Development and application of in-situ microscopy in on-line monitoring of cell biomass / 生物工程学报

With the rapid development of modern biotechnology, fermentation process is increasingly important in industrial production. To guarantee the stability of products, fermentation process should be elaborately monitored and controlled. Biomass is an important parameter for on-line monitoring in bioprocesses because biomass can reflect cell growth in a bioreactor directly. In-situ microscope, a non-invasive and image-analysis based technology, can real-time monitor cells in biological process. This review summarizes the development and application of in-situ microscopy in biomass monitoring.

Research progress on the anti-cancer effect and mechanisms of the natural tanshinones / 中国药理学通报

Tanshinones are a large class of hydrophobic natural products isolated from traditional Chinese herb Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge and related plants. Tanshinones include tanshinone ⅡA, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone I, dihydrotanshinone, and so on. Both the tanshinones and the salvianolic acids have been identi-fied as the characteristic and main active ingredients of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge with cardiovascular protective activities. Ac-cumulated data in recent years have revealed that tanshinones possess remarkable anti-cancer activities both in vivo and in vitro. In this review, we summarize the latest progress of the an-ti-cancer effect and the underlying mechanisms of tanshinones, particularly with emphasis on tanshinone ⅡA, which might pro-vide reference for the further research and development of these compounds.