• Molecules and Cells
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.263-270
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• 2005

Transactivation of EGF-receptor (EGFR) by G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) is emerging as an important pathway in cell proliferation, which plays a crucial role in the development of atherosclerotic lesion. Angiotensin II (Ang II) has been identified to have a major role in the formation of atherosclerotic lesions, although the underlying mechanisms remain largely unclear. We hypothesize that Ang II promotes the proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells through the release of heparin-binding epidermal growth factor like growth factor (HB-EGF), transactivation of EGFR and activation of Akt and Erk 1/2, with matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) playing a dispensable role. Primary rat aortic smooth muscle cells were used in this study. Smooth muscle cells rendered quiescent by serum deprivation for 12 h were treated with Ang II (100 nM) in the presence of either GM6001 ($20{\mu}M$), a specific inhibitor of MMPs or AG1478 ($10{\mu}M$), an inhibitor of EGFR. The levels of phosphorylation of EGFR, Akt and Erk 1/2 were assessed in the cell lysates. Inhibition of MMPs by GM6001 significantly attenuated Ang II-stimulated phosphorylation of EGFR, suggesting that MMPs may be involved in the transactivation of EGFR by Ang II receptor. Furthermore Ang II-stimulated proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells were significantly blunted by inhibiting MMPs and EGFR and applying HB-EGF neutralization antibody, indicating that MMPs, HB-EGF and EGFR activation is necessary for Ang-II stimulated migration and proliferation of smooth muscle cells. Our results suggest that inhibition of MMPs may represent one of the strategies to counter the mitogenic and motogenic effects of Ang II on smooth muscle cells and thereby prevent the formation and development of atherosclerotic lesions.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2005.05b
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• pp.477-480
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• 2005

The discharge of sewage sludge is rapidly increasing in Korea. But the most common sewage sludge disposal alternative is to incinerate and to deposit it in controlled landfills. However, space limitations on existing landfill sites, and increasing environmental concerns have prompted the investigation of alternative ash disposal routes. The utilization of sewage sludge ash would contribute to the elimination of an environmental problem and to the development of new high-performance materials. The purpose of this study is to apply to Alkali Activation into solidification of sewage sludge ash. It achieves leaching test, chemical composition and compressive strength test. As a result of tests, the sewage sludge ash has sufficient potential for use of pozzolanic raw material. However, it is judge to be available to construction material if research is continuously gone.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1017-1024
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• 2007

Thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC/CCL-17), produced by keratinocytes, is a CC chemokine known to selectively Th2 type T cells via $CCR4^+$ and is implicated in the development of atopic dermatitis (AD). TARC/CCL17 expression was induced by cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF-${\alpha}$) and interferon-${\gamma}$ (IFN-${\gamma}$). We recently found that the wogonin, a flavone isolated from Scutellaria baicalensis, suppressed TARC expression via heme oxygenase 1 (HO1) in human keratinocytes induced with mite antigen. However, little is known about the inhibitory mechanism of wogonin on TARC/CCL-17 expression stimulated with cytokines. To investigate the inhibitory mechanism, I determined the inhibitory effects of wogonin on the activation of nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ (NF-${\kappa}B$) and $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ phosphorylation, and also examined the activation of p38 MAP kainase in HaCaT keratinocytes stimulated with TNF-${\alpha}$ and IFN-${\gamma}$. Wogonin inhibited NF-${\kappa}B$-DNA complex, NF-${\kappa}B$ binding activity, and the phosphorylation of $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ in a dose dependent manner. Wogonin also inhibited the translocation of NF-${\kappa}B$ from cytosol to nucleus. Moreover, the phosphorylation of of p38 MAP kinase in the TNF-${\alpha}$ and IFN-${\gamma}$-stimulated HaCaT keratinocytes were suppressed by wogonin in a dose dependent manner. These results suggest that wogonin may inhibit cytokine-induced NF-${\kappa}B$ activation by $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ degradation via suppression of p38 MAP kinase signaling pathway in keratinocytes and modulation of wogonin signaling pathway may be beneficial for the treatment of AD.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.290-295
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• 2002

Among 12 lactic acid bacteria examined for their abilities to activate the complement system by hemolytic complement assay $(TCH_{50})$, Lactobacillus plantarum previously isolated from Kimchi showed high anti-complementary activity. The anti-complementary activity of the cell wall fraction of L. plantarum was more potent than that of the cytosol fraction, and both activities showed dose dependency. These high activities of the cytosol and the cell wall fractions were relatively resistant to the digestion with pronase, but sharply decreased after the treatment of $NaIO_4$. These results suggested that the complement activation by the cytosol and the cell wall fractions was mainly due to their polysaccharides. By the cross-immunoelectrophoresis using anti-human C3, the C3 activation products from both fractions were identified in $Ca^{++}$-free condition. Anti-complementary activity $(ITCH_{50})$ of the cell wall fraction was retained under the same condition, whereas that of the cytosol fraction was reduced considerably. From these results, it was inferred that the mode of complement activation by the cell wall fraction was mainly via alternative pathway, and that of the cytosol fraction was via both alternative and classical pathways.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.310-313
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• 2005

