ABSTRACT
Microwave (MW) pre-treatment of canola seeds or flaked seeds was found to be a superior alternative to the conventional thermal pre-treatment (steam). Flaked seeds were "cooked" (heat-treated) with steam or using microwave treatments in the temperature range of 62-130 °C prior to expeller pressing. Microwave cooking at 100 °C resulted in the highest increase in the pressed oil yield, which is an increase of 3.7% (w/w) on a pressed oil basis or 9.0% (oil in seed basis) compared with steam cooking. Whole canola seeds conditioning was conducted with microwaves or steam, in the temperature range of 40-75 °C, followed by microwave or steam cooking at 100 °C to evaluate the effect of MW treatment during conditioning on the expeller oil yield. The use of a continuous microwave process for combined conditioning of whole seeds at 55 °C and subsequent cooking of flaked seeds at 100 °C resulted in a 4.0% increase in expeller oil yield, compared with steam conditioning and cooking. The influence of dry basis (db %) moisture contents of 5%, 11.5%, and 16.5% on oil yield after steam or MW treatments of seeds and flaked seeds was also studied. The moisture content of 11.5% (db %) yielded the highest net oil yield for both MW and steam at best conditioning and cooking temperatures of 55 °C and 100 °C, respectively. No significant impact of MW cooking was seen on oil quality compared with conventional steam cooking.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Psoriasis is a persistent chronic immune-mediated, relapsing, inflammatory and hyper proliferative skin disorder with genetic predisposition. Psoriasis can be considered as a T-cell mediated disease, with a complex role for a variety of cytokine interaction between keratinocytes and T-lymphocytes. Caspase-3 is an enzyme that plays a key role in apoptosis; it is a member of the family of cysteinyle aspartate specific proteases. AIM: To evaluate the expression of caspase-3 in Egyptian psoriasis patients and its role in apoptosis of keratinocytes. Also, to correlate this expression with the clinicopathological parameters in order to identify the possible hypothesized role of caspase-3 in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a case-control study conducted on patients suffering from chronic plaque psoriasis. A total of 20 psoriasis patients and 10 controls were selected from outpatient clinic of Dermatology, Menoufia University Hospital, between the period of October 2014 and January 2016. From each patient and control, a punch biopsy was taken. Evaluation of H&E stained sections and caspase-3 expression was done using standard immunohi-stochemical techniques. Non-parametric chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test and Spearman's coefficient test were the statistical tests used. RESULTS: High caspase-3 H score was significantly in favour of psoriatic group in comparison with the control group. On the contrary, in the dermis, caspase-3 was significantly higher in skin adnexa while completely absent in the psoriatic group. Strong caspase-3 expression was significantly in favour of high PASI score, early onset lesions and lesions in the extremities. Significant positive correlation was found between caspase-3 percent and PASI score (r= +0.53, p-value=0.03). CONCLUSION: Caspase-3 over expression in the psoriatic lesion proposes a potential role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Positive correlation between the caspase-3 expression and the early onset psoriatic lesion located in the extremities implies a possible poor prognostic impact of caspase-3 over expression.
