• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.9-20
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• 2003

Recent studies on the photoreactivity of l,4-unsaturated systems have changed some ideas that were firmly established in this area of research for many years. Thus, we have described the first examples of 2-aza-di-$\pi$-methane (2-ADPM) rearrangements promoted by triplet-sensitization and by single electron transfer (SET) using electron-acceptor sensitizers. These reactions afford N-vinylaziridine and cyclopropylimine photoproducts in the first examples of di-$\pi$-methane processes that yield three-membered ring heterocycles. l-Aza-1,4-dienes also undergo SET-promoted l-aza-di-$\pi$-methane (l-ADPM) rearrangements via radical-cation intermediates using electron acceptor sensitizers. In some cases, alternative cyclizations yielding different carbocycles and heterocycles have been observed. The l-ADPM and di-$\pi$-methane (DPM) reactions also occur via radical-anion intermediates on irradiation using electron donor sensitizers. On the other hand, the photoreactivity reported for $\beta$,${\gamma}$-unsaturated aldehydes for many years was decarbonylation to the corresponding alkenes. However, our studies demonstrate that these compounds undergo the oxa-di-$\pi$-methane (ODPM) rearrangement with high chemical and quantum efficiency. A comparison of the photochemical reactivity of $\beta$,${\gamma}$-unsaturated aldehydes and corresponding methyl ketones has shown that the ketones do not undergo the ODPM rearrangement while the corresponding aldehydes are reactive by this pathway. Monosubstituted $\beta$,${\gamma}$-unsaturated aldehydes at C-2 undergo the ODPM rearrangement yielding the corresponding cyclopropane carbaldehydes diastereoselectively. Finally, we have described the first examples of reactions, similar to the well know Norrish Type I process, which take place in the triplet excited state of $\beta$,${\gamma}$-unsaturated carbonyl compounds by excitation of the C-C double bond instead of the carbonyl group.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.965-971
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• 2001

$\beta$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ nanobelts and nanoparticles were synthesized from mechanically ground GaN powders with thermal annealing in a nitrogen atmosphere and an oxygen atmosphere, respectively. The study of field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) on the microstructures of nanomaterials revealed that the nanobelts synthesized in the nitrogen atmosphere are with the range of 20~1000nm width and 10 ~100nm thickness, and that nanomaterials are nanoparticles with 20~50nm radius obtained by thermal annealing in an oxygen atmosphere. The crystal structure of the $\beta$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ nanobelts and nanoparticles was in this study investigated by X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). The formation processes of the nanobelts and nanoparticles will be discussed in this paper.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.69-69
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• 2003

There are now increasing evidences that free radicals and reactive oxygen species are involved in a variety of pathological events. Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are produced during normal cellular function. ROS lead to lipid peroxidation, massive protein oxdiation and degradation. Under normal conditions, antioxidant are substnaces that either directly or indirectly protect cell against adverse effect of ROS. several biologically important compound include ${\beta}$-carotene, taruine and flavonoids reported have antioxidant function. The various antioxidant either scavange superoxide and free radicals or stimulate the detoxification mechanisms within cells resulting in increased detoxification of free radicals formation and thus in prevention of many pathophysiologic processes. This study carried out to investigate the antioxidant activity of flavonoids, myricetin with other antioxidants, ${\beta}$-carotene and taurine on B16Fl0. In order to investigate the efficacy of antioxidant activity, we measured cell viability, antioxidant enzyme activity (SOD, GPX, CAT) and intracellular reactive oxygen intermediate (ROI). In this results, we show that these flavonoids with other antioxidant substrates are increased antioxidant activity level.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.97-101
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• 1991

Gas-phase pyrolyses of carbonate esters, ${\alpha}$- and ${\beta}$-hydroxy esters and ${\beta}$-hydroxy ketones have been studied theoretically by the AM1 MO method. Carbonate esters were found to decompose by two types of processes; in the reaction pathway involving an intermediate, the decomposition of the intermediate was rate-limiting, but direct pyrolyses were also possible via a six-membered cyclic transition state in which the methoxy oxygen attacks a hydrogen atom on the ${\beta}$-carbon. The hydroxy esters and ketones were found to decompose in a concerted process involving a six-membered cyclic transition state. Successive methylation on the ${\alpha}$- and ${\gamma}$-carbon led to an increase in the reactivity in agreement with experiments.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.256-264
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• 2019

