The Characteristics of the Growth and the Active Compounds of Angelica gigas Nakai in Cultivation Sites.

The active compounds of medicinal plants vary in composition and content depending on environmental factors, such as light, temperature, and soil. According to the Korean Pharmacopoeia standards for herbal medicine, the sum of nodakenin, decursin, and decursinolangelate, which are the marker components of Korean Angelica, should be at least 6.0 g/100 g.

Photosynthesis rates, growth, and ginsenoside contents of 2-yr-old Panax ginseng grown at different light transmission rates in a greenhouse.

Background: Ginseng is a semishade perennial plant cultivated in sloping, sun-shaded areas in Korea. Recently, owing to air-environmental stress and various fungal diseases, greenhouse cultivation has been suggested as an alternative. However, the optimal light transmission rate (LTR) in the greenhouse has not been established.

The Mechanism Underlying the Antibacterial Activity of Shikonin against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Shikonin (SKN), a highly liposoluble naphthoquinone pigment isolated from the roots of Lithospermum erythrorhizon, is known to exert antibacterial, wound-healing, anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic, and antitumor effects. The aim of this study was to examine SKN antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The SKN was analyzed in combination with membrane-permeabilizing agents Tris and Triton X-100, ATPase inhibitors sodium azide and N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, and S.

Control of specific growth rate to enhance the production of a novel disintegrin, saxatilin, in recombinant Pichia pastoris.

The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris is one of the best hosts for the production of foreign proteins because of the presence of a strong alcohol oxidase 1 (AOX1) promoter that can be induced by methanol. Feeding the yeast, methanol induces protein production and provides an energy source for the host cells. However, excessive levels of methanol inhibit the growth of host cells, and insufficient methanol levels lead to poor growth and protein production.

Tissue engineering of cartilage with chondrocytes cultured in a chemically-defined, serum-free medium.

Cell culture with serum-containing medium has potential problems associated with contamination of infectious agents. This study demonstrates for the first time the feasibility of regenerating cartilage tissues in vivo by implantation of chondrocytes cultured in vitro in a chemically-defined, serum-free medium. Chondrocytes cultured in the serum-free medium grew similarly to those in a serum-containing medium.

Suspension culture of hematopoietic stem cells in stirred bioreactors.

Hematopoietic stem cells have applications in bone marrow transplantations for the treatment of hematopoietic disorders. When murine hematopoietic stem cells were cultured in 50 ml stirred bioreactors for 14 d, stem-cell-antigen-1 positive cells (hematopoietic primitive progenitor cells) and long-term culture-initiating cells (hematopoietic stem cells) grew by 5-fold and 4-fold, respectively. These results show the possibility of growing hematopoietic stem cells using a stirred bioreactor.