• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 2013

Boesenbergia pandurata (Roxb.) Schltr. has been reported to possess anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Boesenbergia pandurata extract (BPE) in a high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice model. C57BL/6J mice were fed with either the high-fat diet or a 0.5% BPE-supplemented HFD for 8 weeks. The BPE-containing HFD significantly reduced body weight gain and the accumulation of visceral fat mass in mice model without altering the amount of food intake. Moreover, mice fed with BPE-containing HFD had lower concentrations of lipids in their blood, lower hepatic lipid accumulation, and lower serum leptin levels compared with the HFD-fed mice. RT-PCR analysis showed that the expression levels of peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor ${\gamma}2$ ($PPAR{\gamma}2$) and CCAT/enhancer binding protein ${\alpha}$ ($C/EBP{\alpha}$) genes in the epididymal fat tissue of mice fed the BPE-containing HFD increased 1.16- and 1.30-fold, respectively, compared to mice fed HFD only. In conclusion, BPE attenuated visceral fat accumulation and improved dyslipidemia in a mice model with HFD-induced obesity.

• BMB Reports
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.153-158
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• 2015

As FK506 binding proteins (FK506BPs) are known to play an important role in the regulation of a variety of biological processes related to cell survival, this study was designed to examined the protective effects of FK506 binding protein 12 (FK506BP) on low humidity air flow induced dry eye in a rat model using transduced PEP-1-FK506BP. After the topical application of PEP-1-FK506BP, tear volumes were markedly increased and significant prevention of cornea damage was observed compared with dry eye rats. Further, immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that PEP-1-FK506BP markedly prevented damage to the cornea, the bulbar conjunctiva, and the palpebral conjunctiva epithelial lining compared with dry eye rats. In addition, caspase-3 and PARP expression levels were found to be decreased. These results demonstrated that topical application of PEP-1-FK506BP significantly ameliorates dry eye injury in an animal model. Thus, we suggest that PEP-1-FK506BP can be developed as a new ophthalmic drop to treat dry eye diseases.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.231-239
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• 2013

BACKGROUND: The disease resistant (OsCK1) rice was generated by inserting choline kinase (CK1) and phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (PAT) genes isolated from Oriza sativa and Streptomyces hygroscopicus into the genome of rice (Nakdongbyeo). With the potential problems of safety, the non-target organism evaluation is required as an essential element for the environmental risk assessment of genetically modified (GM) crops. In present study, we studied the effects on survival of Misgurnus anguillicaudatus and Cyprinus carpio, commonly used as a model organism in ecotoxicological studies. METHODS AND RESULTS: The M. anguillicaudatus and C. carpio were fed on disease resistant (OsCK1) rice and non-genetically modified (non-GM) rice (Nakdongbyeo) to 0, 10, 100, 1,000 and 5,000 mg/L, as treatment concentration respectively. The OsCK1 rice used for the test was confirmed to have the OsCK1/PAT gene expression by the PCR and ELISA analysis. Feeding test showed that no significant differences in cumulative immobility and abnormal response of M. anguillicaudatus and C. carpio fed on between OsCK1 rice and non-GM rice. The 96hr-$LC_{50}$ values showed no difference between OsCK1 rice (>5,000 mg/L) and non-GM rice (>5,000 mg/L). CONCLUSION(S): The results of this study suggested that there was no significant difference in toxicity for M. anguillicaudatus and C. carpio between OsCK1 rice and non-GM counterparts.