Lymphotoxin ${\beta}$ receptor ($LT{\beta}R$), a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor family, plays an important role in lymphoid tissue's architecture and organogenesis. In contrast, MLCK and ROCK play critical roles in the regulation of stress fiber (SF) formation in cells. To determine whether $LT{\beta}R$ stimulation in fibroblastic reticular cells (FRCs) is involved in these signaling pathways, myosin light chain kinase inhibitor-7 (ML-7) was used to inhibit them. ML7-treated FRCs completely blocked SFs and showed retraction and shrinkage processes comparable to those observed in agonistic anti-$LT{\beta}R$ antibody-treated cells. The inhibition of ROCK activity with Y27632-induced changes in actin cytoskeleton organization and cell morphology in FRCs. Actin bundles rearranged into SFs, and phospho-myosin light chain (p-MLC) co-localized in FRCs. We checked the level of Rho-guanosine diphosphate (RhoGDP)/guanosine triphosphate (GTP) exchange activity using FRC lysate. When $LT{\beta}R$ was stimulated with agonistic anti-$LT{\beta}R$ antibodies, Rho-GDP/GTP exchange activity was markedly reduced. Regarding $LT{\beta}R$ signaling with a focus on MLCK inhibition, we showed that the phosphorylation of MLCs was reduced by $LT{\beta}R$ stimulation in FRCs. Cytoskeleton components, such as tubulin, b-actin, and phospho-ezrin proteins acting as membrane-cytoskeleton linkers, were produced in de-phosphorylation, and they reduced expression in agonistic anti-$LT{\beta}R$ antibody-treated FRCs. Collectively, the results suggested that MLCK and ROCK were simultaneously responsible for SF regulation triggered by $LT{\beta}R$ signaling in FRCs.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.253-259
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• 2011

Transforming growth factor ${\beta}$ (TGF-${\beta}$) is involved in cellular processes including growth, differentiation, apoptosis, migration, and homeostasis. Generally, TGF-${\beta}$ is the inhibitor of cell cycle progression and plays a role in enhancing the antagonistic effects of many growth factors. Unlike the antiproliferative effect of TGF-${\beta}$, E2, an endogeneous estrogen, is stimulating cell proliferation in the estrogen-dependent organs, which are mediated via the estrogen receptors, $ER{\alpha}$ and $ER{\beta}$, and may be considered as a critical risk factor in tumorigenesis of hormone-responsive cancers. Previous researches reported the cross-talk between estrogen/$ER{\alpha}$ and TGF-${\beta}$ pathway. Especially, based on the E2-mediated inhibition of TGF-${\beta}$ signaling, we examined the inhibition effect of 4-tert-octylphenol (OP) and 4-nonylphenol (NP), which are well known xenoestrogens in endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), on TGF-${\beta}$ signaling via semi-quantitative reverse-transcription PCR. The treatment of E2, OP, or NP resulted in the downregulation of TGF-${\beta}$ receptor2 (TGF-${\beta}$ R2) in TGF-${\beta}$ signaling pathway. However, the expression level of TGF-${\beta}1$ and TGF-${\beta}$ receptor1 (TGF-${\beta}$ R1) genes was not altered. On the other hand, E2, OP, or NP upregulated the expression of a cell-cycle regulating gene, c-myc, which is a oncogene and a downstream target gene of TGF-${\beta}$ signaling pathway. As a result of downregulation of TGF-${\beta}$ R2 and the upregulation of c-myc, E2, OP, or NP increased cell proliferation of BG-1 ovarian cancer cells. Taken together, these results suggest that E2 and these two EDCs may mediate cancer cell proliferation by inhibiting TGF-${\beta}$ signaling via the downregulation of TGF-${\beta}$ R2 and the upregulation of c-myc oncogene. In addition, it can be inferred that these EDCs have the possibility of tumorigenesis in estrogen-responsive organs by certainly representing estrogenic effect in inhibiting TGF-${\beta}$ signaling.

• Journal of applied mathematics & informatics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.83-100
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• 2000

Many queueing systems such as M/M/s/K retrial queue with impatient customers, MAP/PH/1 retrial queue, retrial queue with two types of customers and MAP/M/$\infty$ queue can be modeled by a level dependent quasi-birth-death(LDQBD) process with linear transition rates of the form ${\lambda}_k$={\alpga}{+}{\beta}k$ at each level $\kappa$. The purpose of this paper is to propose an algorithm to find transient distributions for LDQBD processes with linear transition rates based on the adaptive uniformization technique introduced by van Moorsel and Sanders [11]. We apply the algorithm to some retrial queues and present numerical results.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.267-274
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• 2001

