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Background: Lymph node status has a prognostic role in endometrial cancer patients and it determines the adjuvant therapy to be administered postoperatively. Complete lymphadenectomy carries the risk of serious complications. Sentinel Lymph Node mapping (SLN) may be a good option to reduce these complications. Cervical injection of methylene blue may be a suitable technique for SLN mapping, which can be applied in low-resource institutes. Objective: Assessment of the detection rate, sensitivity and false negative rate of SLN mapping using cervical injection of methylene blue. Methods: A total of 76 patients with early stage endometrial cancer were included. Methylene blue was injected into the cervix prior to surgery and open surgical approach was used. SLNs were detected by direct visualization of stained lymph nodes after opening of pelvic spaces. SLNs were excised and pelvic lymphadenectomy was performed. Para-aortic lymphadenectomy was performed when indicated and surgically feasible. Specimens were examined by H&E staining. Results: The SLN detection rate was 47.4% and all detected SLNs were pelvic nodes. All patients with lymph node metastasis had metastatic disease in their SLNs. The technique had 100% sensitivity, 100% negative predictive value and a 0% false-negative rate. An inverse relationship between SLN detection and BMI was detected. Conclusion: Cervical injection of methylene blue dye with an open approach to detect SLNs in patients with early stage endometrial cancer has a low detection rate. The most important factor associated with failed mapping is increased BMI. Further trials are needed to investigate the usefulness of this technique.

Inulinases are potentially valuable enzymes catalyze the hydrolysis of plant’s inulin into high fructose syrups as sweetening ingredients for food industry and ethanol production. The high demands for inulinase enzymes have promoted interest in microbial inulinases as the most suitable approach for biosynthesis of fructose syrups from inulin. Arid land ecosystem represents a valuable bioresource for soil microbial diversity with unique biochemical and physiological properties. In the present study, we explored the fungi diversity associated with the rhizosphere and rhizoplane of two desert medicinal plants namely Pluchea dioscoridis and Pulicaria crispa growing in the South-Eastern desert of Aswan, Egypt. A total of 180 fungal isolates were screened based on their ability to grow on potato dextrose agar medium supplemented with 1% inulin. The isolated fungal colonies were morphologically identified according to cultural characteristics and spore-bearing structure. In addition, the inulinase activity of the isolated fungi was examined spectrophotometrically. Among these, Aspergillus terreus var. terreus 233, Botrytis cinerea, Aspergillus aegyptiacus, Cochliobolus australiensis 447 and Cochliobolus australiensis exhibited high inulinase activity ranging from 5.05 to 7.26 U/ml. This study provides a promising source of microbial inulinase, which can be scaled up for industrial applications.

The genus Allium is a rich source of steroidal saponins, and its medicinal properties have been attributed to these bioactive compounds. The saponin compounds with diverse structures play a pivotal role in Allium's defense mechanism. Despite numerous studies on the occurrence and chemical structure of steroidal saponins, their biosynthetic pathway in Allium species is poorly understood. The monosomic addition lines (MALs) of the Japanese bunching onion (A. fistulosum, FF) with an extra chromosome from the shallot (A. cepa Aggregatum group, AA) are powerful genetic resources that enable us to understand many physiological traits of Allium. In the present study, we were able to isolate and identify Alliospiroside A saponin compound in A. fistulosum with extra chromosome 2A from shallot (FF2A) and its role in the defense mechanism against Fusarium pathogens. Furthermore, to gain molecular insight into the Allium saponin biosynthesis pathway, high-throughput RNA-Seq of the root, bulb, and leaf of AA, MALs, and FF was carried out using Illumina's HiSeq 2500 platform. An open access Allium Transcript Database (Allium TDB, http://alliumtdb.kazusa.or.jp) was generated based on RNA-Seq data. The resulting assembled transcripts were functionally annotated, revealing 50 unigenes involved in saponin biosynthesis. Differential gene expression (DGE) analyses of AA and MALs as compared with FF (as a control) revealed a strong up-regulation of the saponin downstream pathway, including cytochrome P450, glycosyltransferase, and beta-glucosidase in chromosome 2A. An understanding of the saponin compounds and biosynthesis-related genes would facilitate the development of plants with unique saponin content and, subsequently, improved disease resistance.