High initial glucose concentrations may inhibit glucose utilization and decrease ethanol fermentation efficiency. To minimize substrate inhibition, the effects of feeding yeast with different glucose concentrations on the ethanol production by batch and fed-batch cultures in a 5-L fermentor were investigated. When a batch culture system with Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used for ethanol fermentation with glucose concentrations ranging 10-260 g/L, as a result, 0.2-7.0 g/L biomass and 5.1-115.0 g/L ethanol were obtained. However, substrate inhibition was observed with the initial glucose concentrations greater than 200 g/L in the fermentative media. When a fed-batch culture system (an initial glucose concentration of 180 g/L and total glucose concentration of 260 g/L) was performed, the maximum ethanol concentrations and ethanol yield were significantly higher than those of the batch cultures. The cell biomass, maximum ethanol concentration, and ethanol yields for the fed-batch fermentation cultures were 8.3 g/L, 130.1 g/L and 51% (100% of the theoretical value), respectively. The results indicated that high ethanol concentration and ethanol yield could be achieved by the fed-batch cultures with total glucose concentrations up to 260 g/L.
Endogenous noninfectious substances that mediate the nucleotide oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation and interleukin (IL)-1β secretion causes inappropriate sterile inflammation and is implicated in the pathogenesis of several chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, gout, atherosclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Consequently, dietary phytochemicals exhibiting capacities to suppress canonical NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated IL-1β secretion can be a reliable supplement to prevent such diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the inhibitory effects of ginger phytochemicals, including 6-, 8- and 10-gingerols/shogaols on the canonical NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated IL-1β secretion in THP-1 macrophages with ordered stimulations of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP). At 20 μM, the 10-gingerol and all the shogaols significantly inhibited canonical IL-1β secretion. The shogaols had a more potent inhibitory capacity than that of corresponding gingerols. Increase of alkyl chain length impacted negatively the inhibitory activity of shogaols. Additionally, these effective ginger phytochemicals not only inhibited the LPS-primed expression of pro-IL-1β and NLRP3, but also decreased ATP-activated caspase-1. The results demonstrated that ginger phytochemicals, especially the most potent, 6-shogaol, might be promising for developing as an inhibitor of the canonical NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated IL-1β secretion and further applied in prevention of NLRP3 inflammasome-associated diseases.
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