CW laser dopant activation (CLDA) is suggested as an alternative to conventional thermal annealing. The sheet resistance of the ion doped poly-Si after CLDA is sufficiently low compared to the value measured after thermal annealing. The surface damage due to ion doping on the poly-Si can be recovered while CW laser scan for dopant activation. Therefore, the CLDA can be applied to LTPS processing.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate the anti-allergy activities of persimmon leaf extract (PLE) on a phthalic anhydride (PA)-induced allergic mouse model. A human leukemic mast cell line (HMC-1) was used to examine the inhibitory activity of PLE on the histamine release by human leukemic mast cells. PLE inhibited histamine release from HMC-1 cells in response to cross-linkage of high-affinity IgE receptor-${\alpha}$ ($Fc{\varepsilon}RI{\alpha}$). Additionally, a PA-induced allergic mouse model was used to investigate the effects of PLE in vivo. Mice were orally administrated with or without PLE of single dose (250 mg/kg/day) for 31 days. Oral intake of PLE significantly inhibited passive cutaneous reactions. Oral administration of PLE to PA-induced allergic mice also led to a striking suppression of the development of contact dermatitis, ear swelling and lymph node weight. In addition, PA-specific IL-4 production of draining lymph node cells was markedly diminished by PLE oral administration, but not IFN-${\gamma}$. Furthermore, PLE treatment suppressed PA-induced thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (CCL17) and cutaneous T cell-attracting chemokine (CCL27) expressions in ear tissues. Based on these results, we suggest that PLE may have therapeutic potential as an effective material for management of irritant contact dermatitis or related inflammatory diseases.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.35-46
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• 2004

Activation energy asymptotics (AEA) for Linan#s premixed-flame regime is revisited in this paper. First, the detailed AEA procedure for the premixed-flame regime is demonstrated, so that the practitioners of AEA could easily apply the method to their own problems. In addition, the controversies surrounding the premixed-flame regime, namely the closure controversy and fast-time instability paradox, are explained. Finally, the limitation of AEA, mainly arising from the wrong prediction of fuel leakage through the reaction zone, is examined and the Zel#dovich-Linan kinetics is introduced as an alternative to meet the needs of modern combustion analysis, where the detailed chemical structure of flame is demanded.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics C
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• v.35C no.1
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• pp.42-54
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• 1998

For decreasing intersymbol interference (ISI) due to band-limited channels in digitalcommunication, the uses of equalization techniques are necessary. Among the useful adaptive equalization techniques, because of their ease of implementation and nonlinear capabilites, the neural networks have been used as an alternative for effectively dealing with the channel distortion. In this paepr, a complex-valued multilayer percepron is proposed as a nonlinear adaptive equalizer. After the important properties that a suitable complex-valued activation function must possess are discussed, a new complex-valued activation function is developed for the proposed schemes to deal with M-ary QAM signals of any constellation sizes. It has been further proven that by the nonlinear transformation of the proposed function, the correlation coefficient between the real and imaginary parts of input data decreases when they are jointly Gaussian random variables. Lastly, the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by simulations. The proposed scheme provides, compared with the linear equalizer using the least mean squares (LMS) algorith, an interesting improvement concerning Bit Error Rate (BER) when channel distortions are nonlinear.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.398-404
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• 2010

Complementary and alternative medicines are considered as a promising research field to develop new therapies for various allergic diseases. In this study, we investigated the anti-allergic effect of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb (AP) by using passive cutaneous anaphylaxis in mice and its mechanism of action in mast cells. The extract of AP reversibly inhibited degranulation in RBL-2H3 cells and bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs). AP also suppressed the passive cutaneous anaphylaxis inducing by IgE and antigen (Ag) in a dose-dependent manner. In the study to find its mechanism of action, AP inhibited the phosphorylation of Syk kinase, a pivotal protein which is regulated by Src-family kinase for activation of mast cells. In addition, AP also suppressed activation of Akt and Erk1/2 that are critical for the production of cytokines in mast cells. The results strongly suggest that AP exerts anti-allergic activity in vitro and in vivo through the inhibition of activation of Syk in mast cells.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.123-129
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• 2006

In several experimental models, estrogens protect neurons against ischemic insults. However, the recent clinical studies of hormone replacement showed negative results to prevent stroke. Therefore, optimal models to study estrogen replacement for neuroprotection are needed before its clinical ap-plication. Organotypic hippocampal slice under oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) has been established as a model of cerebral ischemia and has advantages to study drug effects. We investigated whether estrogen protected CAI neurons and affected activation of Akt (pAkt) in CAI region under OGD. Thus, rat hippocampal slices on day 7 of culture were treated with $17-{\beta}$ estradiol (E, 1 nM) for 7 days before 30 min OGD, and cell death of CAI neurons was quantified by propidium iodide (PI) staining and expression of pAkt was studied by Western blot and immunofluorescence. PI intensity in slices treated with E was significantly reduced 72 hour after OGD compared to that of non-treated slices (p < 0.05). E pretreatment also increased the expression of pAkt 72 hour after OGD compared to that of no treatment (p<0.01). These data suggest that estrogen pretreatment may rescue neurons from ischemic insults through the activation of Akt and also indicate that our model would be a useful alternative method to study the mechanisms and effects of estrogen replacement treatment for neuroprotection.