Study on Carbonation of Porcine Blood Hydrogel in the Composite Mortar of Ancient Chinese Architectural Painting.

In the ancient Chinese recipe for composite mortar used in the construction of ground layers for architectural painting, the mixture of porcine blood and lime water is one of the constituent materials. Herein, according to the traditional recipe, the interaction between porcine blood and lime water was systematically and deeply investigated. The experimental investigation demonstrated that porcine blood mixed with lime water at the ratio found in the recipe can form a hydrogel with a hydrophobic surface. During air-drying, the lime water in porcine blood hydrogel can react with CO2 to form calcium carbonate. The crystal morphology of the formed calcium carbonate depends on the surrounding micro-environment of calcium ions in the porcine blood hydrogel. The formed morphology of calcium carbonate includes small calcite crystallites, small graininess calcite crystals with round features, calcite aggregates with layered ladder-like structures, and amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC). Interestingly, the calcium carbonate formed in the inner part of the porcine blood hydrogel exhibits lamellar distribution due to a Liesegang pattern formation. Based on the findings that the porcine blood hydrogel has surface hydrophobicity and brittleness, it can be predicted that in the preparation process of composite mortar for ancient building color painting base course, porcine blood used in the form of a hydrogel is not only easier to be dispersed in hydrophobic tung oil than in liquid porcine blood but also the affinity between porcine blood gel and tung oil is enhanced. As constituent material dispersed in the composite mortar, the layered distribution of calcium carbonate in the porcine blood hydrogel may presumably be beneficial to reduce the internal stress of the composite mortar material.

Beneficial Relationships Between Endophytic Bacteria and Medicinal Plants.

Plants benefit extensively from endophytic bacteria, which live in host plant tissues exerting no harmful effects. Bacterial endophytes promote the growth of host plants and enhance their resistance toward various pathogens and environmental stresses. They can also regulate the synthesis of secondary metabolites with significant medicinal properties and produce various biological effects. This review summarizes recent studies on the relationships between bacterial endophytes and medicinal plants. Endophytic bacteria have numerous applications in agriculture, medicine, and other industries: improving plant growth, promoting resistance toward both biotic and abiotic stresses, and producing metabolites with medicinal potential. Their distribution and population structure are affected by their host plant's genetic characteristics and health and by the ecology of the surrounding environment. Understanding bacterial endophytes can help us use them more effectively and apply them to medicinal plants to improve yield and quality.

PPA1 Regulates Systemic Insulin Sensitivity by Maintaining Adipocyte Mitochondria Function as a Novel PPARγ Target Gene.

Downregulation of mitochondrial function in adipose tissue is considered as one important driver for the development of obesity-associated metabolic disorders. Inorganic pyrophosphatase 1 (PPA1) is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of inorganic pyrophosphate to inorganic phosphate and is required for anabolism to take place in cells. Although alteration of PPA1 has been related to some diseases, the importance of PPA1 in metabolic syndromes has never been discussed. In this study, we found that global PPA1 knockout mice (PPA1+/-) showed impaired glucose tolerance and severe insulin resistance under high-fat-diet feeding. In addition, impaired adipose tissue development and ectopic lipid accumulation were observed. Conversely, overexpression of PPA1 in adipose tissue by adeno-associated virus injection can partly reverse the metabolic disorders in PPA1+/- mice, suggesting that impaired adipose tissue function is responsible for the metabolic disorders observed in PPA1+/- mice. Mechanistic studies revealed that PPA1 acted as a PPARγ target gene to maintain mitochondrial function in adipocytes. Furthermore, specific knockdown of PPA1 in fat body of Drosophila led to impaired mitochondria morphology, decreased lipid storage, and made Drosophila more sensitive to starvation. In conclusion, for the first time, our findings demonstrate the importance of PPA1 in maintaining adipose tissue function and whole-body metabolic homeostasis.

Efficient preparation of rare Sagittatoside A from epimedin A, by recyclable aqueous organic two-phase enzymatic hydrolysis.

The rare secondary flavonol glycoside Sagittatoside A has much better in vivo bioactivities than epimedin A in Epimedii Folium. However, its current preparation methods are of low efficiency, with byproducts generated. The aim of this study was to establish a novel catalysis system for effective and convenient preparation of Sagittatoside A from epimedin A based on recyclable and integrated aqueous organic two-phase enzymatic hydrolysis. The system was consisted of propyl acetate and HAc-NaAc buffer (pH4.5) containing ß-dextranase/epimedin A, and the hydrolysis was performed at 60 °C for 1 h. Consequently, epimedin A was completely hydrolyzed to sagittatoside A, and 95.02% of the product was transferred into the organic phase. Moreover, 90% of its initial activity was retained after seven cycles of hydrolysis. Additionally, the procedure was simpler than conventional enzymatic hydrolysis. Collectively, the newly proposed strategy is an efficient and promising approach for the preparation of sagittatoside A in industrial application.

Integrated extraction and purification of total bioactive flavonoids from Toona sinensis leaves.

An integrated procedure was developed to extract and purify total flavonoids from Toona sinensis leaves for the first time, in which pressurized liquid extraction was performed in tandem with HPD100 macroporous resin column. Consequently, the total flavonoids can be extracted using 10% EtOH, and the recovery and purity of total flavonoids was 71.05% and 66.60%. Moreover, products of high quality were obtained in an environmentally friendly process with lower consumption of time and solvent. The results demonstrated that the integrated extraction-adsorption procedure was an efficient process for the preparation of total bioactive flavonoids from Toona sinensis leaves.