• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.22-28
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• 2014

Flos Sophorae, the dried flower bud of Sophora japonica L, possesses anti-inflammatory properties, prevents and treats blood capillary and hypertension diseases and can also be used as a hemostat. However, the effect of Flos Sophorae on breast cancer invasion is unknown. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), which degrades the extracellular matrix, is a major component in cancer cell invasion. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effect of Flos Sophorae extract (FSE) on 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) expression and cell invasion, as well as the molecular mechanisms involved in Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7) cells. FSE inhibited the TPA-induced transcriptional activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-${\kappa}B$). These results indicate that FSE-mediated inhibition of TPA-induced MMP-9 expression and cell invasion involves the suppression of NF-${\kappa}B$ pathway in MCF-7 cells. Thus, FSE may have therapeutic potential for controlling breast cancer invasiveness.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.191-201
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• 2020

As society develops rapidly, environmental pollution is becoming a greater risk factor threatening human health. One of the major causes of air pollution that affects human health is particulate matter (PM), which contains a heterogeneous mixture of different particle sizes and chemical compositions. PM is classified by size into general PM (PM₁₀; diameter below 10 ㎛) and fine PM (PM_2.5; diameter below 2.5 ㎛). PM_2.5 can pass through the respiratory tract into the circulatory system and thence throughout the body. PM_2.5 is known to stimulate oxidative stress and inflammatory responses to cells, promoting diseases such as asthma, chronic respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and immunological disorders. Although detailed molecular mechanisms for how PM stimulates disease progression still need to be elucidated, together with national efforts to reduce PM production, significant research has been conducted that demonstrates the harmfulness of PM in disease progression through in vitro and in vivo experiments. This review focuses on the harmfulness of PM in disease progression; we also introduce a biological verification method for determining the hazards of PM.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.788-793
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• 2006

This study was carried out to investigate the biological effects from Codium fragile. Methanol extract of Codium fragile increased two times at 2500 ㎍/ml the growth of Lactobacillus plantarum that associated with probiotic properties of lactic acid bacteria of Kimchi. Ethyl acetate extract of Codium fragile inhibited the cellulase activity up to approximately 60% at $2500\;{\mu}g/ml$. Methanol extract of Codium fragile was fractionated into several subfractions and their antioxidant activities were measured by using DPPH radical scavenging and SOD-like activity. Especially the antioxidative activity of ethyl acetate fraction was shown higher than that of other fractions and its fraction showed higher contents of total phenolic compounds, indicating the positive relationship between DPPH radical scavenging effect and total polyphenol content. Stimulation of the macrophages RAW264.7 cells with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) resulted in increased production of nitric oxide (NO) in the medium. However, the methanol extract of Codium fragile showed marked inhibition of NO synthesis in a dose-dependent manner. This result suggest that Codium fragile plays significant role for activation of immune system in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2016

It has been generally accepted that obesity and overweight are associated with metabolic diseases and cancer incidence. In fact, obesity increased risks of cancers i.e. breast, liver, pancreatic and prostate. Celastrol is a pentacyclic triterpenoid isolated from Thunder god vine, was used as a Chinese traditional medicine for treatment of inflammatory disorders such as arthritis, lupus erythematosus and Alzheimer's disease. Also, celastrol has various biological properties of chemo-preventive, neuro-protective, and anti-oxidant effects. Recent studies demonstrated that celastrol has anti-proliferation effects in different type of obesity-related cancers and suppresses tumor progression and metastasis. Anticancer effects of celastrol include regulation of $NF-{\kappa}B$, heat shock protein, JNK, VEGF, CXCR4, Akt/mTOR, MMP-9 and so on. For these reasons, celastrol has shown to be a promising anti-tumor agent. In this review, we will address the anticancer activities and multiple mechanisms of celastrol in obesity-related cancers.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1557-1562
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• 2005

