• BMB Reports
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• v.48 no.9
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• pp.531-536
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• 2015

Gecko proteins have long been used as anti-tumor agents in oriental medicine, without any scientific background. Although anti-tumor effects of Gecko proteins on several cancers were recently reported, their effect on bladder cancer has not been investigated. Thus, we explored the anti-tumor effect of Gecko proteins and its cellular mechanisms in human bladder cancer 5637 cells. Gecko proteins significantly reduced the viability of 5637 cells without any cytotoxic effect on normal cells. These proteins increased the Annexin-V staining and the amount of condensed chromatin, demonstrating that the Gecko proteinsinduced cell death was caused by apoptosis. Gecko proteins suppressed Akt activation, and the overexpression of constitutively active form of myristoylated Akt prevented Gecko proteins-induced death of 5637 cells. Furthermore, Gecko proteins activated caspase 9 and caspase 3/7. Taken together, our data demonstrated that Gecko proteins suppressed the Akt pathway and activated the intrinsic caspase pathway, leading to the apoptosis of bladder cancer cells. [BMB Reports 2015; 48(9): 531-536]

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.771-772
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• 2010

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.449-449
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• 2011

We reported the direct effect of intrinsic surface energy of dry adhesive material to the Van der Waals and capillary forces contributions of the total adhesion force in an artificial gecko-inspired adhesion system. To mimic the gecko foot we fabricated tilted nanohairy structures using both lithography and ion beam treatment. The nanohairy structures were replicated from Si wafer mold using UV curable polymeric materials. The control of nanohairs slanting angles was based on the uniform linear argon ion irradiation to the nanohairy polymeric surface. The surface energy was studied utilizing subsequent conventional oxygen ion treatment on the nanohairy structures which resulted in gradient surface energy. Our shear adhesion test results were found in good agreement with the accepted Van der Waals and capillary forces theory in the gecko adhesion system. Surface energy would give a direct impact to the effective Hamaker constant in Van der Waals force and the filling angle (${\varphi}$) of water meniscus in capillary force contributions of gecko inspired adhesion system. With the increasing surface energy, the effective Hamaker constant also increased but the filling angle decreased, resulting in a competition between the two forces. Using a simple mathematical model, we compared our experimental results to show the quantitative contributions of Van der Waals and capillary forces in a single adhesion system on both hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. We found that the Van der Waals force contributes about 82.75% and 89.97% to the total adhesion force on hydrophilic and hydrophobic test surfaces, respectively, while the remaining contribution was occupied by capillary force. We also showed that it is possible to design ultrahigh dry adhesive with adhesion strength of more than 10 times higher than apparent gecko adhesion force by controlling the surface energy and the slanting angle induced-contact line of dry adhesive the materials.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.39 no.11
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• pp.1099-1103
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• 2015

Recently, there have been several studies on the inspiration and application of optimized natural structures. One study introduced a new adhesion method that was inspired by the feet of geckos because of their superior features such as high adhesion strength, ease-of-removal, and they are environmentally friendly. Various micro- or nano-structures were fabricated and tested for gecko-like dry adhesives, but gecko-like dry adhesives that were developed became easily worn from frequent use. In this study, we propose a metal-coating method to improve the durability of gecko-like dry adhesives. We evaluate the initial adhesion strength and durability by performing repeated adhesion tests on a glass plate. The initial adhesive strength of gold-coated micro-structures was 60% of that for non-coated ones. However, the adhesive strength of gold-coated micro-structures was kept as 58% of their initial adhesion strength, while that of non-coated ones was only 40%.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.403-407
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• 2010

Gecko adhesion system consists of beam-shaped seta and spatula which has the role of adhesive pad. In this paper, adhesion mechanism of gecko adhesion system is performed by using adhesive beam contact model. this model has a feature of non-uniform stress profile on the contact surface and adhesion/detachment mechanism is determined by the tensile stress of the contact region. a spatula tip pad has the role of reduction of maximum tensile stress and adhesive force is increased due to this effect. As for a reverse loading case, maximum compressive stress drops by the spatula effect and this cause unsymmetric loading conditions between adhesion and detachment forces. In this study, finite element method is used for the analysis of adhesive beam contact model and the results for spatula effect are presented.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.112-115
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• 2009

