• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.159-167
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• 1996

To study the effects of ginseng saponin components on the signal transduction in the ac tivation of murine macrophages, phagocytosis and Intracellular calcium concentration of peritoneal exuded mouse macrophages were examined. The phagocytosis was increased significantly after treatment with total saponin, diol-saponin, $Rg_1$ and $Rg_2$, but triol-saponin was unable to increase phagocytosis. The phagocytosis were increased when H7, a PKC inhibitor, was pretreated and increased significantly by saponin fractions except total saponin. Pertussis toxin, which inactivates G-protein, decreased the phagocytosis. But the phagocytosis was restored to the control level by saponin fractions and the phagocytosis was increased significantly by $Rg_2$ and $Rg_2$. The triol saponin increased phagocytosis approximately by 2-fold as compared with the TMB-8 treated group. Peritoneal exuded macrophages displayed a prominent rise in cytosolic calcium following treatment with triol-saponin, $Rg_1$, $Rg_2$ and $Rg_2$. Incubation of macrophages with PT resulted in an inhibition of cytosolic calcium mobilization, but increased cytosolic calcium mobilization with saponin fraction.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• 제21권6호
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• pp.621-628
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• 1998

The "evolution" of a thing, a custom, an organ is thus by no means its progressus toward a goal, even less a logical progressus by the shortest route and with the least expendit ure of force, but a succession of more or less profound, mutually independent processes of subduing, plus the resistances they encounter, the attempts at transformation for the purpose of defense and reaction, and the results of successful counteractions. The form is fluid, but the "meaning" is even more so (Friedrich W. Nietzsche).

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• 제34권2호
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• pp.73-79
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• 2009

Cytosolic $Ca^{2+}$ is an important regulator of tumor cell proliferation and metastasis. Recently, the strategy of blocking receptors and channels specific to certain cancer cell types has emerged as a potentially viable future treatment. Oral squamous cell carcinoma is an aggressive form of cancer with a high metastasis rate but the receptor-mechanisms involved in $Ca^{2+}$ signaling in these tumors have not yet been elucidated. In our present study, we report that bradykinin induces $Ca^{2+}$ signaling and its modulation in the human oral squamous carcinoma cell line, HSC-3. Bradykinin was found to increase the cytosolic $Ca^{2+}$ levels in a concentration-dependent manner. This increase was inhibited by pretreatment with the phospholipase C-${\beta}$ inhibitor, U73122, and also by 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate, an inhibitor of the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor. Pretreatment with extracellular ATP also inhibited the peak bradykinin-induced $Ca^{2+}$ rise. In contrast, the ATP-induced rise in cytosolic $Ca^{2+}$ was not affected by pretreatment with bradykinin. Pretreatment of the cells with either forskolin or phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (activators of adenylyl cyclase and protein kinase C, respectively) prior to bradykinin application accelerated the recovery of cytosolic $Ca^{2+}$ to baseline levels. These data suggest that bradykinin receptors are functional in $Ca^{2+}$ signaling in HSC-3 cells and may therefore represent a future target in treatment strategies for human oral squamous cell carcinoma.

• BMB Reports
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.189-195
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• 1998

Methylmercury (MeHg), which is widely distributed in the environment, is well known for both its acute and chronic poisoning effects on the human health; however, the precise biochemical mechanisms by which this compound elicits its toxicity in a cellular level are still poorly understood. To examine whether MeHg-induced liver injury involves activation of Phospholipase $A_2$ ($PLA_2$), the $PLA_2$ activity of control and MeHg-administrated livers was measured. MeHg stably enhanced a liver form of cytosolic $PLA_2$ activity, which exhibited several biochemical properties similar to those of the 100 kDa $cPLA_2$, except in its elution profile of a DEAE-5PW HPLC, and it migrated as a molecular weight of 80 kDa in Western blot analysis. This blotting analysis also indicated that the MeHg-induced enhancement of the activity could be due to the increase in the amount of the enzyme protein rather than a stable modification of the enzyme such as phosphorylation. Our data also showed the higher myeloperoxidase activity in MeHg-administrated liver than in the control, suggesting that this increase in the amounts of the 80 kDa $PLA_2$ and its activity may be resulted from infiltration of neutrophils into the liver during a hepatic injury process such as MeHg-induced inflammation. Taken together, these data suggest that MeHg-induced liver injury may be mediated by activation of the 80 kDa form of liver cytosolic $PLA_2$.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.381-388
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• 2006

