Abstract The volatile components of fruits of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer analyzed to interpret whether fruits color affect volatile components. The volatile components in ginseng fruits cultured with 3 different clolors such as red fruits, yellow fruits and orange fruits were isolated by head-space solid-phase microextraction fiber (polydimethylsiloxane 100 μm) and identified by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Then, the volatile components compared by principal component analvsis (PCA). As the results, the 23 voltile components were identified from 3 colors samples and consisted mainly of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons. The differences among the different colors of the samples were obvious from the PC1 and PC2 scatter point plot. As the conclusion, The volatile components of ginseng fruits are different from those of ginseng roots. the fruits colors can affect to produce the volatile components of ginseng fruits.

Abstract: Besides stimulating vasoconstriction, Angiotensin II is also well known in inducing reactive oxygen species and promoting inflammatory phenotype switch via its type 1 receptor. In clinic, Angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor blocker like candesartan has been widely applied as an antihypertensive medication. We previous have demonstrated that a higher dose of candesartan plays a protective role after kidney injury. However, whether candesartan could exhibit anti-inflammatory effects remains unclear. Here, by stimulating isolated human embryonic kidney epithelial cells with tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), we observed the anti-inflammation capacity of candesartan ex vivo. It was found that pre-treat with candesartan significantly suppressed transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) expression after incubation with TNF-α. Surprisingly, silence of angiotensin II type 1 receptor has little effects on reducing TGF-β or IL-6 products. Furthermore, candesartan inhibited TNF-α-induced oxidative stress in the primary cultured tubular epithelial cells. Overall, our data indicates that candesartan suppresses TNF-α-induced inflammatory cytokine production by inhibiting oxidative stress, rather than block AT1 receptor activity.

Background Lysozyme plays a crucial role in innate immunity with its well-recognized bacteriolytic activity. In this study, the influence of expression parameters (inoculation volume, culture volume, growth time, induction temperature and time, initial pH and methanol concentration) on human lysozyme (HLZ) production in recombinant P. pastoris SMD1168 was investigated through Plackett-Burman (PB) design and response surface methodology (RSM). Results It was revealed that induction temperature, induction time and culture volume had significant influence (P < 0.01) on HLZ expression level, which were elected for further optimization with three-dimensional response surface designs for enhanced HLZ production. The highest lysozyme activity reached 3301 U/mL under optimized conditions (at 23.5°C for 90 h with culture volume of 48 mL) in shake flask, which increased 2.2 fold compared with that achieved with the standard protocol (Invitrogen). When high-cell-density fermentation of the recombinant Pichia pastoris was performed in a 15 L fermenter under optimized conditions, the extracellular lysozyme activity reached 47,680 U/mL. SDS-PAGE analysis of the product demonstrated that HLZ was produced as a single major protein with a molecular weight of approximately 14.7 kDa, consistent with its expected size. Conclusions The results indicated that the optimized culture conditions using PB design and RSM significantly enhanced the expression level of HLZ, and the Pichia expression system for HLZ production was successful and industrially promising.

No presente trabalho, o copolímero poli(etileno glicol)-bloco-poli-benzil L-glutamato)-graft-poli(etileno glicol) (PEG-b-PBLG-g-PEG) foi sintetizado pela reação de transesterificação do copolímero PEG-bloco-PBLG com a cadeia PEG. A estrutura e propriedades do copolímero PEG-b-PBLG-g-PEG foram investigadas por spetroscopia no infravermelho (FT-IR), microscopia de força atômica (AFM), microscopia eletrônica de varredura (SEM) e calorimetria diferencial de varredura (DSC). Foram investigados os efeitos de temperatura de reação, tempo de reação, e extensão da cadeia dos segmentos PBLG na porcentagem de enxerto do copolímero PEG-b-PBLG-g-PEG. Os resultados experimentais demonstraram que a porcentagem de enxerto do copolímero PEG-b-PBLG-g-PEG aumentarou com o aumento do tempo e temperatura de reação, enquanto que o aumento do comprimento da cadeia de segmentos PBLG no copolímero bloco diminuiu a porcentagem de enxerto.

In the present work, poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(γ-benzyl L-glutamate)-graft-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-b-PBLG-g-PEG) copolymer was synthesized by the ester exchange reaction of PEG-block-PBLG copolymer with PEG chain. Structure and properties of PEG-b-PBLG-g-PEG copolymer were investigated by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The effects of reaction temperature, reaction time, and the chain length of PBLG segments on the grafting percentage of PEG-b-PBLG-g-PEG copolymer were studied. Experimental results demonstrated that the grafting percentage of PEG-b-PBLG-g-PEG copolymer increased with the increase of both reaction temperature and reaction time, while the increase of the chain length of PBLG segments in block copolymer decreased the grafting percentage.