In nature, some creatures have the ability to walk vertically or upside down on various natural surfaces. One of them, Tokay Gecko has billions of nano-hair at the epidermis of its digital. These nano hairs makes atomistic attractive force to the surface, therefore, it could walk and run on the vertical or upside surfaces. Recently, many researchers tried to fabricate the dry adhesive structure mimicking the nano-hair structure. in this study, I tried to survey these studies to discuss the direction of future fabrication works of dry adhesive structures.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2010.04a
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• pp.550-553
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• 2010

본 논문에서는 seta와 spatula로 구성된 게코(gecko) 접착 시스템의 해석을 위한 새로운 adhesive beam contact model을 제시한다. adhesive contact 해석에 있어서 기존의 JKR model은 nano pillar와 같은 형태의 접촉방식의 해석에는 매우 유용하지만, seta와 같이 보(beam)의 형상을 가지는 구조물의 접촉방식의 해석에는 부적합하다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 seta와 같은 보의 형상을 가지는 접촉 시스템의 해석을 위해 adhesive beam contact model을 제시하고, 유한요소 해석을 통하여 접촉면에서의 불균일한 응력분포 상태가 분리 메커니즘에 미치는 영향에 대한 해석 결과를 제시한다. 또한 spatula의 기하학적 형상과 보의 접촉각(contact angle)등이 seta adhesion system의 분리 메커니즘(detachment mechanism)에 미치는 영향에 대한 결과를 제시한다.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.198-204
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• 2018

Background: The effective use of habitats is essential for the successful adaptation of a species to the local environment. Although habitats exhibit a hierarchical structure, including macro-, meso-, and microhabitats, the relationships among habitats of differing hierarchy have not been well studied. In this study, we studied the quantitative measures of microhabitat use of Gekko japonicus from three field populations in Japan: one at Tsushima Island, one at Nishi Park, Fukuoka, and one at Ohori Park, Fukuoka. We investigated whether land cover type, a higher hierarchical habitat component, was associated with quantitative microhabitat use, a lower hierarchical component, in these populations. Results: The substrate temperature where we located geckos (SubT) and the distance from the ground to the gecko (Height) were significantly different among the three populations. In particular, SubT on Tsushima Island was lower than it was in the other two populations. Irradiance at gecko location and Height were significantly different among the land cover types. In particular, Height in evergreen needleleaf forest was significantly lower than that in deciduous broadleaf forest. Furthermore, significant interactions between population and land cover type were observed for the SubT and Height variables. Conclusions: The quantitative measures of microhabitat use of G. japonicus varied with population and land cover type, which exhibited significant interaction effects on microhabitat use variables. These results suggest that higher hierarchical habitat components can affect the quantitative measures of lower hierarchical microhabitat use in nocturnal geckos.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.2081-2086
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• 2015

Gecko is a kind of traditional Chinese medicine with remarkable antineoplastic activity. However, undefined mechanisms and ambiguity regarding active ingredients limit new drug development from gecko. This study was conducted to assess anti-angiogenic properties of the aqueous extracts of fresh gecko (AG) or macromolecular components separated from AG (M-AG). An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) approach was applied to detect the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) secretion of the tumor cells treated with AG or M-AG. The effect of AG or M-AG on vascular endothelial cell proliferation and migratory ability was analyzed by tetrazolium dye colorimetric method, transwell and wound-healing assays. Chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assays were used to ensure the anti-angiogenic activity of M-AG in vivo. The results showed that AG or M-AG inhibited the VEGF secretion of tumor cells, the relative inhibition rates of AG and M-AG being 27.2% and 53.2% respectively at a concentration of $20{\mu}L/mL$. AG and M-AG inhibited the vascular endothelial (VE) cell proliferation with IC50 values of $11.5{\pm}0.5{\mu}L/mL$ and $12.9{\pm}0.4{\mu}L/mL$ respectively. The VE cell migration potential was inhibited significantly (p<0.01) by the AG (${\geq}24{\mu}L/mL$) or M-AG (${\geq}12\mu}L/mL$) treatment. In vivo, neovascularization of CAM treated with M-AG was inhibited significantly (p<0.05) at a concentration of ${\geq}0.4{\mu}L/mL$. This study provided evidence that anti-angiogenesis is one of the anti-tumor mechanisms of AG and M-AG, with the latter as a promising active component.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.517-518
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• 2012