examined the distribution of tandem repeats within MMR genes in over 100 bacterial species and found that multiple genetic switches might exist in these bacteria and may spontaneously modulate bacterial mutability during evolution. CONCLUSIONS: MMR allele conversion through repeats-mediated slipped-strand mis-pairing may function as a spontaneous mechanism to switch between high genetic stability and mutability during bacterial evolution.

Gadolinium enhancement on cranial MRI in multiple sclerosis is age dependent.

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological, pathological and radiological studies suggest that inflammatory demyelination in MS is an age-dependent process, and that the formation of focal inflammatory demyelinating lesions decreases with age. Gadolinium-enhancing lesions are a biomarker of inflammatory disease activity in MS, but little is known about the relation of age and gadolinium enhancement on cranial MRI scans in people with MS. In this study, we investigated the association of age and other risk factors with gadolinium enhancement on cranial MRI in a retrospective cross-sectional clinical MS cohort. METHODS: In a cohort including 1543 people with CIS and MS, we investigated the association of the risk factors age, sex, disease course, immunomodulatory drug (IMD) treatment, and disability with gadolinium enhancement on cranial MRI scans using a binary logistic regression model. RESULTS: Age was the most important factor associated with gadolinium enhancement, with the odds of gadolinium enhancement decreasing with advancing age. Participants with CIS had lower odds of gadolinium enhancement (odds ratio of 0.42, 95% confidence interval of 0.24-0.72 compared to RRMS). Sex, disease course and IMD treatment were not significantly associated with gadolinium enhancement in our cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Our investigation shows that gadolinium enhancement is strongly associated with age. Since gadolinium enhancement is a marker of inflammatory disease activity, our findings suggest that inflammatory disease activity declines with age, and that IMD treatment may be more beneficial in younger and less useful in older people with MS.

Removal and recovery of chloride ions in concentrated leachate by Bi(III) containing oxides quantum dots/two-dimensional flakes.

The high concentration of chloride (Cl-) ions in leachate often has negative effects in their harmless treatments, and the common treatments containing the ion exchange method consume excessive antichlors due to their large particle sizes and unfavorable morphologies. Herein, the antichlors of the Bi(III) containing oxides with quantum dots (QDs) or two-dimensional (2D) structures are first explored for the removal and recovery of Cl- ions in concentrated leachate. By using the QDs/2D flakes constructed antichlors of Bi2O3 and the magnetite Bi-Ti composite, the maximum Cl- removal rates of 61.8% and 66.1% are respectively achieved under the optimum conditions. The higher removal efficiency of the magnetite Bi-Ti composite is contributed by its less stable crystal phases of Bi25FeO40/Bi12TiO20, which can proceed more deeply in the removal of Cl- ions compared with that of Bi2O3. The recovered terminal magnetite Bi-Ti precipitate with Bi2O3/BiOCl heterostructure exhibits excellent photocatalytic activity in the degradation of the dechlorinated leachate, where a total organic carbon removal rate of 87.2% is achieved under UV-vis-near-infrared irradiation. Therefore, the selection of Bi(III) containing oxides opens a promising and high-value method for the removal and recovery of Cl- ions in leachate and other waste waters.

E. coli diversity: low in colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Escherichia coli are mostly commensals but also contain pathogenic lineages. It is largely unclear whether the commensal E. coli as the potential origins of pathogenic lineages may consist of monophyletic or polyphyletic populations, elucidation of which is expected to lead to novel insights into the associations of E. coli diversity with human health and diseases. METHODS: Using genomic sequencing and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) techniques, we analyzed E. coli from the intestinal microbiota of three groups of healthy individuals, including preschool children, university students, and seniors of a longevity village, as well as colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, to probe the commensal E. coli populations for their diversity. RESULTS: We delineated the 2280 fresh E. coli isolates from 185 subjects into distinct genome types (genotypes) by PFGE. The genomic diversity of the sampled E. coli populations was so high that a given subject may have multiple genotypes of E. coli, with the general diversity within a host going up from preschool children through university students to seniors. Compared to the healthy subjects, the CRC patients had the lowest diversity level among their E. coli isolates. Notably, E. coli isolates from CRC patients could suppress the growth of E. coli bacteria isolated from healthy controls under nutrient-limited culture conditions. CONCLUSIONS: The coexistence of multiple E. coli lineages in a host may help create and maintain a microbial environment that is beneficial to the host. As such, the low diversity of E. coli bacteria may be associated with unhealthy microenvironment in the intestine and hence facilitate the pathogenesis of diseases such as CRC.

