Adipose tissue stem cells (ASCs), known as multipotent stem cells, are most commonly used in the clinical applications in recent years. Adipose tissues (AT) have the advantage in the harvesting, isolation, and expansion of ASCs, especially an abundant amount of stem cells compared to bone marrow. ASCs can be found in stromal vascular fractions (SVF) which are easily obtained from the dissociation of adipose tissue. Both SVFs and culture-expanded ASCs exhibit the stem cell characteristics such as differentiation into multiple cell types, regeneration, and immune regulators. Therefore, SVFs and ASCs have been researched to evaluate the safety and benefits for human use. In fact, the number of clinical trials on ASCs is going to increase by years; however, most trials are in phase I and II, and lack phase III and IV. This systemic review highlights and updates the process of the harvesting, characteristics, isolation, culture, storage, and application of ASCs, as well as provides further directions on the therapeutic use of ASCs.

Obesity is a global pandemic and it is well evident that obesity is associated with the development of many disorders including many cancer types. Breast cancer is one of that associated with a high mortality rate. Adipocytes, a major cellular component in adipose tissue, are dysfunctional during obesity and also known to promote breast cancer development both in vitro and in vivo. Dysfunctional adipocytes can release metabolic substrates, adipokines, and cytokines, which promote proliferation, progression, invasion, and migration of breast cancer cells. The secretion of adipocytes can alter gene expression profile, induce inflammation and hypoxia, as well as inhibit apoptosis. It is known that excessive free fatty acids, cholesterol, triglycerides, hormones, leptin, interleukins, and chemokines upregulate breast cancer development. Interestingly, adiponectin is the only adipokine that has anti-tumor properties. Moreover, adipocytes are also related to chemotherapeutic resistance, resulting in the poorer outcome of treatment and advanced stages in breast cancer. Evaluation of the adipocyte secretion levels in the circulation can be useful for prognosis and evaluation of the effectiveness of cancer therapy in the patients. Therefore, understanding about functions of adipocytes as well as obesity in breast cancer may reveal novel targets that support the development of new anti-tumor therapy. In this systemic review, we summarize and update the effects of secreted factors by adipocytes on the regulation of breast cancer in the tumor microenvironment.

In this study, the introduction of Origanum majorana L. essential oil into a polyamidoamine (PAMAM) G4.0 dendrimer was performed for creation of a potential nanocide against Phytophthora infestans. The characteristics of marjoram oil and PAMAM G4.0 was analyzed using transmission electron spectroscopy (TEM), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H-NMR) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The success of combining marjoram oil with PAMAM G4.0 was evaluated by FT-IR, TGA analysis, and the antifungal activity of this system was also investigated. The results showed that the antifungal activity of oil/PAMAM G4.0 was high and significantly higher than only PAMAM G4.0 or marjoram essential oil. These results indicated that the nanocide oil/PAMAM G4.0 helped strengthen and prolong the antifungal properties of the oil.

