• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.233-246
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• 2022

Background and Objectives: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease mainly affecting young women of childbearing age. SLE affects the skin, joints, muscles, kidneys, lungs, and heart. Cardiovascular complications are common causes of death in patients with SLE. However, the complexity of the cardiovascular system and the rarity of SLE make it difficult to investigate these morbidities. Patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) serve as a novel tool for drug screening and pathophysiological studies in the absence of patient samples. Methods and Results: We differentiated CMs from HC- and SLE-iPSCs using 2D culture platforms. SLE-CMs showed decreased proliferation and increased levels of fibrosis and hypertrophy marker expression; however, HC-and SLE-monolayer CMs reacted differently to SLE serum treatment. HC-iPSCs were also differentiated into CMs using 3D spheroid culture and anti-Ro autoantibody was treated along with SLE serum. 3D-HC-CMs generated more mature CMs compared to the CMs generated using 2D culture. The treatment of anti-Ro autoantibody rapidly increased the gene expression of fibrosis, hypertrophy, and apoptosis markers, and altered the calcium signaling in the CMs. Conclusions: iPSC derived cardiomyocytes with patient-derived serum, and anti-Ro antibody treatment could serve in effective autoimmune disease modeling including SLE. We believe that the present study might briefly provide possibilities on the application of a combination of patient-derived materials and iPSCs in disease modeling of autoimmune diseases.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.207-212
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• 2007

This study describes a simple and rapid method for quantitative determination of $\gamma$-aminobutyric acid (GABA) using $^1H$ NMR spectroscopy from whole cell extracts of plant suspension cultures. When 9 cell lines derived from 8 species of higher plants maintained in liquid Marashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 1 mg/L 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) were subjected to $^1H$ NMR, a cell line of Coriandrum sativum L. exhibited the highest level of GABA. The level reached up to 16.9 mg/dry wt when cells were cultured in MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/L 2,4-D after 3 weeks of incubation. The method for quantitative determination of GABA using $^1H$ NMR established in this study could be applied to high-throughput screening of various plant resources for GABA production and the cell suspension culture system of C. sativum could be further developed for commercial production of GABA.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2018

Intervertebral disc(IVD) mainly consists of Annulus fibrosus(AF) and Nucleus pulposus(NP), playing a role of distributing a mechanical load on vertebral body. IVD tissue engineering has been developed the methods to achieve anatomic morphology and restoration of biological function. The goal of present study is to identify the possibilities for creating a substitute of IVD the morphology and biological functions are the same as undamaged complete IVD. To fabricate the AF and NP combine biphasic IVD tissue, AF tissue scaffolds have been printed by 3D bio-printing system with natural biomaterials and NP tissues have been prepared by scaffold-free culture system. We evaluated whether the combined structure of 3D printed AF scaffold and scaffold-free NP tissue construct could support the architecture and cell functions as IVD tissue. 3D printed AF scaffolds were printed with 60 degree angle stripe patterned lamella structure(the inner-diameter is 5mm, outer-diameter is 10 mm and height is 3 mm). In the cytotoxicity test, the 3D printed AF scaffold showed good cell compatibility. The results of histological and immunohistochemical staining also showed the newly synthesized collagens and glycosaminoglycans, which are specific makers of AF tissue. And scaffold-free NP tissue actively synthesized glycosaminoglycans and type 2 collagen, which are the major components of NP tissue. When we combined two engineered tissues to realize the IVD, combined biphasic tissues showed a good integration between the two tissues. In conclusion, this study describes the fabrication of Engineered biphasic IVD tissue by using enable techniques of tissue engineering. This fabricated biphasic tissue would be used as a model system for the study of the native IVD tissue. In the future, it may have the potential to replace the damaged IVD in the future.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.47-50
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• 2007