Locally synthesized calcitonin gene-related Peptide has a critical role in peripheral nerve regeneration.

Regeneration of peripheral nerves involves complex and intimate interactions between axons and Schwann cells. Here, we show that local axon synthesis and action of the neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is critical for this collaboration. After peripheral sural sensory axon injury in rats, we observed an unexpectedly large proportion of axons that newly expressed CGRP during regeneration. Intense peptide expression accompanied local rises in alphaCGRP mRNA in the nerve trunk, and there was evidence of transport of alphaCGRP mRNA into regenerating axons, indicating intra-axonal peptide synthesis. Calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor and its receptor activity modifying protein were expressed onadjacent Schwann cells, where they were available for signaling. Moreover, exogenous CGRP induced proliferation in isolated adult Schwann cells. New axon outgrowth and CGRP expression depended on local peptide synthesis and were inhibited by exposure tolocal translation inhibitors. Local delivery of siRNAs to either alphaCGRP or receptor activity modifying protein 1 to sites of nerve transection was associated with severe disruption of axon outgrowth.These findings indicate that robust localized intra-axonal translation of the CGRP neuropeptide during regeneration signals Schwann cell proliferation, behavior that is critical for partnering during adult peripheral nerve regrowth.

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in African Americans: polymorphisms in the gene encoding the stress peptide pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP).

AIMS: Mice lacking pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) are prone to sudden death in the second post-natal week, having respiratory and metabolic disturbances reminiscent of the human Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Here we test the hypothesis that the human PACAP gene is a site of genetic variance associated with SIDS in a cohort of 92 victims and 92 matched controls. METHODS: Using polymerase chain reaction and sequencing, we examined the PACAP gene in 92 SIDS cases (46 Caucasians and 46 African Americans) and 92 race- and gender-matched controls. RESULTS: We found no significant associations between PACAP and SIDS in Caucasians. However, in the African Americans, a non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (i.e. an aspartic acid/glycine coding variant, rs2856966) within exon 2 of PACAP was significantly associated with SIDS (p = 0.004), as were haplotypes containing this polymorphism (p < 0.0001). Glycine was three times more likely at this location in the African-American SIDS victims (17 cases) than African-American controls (5 cases). CONCLUSION: These data are the first to suggest an association between a variant within the coding region of the PACAP gene and SIDS. Based on these findings, further investigations are warranted into the functional importance of PACAP signaling in neonatal survival and the role of PACAP-signaling abnormalities in SIDS.

Domperidone-induced elevation of serum prolactin levels and immune response in multiple sclerosis.

Increasing systemic prolactin levels improves remyelination and neuronal survival in animal models of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), but it has been suggested that this therapeutic strategy may also increase inflammatory responses, and potentially harm patients. We analyzed serum prolactin and cytokine, chemokine and growth factor levels in sera from MS patients enrolled in two clinical trials who were treated with domperidone, a generic drug that increases systemic prolactin levels. In patients treated with domperidone, molecule levels changed little during follow up, while prolactin levels increased several-fold. We found no significant association between prolactin levels and radiological or clinical outcome.

Influence of Molecular Weight on Structure and Catalytic Characteristics of Ordered Mesoporous Carbon Derived from Lignin.

Bio-renewable lignin has been used as a carbon source for the preparation of porous carbon materials. Nevertheless, up to now, there are few studies about the influence of molecular weight of lignin on the structure and morphology of the ordered mesoporous carbon. Here, we synthesized the ordered mesoporous carbon derived from different molecular weights of lignin and Pluronic F127. Fortunately, we found that molecular weight is an important factor for obtaining highly ordered channels, high specific surface area, and ordered mesoporous carbon. More importantly, the narrow well-defined mesoporous channel could exert a spatial restriction effect to some extent, which can serve as nanoreactors for efficient reactions and enhance catalytic performance. The highly ordered mesoporous carbon from lignin is a good candidate for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis catalyst supports.