• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.688-691
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• 2000

Ferritin, an iron-storage protein, is found in bacteria and some animal tissues such as liver, spleen, and bone marrow. It is more effective and causes less side reactions than the traditional ferrous sulfate, and thus has been used primarily to treat iron deficiency in pregnancy anaemia. Currently, the ferritin extracted from the bovine and equine spleens are sold as a commercial product. Its market is estimated as several hundreds of million US dollars. However, because of the recent warnings against the viral diseases of animal origins such as mad cow disease, a safer ferritin is sought after. Our research team has successfully developed a production process for recombinant human ferritin. Its expression titer from yeast is high enough to be economically viable, and its particle formation characteristics are as effective as well.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.187-191
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• 2006

Serum ferritin levels are increased in subjects at-risk for or with acute lung injury (ALI), and there are observations to suggest that increases in serum ferritin levels may help predict the development of ALI in at-risk individuals. To deepen our understanding of increases of serum ferritin and their relationship to the development of ALI, we measured serum ferritin levels before and after intestinal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats, and found that serum ferritin levels increased significantly following I/R. Increases in serum and lavage ferritin levels paralleled increases in lung inflammation (lavage leukocyte numbers and tissue myeloperoxidase activities) and lung leak (lavage protein levels). In contrast, pre-treatment of rats with mepacrine (60 mg/kg, i.p.), a phospholipase $A_2$ inhibitor, attenuated not only I/R-induced serum and lavage ferritin increases, but also the development of ALI. These findings indicate that, besides of human subjects with ALI, serum ferritin levels increase early on also in an animal model of ALI. Therefore, serum and lavage ferritin can be a candidate for early biomarker of ALI.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.299-307
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• 2008

Soybean seed ferritin is essential for human iron supplementation and iron deficiency anemia prevention because it contains abundant bioavailable iron and is frequently consumed in the human diet. However, it is poorly understood in regards its several properties, such as iron mineralization, subunit assembly, and protein folding. To address these issues, we decided to prepare the soybean seed ferritin complex via a recombinant DNA approach. In this paper, we report a rapid and simple Escherichia coli expression system to produce the soybean seed ferritin complex. In this system, two subunits of soybean seed ferritin, H-2 and H-1, were encoded in a single plasmid, and optimal expression was achieved by additionally coexpressing a team of molecular chaperones, trigger factor and GroEL-GroES. The His-tagged ferritin complex was purified by $Ni^{2+}$ affinity chromatography, and an intact ferritin complex was obtained following His-tagged enterokinase (His-EK) digestion. The purified ferritin complex synthesized in E. coli demonstrated some reported features of its native counterpart from soybean seed, including an apparent molecular weight, multimeric assembly, and iron uptake activity. We believe that the strategy described in this paper may be of general utility in producing other recombinant plant ferritins built up from two types of subunits.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.161-168
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• 2004

Optimal regeneration conditions of ginseng transformants were studied. It has been known that Ferritin Light Heavy Chain (FLHC) gene remove the several heavy metal by combination, store and transport. To obtain the ginseng tolerant to heavy metal, binary vector was introduced in Agrobacterium by tri-parental mating and then Agrobacterium tumefaciens MP90/FLHC was selected on the AB media and MS media containing kanamycin. Explants were co-cultured with Agrobacterium tumefaciens MP90/FLHC, which contained NPT II as a selectable marker, tadpole ferritin heavy chain (FLHC) gene and human ferritin light chain gene and then a number of embryos were induced. The induced embryo transferred to shooting media consisting of MS medium supplemented with GA 10 mg/L. As a result of examination that induced the normal growth of transfomants, transformants showed the equivalent growth in both root and shoot on the media containing the 1/3 MS.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.47-54
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• 2012

Purpose : This study was performed to evaluate the characteristics of rat mesenchymal stem cells (RMSCs) transduced with human ferritin gene and investigate $in$ $vitro$ MRI detectability of ferritin-transduced RMSCs. Materials and Methods: The RMSCs expressing both myc-tagged human ferritin heavy chain subunit (myc-FTH) and green fluorescence protein (GFP) were transduced with lentiviurs. Transduced cells were sorted by GFP expression using a fluorescence-activated cell sorter. Myc-FTH and GFP expression in transduced cells were detected by immunofluorescence staining. The cell proliferative ability and viability were assessed by MTT assay. The RMSC surface markers (CD29+/CD45-) were analyzed by flow cytometry. The intracellular iron amount was measured spectrophotometically and the presence of ferritin-iron accumulation was detected by Prussian blue staining. $In$ $vitro$ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of cell phantoms was done on 9.4 T MR scanner to evaluate the feasibility of imaging the ferritin-transduced RMSCs. Results: The myc-FTH and GFP genes were stably transduced into RMSCs. No significant differences were observed in terms of biologic properties in transduced RMSCs compared with non-transduced RMSCs. Ferritin-transduced RMSCs exhibited increased iron accumulation ability and showed significantly lower $T_2$ relaxation time than non-transduced RMSCs. Conclusion: Ferritin gene as MR reporter gene could be used for non-invasive tracking and visualization of therapeutic mesenchymal stem cells by MRI.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.36-45
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• 2001

