Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biodegradable and biocompatible biopolymers. These biomaterials have grown in importance in the fields of tissue engineering and tissue reconstruction for structural applications where tissue morphology is critical, such as bone, cartilage, blood vessels, and skin, among others. Furthermore, they can be used to accelerate the regeneration in combination with drugs, as drug delivery systems, thus reducing microbial infections. When cells are cultured under stress conditions, a wide variety of microorganisms produce them as a store of intracellular energy in the form of homo- and copolymers of [R]—hydroxyalkanoic acids, depending on the carbon source used for microorganism growth. This paper gives an overview of PHAs, their biosynthetic pathways, producing microorganisms, cultivation bioprocess, isolation, purification and characterization to obtain biomaterials with medical applications such as tissue engineering.
Helichrysum arenarium (L.) Moench, belonging to the Asteraceae family, is known in traditional medicine for its diuretic, choleretic, and anti-inflammatory properties. This review focuses on the superiority of Helichrysum arenarium (sandy everlasting) over other known plants as a source of active pharmacological compounds used in complementary medicine to prevent digestive and hepatobiliary illnesses. Because the species exists both in spontaneous flora and in crops, this article highlights the development of a controlled culture of H. arenarium, following the reproducible quality of the plant as a biological material. The diversity of phytocompounds, especially well-characterized flavonoid extracts, and the differences between extraction procedures are discussed. Antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal activities against human pathogens proved by different plant extracts and their mechanisms of action are analyzed. This study aims to contribute to the insufficient knowledge regarding the effects of Helichrysum species and to reveal that their extracts can be a valuable source for new active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are microbial homo-and copolymers of [R]-βhydroxyalkanoic acids, produced by a wide variety of bacteria as an intracellular carbon and energy reserve. To obtain mcl-PHAs of microbial origin, we used a Pseudomonas spp. strain (from the National Institute for Chemical-Pharmaceutical Research and Development (ICCF) culture collection of microorganisms), by varying the carbon sources and the precursors. In this work, assays were performed with fermentation media seeded with inoculum cultures of strain Pseudomonas putida in a proportion of 10%. The influence on mcl-PHA production of carbon sources for strain development, hexanoate (C6), heptanoate (C7), octanoate (C8) and nonanoate (C9) acids, as polymers precursors, were analyzed. Due to their properties, similar to those of conventional plastics and their biodegradability, PHAs are suitable for many applications and for biomedical materials useful in surgical sutures, tissue engineering and drugs carriers, which leads us to the deepening of the study of obtaining micro/nanofibers by the electrospinning method.
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