Long noncoding RNA HOTTIP is a crucial regulator in multiple types of cancer, including ovarian cancer (OC). However, the biological roles and underlying mechanisms of HOTTIP in OC have rarely been studied. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the functional correlation between HOTTIP and pyroptosis in OC progression. The expression of HOTTIP in OC tissues and cell lines was characterized by quantitative real‐time PCR. Cell proliferation was evaluated using Cell Counting Kit‐8 and clone formation assays. Western blot was performed to quantify protein levels. A dual‐luciferase reporter assay was used to analyze the molecular interaction among HOTTIP, miR‐148a‐3p, and AKT2. The expression of HOTTIP was significantly upregulated in OC tissue samples and cell lines. The silencing of HOTTIP led to the inhibition of cell proliferation and NLRP1 inflammasome‐mediated pyroptosis. In addition, HOTTIP increased AKT2 expression by negatively regulating miR‐148a‐3p and then inhibited ASK1/JNK signaling. Further rescue experiments revealed that downregulation of miR‐148a‐3p and overexpression of AKT2 obviously diminished the effects of HOTTIP downregulation in OC cells. Thus, our study elucidated a novel pyroptosis‐related mechanism by which HOTTIP participated in OC progression, which might provide a theoretical reference for clinical treatment.

The change in gut microbiota is an important mechanism of the amelioration of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) after bariatric surgery. Here, we observe that the modified jejunoileal bypass effectively decreases body weight gain, fasting blood glucose, and lipids level in serum; additionally, islet β-cell function, glucose tolerance, and insulin resistance were markedly ameliorated. The hypoglycemic effect and the improvement in islet β-cell function depend on the changes in gut microbiota structure. modified jejunoileal bypass increases the abundance of gut Escherichia coli and Ruminococcus gnavus and the levels of serum glycine, histidine, and glutamine in T2DM rats; and decreases the abundance of Prevotella copri and the levels of serum branched chain amino acids, which are significantly related to the improvement of islet β-cell function in T2DM rats. Our results suggest that amino acid metabolism may contribute to the islet β-cell function in T2DM rats after modified jejunoileal bypass and that improving gut microbiota composition is a potential therapeutic strategy for T2DM.