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The charophycean green algae (CGA or basal streptophytes) are of particular evolutionary significance because their ancestors gave rise to land plants. One outstanding feature of these algae is that their cell walls exhibit remarkable similarities to those of land plants. Xyloglucan (XyG) is a major structural component of the cell walls of most land plants and was originally thought to be absent in CGA. This study presents evidence that XyG evolved in the CGA. This is based on a) the identification of orthologs of the genetic machinery to produce XyG, b) the identification of XyG in a range of CGA and, c) the structural elucidation of XyG, including uronic acid-containing XyG, in selected CGA. Most notably, XyG fucosylation, a feature considered as a late evolutionary elaboration of the basic XyG structure and orthologs to the corresponding biosynthetic enzymes are shown to be present in Mesotaenium caldariorum.

To prepare one electroactive and biodegradable biomaterial for biomedical application, a new synthetic strategy was developed to synthesize a novel electrically conductive biodegradable polyphosphazene polymer containing parent aniline pentamer (PAP) and glycine ethyl ester (GEE) as side chains by a nucleophilic substitution reaction. The electrical conductivity of the polymer is approximately 2 x 10(-5) S cm(-1) in the semiconducting region upon preliminarily protonic-doped experiment. The degradation and RSC96 Schwann cells experiments in vitro prove that the polymer is biodegradable and beneficial to the cell adhesion and proliferation. The as-synthesized polymer also shows good solubility in common organic solvent and good film-forming properties. This new type of polymer has potential applications as scaffolds for neuronal and cardiovascular tissue engineering or other biomedical devices that require electroactivity.

Solanum nigrum Linne (SNL) has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries because of its diuretic and antipyretic effects. The present study examined the effect of the crude polysaccharides isolated from Solanum nigrum Linne (SNL-P) on tumor growth. SNL-P had a significant growth inhibition effect on cervical cancer (U14) of tumor-bearing mice. Further analysis of the tumor inhibition mechanism indicated that the number of apoptotic tumor cells increased significantly, the expression of Bax increased and the expression of Bcl-2 and mutant p53 decreased dramatically in cervical cancer sections after oral administration of SNL-P for 12 days. Moreover, SNL-P treatment decreased the level of blood serum TNF-alpha. These results indicated that the tumor growth inhibition of SNL-P administration might correlate with the reduction of TNF-alpha level of blood serum, which resulted in a massive necrosis in tumor tissues and the up-regulation of Bax and down-regulation of Bcl-2 and mutant p53 gene expression, which triggered apoptosis in tumor cells. These findings demonstrated that the SNL-P is a potential antitumor agent.