Heat shock proteins (Hsp) 70 are a ubiquitous family of molecular chaperones involved in many cellular processes. A yeast strain, ssa1/2, with two functionally redundant cytosolic Hsp70s (SSA1 and SSA2) deleted shows thermotolerance comparable to mildly heatshocked wild type yeast, as well as increased protein synthesis and ubiquitin-proteasome protein degradation. Since mRNA abundance does not always correlate well with protein expression levels it is essential to study proteins directly. We used a gel-based approach to identify stress-responsive proteins in the ssa1/2 mutant and identified 43 differentially expressed spots. These were trypsin-digested and analyzed by nano electrospray ionization liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (nESI-LC-MS/MS). A total of 22 non-redundant proteins were identified, 11 of which were confirmed by N-terminal sequencing. Nine proteins, most of which were up-regulated (2-fold or more) in the ssa1/2 mutant, proved to be stress-inducible proteins such as molecular chaperones and anti-oxidant proteins, or proteins related to carbohydrate metabolism. Interestingly, a translational factor Hyp2p up-regulated in the mutant was also found to be highly phosphorylated. These results indicate that the cytosolic Hsp70s, Ssa1p and Ssa2p, regulate an abundance of proteins mainly involved in stress responses and protein synthesis.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.342-346
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• 2008

Aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA) prevents apoptosis in a wide range of cell types, including PC12 cells. ATA is known to increase the phosphorylation level of IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R) and downstream signaling proteins. ATA can translocate across the plasma membrane of PC12 cells and inhibit protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) and, therefore, it is not clear whether ATA exerted its antiapoptotic effect through activation of IGF-1R or by inhibition of cytosolic PTPs. When PC12 cells, deprived of serum, were treated with Fab fragment of anti-IGF-1R antibody to prevent the binding of ATA to the extracellular domain of IGF-1R, ATA was found to penetrate into the cytosolic space of the cells. Under these conditions, the survival-promoting effects of ATA were abolished, and the increase of phosphorylation and characteristic cleavage of IGF-1R were not observed. These results indicate that the antiapoptotic effect of ATA in PC12 cells is due to the binding of ATA to the extracellular domain of IGF-1R and subsequent activation of the IGF-1R, not inhibition of cytosolic PTP(s).

• Toxicological Research
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.507-513
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of silica on cytosolic free calcium mobilization and cell injury in primary cultured rat hepatocytes. Cytosolic free calcium concentration ([Ca$^{2+}$]) was measured employing calcium sensitive fluorescent dye, Fura-2 / AM, and cell injury was evaluated by determination of cellular ATP contents. Silica increased [Ca$^{2+}$], in a concentration-dependent manner in hepatocytes (10$^{-5}$ ~10$^{-2}$ M). Silica caused a biphasic increase in [Ca$^{2+}$], which was composed of an initial rapid rise and following sustained phase. $Ca^{2+}$ removal from the medium resulted in abolishment of initial and sustained phase of silica (10$^{-2}$ M)-induced [Ca$^{2+}$], in hepatocytes. The pretreatment with nifedipine (1 $\mu$M) attenuated silica-induced [Ca$^{2+}$], increases. Silica decreased cellular ATP contents in a dose-dependent manner. This silica-induced cell injury was attenuated by the pretreatment with EGTA (100 $\mu$M) and nifedipine (1 $\mu$M). This study suggests that the elevation of [Ca$^{2+}$], caused by silica may be due mainly to influx through a plasma membrane $Ca^{2+}$ channel and hepatotoxicity by silica relate with alteration of calcium homeostasis.ium homeostasis.