This study aims to analyze compositions of fatty acids and phospholipid molecular species in the hard clams Meretrix lyrata (Sowerby, 1851) harvested from Cua Lo beach, Nghe An province, Viet Nam. Total lipid of hard clams Meretrix lyrata occupied 1.7 ± 0.2% of wet weight and contained six classes: hydrocarbon and wax (HW), triacylglycerol (TAG), free fatty acids (FFA), sterol (ST), polar lipid (PoL), and monoalkyl diacylglycerol (MADAG). Among the constituents, the proportion of PoL accounted was highest, at 45.7%. In contrast, the figures for MADAG were lowest, at 1.3%. Twenty-six fatty acids were identified with the ratios of USAFA/SAFA was 2. The percentage of n-3 PUFA (ω-3) and n-6 PUFA (ω-6) was high, occupying 38.4% of total FA. Among PUFAs, arachidonic acid (AA, 20:4n-6), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n-3), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, 22:5n-3), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) accounted for 3.8%, 7.8%, 2.2% and 12.0% of total lipid of the clam respectively. Phospholipid molecular species were identified in polar lipids of the clams consisting six types: phosphatidylethalnolamine (PE, with 28 molecular species), phosphatidylcholine (PC, with 26 molecular species), phosphatidylserine (PS, with 18 molecular species), phosphatidylinositol (PI, with 10 molecular species), phosphatidylglycerol (PG, with only one molecular species), and ceramide aminoethylphosphonate (CAEP, with 15 molecular species). This is the first time that the molecular species of sphingophospholipid were determined, in Meretrix lyrata in particular, and for clams in general. Phospholipid formula species of PE and PS were revealed to comprise two kinds: Alkenyl acyl glycerophosphoethanolamine and Alkenyl acyl glycerophosphoserine occupy 80.3% and 81.0% of total PE and PS species, respectively. In contrast, the percentage of diacyl glycero phosphatidylcholine was twice as high as that of PakCho in total PC, at 69.3, in comparison with 30.7%. In addition, phospholipid formula species of PI and PG comprised only diacyl glycoro phospholipids. PE 36:1 (p18:0/18:1), PC 38:6 (16:0/22:6), PS 38:1 (p18:0/20:1), PI 40:5 (20:1/20:4), PG 32:0 (16:0/16:0) and CAEP 34:2 (16:2/d18:0) were the major molecular species.

Caring for children and mothers suffering from cardiac disease is highly challenging, with issues including late diagnosis as well as inadequate infrastructure and supply of drugs. We aimed to evaluate maternal outcomes among pregnant women suffering from heart disease with a live birth, and explored the risk factors for fetal growth restriction among these patients. A retrospective study was performed at the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Hanoi, Vietnam) over a 3-year period from 2014 to 2016. A total of 284 patients were enrolled in the study. Overall, most women were aged below 35 years and were diagnosed with heart disease before pregnancy. Of the women experiencing rheumatic heart disease, the prevalence of mitral valve regurgitation was the highest (40.14%), while the figure for aortic valve regurgitation was the lowest (4.23%). Of women with congenital heart defects, the most common defects were ventricular septal defect (VSD) and atrial septal defect (ASD) (19.37% and 16.55%, respectively), while 5.28% of mothers were diagnosed with tetralogy of Fallot and 1.76% with patent ductus arteriosus. Noted clinical presentations of the patients included palpitation (63.38%), breathlessness (23.59%), leg edema (8.45%), and chest pain (8.1%). The common complications in the study population included 16.90% of women having heart failure and 19.37% having arrhythmias. The incidence of fetal growth restriction was 9.15%. Hypertension (odds ratio (OR): 59.75, 95% confidence interval (CI): 9.1–392.17), the heart disease types (ASD (OR: 4.27, 95% CI: 1.19–15.29) and tetralogy of Fallot (OR: 6.82, 95% CI: 1.21–38.55)), and the complications (heart failure (OR: 10.34, 95% CI: 2.75–38.87) and pulmonary edema (OR: 107.16, 95% CI: 4.96–2313.93)) were observed as risk factors for intrauterine growth restriction. This study provides a cornerstone to promote further studies and to motivate people to apply evidence-based medical care for mothers with diagnosed cardiac disease in the antenatal and postnatal periods.

Anthocyanins are widely used in the food industry as safe natural colorants thanks to their benefits, attractive colors and safety for consumption. The first objective of this study was to evaluate anthocyanins extraction from Vietnam purple sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) for use as food coloring. Different extraction temperatures of solvent ethanol (40 - 70%), duration of extraction (40 - 80 min), temperature extraction (30 - 70°C) and liquid-solid ratios (4:1 - 8:1 mL/g) were selected in order to extract purple sweet potato. Second, this study examines the anthocyanin color behavior at various pH levels in aqueous solutions levels ranging from 1.0 to 14.0. At low pH (acidic conditions), anthocyanins are stable and gives a red color. Meanwhile, increasing the pH value of anthocyanin will change the color from red to pink, violet, blue, green and yellow. This variation suggested that anthocyanin could be utilized as a possible pH color indicator in commercial packaging industry and agriculture.