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Volume 7, Issue 1 (Suppl) J Biotechnol Biomater
ISSN: 2155-952X JBTBM, an open access journal
Enzymology & Mol. Biology 2017
Biotechnology Congress 2017
March 20-21, 2017
Page 54
Notes:
conferenceseries.com
March 20-21, 2017 Rome, Italy
&
15th World Congress on
2nd International Conference on
Biotechnology And Biotech Industries Meet
Enzymology and Molecular Biology
Optimizing flax fibers for tomorrow’s therapeutics
Flax fiber served as a major source to manufacture textiles, whereas seeds were pressed to extract edible oil. In the last
decades devaluation of flax fiber in the world has been observed. Recently, the renewed interest in flax products has been
noticed due to better understanding of the genes involved in flax productivity and fiber quality. All these provide targets for
fiber improvement by the novel genetic/epigenetic methods leading to more diverse products based on flax fibers. For example
manipulation of gene expression significantly increases antioxidant potential, affected lignin and pectin synthesis and cell
wall arrangement. Up-regulation of β -glucanase gene protects plant against pathogenic infection, and thus increases fiber
productivity and quality. Unique flax fiber was obtained, by genetic engineering, with novel constituent that strongly affects
fiber properties and application, for example the production of a polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) which was accomplished by
simultaneous expression of three bacterial genes under vascular bundles specific promoter. The unique application of PHB-
fibers has been shown in chronic wound healing. Pre-clinical study revealed healing improvement of chronic ulcers upon
treatment with wound dressing based on new fibers. The healing effect was potentiated by supplementation of PHB-fibers with
two activators derived from seeds and seedcake of flax accumulating antioxidant compounds. Up-regulation of antioxidants
was achieved by simultaneous expression of three genes from flavonoid pathway. The PHB-fiber embedded in polylactide may
serve as a scaffold for tissue engineering and has been shown to be useful as biodegradable implant. Micronization process
can introduce structural changes in fibers constituents to exhibit more functional groups, and thus might potentiate fiber
functionality. Indeed, highly reactive micronized flax fibers might serve as a carrier for biologically active compounds.
Biography
Jan Szopa is currently working as a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Genetics at the University of Wrocław, Poland. His international experience
includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study. His research interests reflect wide range of publications
in various national and international journals.
Jan Szopa
University of Wroclaw, Poland
Jan Szopa, J Biotechnol Biomater 2017, 7:1(Suppl)