• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.266-271
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• 2017

Synthetic cannabinoids are one of most abused new psychoactive substances. The recreational use of abused drug has aroused serious concerns about the consequences of these drugs on infection. However, the effects of synthetic cannabinoid on resistance to tetanus toxin are not fully understood yet. In the present study, we aimed to determine if the administration of synthetic cannabinoids increase the susceptibility to tetanus toxin-induced motor behavioral deficit and functional changes in cerebellar neurons in mice. Furthermore, we measured T lymphocytes marker levels, such as CD8 and CD4 which against tetanus toxin. JWH-210 administration decreased expression levels of T cell activators including cluster of differentiation (CD) $3{\varepsilon}$, $CD3{\gamma}$, CD74p31, and CD74p41. In addition, we demonstrated that JWH-210 induced motor impairment and decrement of vesicle-associated membrane proteins 2 levels in the cerebellum of mice treated with tetanus toxin. Furthermore, cerebellar glutamatergic neuronal homeostasis was hampered by JWH-210 administration, as evidenced by increased glutamate concentration levels in the cerebellum. These results suggest that JWH-210 may increase the vulnerability to tetanus toxin via the regulation of immune function.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.240-248
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• 2014

Gyejibokryeong-hwan (GJBRH) has been used for treatment of patients with climacteric syndrome. In this study, an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometer (UPLC-ESI-MS) method was established for the simultaneous quantification of seven marker compounds in GJBRH extract. In addition, we assessed the antioxidant effects of GJBRH. All analytes were separated by gradient elution using two mobile phases on a UPLC BEH $C_{18}$ column and maintained at $45^{\circ}C$. The antioxidant activities of GJBRH were evaluated by measuring free radical scavenging activities on 2,2'-azinobis-3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) and 1-1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). The inhibitory effects on low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation were evaluated by the formation of thiobarbituric acid relative substances (TBARS) and relative electrophoretic mobility (REM). Regression equations of the seven compounds were acquired with $r^2$ values ${\geq}0.9988$. The amounts of the seven compounds, amygdalin, albiflorin, paeoniflorin, coumarin, cinnamic acid, cinnamaldehyde, and paeonol in GJBRH water extract were 21.71, 2.16, 17.17, 1.97, 0.40, 0.78, and 3.42 mg/g, respectively. The GJBRH showed the radical scavenging activity in a dose-dependent manner. The concentration required for 50% reduction ($RC_{50}$) against ABTS and DPPH radicals were $54.18{\mu}g/mL$ and $79.53{\mu}g/mL$. Furthermore, GJBRH reduced the oxidation properties of LDL induced by $CuSO_4$.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.475-482
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• 2013

The main active components of Panax ginseng are ginsenosides. Ginsenoside Rb1 and Rg1 are accepted as marker substances for quality control worldwide. The analytical methods currently used to detect these two compounds unfairly penalize steamed and dried (red) P. ginseng preparations, because it has a lower content of those ginsenosides than white ginseng. To manufacture red ginseng products from fresh ginseng, the ginseng roots are exposed to high temperatures for many hours. This heating process converts the naturally occurring ginsenoside Rb1 and Rg1 into artifact ginsenosides such as ginsenoside Rg3, Rg5, Rh1, and Rh2, among others. This study highlights the absurdity of the current analytical practice by investigating the time-dependent changes in the crude saponin and the major natural and artifact ginsenosides contents during simmering. The results lead us to recommend (20S)- and (20R)-ginsenoside Rg3 as new reference materials to complement the current P. ginseng preparation reference materials ginsenoside Rb1 and Rg1. An attempt has also been made to establish validated qualitative and quantitative analytical procedures for these four compounds that meet International Conference of Harmonization (ICH) guidelines for specificity, linearity, range, accuracy, precision, detection limit, quantitation limit, robustness and system suitability. Based on these results, we suggest a validated analytical procedure which conforms to ICH guidelines and equally values the contents of ginsenosides in white and red ginseng preparations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.343-349
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• 2010

