• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.209-214
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• 1991

The PRD1 DNA polymerase is a small multi-functional enzyme containing conserved amino acid sequences shared by family B DNA polymerases. Thus the PRD1 DNA polymerase provides an useful model system with which to study structure-functional relationships of DNA polymerase molecules. In order to investigate the functional and structural roles of the highly conserved amino acid sequences, we have introduced three mutations into a conserved amino acid of the PRD1 DNA polymerase. Genetic complememtation study indicated that each mutation inactivated DNA polymerase catalytic activity.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2011

Objectives : To quantitate the main compounds and investigate the biological activity of Sosiho-tang (Xiao-Chai-Hu-Tang, SST), simultaneous determination of baicalin and glycyrrhizin, and anti-inflammatory activity were estimated. Methods : A quantitative analysis was performed using a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Reference compounds were separated on a reversed-phase column using gradient elution with water and acetonitrile each containing acetic acid at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. And the productions of nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin $(PE)E_2$ were examined by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated RAW 264.7 cells in the presence of the SST. The anti-inflammatory activity of SST was investigated by carrageenin-induced paw edema in rats. The paw volume was measured at 2 and 4 hr following carrageenin-induced paw edema in rats. Results : The correlation coefficients of the compounds showed good linearity ($r^2$ > 0.9992) over the linear range. The precisions of intra- and inter-day were less than 7.0% of relative standard deviation (RSD) values for baicalin and less than 3.5% of RDS valuse for glycyrrhizin. Recovery rates were within the range of 95.41-101.5%. The contents of baicalin and glycyrrhizin in SST were average 70.52, 6.18 mg/g, respectively. And SST exhibited inhibitory effect on NO production in LPS-treated RAW 264.7 cells but not on $PGE_2$ production. Oral administration of SST (1 g/kg) showed a reduction in carrageenin-induced paw edema on rats. Conclusions : The analytical method was applied successfully to measure the contents of baicalin and glycyrrhizin in SST which exhibited anti-inflammatory activities.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.922-928
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• 2010

This study was carried out to develop safe and novel anticoagulation agents from oriental medicinal herbs. From 33 medicinal herbs, 40 different ethanol extracts were prepared according to place of origin or extraction parts, and anticoagulation activities were evaluated by determination of thrombin time (TT), prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT). The average water content and average extraction ratio for the medicinal herbs were $6.85{\pm}2.26%$ and $5.27{\pm}4.25%$, respectively. Evaluation of TT at various concentrations of the extract led to the selection of Mucuna birdwoodiana, Prunus armeniaca, Cacalia ainsliaeiflora, Cinnamonum aromaticum, and Rhus javanica Linneas potent antithrombosis medicinal herbs. Evaluation of PT and aPTT showed that the extracts of R.javanica Linne, M. birdwoodiana, and P. armeniaca have strong anticoagulation activities. Determination of hemolytic activities of 40 different ethanol extracts against human red blood cells, however, showed that only M. birdwoodiana, C. ainsliaeiflora, C. aromaticum, and R. javanica Linnehas strong anticoagulation activity without hemolytic activity at a concentration of 500 mg/ml. Our results suggest that oriental medicinal herbs, which are under a mass-production system, have potentialas a safe and novel source of anticoagulants, as well being a thrombin-specific and coagulation factor-specific inhibitor.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.353-364
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• 2016

Objectives: Determining the time activity patterns of urban populations is critical when performing an exposure assessment. The purposes of this study were to classify urban populations in Korea by their time activity patterns and to identify factors that influence these patterns. Methods: The time activity patterns of 31,634 and 20,263 individuals were obtained from two national databases collected in 2004 and 2009, respectively. The two largest metropolitan cities in Korea, Seoul and Busan, were selected for this analysis. For each city, multivariate linear regressions were performed to determine factors affecting the time spent in a residence and in transit. We also used cluster analysis to classify each urban population by activity pattern. Results: Nine distinctive activity patterns were identified in the Seoul and Busan populations, respectively, and the resulting classified population groups had specific characteristics. The identified patterns were similar for Seoul and Busan. The most significant factors affecting time spent in a residence were employment status, age, marriage status, education, and gender. Gender, education, employment status, and monthly income were significant factors affecting time spent in transit. Conclusion: These results indicate that, in addition to region, exposure scientists in Korea should consider classifying populations based on age, gender, and occupation.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.283-289
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• 2000