Insect cell culture system has been demonstrated the effective means of producing medical and agricultural products. Furthermore, Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is in wide use in insect cell culture. Silkworm hemolymph was tested to develop as a substitute for FBS and was effective in insect cell growth. Hemolymph is oxidized and darkens visibly during the collection from silkworms due to the activity of tyrosinase in it. Toxic quinones are produced by the oxidation and consequently inhibit the cell growth. Heat treatment can be used to prevent the oxidation; however, the oxidation may occur during the collection of hemolymph before it is heat-treated. Hemolymphs collected from 257 different strains of silkworms were examined to select the slowly oxidized hemolymphs. Hemolymphs collected from mutant strains such as $Y_4$, TBO and $wE^b$ showed relatively slow color changes. Oxidation rates of the hemolymphs were measured by the absorbance change using a spectrophotometer. The absorbance of mutant hemolymph reached the saturation value at $20^{\circ}C$ in each 330 min ($Y_4$), 360 min (TBO) and 450 min ($wE^b$) min, whereas the total oxidation time of the wild-type (Baekokjam) hemolymph at the same temperature was 120 min. The cell growth in the medium supplemented with mutant species hemolmph was more effective that in the medium supplemented with Baekokjam species hemolymph.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2001

Traditional culture technology of medicinal plants mainly depends on the field culture, which has many problems. With progress of modern culture technology, it has become possible to produce valuable secondary metabolites from medicinal plants. In this paper, we discuss about the pigment and saikosaponin production from too medicinal plants, Carthamus tinctorius and Bupleurum falcatum, through bioreactor culture system. A two-stage bioreactor culture system was established for the production of yellow and red pigments and saikosaponins by cell suspension cultures of Carthamus tinctorius and Bupleurum falcatum. In Carthamus tinctorius, balloon type airlift bioreactors and column type airlift bioreactors were employed for the tell culture and for the pigment production, respectively. The greatest pigment production was obtained on White medium supplemented with 4 mg/L kinetin, high levels of sucrose concentration and photosynthetic photon flux. In Bupleurum falcatum, adventitious roots were cultured in balloon type airlift bioreactors and the root growth was greatest on SH medium containing 5 mg/L IBA and 0.2 mg/L kinetin. HPLC analysis showed that the contents of main active saikosaponins a, c, and d in adventitious roots were almost the same as those in field cultured root.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.185-190
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• 2004

We established a transient gene expression system in chili pepper leaves based on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of GUS gene. For the best GUS transient expression, two step culture system was adopted. When the Agrobacterium tumefaciens cell density of pre-culture was $A_{600nm}$ 0.3, the cells were harvested and diluted to $A_{600nm}$ 0.8 with virulence induction medium after cell harvested. The addition of acetosyringone (200 $\mu$M) in virulence induction step was a key factor for successful transient expression. Additionally, Younger leaves showed more effective transient expression than older leaves. Temporally, the strongest intensity of GUS expression was detected at 2 days after infiltration. These results demonstrate that Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression can be used for a simple in vivo assays of plant promoters, transcription factors and furthermore provide efficient protocol for chili pepper transformation.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.343-351
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• 2017

Porcine spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) prefer three-dimensional (3D) culture systems to 2D ones for the maintenance of self-renewal. Of the many 3D culture systems, agar-based hydrogels are candidates for supporting porcine SSC self-renewal, and there are various types of agar powder that can be used. In this study, we sought to identify an agar-based 3D hydrogel system that exhibited strong efficacy in the maintenance of porcine SSC self-renewal. First, 3D hydrogels with different mechanics were prepared with various concentrations of Bacto agar, lysogeny broth (LB) agar, and agarose powder, and the 3D hydrogel with the strongest alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity and greatest increase in colony size was identified for the different types of agar powder. Second, among the porcine SSCs cultured in the different 3D hydrogels, we analyzed the colony formation, morphology, and size; AP activity; and transcription and translation of porcine SSC-related genes, and these were compared to determine the optimal 3D hydrogel system for the maintenance of porcine SSC self-renewal. We found that 0.6% (w/v) Bacto agar-, 1% (w/v) LB agar-, and 0.2% (w/v) agarose-based 3D hydrogels showed the strongest maintenance of AP activity and the most pronounced increase in colony size in the culture of porcine SSCs. Moreover, among these hydrogels, the strongest transcription and translation of porcine SSC-related genes and largest colony size were detected in porcine SSCs cultured in the 0.2% (w/v) agarose-based 3D hydrogel, whereas there were no significant differences in colony formation and morphology. These results demonstrate that the 0.2% (w/v) agarose-based 3D hydrogel can be effectively used for the maintenance of porcine SSC self-renewal.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2004

