Osteoarthritis has been a common disease among elderly people, but there is not a solution clinically efficient for osteoarthritis. Therefore, tissue engineering has been developed in the field of cartilage regeneration. Tissue engineering has three basic elements: cell, scaffold and growth factor. An injectable scaffold, which can form a gel with original liquid form at the site of defect by injection, is an emerging scaffold for cartilage engineering. A scaffold can be composed of many materials such as natural materials, synthetic materials, composite materials, as well as hybrid materials. This paper reviews natural materials for cartilage regeneration.

Rhodotorula benthica is a unicellular yeast strain and presents widely in ocean with rich compositions of proteins, carotenoids, vitamins, digestive enzymes, and other biologically active substances. It has been applied in many fields including food, feed, medicine, and water industry. Rhodotorula species grow rapidly at 30 ℃ with coral pink, smooth, and moist to mucoid fettle, while the growth at 37 ℃ is variable. Rhodotorula species are strict aerobic yeasts with peculiarly metabolic characteristics. Rhodotorula produces urease and it has the inability to assimilate inositol and ferment sugars. Moreover, it is well known as a good source of carotenoids, proteins, essential amino-acids, digestive enzymes, lipids and vitamins. Rhodotorula benthica possesses a broad utilization prospect based on its metabolites, structures and bioactivities. This review summarizes some advances on the types, structures, and biological applications of the isolates from Rhodotorula glutinis.

Thrombus is a severe health problem all over the world, especially in developing countries. However, there is still no satisfactory antithrombotic therapeutic strategy. Currently, the clinical antithrombotic drugs suffer from several drawbacks such as high rate of bleedings and short half-life, causing allergic reactions or complications, etc. In recent years, small-molecule compounds isolated from natural products with antithrombotic activities become a hot issue in the field of drug research. In this review, we will focus on representative naturally occurring small molecule flavonoids with antithrombotic potency and potential for future therapeutic regimens to combat thrombosis disease.

The skin barrier is regulated by the stratum corneum and the tight junction located at the lamellar layer. Skin barrier can maintain the body’s moisture, prevent pathogens and allergens. Atopic dermatitis is caused by changes in the skin barrier associating with skin coloring. The main function of filaggrin is to maintain skin moisture. The level of filaggrin and its degradation products is affected not only by the genotype of filaggrin, but also by the inflammatory and exogenous stress factors. Regardless of the state of mutations in the filamentous protein, filaggrin deficiency was observed in patients with atopic dermatitis, indicating that the removal of polyphenol was a key factor in the pathogenesis of the skin disease. In this paper, we reviewed the function and morphological effects of filaggrin and its metabolites in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis. Filaggrin is considered as one of the most important proteins in the skin barrier.

A lot ofindole compounds possessing complex structures exist widely in alkaloids with enormous research significance. Specifically, bisindoles play a great role in the treatment of cancer, tumors, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Many researchers are devoted to their biosynthesis. The structural diversity of bisindoles is attributed to multiple active sites of tryptophan. They presented bioactivities against anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-virus and anti-cancer properties at the C-3 site of bisindoles. This paper reviews recent advances on biosynthesis pathways and bioactivites of bisindoles.