Natriuretic peptides comprise a family of three structurally related peptides; atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), and C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP). The present study was performed to investigate the effect of ANP on the proliferation and activity of ROS17/2.8 and HOS cells which are well-characterized osteoblastic cell lines. ANP dose-dependently decreased the number of ROS17/2.8 and HOS cells after 48-hour treatment. ANP generally increased the alkaline phosphatase activity of ROS17/2.8 and HOS cells after 48 hr treatment, regardless of the fact that basal activity of alkaline phosphatase was much lower in HOS cells compared to that of ROS17/1.8 cells. ANP increased the NBT reduction by ROS17/2.8 and HOS cells. ANP showed the variable but no significant effect on the nitric oxide production by ROS17/2.8 and HOS cells. ROS17/2.8 and HOS cells produced and secreted gelatinase into culture medium, and this enzyme was thought to be the gelatinase A type with the molecular weight determination. The gelatinase activity produced by ROS17/2.8 cells was increased by the treatment of ANP. However, the enzyme activity was not affected by ANP treatment in the HOS cell culture. In summary, ANP decreased the proliferation and increased the alkaline phosphatase activity and NBT reduction of osteoblasts. These results indicate that ANP is one of the important regulators of bone metabolism.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.341-346
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• 1998

Optimization for the production of Pest an was followed by the Plackett-Burman Design, using modified Czapek-dox medium as the starting point. At the flask level, $K_2HPO_4$, $MgSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$, and aeration variables positively affected the Pestan production, DCW (dry cell weight), apparent viscosity, and flocculating activity response. KCI and $FeSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$ negatively affected the Pestan production, DCW, apparent viscosity, and flocculating activity response. Aeration variable was shown to have a positive effect on only the flocculating activity response among Pestan production, DCW, and apparent viscosity responses. In comparison of the positive and negative variables media conditions, Pestan production and flocculating activity differed by about 9 and 125 times, respectively. In particular, at the jar fermentor level, the aeration variable was the most important factor of the all responses (pestan production, DCW, apparent viscosity, flocculating activity, and anionic charge density). The flocculating activity and apparent viscosity of Pestan were closely related to the molecular chain length and charge density.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.278-278
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• 2017

Brown rice grains are increasingly attended by consumers due to their potential health benefits of antioxidant capacity. Therefore, this research was carried out to evaluate the antioxidant activity of brown rice in Korea-native weedy rice germplasm. Two hundred and twenty one accessions of weedy rice used in this study were received from the National Agrobiodiversity Center of RDA, and were regenerated in the experimental field of Chonbuk National University. The sampled seeds were extracted using methanol and the extracts were analyzed using the 1, 1-dipheny-2-picrylhydrasyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay for antioxidant capacity determination. Among the all germplasm, the samples of seed coat in red colour, white colour, red -white mixing colour and brown colour were 171 (81%), 26 (12%), 12 (6%) and 2 (1%), respectively. The antioxidant activity values of all samples were varied in the range from 22.31% to 95.53 % and mean value was 82.09%. Depend on the seed coat colour, the average antioxidant activity of the extract of weedy rice seeds indicated that the following order in seed coat colour: red colour (89.11%) > the red-white mixing colour (70.67%) > brown colour (53.16%) > white colour (45.99%). The antioxidant activity of red coloured weedy rice were significantly higher than those of the others. It is suggested that Korea-native weedy rice accessions with high antioxidant activity could be developed as a potential functional food material by further research of component analysis.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.129-137
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• 2021

