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In this study, we investigated the effects of methanolic extracts of white ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. MEYER) and two kinds of heat-treated ginseng made by steaming fresh ginseng at 100°C for 3 hours (HTG-100) or 120°C for 3 hours (HTG-120) on the cell growth of human fibroblasts. All of the tested ginseng extracts stimulated cell growth, although the effect of HTG-120 was weaker than that of the other extracts. However, none of the ginseng extracts exhibited any effect on the growth of old cells with a population doubling level (PDL) of 48.7. Flow cytometric analysis showed that ginseng extracts raised the population of cells in G₀/G₁ phase after treatment for 24 hours, but did not exert any effect after treatment for 48 hours. These results suggest that ginsengs exert their cell growth-promoting action mainly on younger cells at an early stage of the cell cycle, and that this effect is closely associated with an increase in the population of cells in the G₀/G₁ phase.

Gold nanorods (AuNRs) have been considered as suitable materials for diverse biomedical applications in controlling cell behaviors. The nanoisland system with well-dispersed silica coated Au nanorods (Si-AuNRs) was used to demonstrate the enhanced cell growth of normal and cancer cells (MDA-MB-231 mammalian breast cancer cells) from the induced expressions of the heat shock proteins (HSPs). The over-expressions of HSP could help in protein folding in cell proliferations and growths of both the normal and cancer cells. In the current study, interesting mechanisms of cancer cell growth with Si-AuNRs than the conventional systems, such as incubator, would be presented. We believe that the growth of cancer cells in near infrared (NIR) region using Si-AuNRs induced the activities of HSPs, which could help the protein folding in cell growth and survival in comparison to the cells grown in the incubator only. The cell growth enhancing technology could be expanded in diverse applications in cell culture systems.

The article introduces a mathematical model of the physical growth mechanism which is based on the relationships of the physical and geometrical parameters of the growing object, in particular its surface and volume. This growth mechanism works in cooperation with the biochemical and other growth factors. We use the growth equation, which mathematically describes this mechanism, and study its adequacy to real growth phenomena. The growth model very accurately fits experimental data on growth of Amoeba, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, E.coli. Study discovered a new growth suppression mechanism created by certain geometry of the growing object. This result was proved by experimental data. The existence of the growth suppression phenomenon confirms the real workings and universality of the growth mechanism and the adequacy of its mathematical description. The introduced equation is also applicable to the growth of multicellular organisms and tumors. Another important result is that the growth equation introduces mathematical characterization of geometrical forms that can biologically grow. The material is supported by software application, which is released to public domain.