A mechanism of hair cell damage caused by noise and ototoxic agents is mediated through generation of free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS). It is known that most of animals have defense systems to protect against ROS, and the cochlea of inner ear in animals also has ROS defense systems including several antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), glutathione reductase (GR), and glutathione (GSH), which efficiently detoxifying ROS generated under normal condition. Steamed roots of Rehmannia glutinosa have been traditionally used in Oriental medicine for the treatment of auditory disease such as tinnitus, vertigo, and hearing loss as well as inflammatory diseases, hectic fever, night sweat, and headache. In the present study, we showed that the ethanol extract from steamed roots of R. giutinosa (ESRG) increased the antioxidant enzymes such as SOD, CAT, GPX, and GR activities and GSH level in HEI-OC1 auditory cells. This extract itself did not show any significant cytotoxicity up to $50{\mu}g/ml$. Our results further support the view that ESRG is promising sources of potential antioxidants. Future studies will be aimed at investigating the effects of ESRG on the regulation of cellular mechanisms and isolating and identifying the substances responsible for the regulation of antioxidant enzyme system from the plant extracts.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.651-656
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• 2006

Activation of $NF-{\kappa}B$ is known to be a trigger of various cellular disorders including inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Numerous approaches are ongoing within laboratories to identify potential therapeutic agents which inhibit the $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation. In this study, we have tested the inhibitory effects of five traditional medicines on the activation of $NF-{\kappa}B$ by NIK. Among three medicines which exhibited inhibitory effect on the expression of $NF-{\kappa}B$ repoter plasmid, we investigated further the inhibitory mechanism of Dichroa febrifuga in connection with IKKY activity. Wild type $IKK{\gamma}$ inhibited the $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation by NIK but the C-terminal deletion mutant of IKKY did not show the inhibitory effect, indicating that the C-terminal leucine zipper domain of $NF-{\kappa}B$ is important for the inhibition of $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation. The water extract of Dichroa febrifuga(DFE) also strongly inhibited the $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation by NIK. The inhibitory activity of DFE appeared to be independent of the expression of $IKK{\gamma}$, suggesting that the pathways of inhibition by Dichroa febrifuga and $IKK{\gamma}$ are different. Our results suggest that Dichroa febrifuga can be used as a medicine for inhibition of the $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation in a wide range of cells without relation to the expression of $IKK{\gamma}$.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.467-474
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• 2015

Allergic rhinitis is a growing tendency to increase. Following this tendency, allergic rhinitis is lively studied also in Korean oriental medicine. Bupleuri Radix (BR) has been used for many inflammatory diseases, but experimental backgrounds are not enough to treat allergic rhinitis. So in this study, effects of BR on OVA-induced allergic rhinitis model of BALB/c mice were examined. Thirty two BALB/c mice are equally devided into four groups; control group, OVA group, OVA+BR group, OVA+Cet group. The OVA, OVA+BR and OVA+Cet groups were induced allergic rhinitis by sensitizing to OVA. And then saline solution included BR (10.6 mg/kg body weight) was administered to the OVA+BR group orally. The number of nasal rubbing and nasal sneezing was evaluated for 10 days and later serological and histological changes were analyzed. Serological analysis included the serum levels of cytokines and chemokines (IL-4, IL-5, IL-12, MCP-1, MIP-2), total IgE and OVA-specific IgE levels in serum. Histological analysis included thickness of nasal septum, eosinophil counts changes of nasal mucosa, infiltration of eosinophil in nasal mucosa and histological changes of nasal mucosa. The number of nasal rubbing and nasal sneezing was significantly decreased in the OVA+BR group. The serum levels of IL-4, IL-5, MCP-1, MIP-2 were significantly decreased in the OVA+BR group but the serum levels of IL-1β had not significance. Total IgE and OVA-specific IgE levels in serum were decreased in the OVA+BR group, but total IgE levels in serum had only significance. Thickness of nasal septum, eosinophil counts of nasal mucosa and infiltration of eosinophil in nasal mucosa were significantly decreased in the OVA+BR group. From the results of this study, we think that BR has an effect on improvement of allergic rhinitis by improving nasal rubbing and nasal sneezing, reducing histological changes of nasal mucosa and infiltration of eosinophil in nasal mucosa, inhibiting increasing of the serum levels of cytokines, chemokines and total IgE.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.650-657
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• 2011

