Over the years, cardiovascular diseases continue to increase and affect not only human health but also the economic stability worldwide. The advancement in tissue engineering is contributing a lot in dealing with this immediate need of alleviating human health. Blood vessel diseases are considered as major cardiovascular health problems. Although blood vessel transplantation is the most convenient treatment, it has been delimited due to scarcity of donors and the patient's conditions. However, tissue-engineered blood vessels are promising alternatives as mode of treatment for blood vessel defects. The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of the advancement on biofabrication technology for treatment of soft tissue defects particularly for vascular tissues. This will also provide an overview and update on the current status of tissue reconstruction especially from autologous stem cells, scaffolds, and scaffold-free cellular transplantable constructs. The discussion of this paper will be focused on the historical view of cardiovascular tissue engineering and stem cell biology. The representative studies featured in this paper are limited within the last decade in order to trace the trend and evolution of techniques for blood vessel tissue engineering.

Blackberries (Rubus fruticosus L.) are a good source of antioxidants and contain appreciable levels of functional compounds. This study was carried out to evaluate fruit qualities (pH, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, and minerals), functional compounds (total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, anthocyanins, and ellagic acid), and antioxidant activity among five mutated blackberry lines over three ripening stages to examine the effect of fruit maturation on functional compounds and antioxidant activity. The content of sugars, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, and anthocyanins (cyanidin-3-O-glucoside, cyanidin-3-O-xyloside, cyanidin-3-O-malonylglucoside, and cyanidin-3-O-dioxalylglucoside) increased as fruit development advanced, whereas the ellagic acid content decreased as the fruit became more mature. Among the minerals tested, potassium showed the highest concentrations at all stages of development. The antioxidant activity was correlated with total phenolic content (P≤0.01), total flavonoid content (P≤0.01), and total anthocyanins (P≤0.05). The results indicate that Maple and B201 lines contained the highest anthocyanin content and exhibited greater antioxidant activity.

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3-deoxysilybin (3-DS), also known as (-)-isosilandrin A, is a natural flavonoid of Silybum marianum. This study was designed to investigate the anti-inflammatory effect and the underlying molecular mechanisms of 3-DS in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. 3-DS dose-dependently inhibited the production of NO and the expression of iNOS in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. 3-DS also inhibited the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (MCP-1, TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β) in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. Moreover, 3-DS decreased the NF-κB DNA binding activity in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. Furthermore, 3-DS suppressed NF-κB activation by inhibiting the degradation of IκBα and nuclear translocation of p65 subunit of NF-κB in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. Taken together, the present study suggests for the first time that 3-DS may exhibit an anti-inflammatory effect through the suppression of NF-κB transcriptional activation in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages.

Purple grain color is associated with higher anthocyanin accumulation and antioxidant capacity in wheat. Wheat mutants developed in this study may serve as a valuable source of antioxidants. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

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This study was carried out to survey the flora of the vascular plants of Ulleungdo Island. Fieldwork related to the study was carried out 55 times from 2007 to 2011. The results of the study showed that the flora of Ulleungdo Island consisted of a total of 494 taxa, with 93 families, 313 genera, 462 species, 6 subspecies, 52 varieties and 4 formas. Among the collected plants, there were 9 taxa of critically endangered species (CR), 6 taxa of endangered species (EN) and 12 taxa of vulnerable species (VU). Furthermore, protected species and those of floristic regional plants above degree III according to the Korean Ministry of Environment included 4 taxa and 72 taxa, respectively. In addition, 33 taxa were endemic to Ulleungdo Island and 66 taxa were naturalized plants.

The Rubus fruit is an economically important berry crop that contains various functional compounds. The objective of this study was to analyze fruit qualities (i.e., pH, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, and mineral content) as well as fatty acid and phenolic compounds (i.e., ellagic acid and anthocyanins) among hybrid boysenberry lines developed by hybridization and gamma irradiation. There were no significant differences in the hybrid boysenberry fruit pH and titratable acidity (%) among the tested genotypes. However, the soluble solids content was higher in the BSA119 and BSA144 mutants than in the original genotype (BS_Hybrid). Meanwhile, linoleic acid was the most abundant fatty acid in the analyzed hybrid boysenberry fruits. The fatty acid composition did not differ significantly among the genotypes. The ellagic acid content of all genotypes ranged from 8.72 mg/100 g to 46.10 mg/100 g, with the highest concentration observed for the BSB127 genotype. Additionally, cyanidin-3-O-sophoroside (M-H + , 611 m/z) and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (M-H + , 449 m/z) were the two major anthocyanins detected in the boysenberry and mutant genotypes, while cyanidin-3-O-glucoside was the predominant blackberry anthocyanin. The total anthocyanin concentrations of four mutant genotypes (i.e., BSA036, BSA078, BSA101, and BSB127) were significantly higher than that of the original genotype (382.0 mg/100 g). The highest total anthocyanin concentration was observed for the BSA078 genotype (467.9 mg/100 g). These results may be useful for identifying the optimal genotypes for breeding new cultivars with enhanced qualities and potential health benefits.