科研之友
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摘要
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) have been developed for use as polymeric materials to make bioplastics, fine chemicals, implant biomaterials, medicine, and biofuels. PHAs are produced by microorganisms grown under restricted conditions and they are comprised of structurally various 3-hydroxyalkanoic acids (3-HA) monomers. PHAs derived from 3-HA monomers are compatible with alcohol and carboxylic acids due to their easily modified hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups. Meanwhile, 3-HA monomers can be prepared by chemical synthesis, as well as by depolymerising PHAs and microbial metabolic engineering. Up to now, an important application for 3-HA monomers is as a starting material for fine chemical synthesis, such as production of antibiotics, vitamins, aromatics and pheromones. As an important kind of monomers, 3-HA also have been validated the profound physiological effects, which make them possible to be applied in medical physiology. In this paper, the effects of 3-HA monomers on different aspects of medical physiology were summarised, which include enhancement of metabolic efficiency as an energy resource, and diagnostic and therapeutic applications in many diseases. All of these discussions would be helpful in understanding the properties of 3-HA monomers and their applications in medical physiology.
