• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.555-559
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• 1997

The three different batches of an oral sustained release melatonin (MT) delivery system were prepared by aqueous-based fluid-bed coating of the sugar spheres for the evaluation of in vitro release characteristics and plasma concentration profiles in human subjects. The MT contents in 20% coated sugar spheres of three batches (B1, B2 and B3) were $3.3{\pm}0.08$, $2.4{\pm}0.1$ and $2.5{\pm}0.13$ mg per gram of coated sugar spheres, respectively. The release profiles of three different batches had a very similar fashion. However, the release profiles of three different batches had a very similar fashion. However, the release half-lives $(T_{50%})$ of MT from B1, B2 and B3 was $3.70{\pm}0.2$, $5.2{\pm}0.2$ and $4.9{\pm}0.07h$, respectively. Plasma concentration profiles of sustained release 0.2mg melatonin-loaded sugar spheres containing 10% immediate release melatonin in gelatin capsules (B1 and B2) were then evaluated in human subjects. The in vivo plasma concentration profies of the two batches (B1 and B2) were very similar each other and located between the physiological endogenous ranges. The time to reach the peak concentration $(T_max)$ was more advanced in case of B1 when compared to B2. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the maximum concentration $(C_max)$ and the area under the curve (AUC) between B1 and B2. The AUC of melatonin-loaded sugar spheres containing 10% and 20% immediate release MT in human subjects had a good linearity between dose and AUC, regardless of the fraction of immediate release MT, indicating the first order elimination process of MT within these doses. The current oral sustained release MT delivery system may be utilized to treat circadian rhythm disorders if it is proven to be more clinically useful when compared to immediate release MT.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.562-577
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• 2020

In this study, to conserve the clay seated Vairocana Buddha triad in Seonunsa temple, Gochang (Treasure 1752), the primary materials employed for creating the clay Buddha statues were scientifically analyzed. By analyzing the soil layer constituting the Buddha statues, it is observed that the said layer comprises sand having particle size greater than that of medium sand and soil having particle size smaller than that of fine sand, which were used in a ratio of 7:3, along with the bast fibers of paper mulberry (Broussonetia kazinoki). Hence, the aforementioned soil layer is composed of a mixture of sand and weathered soil, along with bast fibers to prevent scattering. By analyzing the tree species, it is found that the wooden materials constituting the bottom board and the interior of Buddha's sleeves of the Amitabha Buddha statue, Vairocana Buddha statue, and Medicine Buddha statue are hard pines (Pinus spp.). Additionally, three layers are found in the cross section of the gold layer. Furthermore, each of the hair sections of the Buddha statues is composed of earthy materials such as quartz, albite, microcline, mica, and magnetite, and the hair surface was painted by incorporating black materials containing magnetite.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.121-127
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• 2021

Objectives : The characteristics of depressive symptoms in patients with cancer is different from those in control group. However, few research has focused on the association between depressive symptoms in cancer patients. The aim of this study was to compare the network structure of depressive symptoms between patients with cancer and normal control. Methods : This study was based on cohort data from Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2016-2018. The Patient health Quetionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was used to assess depressive symptoms in 599 patients with cancer and 599 age-sex matched controls. We estimated network structure of depressive symptom using Isingfit model. Results : There was no significant difference of each PHQ-9 item score. There were strong associations between symptoms were concentration problem-psychomotor activity, anhedonia-depressed mood, and depressed mood-suicidal ideation in both groups. Strength centrality of worthlessness was significantly higher in patients with cancer. Conclusions : These results suggest that worthless is associated with other depressive symptoms more tightly in patients with cancer. Worthless can serve as important treatment targets for intervention of depression in patients with cancer.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.659-677
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• 2020

Leonurus japonicus (L. japonicus) Houtt., a biennial plant in the Lamiaceae family is broadly distributed in Asia such as Korea, China, Japan. The aerial part of L. japonicus is used as a traditional medicine to treat uterine disease including dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, sterility. In this study, we examined the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of L. japonicus ethanol extracts. The antioxidant activity of L. japonicus was measured by total polyphenol and flavonoid content, and DPPH, ABTS scavenging, reducing power activity, and intracellular ROS expression assay. The anti-inflammatory effects were measured by nitric oxide (NO), cytokines (TNF-α and IL-1β) production and inflammatory protein expression in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells. Total polyphenol and flavonoid content of L. japonicus were 51.40 ± 0.47 mg of gallic acid equivalents/g and 73.28 ± 0.10 mg of rutin equivalents/g respectively. DPPH, ABTS radical scavenging activity and reducing power activity tended to increase concentration-dependent and treatment L. japonicus with 400 ㎍/mL reduced ROS production by 69.5%. Furthermore, L. japonicus inhibited NO, TNF-α and IL-1β production in a concentration-dependant manner and reduced the expression levels of inflammatory proteins via regulating NF-κB, MAPK pathway. Therefore, we suggest that L. japonicus could be a natural antioxidants and medicinal source to treat oxidative stress and inflammation-related disease.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.250-255
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• 2017

