PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the potential of freeze-dried persimmon powder (Diospyros kaki Thumb.) to protect against dyslipidemia induced by a high-fat/cholesterol diet (HFD) in a rat model. METHODS: Fifty Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups: normal control (NC), high-fat/cholesterol control (HC), tannin in HFD (HT, 1% of diet), immature persimmon in HFD (HI, 7% of diet), and mature persimmon in HFD (HM, 7% of diet). Tannin was used as a positive control. Biochemical, molecular, and histopathological changes were observed in the blood and liver. RESULTS: We confirmed that a high fat/cholesterol diet successfully induced dyslipidemia, which was characterized by significantly altered lipid profiles in the plasma and liver. However, oxidized low-density lipoprotein levels, histopathological damage in the liver, and hepatic triglyceride levels were significantly reduced in all HT, HI, and HM groups compared to those in the HF group. In contrast, plasma apolipoprotein B level was significantly reduced only in the HT and HM groups, whereas reduction of the LDL-C level was detected only in the HI group. Although HF-induced sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP) gene expression was significantly reduced in all treated groups, downstream gene expression levels varied among the different groups; significant reduction of fatty acid synthase (FAS) and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA (HMGCR) gene expression was detected only in the HI group, whereas cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) gene expression was significantly elevated only in the HM group. CONCLUSION: Taken together, the data suggest that protection of LDL oxidation and hepatic lipogenesis might be, at least partly, attributed to tannin in persimmons. However, the identified mechanisms varied up to the maturation stage of persimmon. In the case of immature persimmon, modulation of FAS and HMGCR gene expression was prominent, whereas in the case of mature persimmon, modulation of CYP7A1 gene expression was prominent.
Animals ; Apolipoproteins ; Cholesterol ; Diet ; Diospyros* ; Dyslipidemias ; Gene Expression ; Lipogenesis ; Lipoproteins ; Liver ; Models, Animal ; Plasma ; Rats* ; Rats, Wistar ; Triglycerides

Neuroendocrine carcinoma of colon is a rare disease entity that is histologically poorly differentiated and immunochemically synaptophysin positive, enabling it to be confirmed by an immunohistochemical stain. Neuroendocrine carcinomas, in almost all cases, have poor prognosis due to a tendency of early metastasis and lack of standardized treatment. The concurrent diagnosis of neuroendocrine carcinoma and adenocarcinoma is extremely rare. The relation of these two disease entities is not understood. We experienced a patient with a colonic neuroendocrine carcinoma concurrent with adenocarcinoma. A 65-year-old male presented with abdominal pain. Emergent computed tomography suggested a malignant tumor of the ascending colon. Colonoscopy showed an infiltrative lesion in the ascending colon with a luminal narrowing, a large pedunculated lesion at the splenic flexure, and multiple small polyps in the descending colon. The patient underwent a right hemicolectomy including the pedunculated lesion. The pathology confirmed advanced neuroendocrine carcinoma in the ascending colon, adenocarcinoma in proximal descending colon, and multiple metastatic lymph nodes of neuroendocrine carcinomas on abdomen. The patient underwent the postoperative chemotherapy but did not tolerate it well and expired a year after diagnosis. We report this rare case with a review of the literature.
Abdomen ; Abdominal Pain ; Adenocarcinoma ; Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine ; Colon ; Colon, Ascending ; Colon, Descending ; Colon, Transverse ; Colonic Neoplasms ; Colonoscopy ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Male ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Phenobarbital ; Polyps ; Prognosis ; Rare Diseases ; Synaptophysin