This study was performed to determine the changes of maternal iron status during pregnancy cross sectionally, and to evaluate the appropriateness of the cut-off points of hemoglobin (Hb). hematocrit (Hct), serum transferrin receptor (sTfR) and sTfR : ferritin ratio for assessing iron deficiency status based on serum ferritin level (< 12${\mu}g$/L). Serum Hb concentrations in the first trimester were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those in the second and third trimester. Serum levels of iron and ferritin in the third trimester were significantly lower (p < 0.05) than those in the first and second trimester. On the other hand, sTfR:ferritin ratios in the third trimester were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those in the first and second trimester. sTfR concentrations did not change significantly during pregnancy. The appropriate cut-off points of Hb were 11.5g/dL for whole period of pregnancy. 12.0g/dL for 1st trimester. and 11.5g/dL for both 2nd and 3rd trimester. The good cut-off points of Hct were 34% for whole period of pregnancy. 36% for 1st trimester. and 34% for both 2nd and 3rd trimester The suitable cut-off points of TIBC were 400${\mu}g$/dL for whole period of pregnancy. 360${\mu}g$/dL for 1st trimester, and 400${\mu}g$/dL for both 2nd and 3rd trimester. Any cut-off point of sTfR could not be selected because of its low sensitivity and specificity. The proper cut-off point of sTfR : ferritin ratio was 600 or 650 for all the periods determined except the first trimester. In conclusion, there were no reliable cut-off levels of sTfR and those of sTfR : ferritin ratio showed low specificity. The cut-off values of Hb and Hct for assessing iron deficiency were slightly higher than the values used to evaluate anemia. Thus, if appropriate cut-off levels were applied, Hb. Hct, or TIBC might be useful indices for evaluating iron deficiency as well as anemia.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.237-242
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• 2004

Recombinant human ferritin homopolymers (rHF and rLF) were successfully produced in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Y2805, which was transformed with human ferritin H or L-chain genes, respectively. In order to characterize the molecular properties of the recombinant ferritins in relation to mineralization, the proteins were isolated and apoferritins were prepared. The apoferritins were reconstituted with 2000 Fe atoms per protein molecule under various experimental conditions (the concentration of the protein, the buffer concentration of the MOPS buffer, the total volume of the reaction and the reconstitution method). The structure and composition of the iron cores formed in the ferritins were examined using transmission electron microscopy. The recombinant ferritins behaved in a similar manner to other mammalian ferritins in accumulating iron in the core. Proteins of rHF and rLF showed varying reconstitution yields of 37-72% depending on the reaction conditions. In general, the rHF showed higher reconstitution yield than the rLF at the protein concentrations and the reaction volumes we examined. Iron cores with a similar mean particle size were obtained in the rHF, rLF and horse spleen ferritin reconstituted at a protein concentration of 1.0 mg/mL. Electron diffraction of all the three ferritins showed 2-3 diffuse lines, with d-spacings corresponding to those of the mineral ferrihydrite with a limited crystallinity.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.438-440
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• 2001

Ferritin an iron-storage protein. is found in bacteria and some animal tissues such as liver, spleen and bone marrow. It is more effective and causes less side reactions than traditional ferrous sulfate, which has been used primarily to treat iron deficiency in pregnancy anemia. Currently, the ferritin extracted from bovine and equine spleens are sold as a commercial product. Its markets are several hundreds of million US dollars. However, because of recent warnings against the viral diseases of animal origins such as mad cow disease, a safer ferritin is sought after. In this study, a production process for human ferritin was successfully developed. The amount of its produced in yeast is high enough to be economically viable.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.638-641
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• 2006

Iron is the required microelement supporting life and is the main component of hemoglobin. Thus iron has affinity with exercise capacity. Iron metabolism turbulence induced by exercise is one of causes of hematopoietic hypofunction. Results of the experiment showed that long-term treadmill exercise of progressive loading significantly decreased levels of erythrocyte indexes, serum iron, serum ferritin and significantly increased serum transferrin level. Nutrition supplement could significantly retard the variations, and Exercise +Nutrition group have higher levels of erythrocyte indexes, serum iron, serum ferritin and lower level of serum transferrin than Exercise group. The results indicated that nutrition supplement have function of prevent and cure on iron metabolism turbulence induced by exercise, furthermore significantly enhance hemoglobin level in rats.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.82-87
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• 2007

Our heterologous expression system of the human ferritin H-chain gene (hfH) allowed us to characterize the cellular effects of ferritin in yeasts. The recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae (YGH2) evidenced impaired growth as compared to the control, which was correlated with ferritin expression and with the formation of core minerals. Growth was recovered via the administration of iron supplements. The modification of cellular iron metabolism, which involved the increased expression of high-affinity iron transport genes (FET3 and FTR1), was detected via Northern blot analysis. The findings may provide some evidence of cytosolic iron deficiency, as the genes were expressed transcriptionally under iron-deficient conditions. According to our results examining reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation via the fluorescence method, the ROS levels in YGH2 were decreased compared to the control. It suggests that the expression of active H-ferritins reduced the content of free iron in yeast. Therefore, present results may provide new insights into the regulatory network and pathways inherent to iron depletion conditions.