It has been established that the acoustic mode parameters of the Sun and Sun-like stars vary over activity cycles. Since the observed variations are not consistent with an activity-related origin, even Sun-like stars showing out-of-phase changes of mode frequencies and amplitudes need to be carefully studied using other observational quantities. In order to test whether the presumed relations between the global seismic parameters are a signature of the stellar activity cycle, we analyze the photometric light curve of HD 49933 for which the first direct detection of an asteroseismic signature for activity-induced variations in a Sun-like star was made, using observations by the CoRoT space telescope. We find that the amplitude of the envelope significantly anti-correlates with both the maximum frequency of the envelope and the width of the envelope unless superflare-like events completely contaminate the light curve. However, even though the photometric proxy for stellar magnetic activity appears to show relations with the global asteroseismic parameters, they are statistically insignificant. Therefore, we conclude that the global asteroseismic parameters can be utilized in cross-checking asteroseismic detections of activity-related variations in Sun-like stars, and that it is probably less secure and effective to construct a photometric magnetic activity proxy to indirectly correlate the global asteroseismic parameters. Finally, we seismically estimate the mass of HD 49933 based on our determination of the large separation of HD 49933 with evolutionary tracks computed by the MESA code and find a value of about 1.2M_☉ and a sub-solar metallicity of Z = 0.008, which agrees with the current consensus and with asteroseismic and non-asteroseismic data.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.338-352
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• 2022

Herein, water and ethanol extracts were obtained from the leaves, branches, kernels, and pericarp of Quercus gilva and subsequently analyzed for antioxidant activity and circadian rhythm regulation effects. Candidate components that may affect circadian rhythm and antioxidant activity were investigated to discover potential functional materials. Antioxidant activity was analyzed via 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging activity assays, showing that the hot water extract exhibited higher activity than that of the ethanol extract. In particular, the branch extract showed high antioxidant activity. By measuring total contents of polyphenols, flavonoids, and tannins, the hot water branch extract showed the highest concentrations, highlighting their significant contribution to the antioxidant activity. Examination of the circadian rhythm regulation of each extract showed that the ethanol extract exhibited greater impacts on the circadian rhythm amplitude compared to the water extract. The branch ethanol extract induced circadian rhythm amplitude changes via clock gene Bmal1 expression regulation. Determination of 12 phenolic compound concentrations showed that the branch ethanol extract contained many phenolic compounds, including catechin. This suggests that these com- pounds affected circadian rhythm regulation. In conclusion, the hot water branch extract has potential as an natural antioxidant material, while the corresponding ethanol extract has potential as a functional material for regulating circadian rhythm.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.218-232
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• 2024

Background: Cynara scolymus has bioactive constituents and has been used for therapeutic actions. The present study was undertaken to investigate the mechanisms underlying pain-relieving effects of the hydroethanolic extract of C. scolymus (HECS). Methods: The antinociceptive activity of HECS was assessed through formalin and acetic acid-induced writhing tests at doses of 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg intraperitoneally. Additionally, naloxone (non-selective opioid receptors antagonist, 2 mg/kg), atropine (non-selective muscarinic receptors antagonist, 1 mg/kg), chlorpheniramine (histamine H₁-receptor antagonist, 20 mg/kg), cimetidine (histamine H₂-receptor antagonist, 12.5 mg/kg), flumazenil (GABA_A/BDZ receptor antagonist, 5 mg/kg) and cyproheptadine (serotonin receptor antagonist, 4 mg/kg) were used to determine the systems implicated in HECS-induced analgesia. Impact of HECS on locomotor activity was executed by open-field test. Determination of total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) was done. Evaluation of antioxidant activity was conducted employing 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay. Results: HECS (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg) significantly indicated dose dependent antinociceptive activity against pain-related behavior induced by formalin and acetic acid (P < 0.001). Pretreatment with naloxone, atropine and flumazenil significantly reversed HECS-induced analgesia. Antinociceptive effect of HECS remained unaffected by chlorpheniramine, cimetidine and cyproheptadine. Locomotor activity was not affected by HECS. TPC and TFC of HECS were 59.49 ± 5.57 mgGAE/g dry extract and 93.39 ± 17.16 mgRE/g dry extract, respectively. DPPH free radical scavenging activity (IC₅₀) of HECS was 161.32 ± 0.03 ㎍/mL. Conclusions: HECS possesses antinociceptive activity which is mediated via opioidergic, cholinergic and GABAergic pathways.