Calpains are a family of cysteine proteases existing primarily in two forms designated by the $Ca^{2+}$ concentration needed for activation in vitro, $\mu$-calpain (calpain-I) and m-calpain (calpain-II). The physiologica1 roles of calpains remain unclear. Many groups have proposed a role for calpains In apoptosis, but their patterns of activation are not well characterized. Calpains have been implicated in neutrophil apoptosis, glucocorticoid-induced thymocyte apoptosis, as well as many other apoptotic pathways. Calpain activation in apoptosis is usually linked upstream or downstream to caspase activation, or in a parallel pathway alongside caspase activation. Calpains have been suggested to be involved in DNA fragmentation (via endonuclease activation), but also as effector proteases that cleave cellular proteins involved in DNA repair, membrane associated proteins and other homeostatic regulatory proteins. Recently, our laboratory demonstrated $\mu$-calpain activation in NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreducatse 1 (NQO1)-expressing cells after exposure to $\beta$-lapachone, a novel quinone and potential chemo- and radio-therapeutic agent. Increased cytosolic $Ca^{2+}$ in NQO1-expressing cells after $\beta$-lapachone exposures were shown to lead to $\mu$-calpain activation. In turn, $\mu$-calpain activation was important for substrate proteolysis and DNA fragmentation associated with apoptosis. Upon activation, $\mu$-calpain translocated to the nucleus where it could proteolytically cleave PARP and p53. We provided evidence that $\beta$-lapachone-induced, $\mu$-calpain stimulated, apoptosis did not involve any of the known caspases; known apoptotic caspases were not activated after $\beta$-lapachone treatment of NQO1-expressing cells, nor did caspase inhibitors have any effect on $\beta$-1apachone-induced cell death. Elucidation of processes by which $\beta$-1apachone-stimulated $\mu$-calpain activation and calpains ability to activate endonucleases and induce apoptosis independent of caspase activity will be needed to further develop/modulate $\beta$-lapachone for treatment of human cancers that over-express NQO1.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.25-38
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• 2014

Amyloid-${\beta}$-peptide ($A{\beta}$) is important in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Calpain ($Ca^{2+}$-dependent protease) and caspase-8 (the initiating caspase for the extrinsic, receptor-mediated apoptosis pathway) have been implicated in $AD/A{\beta}$ toxicity. We found that $A{\beta}$ promoted degradation of calpastatin (the specific endogenous calpain inhibitor); calpastatin degradation was prevented by inhibitors of either calpain or caspase-8. The results implied a cross-talk between the two proteases and suggested that one protease was responsible for the activity of the other one. In neuron-like differentiated PC12 cells, calpain promotes active caspase-8 formation from procaspase-8 via the $A{\beta}$ and CD95 pathways, along with degradation of the procaspase-8 processing inhibitor caspase-8 (FLICE)-like inhibitory protein, short isoform (FLIPS). Inhibition of calpain (by pharmacological inhibitors and by overexpression of calpastatin) prevents the cleavage of procaspase-8 to mature, active caspase-8, and inhibits FLIPS degradation in the $A{\beta}$-treated and CD95-triggered cells. Increased cellular Ca2+ per se results in calpain activation but does not lead to caspase-8 activation or FLIPS degradation. The results suggest that procaspase-8 and FLIPS association with cell membrane receptor complexes is required for calpain-induced caspase-8 activation. The results presented here add to the understanding of the roles of calpain, caspase- 8, and CD95 pathway in $AD/A{\beta}$ toxicity. Calpain-promoted activation of caspase-8 may have implications for other types of CD95-induced cell damage, and for nonapoptotic functions of caspase-8. Inhibition of calpain may be useful for modulating certain caspase-8-dependent processes.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.279-286
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• 2004

Although numerous studies have shown that cadmium disturbs the normal biological processes in central nervous system, the mechanism of toxicity is not well understood. The present study has investigated the effect of cadmium on oxidative stress, Na$^{+}$K$^{+}$ ATPase activity and the aggregation of amyloid beta peptide ($\beta$-amyloid) in neuronal cell line, HT22 cell. LC$_{5}$ and LC$_{50}$ of cadmium for HT22 cell resulted from MTT assay was 4.1 uM and 9.5 uM, respectively. Cadmium (2 to 8 uM) dose-dependently increased the lipid peroxidation and decreased the content of glutathione. Cadmium 4 uM showed a significant decrease in Na$^{+}$/K $^{+}$ ATPase activity as compared with control group. The aggregation of $\beta$-amyloid was accelerated in a dose-dependent manner by the treatment with 2 to 8 uM cadmium. These results suggest that the neurotoxicity of cadmium can be mediated by the increase in oxidative stress and decrease in Na$^{+}$/K$^{+}$ ATPase activity.se activity.