The object of this study was to obtain acute information (single oral dose toxicity) of Taraxaci Herba (Dried total parts of Taraxacum platycarpum. H.Dahlstedt (Compositae)), has been traditionally used in Korean medicine for treating various inflammatory diseases. In order to observe the 50% lethal dose (LD 50), approximate lethal dosage (ALD) and target organs, test articles were once orally administered to female and male ICR mice at dose levels of 2,000, 1,000, 500 mg/kg according to the recommendation of Korea Food and Drug Administration Guidelines. The mortality and changes on body weight, clinical signs and gross observation were monitored during 14 days after single oral treatment of Taraxaci Herba aqueous extracts according to KFDA Guidelines with organ weights and histopathological observations of 12 types of principle organs. After single oral treatment of Taraxaci Herba aqueous extracts, we could not find any mortality and toxicological evidences up to 2,000 mg/kg treated group, the limited dosages in rodents at body and organ weights, clinical signs, gross and histopathological observations. Except for slight soft feces, which were detected in male mice treated with 2,000 mg/kg of Taraxaci Herba aqueous extracts at 1 day after end of treatment. The results obtained in this study suggest that the LD 50 and ALD of Taraxaci Herba aqueous extracts in both female and male mice after single oral treatment were considered as over 2,000 mg/kg because no mortalities were detected up to 2000 mg/kg that was the highest dose recommended by KFDA and OECD. However, it also observed that the possibility of digestive disorders, like diarrhea when administered over 2,000 mg/kg of Taraxaci Herba aqueous extracts in the present study, but these possibilities of digestive disorders can be disregard in clinical use because they ate transient in the highest dosages male only.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2011

Balneotherapy has been widely used for the treatment of skin diseases in the world. The purpose of this study was to determine the bath effect of the alkaline reduced spring water with the properties of high pH and low oxidation reduction potential (ORP) on the skin injury induced by ultra violet (UV) irradiation. For this purpose, hairless mice were irradiated with UV-B to cause skin injury, and individually taken a bath in spring water (experimental group) and tap water (control group) once a day for 40 min during 21 days. We observed histological changes of the back skin through macro- and microscopic methods compared to the control group. We found that skin injury of the experimental group was more quickly recovered than that of the control group. Under the light microscope, the experimental group showed that epidermal thickening (p<0.01) and the mast cell activation (p<0.001) were lower compared with the control group, in addition infiltration of inflammatory cells and degranulation of mast cells were less observed. These results suggest that regular bath in the spring water with the properties of high pH and low ORP has a positive effect on the skin injury induced by UV irradiation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.553-560
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• 2017

Fermented garlic extract (FGE) is a well-known functional food containing cycloalliin. Here we tested if FGE has an effect on the vascular system. We found that FGE had an effect on monocytic adhesion to endothelial cells, which occurs at the initial step of processes of inflammation. From dose-dependent experiments, 0.1 to $1{\mu}g/ml$ of FGE appeared to inhibit lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-enhanced heterotypic cell adhesion between THP-1 and BAECs. This result indicates that FGE blocks vascular inflammation. Then we found that FGE activates eNOS and Akt in BAECs. The phosphorylation of eNOS was maximally elevated 10 min after FGE treatment. Parallely, the phosphorylation of Akt was also maximally increased 10 min after FGE treatment. Consistently, it was found that FGE enhanced the production of nitric oxide. We then examined whether NO mediates THP-1 cell adhesion to BAECs. Both Akt and eNOS inhibitors appeared to reverse an inhibitory effect of FGE. These findings indicate that FGE inhibits LPS-enhanced heterotypic cell adhesion via Akt and eNOS. In conclusion, FGE plays an important role in prevention of inflammatory diseases.