The liver is the major target of ethanol toxicity and oxidative stress plays a role in development of alcoholic liver disease. This study was performed to investigate the effects of green tea extracts (GTE) on acute ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. Experimental animals were divided into 4 groups, control, GTE, ethanol, and GTE+ethanol treatment, with 5 rats in each group. Ethanol (6 g/kg body weight (BW)) and GTE (200 mg/kg BW) were treated by gavage. At 1 hour, 3 hours and 20 days (6 g/kg BW every 2 days for total 10 doses) after ethanol and/or GTE treatments, animals were killed; hepatic tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-$\alpha$) and glutathione level, serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), hepatic antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, GPx) activities and hepatic thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were measured. At 1 hour and 3 hours, hepatic TNF-$\alpha$ levels were increased significantly in ethanol group and ethanol+GTE group but that levels was significantly lower in ethanol+GTE group compared with ethanol group. Hepatic glutathione level was decreased by ethanol treatment but GTE prevented the ethanol-induced glutathione decrement. The levels of liver marker enzymes (AST, ALT), liver antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, GPx) and lipid peroxidation marker (TBARS) were not changed in rats of 1 and 3 hours after ethanol treatment. After 20 days, GTE decreased the changes of liver marker enzymes (AST, ALT) activities and TBARS level by ethanol. This study shows that GTE beneficially modulates TNF-$\alpha$ and glutathione levels in liver of ethanol administered rats. The GTE supplementation could be beneficial to liver by decreasing early changes of biomarkers of liver damage caused by ethanol.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.16-25
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• 2016

Purpose: Patients suffering from acute poisoning by different substances often visit the emergency department (ED) and receive various prognoses according to the toxic material and patients' condition. Hyperlactatemia, which is an increased blood lactate level that generally indicates tissue hypoperfusion, is commonly utilized as a prognostic marker in critically ill patients such as those with sepsis. This study was conducted to investigate the relationships between blood lactate and clinical prognosis in acute poisoned patients. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted from January 2013 to June 2014 at a single and regional-tertiary ED. We enrolled study patients who were examined for blood test with lactate among acute intoxicated patients. The toxic materials, patient demographics, laboratory data, and mortalities were also reviewed. Additionally, we analyzed variables including blood lactate to verify the correlation with patient mortality. Results: A total of 531 patients were enrolled, including 24 (4.5%) non-survivors. Patient age, Glasgow coma scale (GCS), serum creatinine (Cr), aspartate transaminase (AST), and serum lactate differed significantly between survivors and non-survivors in the binary logistic regression analysis. Among these variables, GCS, AST, and lactate differed significantly. The median serum lactate levels were 2.0 mmol/L among survivors and 6.9 mmol/L among non-survivors. The AUC with the ROC curve and odds ratio of the initial serum lactate were 0.881 and 3.06 (0.89-8.64), respectively. Conclusion: Serum lactate was correlated with fatalities of acute poisoning patients in the ED; therefore, it may be used as a clinical predictor to anticipate their prognoses.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.153-161
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• 2009

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate 1) blood lead levels of workers at auto repair shops as Biological Exposure Indices (BEI) of toxic substances such as lead and toluene that are produced during automotive painting process, 2) the differences depending on personal characteristics of workers who have been exposed to toluene by using urine hippuric acid concentration as a marker and 3) the correlation between the concentration of hazardous chemicals in each workplace and the BEL. All subjects were male with a mean age of 36.2 years. In terms of age, most were in the 30 to 40 age group (13 persons, 48.1%). In relation to the length of work experience, the highest proportion had experience of 10 years of less (18 persons, 66.7%). Twenty three workers were cigarette smokers (85.2%) while 4 (14.8%) were non-smokers. In addition, more than 80% of the workers drank alcohol. Dust concentration and toluene exposure during automotive painting showed no significant difference with age, length of work experience, smoking and drinking while a significant difference (p<0.05) has been detected between lead concentration and smoking. The geometric mean of dust concentration, lead concentration and toluene concentration were $0.38mg/m^3,\;0.0021mg/m^3$ and 1.08ppm respectively. In addition, the geometric mean of blood lead levels and urine hippuric acid concentration were $1.70{\mu}g/dl$ and 0.25g/g respectively, which were lower than the standard levels suggested by the Ministry of Labor. To determine the influential factors on blood lead and urine hippuric acid concentrations, a correlation analysis has been conducted with variables of air, lead and toluene concentrations, age, length of work experience and amount of cigarette smoking. According to the analysis, a relatively high correlation (p<0.01) has been observed between air lead concentration and biological sample concentration.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 1973

