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Our data suggest that UV irradiation can improve the accumulation of phenolic compounds with antioxidant properties in lettuce cultivated in plant factories.

Transformed root ("hairy root") cultures have been shown to be a good model for the study of many secondary metabolites. However, economically important compounds such as asiaticoside and madecassoside are produced in insignificant amounts in the root of Centella asiatica (L.) Urban. To overcome this problem, C. asiatica was transformed using Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain R1000 that harbors pCAMBIA1302 encoding the hygromycin phosphotransferase (hpt) and green fluorescence protein (mgfp5) genes and the hairy culture was coupled with elicitation technique. Hairy roots were obtained at a frequency of up to 14.1% from a tissue junction between the leaf and petiole. Abundant hairy roots were observed when co-cultivation of the plant with A. rhizogenes was done for 7 days (36.1%). Transformation was confirmed by PCR and Southern blot analyses. Five weeks after inoculation, no asiaticoside was detected in the hairy root samples. However, when 0.1 mM methyl jasmonate (MJ) was applied as an elicitor to the culture medium for 3 weeks, a large quantity of asiaticoside was generated (7.12 mg/g, dry wt). In the case of gene expression, 12 h after MJ treatment the expression of the CabAS (C. asiatica putative beta-amyrin synthase) gene in the hairy roots is significantly different from that of the control and this level of transcripts was maintained for 14 days. Our results showed that production of C. asiatica hairy roots could be optimized and the resulting cultures could be elicited with MJ treatment for enhanced production of asiaticoside.

BackgroundFor phosphate control, patient education is essential due to the limited clearance of phosphate by dialysis. However, well-designed randomized controlled trials about dietary and phosphate binder education have been scarce.MethodsWe enrolled maintenance hemodialysis patients and randomized them into an education group (n = 48) or a control group (n = 22). We assessed the patients’ drug compliance and their knowledge about the phosphate binder using a questionnaire.ResultsThe primary goal was to increase the number of patients who reached a calcium-phosphorus product of lower than 55. In the education group, 36 (75.0%) patients achieved the primary goal, as compared with 16 (72.7%) in the control group (P = 0.430). The education increased the proportion of patients who properly took the phosphate binder (22.9% vs. 3.5%, P = 0.087), but not to statistical significance. Education did not affect the amount of dietary phosphate intake per body weight (education vs. control: −1.18 ± 3.54 vs. −0.88 ± 2.04 mg/kg, P = 0.851). However, the dietary phosphate-to-protein ratio tended to be lower in the education group (−0.64 ± 2.04 vs. 0.65 ± 3.55, P = 0.193). The education on phosphate restriction affected neither the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment score (0.17 ± 4.58 vs. −0.86 ± 3.86, P = 0.363) nor the level of dietary protein intake (−0.03 ± 0.33 vs. −0.09 ± 0.18, P = 0.569).ConclusionEducation did not affect the calcium-phosphate product. Education on the proper timing of phosphate binder intake and the dietary phosphate-to-protein ratio showed marginal efficacy.