• Archives of design research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.279-288
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• 2004

Corporate design activities have expanded from being exclusive and passive responsibilities to active participation in planning, marketing, technology and corporate brand image differentiation for successful business. Thus the communications between designers and other functions come to include critical decision making, information sharing, and objective reasoning. Given that design activities now have to involve various functions in product development, the styling-related design process, which is still developed by designer's intuition and experience, poses as an obstacle not just between various functions involved, but even within the design function. To overcome this obstacle and to lead more effective design decision process, a means for product form development assessment and management is necessary. This research proposes a foundation for managing and assessing product form based on the hypothesis and demonstration of discovering a system of formative factor and order a product form expresses that can be shared as an objective and logical system. As a result of this demonstration, the form as a unique visual expression and the factors related to the form and its co-relationship are examined. The factors are called formative parameters and the system is named as the product form alignment method. Based on the logic derived from the system, the process for developing an image that aligns with the predefined goal is explained. The method defines a balance between a designer's intuitive creativity and the extracted logic, which can act as a basis for designers to share design language among themselves and for communication between design and other functions. Based on this system, designers are able to align design work with the set goal, and focus and limit the range of form development, which is anticipated to result in lead-time reduction and minimizing unnecessary obstacles and mistakes.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.6 s.67
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• pp.967-974
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• 2004

The osteoblastic cell activity is important for born formation, thus, this study was performed to investigation of that the effect of edible sources, Rubus coreanus Miquel (RCM), on the proliferation and differentiation of MC3T3-E1 osteoblastic like cell. The effects of RCM extract on cell proliferation were measured by MIT assay. At 1, $10\;{\mu}g/mL$ of RCM extract treated, that were elevated of cell proliferation to 103 and $142\%$ via control, respectively. And the cell differentiation were measured as alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity at 3, 9, 18, and 27 days. As the results, the $10\;{\mu}g/mL$ was increased ALP activity more than 2.6 times compared with control, 1.4 times via positive control at 27th day (p<0.05). The optical concentration of RC extract was rechecked by ALP staining and Alizarin Red staining for investigation of the induction of ALP activity, nodule formation by mineralization. mRNA expression analysis showed that the RCM $(10\;{\mu}g/mL)$ increased in SOX9 as well as ALP in MC3T3-E1 cells. These results suggest that RC extract was stimulates the MC3T3-E1 cell proliferation and differentiation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.688-693
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• 2002

Molecular chaperones prevent the misfolding of newly synthesized polypeptides in the cell. The coexpression of molecular chaperones could be expected to improve the production of soluble and active recombinant proteins. In this study, the effect of coexpression of E. coli GroEL/ES chaperone on the active production of Bacillus macerans cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) in E. coli was investigated. Two plasmids, pTCGT1 and pGro7 in which the cgt and the groEL/ES genes are under the control of 77 promoter and araB promoter, respectively, were co-transformed into E. coli. With a series of cultures of recombinant E. coli cells, the optimal concentrations of IPTG and L-arabinose were found be 1 mM and 0.3 mg/$m\ell$, respectively. When IPTG and L-arabinose were added at 0.8~1.0 $OD_{600}$ and 0.4~0.5 $OD_{600}$, active CGTase production was increased significantly. This coexpression condition resulted in 1.5-fold increased level of soluble CGTase (0.7~0.73 unit/$m\ell$), compared to the level of CGTase in the single expression (0.36~0.56 unit/$m\ell$). An SDS-PACE analysis revealed that about 33.6% of CGTase in the total CGTase protein was found in the soluble fraction by coexpression of GroEL/ES chaperone.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.620-631
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• 2016

Viroids are about 250-400 base pair of short single strand RNA fragments have been associated with economically important plant diseases. Due to the lack of protein expression capacity associated with replication, it is very difficult to diagnosis viroid diseases in serological methods. For detecting viroid at plants, molecular-based techniques such as agarose gel electrophoresis, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), DNA-hybridization, blotting analysis and conventional RT-PCR are reliable. Real-time RT-PCR methods that grafted on RT-PCR methods with improved confirmation methods have been also utilized. However, they are still labor-intensive, time-consuming, and require personnel with expertise. Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) method is a nucleic acid amplification method under the isothermal condition. The LAMP methodology has been reported to be simple, rapid, sensitive and field applicable in detecting a variety of pathogens. The results of LAMP method can be colorized by adding a visible material such as SYBR green I, Evagreen, Calcein, Berberine and Hydroxy naphthol blue (HNB) with simple equipment or naked eyes. The combination of LAMP method and nucleic pathogens, viroids, can be used to realize simple diagnosis platform for the genetic point-of care testing system. The aim at this review is to summary viroid-caused diseases and the simple visible approach for diagnosing viroids using Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) method.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.157-162
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• 2009