Numerous factors concern with the absorption of substances through the membrane of the gastrointestinal tract. To simplify the experimental condition, present work has been restricted to observe the disappearance rate of substance from the intestinal loop which was made in the jejunum, 70 cm apart from the pylorus of the adult rabbit. The purpose of the study is to clarify the absorption of urea through the jejunal wall is solely attributable to the concentration difference between the luminal fluid and plasma, and to observe the effect of adding red pepper upon the rate of absorption. The rabbits were anesthetized with nembutal, 35mg/kg I.V. Jejunal loop was made by ligating at 2 spots, 70 cm and 80cm apart from the pylorus. After rinsing with normal saline solution through the polyethylene tubing inserted from the end of the loop, 8 ml of test solution was placed through the same tubing. The test solution contained 200 mg% of urea and 150mg% of polyethylene glycol(M.W. 4,000) in normal saline solution. Right after placing the test solution the first specimen was taken through the tubing, and successive samplings were performed at 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes. Logarithm of the difference of urea concentration between the luminal fluid and plasma was plotted against time elapsed after the onset of the experiment. If straight line is revealed, it would verify the nature of transport mechanism as diffusion, obeying the Fick's principle. The concentration of polyethylene glycol (PEG) was also measured in order to examine the change in the volume. PEG was used as the marker substance because it is not absorbable in the intestinal tract. Consequently the concentration of PEG relates inversely to the volume of the loop. Instantaneous concentration of urea in the loop times the volume will give the amount of urea remaining in the luminal fluid. The change in the amount of any substance is directly relate to the volume of the compartment and differs from the change in the concentration which is independent of the volume. After completion of the experiment without red pepper, it was added in the test solution and was centrifuged after thorough mixing. Supernatant of the mixture was placed in the loop and similar sampling were performed with the same time intervals that of previous run in order to observe the effects of the red pepper on the passive transport of the water soluble small substance, urea. The results obtained were as follows: 1. Logarithm of the concentration difference of urea between the luminal fluid and plasma was diminished exponentially as time elapsed. The decay constant in the experiment without red pepper was 0.0563/min. By adding red pepper in the test solution as much as the concentration rose to 4,000 mg% and 8,000 mg%, the decay constants were lowered to 0.0493/min and to 0.0506/min, respectively. The time interval by which the concentration difference dropped to one half of the initial value was prolonged. Without red pepper the half concentration time was 13.30 minutes, and by adding extract of red pepper, 15.31 minutes and 15.71 minutes were revealed. 2. The profile of the diminishing rate of tile amount of urea was quite different from that of the concentration because of the change in the volume of the loop during the observed period. 3. By adding the extract of red pepper, it slowed down the rate of absorption of urea in the intestinal loop, suggesting an increase in the diffusional barrier. 4. Larger dosage of red pepper brought an increase in the secretion of intestinal fluid with concomitant expansion of the luminal volume, and the retardation of the absorption of urea was noticed. This effect was largely dependent on the sensitivity of the individual animal to the red pepper, extract. The amount of urea remained after 10 minutes interval was 55.5% of the initial amount in the experiment without red pepper. On the other hand it was not consistent after administration of red pepper, showing 50.6% and 66.5% of the initial figures by adding 400 mg and 800 mg of red pepper in the test solution, respectively. It was postulated that symptom of diarrhea often encountered by taking a hot (red pepper) food might be attributable to the increase of secretion and the retardation of absorption in the intestinal tract.