• BMB Reports
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• 제54권10호
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• pp.516-521
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• 2021

Although arginase primarily participates in the last reaction of the urea cycle, we have previously demonstrated that arginase II is an important cytosolic calcium regulator through spermine production in a p32-dependent manner. Here, we demonstrated that rhaponticin (RPT) is a novel medicinal-plant arginase inhibitor and investigated its mechanism of action on Ca²⁺-dependent endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activation. RPT was uncompetitively inhibited for both arginases I and II prepared from mouse liver and kidney. It also inhibited arginase activity in both aorta and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Using both microscope and FACS analyses, RPT treatments induced increases in cytosolic Ca²⁺ levels using Fluo-4 AM as a calcium indicator. Increased cytosolic Ca²⁺ elicited the phosphorylations of both CaMKII and eNOS Ser1177 in a time-dependent manner. RPT incubations also increased intracellular L-arginine (L-Arg) levels and activated the CaMKII/AMPK/Akt/eNOS signaling cascade in HUVECs. Treatment of L-Arg and ABH, arginase inhibitor, increased intracellular Ca²⁺ concentrations and activated CaMKII-dependent eNOS activation in ECs of WT mice, but, the effects were not observed in ECs of inositol triphosphate receptor type 1 knockout (IP3R1^-/-) mice. In the aortic endothelium of WT mice, RPT also augmented nitric oxide (NO) production and attenuated reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. In a vascular tension assay using RPT-treated aortic tissue, cumulative vasorelaxant responses to acetylcholine (Ach) were enhanced, and phenylephrine (PE)-dependent vasoconstrictive responses were retarded, although sodium nitroprusside and KCl responses were not different. In this study, we present a novel mechanism for RPT, as an arginase inhibitor, to increase cytosolic Ca²⁺ concentration in a L-Arg-dependent manner and enhance endothelial function through eNOS activation.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• 제15권5호
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• pp.799-804
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• 2006

Ingestion of green tea has been shown to decrease prostaglandin $E_2$ levels in human colorectum, suggesting that tea constituents modulate arachidonic acid metabolism. In the present study, we investigated the effects of four purified green tea catechins, (-)-epicatechin (EC), (-)-epigallocatechin (EGC), (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), and (-)-epicatechin-3-gallate (ECG), on the catalytic activity of cytosolic phospholipase $A_2$ ($cPLA_2$) and release of arachidonic acid and its metabolites from intact cells. At $50\;{\mu}M$, EGCG and ECG inhibited $cPLA_2$ activity by 19 and 37%, respectively, whereas EC and EGC were less effective. The inhibitory effects of these catechins on arachidonic acid metabolism in intact cells were much more pronounced. At $10\;{\mu}M$, EGCG and ECG inhibited the release of arachidonic acid and its metabolites by 50-70% in human colon adenocarcinoma cells (HT-29) and human esophageal squamous carcinoma cells (KYSE-190 and 450). EGCG and ECG also inhibited arachidonic acid release induced by A23187, a calcium ionophore, in both HT-29 and KYSE-450 cell lines by 30-50%. The inhibitory effects of green tea catechins on $cPLA_2$ and arachidonic acid release may provide a possible mechanism for the prevention of human gastrointestinal inflammation and cancers.

• BMB Reports
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• 제40권2호
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• pp.172-179
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• 2007

PCR-mediated recombination describes the process of in vitro chimera formation from related template sequences present in a single PCR amplification. The high levels of genetic redundancy in eukaryotic genomes should make recombination artifacts occur readily. However, few evolutionary biologists adequately consider this phenomenon when studying gene lineages. The cytosolic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene (GapC), which encodes a NADP-dependent nonphosphorylating glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase in the cytosol, is a classical lowcopy nuclear gene marker and is commonly used in molecular evolutionary studies. Here, we report on the occurrence of PCR-mediated recombination in the GapC gene family of Hibiscus tiliaceus. The study suggests that recombinant areas appear to be correlated with DNA template secondary structures. Our observations highlight that recombination artifacts should be considered when studying specific and allelic phylogenies. The authors suggest that nested PCR be used to suppress PCRmediated recombination.