This study was aimed at testing the gene expression of antioxidant enzymes and apoptosis genes for in vitro culture in porcine embryos produced by in vitro maturation/in vitro fertilization (IVM/IVF). Pocine preimplantation embryos obtainted from IVM/IVF can be successfully culture in vitro, but they are delayed or stop to develop at specific developmental stage. Many factors such as reactive oxygen species and apoptosis in an IVM/IVF system followed by in vitro culture influence the rate of production of viable blastocysts. Porcine embryos derived from IVM/IVF were cultured in the atmosphere of 5% $CO_2$ and 20% $O_2$ at $38.5^{\circ}C$ in NCSU23 medium. The patterns of gene expression for antioxidant enzymes and apoptosis genes during in vitro culture in pocine IVM/IVF embryos were examined by the modified semi-quantitative single cell reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Porcine embryos produced by in vitro procedures were expressed mRNAs for CuZn-SOD, GAPDH and GPX, whereas transcripts for Mn-SOD and catalase were not detected at any developmental stages. Expression of caspase-3 mRNA was detected at 2 cell, 8 cell 16 cell and blastocyst, but p53 mRNA was not detected at any stages. The fas transcripts was only detected in blastocyst stage. These results suggest that various antioxidant enzymes and apoptosis genes play crucial roles in vitro culture of porcine IVM/IVF embryos.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.130-136
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• 1996

Evaluation of plant extracts that might inhibit hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication was performed to find potent anti-HBV agents. Eighty-five species of plants from forty-three families were tested for their anti-HBV activities using HBV-producing HepG2-derived 2.2.15 cells. The anti-HBV activity of plant extracts was measured by slot blot hybridization technique and cytotoxicity was determined by crystal violet staining procedure. All plants were extracted with methanol and the extracts were partitioned into n-hexane, ethyl acetate and aqueous layer. The ethyl acetate fractions of Rhus verniciflua $(stem:\;EC_{50},\;8.2{\mu}g/ml;\;CC_{50},\;9.4{\mu}g/ml)$, Gastrodia elata $(root:\;EC_{50},\;17.7{\mu}g/ml;\;CC_{50},\;>20{\mu}g/ml)$, Raphanus sativus $(seeds:\;EC_{50},\;17.3{\mu}g/ml;\;CC_{50},\;>20{\mu}g/ml)$, and Angelica gigas $(root:\;EC_{50},\;8.3{\mu}g/ml;\;CC_{50},\;15.6{\mu}g/ml)$ revealed the anti-HBV activity in 2.2.15 cell culture system and these fractions are under the process of further sequential fractionation by column chromatography to find the active principles against HBV.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.87-92
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• 2008

An improved protocol for high frequency plant regeneration via somatic embryogenesis from zygotic embryo-derived cell suspension cultures of watershield (Brasenia schreberi) was developed. Zygotic embryos formed pale-yellow globular structures and white friable callus at a frequency of 80% when cultured on halfstrength MS medium supplemented with $0.3mg\;l^{-1}$ 2,4-D. However, the frequency of formation of pale-yellow globular structures and white friable callus decreased slightly with increasing concentrations of 2,4-D up to $3mg\;l^{-1}$, where the frequency reached ~50% of the control. Cell suspension cultures from zygotic embryoderived white friable callus were established using half-strength MS medium supplemented with $0.3mg\;l^{-1}$ 2,4-D. Upon plating of cell aggregates on half-strength MS basal medium, approximately 8.3% gave rise to somatic embryos and developed into plantlets. However, the frequency of plantlet development from cell aggregates was sharply increased (by up to 55%) when activated charcoal and zeatin were applied. Regenerated plantlets were successfully transplanted to potting soil and grown to normal plants in a growth chamber. The distinctive feature of this study is the establishment of a high frequency plant regeneration system via somatic embryogenesis from zygotic embryo-derived cell suspension cultures of water-shield, which has not been previously reported. The protocol for plant regeneration of watershield through somatic embryogenesis could be useful for the mass propagation and transformation of selected elite lines.