Nitric oxide (NO) is a diffusible, multifunctional and transcellular messenger that has been implicated in numerous physiological and pathological conditions. It has been reported that NO induced apoptosis in tumor cells, macrophage cells and inhibited apoptosis in normal cells, endothelial cells. To examine whether NO could induce apoptosis in MCF-7 cells, cells were treated with SIN-1 (3-morpholinosydnonimine), NO donor. Cell viability did not change in SIN-1 treated cells for 48 h and there was no significantly changes in cell cycle progression or growth pattern by FACS analysis. But p53 protein, an apoptosis-related factor, increased SIN-1 treatment time dependently. Bcl-2, MDM2 and p21 were also accumulated. Bax level did not change. A major role of inhibiting apoptosis by NO in MCF-7 cells, cobalt chloride ($CoCl_2$) was added to cells preincubated with SIN-1. Whereas $CoCl_2$ treated cells underwent apoptosis, for 24 h SIN-1 preincubated cells were not induced apoptosis. Inactivated proteins, MDM2 and bcl-2, by $CoCl_2$ levels also increased in SIN-1 pre-treated cells. These results suggested that SIN-1 blocked p53 by MDM2 activation and inhibited apoptosis by inducing p21 and bcl-2 expression.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1137-1143
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• 2014

Doxorubicin is a general chemotherapy drug widely used for a number of cancers. However, the correlation between endogenous nitric oxide ($NO^{\bullet}$) levels and chemoresistance to doxorubicin remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the effect of endogenous $NO^{\bullet}$ on the anticancer activity of doxorubicin in human colon cancer cell lines HCT116 and HT29 with different p53 status. The cells were treated with either doxorubicin alone or in combination with the $NO^{\bullet}$ synthase (NOS) inhibitor $N^G$-monomethyl-L-arginine (NMA). Doxorubicin differentially inhibited the growth of both the HCT116 (p53-WT) and HT29 (p53-MUT) cells, which was mitigated by cotreatment with NMA. Further studies revealed that inhibition of endogenous $NO^{\bullet}$ mitigated doxorubicin-induced apoptosis in the HCT116 and HT29 cells, as evidenced by apoptotic DNA fragmentation and the sub-G1 peak of apoptotic markers. Apoptosis was delayed in the HT29 cells, and its magnitude was greatly reduced, underscoring the importance of the modulation of p53 in the response. RT-PCR analysis revealed that doxorubicin down-regulated levels of inhibitors of the apoptosis family (cellular IAP-1 and-2). Collectively, these data show that induction of apoptosis by doxorubicin in human colon cancer cells is possibly related to modulation of endogenous $NO^{\bullet}$, the expression of the IAP family of genes, and the status of p53. The underlying mechanisms may represent potential targets for adjuvant strategies to improve the efficacy of chemotherapy for colon cancer.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.476-484
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• 2014

Obesity, which is characterized by a state of mild chronic inflammation, is known to cause metabolic diseases. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of lyophilized dropwort vinegar powder (DVP) on adipocyte differentiation and inflammation in T3-L1 preadipocyte and RAW 264.7 macrophage cell lines. DVP inhibited the differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes induced by a mixture of IBMX, dexamethasone, and insulin (MDI). Western blot analysis of cell lysates showed that DVP decreased the levels of two major transcription factors involved in adipogenesis, peroxisome proliferator- activated receptor-${\gamma}$ (PPAR-${\gamma}$) and CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein ${\alpha}$ ($C/EBP{\alpha}$). DVP also significantly suppressed lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced production of nitric oxide (NO), and this was accompanied by a decrease in inducible NO synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) protein expression. These results demonstrate that DVP inhibits MDI-induced adipocyte differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells and LPS-induced inflammation in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. The findings indicate that this natural product may be a good candidate as to prevent metabolic diseases.