Unlocking the potential of stem cells: Their crucial role in the production of cultivated meat.

Cellular agriculture is an emerging research field of agribiotechnology that aims to produce agricultural products using stem cells, without sacrificing animals or cultivating crops. Cultivated meat, as a representative cellular product of cellular agriculture, is being actively researched due to global food insecurity, environmental, and ethical concerns. This review focuses on the application of stem cells, which are the seeds of cellular agriculture, for the production of cultivated meat, with emphasis on deriving and culturing muscle and adipose stem cells for imitating fresh meat. Establishing standards and safety regulations for culturing stem cells is crucial for the market entry of cultured muscle tissue-based biomaterials. Understanding stem cells is a prerequisite for creating reliable cultivated meat and other cellular agricultural biomaterials. The techniques and regulations from the cultivated meat industry could pave the way for new cellular agriculture industries in the future.

Comparison of Prognosis According to the Use of Emergency Medical Services in Patients with ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to compare long-term clinical outcomes according to the use of emergency medical services (EMS) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) who arrived at the hospital within 12 hr of symptom onset. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 13104 patients with acute myocardial infarction were enrolled in the Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry-National Institutes of Health from October 2011 to December 2015. Of them, 2416 patients with STEMI who arrived at the hospital within 12 hr were divided into two groups: 987 patients in the EMS group and 1429 in the non-EMS group. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to reduce bias from confounding variables. After PSM, 796 patients in the EMS group and 796 patients in the non-EMS group were analyzed. The clinical outcomes during 3 years of clinical follow-up were compared between the two groups according to the use of EMS. RESULTS: The symptom-to-door time was significantly shorter in the EMS group than in the non-EMS group. The EMS group had more patients with high Killip class compared to the non-EMS group. The rates of all-cause death and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) were not significantly different between the two groups. After PSM, the rate of all-cause death and MACE were still not significantly different between the EMS and non-EMS groups. The predictors of mortality were high Killip class, renal dysfunction, old age, long door-to-balloon time, long symptom-to-door time, and heart failure. CONCLUSION: EMS utilization was more frequent in high-risk patients. The use of EMS shortened the symptom-to-door time, but did not improve the prognosis in this cohort.

C/N/O/S stable isotopic and chemometric analyses for determining the geographical origin of Panax ginseng cultivated in Korea.

BACKGROUND: The geographical origin of Panax ginseng Meyer, a valuable medicinal plant, is important to both ginseng producers and consumers in the context of economic profit and human health benefits. We, therefore, aimed to discriminate between the cultivation regions of ginseng using the stable isotope ratios of C, N, O, and S, which are abundant bioelements in living organisms. METHODS: Six Korean ginseng cultivars (3-yr-old roots) were collected from five different regions in Korea. The C, N, O, and S stable isotope ratios in ginseng roots were measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry, and then these isotope ratio profiles were statistically analyzed using chemometrics. RESULTS: The various isotope ratios found in P. ginseng roots were significantly influenced by region, cultivar, and the interactions between these two factors (p ≤ 0.001). The variation in δ15N and δ13C in ginseng roots was significant for discriminating between different ginseng cultivation regions, and δ18O and δ34S were also affected by both altitude and proximity to coastal areas. Chemometric model results tested in this study provided discrimination between the majority of different cultivation regions. Based on the external validation, this chemometric model also showed good model performance (R 2 = 0.853 and Q 2 = 0.738). CONCLUSION: Our case study elucidates the variation of C, N, O, and S stable isotope ratios in ginseng root depending on cultivation region. Hence, the analysis of stable isotope ratios is a suitable tool for discrimination between the regional origins of ginseng samples from Korea, with potential application to other countries.

Regional discrimination of Agaricus bisporus mushroom using the natural stable isotope ratios.

This study was aimed to verify the regional traceability of Agaricus bisporus mushroom using unique δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, and δ34S features combined with chemometric approaches. Ten cultivars from 15 mushroom farms in six regions of Korea were measured their isotopic signatures by stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer. The δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, and δ34S values were significantly different among mushrooms collected from six cultivation regions (P < 0.05). Multi-dimensional plots including the δ15N and δ34S values demonstrated clear regional discrimination of the Saedo and Saehan cultivars produced from Buyeo, Nonsan, Eumseong, Boryeong, or Gyeongju. Partial least-squares discriminate analysis models showed good discrimination for Saedo (Rx2 = 0.798 and Q2 = 0.563) and Saehan (Rx2 = 0.819 and Q2 = 0.894). These preliminary results can extend knowledge of regional isotope signatures in A. bisporus mushroom produced in Korea, contributing to accurate geographical authenticity with potential broader applications for the international mushroom market.

Discrimination of organic milk by stable isotope ratio, vitamin E, and fatty acid profiling combined with multivariate analysis: A case study of monthly and seasonal variation in Korea for 2016-2017.

This study examined the monthly and seasonal variations of δ13C, δ15N, fatty acids (FAs), and vitamin E in organic milk (OM) and conventional milk (CM) collected in Korea during 2016-2017, discriminating OM authenticity with chemometric approaches. Compared to CM, the mean δ13C and δ15N values were lower in OM, whereas the mean α-tocopherol and nutritionally desirable FA contents were higher in OM. Furthermore, δ13C, δ15N, and FA contents vary significantly with the season in OM, whereas α-tocopherol does not show a specific seasonal trend in either OM or CM. Chemometric approaches provided reliable chemical markers, notably C18:3n-3, C18:2n-6, and δ13Cbulk-milk, for accurate OM discrimination according to sampling season. Our findings elucidate milk nutritional quality issues and also provide valuable insight into the control of fraudulent OM labeling in Korea, with potential application in other countries.

Authenticity testing of environment-friendly Korean rice (Oryza sativa L.) using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratio analysis.

The increasing demand for organic foods creates, in turn, a pressing need for the development of more accurate tools for the authentication of organic food in order to ensure both fair trade and food safety. This study examines the feasibility of δ13C and δ15N analyses as potential tools for authentication of environment-friendly rice sold in Korea. δ13C and δ15N examination in different rice grains showed that environment-friendly rice can be successfully distinguished from conventional rice. No multi-residue pesticides were detected in the examined rice samples, including conventional rice. This study demonstrates the complementary feasibility of δ13C and δ15N analyses for the authentication of environment-friendly rice sold in Korea in cases where pesticide residue analysis alone is insufficient for discrimination of organic and conventional rice. In future, complementary analyses including compound-specific isotope ratio analysis might be employed for improving the reliability of organic authentication.