'Hwaweon 7' was developed from a cross between the African upland cultivar, 'Moroberekan' and 'Ilpumbyeo' based on marker-aided backcross selection. The recurrent parent, Ilpumbyeo is a high grain quality cultivar with medium to late maturity. Hwaweon 7 is nearly isogenic to Ilpumbyeo except a small Moroberekan introgressed segment on chromosome 6 harboring genes related with spikelets per panicle and internode diameter. The preliminary and replicated yield trial was conducted at Chungnam National University and Chungcheongnamdo Agricultural Research & Extension (CARES), Yesan in 2010 and 2011. The local adaptability test was carried out by the National Seed Management Office (NSMO) in 2012 and 2013. This cultivar was registered to NSMO with a cultivar designated as "Hwaweon7". This cultivar averaged 80cm in culm length and has a medium growth duration. Milled rice of "Hwaweon7" is translucent and the grain quality traits are comparable to those of the recurrent parent. The average yield potential of Hwaweon 7 in grain was about 6.48 MT/ha at the ordinary fertilizer level for two years about 5.1% higher than that of Ilpumbyeo due to increase in spikelets per panicle. This variety is tolerant to lodging and the tolerance is due to the APO1 gene controlling the base internode diameter on chromosome 6 introgressed from the donor parent, Moroberekan. The Apo1 gene would be useful in enhancing resistance to lodging in rice breeding program.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.280-284
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• 2017

'Hwaweon 6' was developed from a cross between 'Hwaseongbyeo' and a wild species, Oryza minuta L. (Acc. No. 101154) based on marker-assisted selection and backcrossing. The recurrent parent 'Hwaseongbyeo' is a high grain quality cultivar with medium maturity. Hwaweon 6 is nearly isogenic to Hwaseongbyeo except a small O. minuta introgressed segment on chromosome 7 harboring genes related with spikelets per panicle. The preliminary and replicated yield trial was conducted at Chungnam National University and Chungcheongnamdo Agricultural Research & Extension (CARES), Yesan in 2009 and 2010. The local adaptability test was carried out by the National Seed Management Office (NSMO) in 2011 and 2012. This cultivar was registered to NSMO with a cultivar designated as Hwaweon 6. This cultivar averaged 80cm in culm length and has a medium growth duration. Milled rice of Hwaweon 6 is translucent and the grain quality traits are comparable to those of the recurrent parent. The average yield potential of Hwaweon 6 in grain was about 6.57 MT/ha at the ordinary fertilizer level for two years about 3.0% higher than that of Hwaseongbyeo due to an introgression of the quantitative trait locus (QTL) for spikelets per panicle (qSPP7) from O. minuta. This variety is comparable to Hwaseongbyeo in low temperature germinability and cold tolerance. The qSPP7 QTL would be useful in enhancing yield potential in rice breeding program.

• The Korean Journal of Vision Science
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.431-442
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• 2018

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate subjective symptoms according to the wearing, purchase and fitting status of soft contact lens wearers, and consumer perception of base curve. Methods : A survey was conducted for those who visited optical shops and lens shops in Seoul from June to August 2018. A total of 98 answer sheets they submitted were used for the analysis. The chi-square test and Fisher's exact test were used to compare subjective symptoms (dryness, glare, uncomfortable fitting, and decreased vision) according to whether fitting condition is screened (case history and push-up test, ect relevant to wearing sensation), and the odds ratio (OR) was obtained by the logistic regression analysis. Results : When the contact lenses were purchased, the rate of which the visual acuity test was performed was 86.6% at optical shop and 64.7% at lens shop. When purchasing contact lens and the contact lens was not tested for fitting, they more experienced dryness (OR 4.41, 95% CI 1.25-15.62) and uncomfortable fitting (OR 2.68, 95% CI 1.08-6.64) than testing for fitting. In addition, it was investigated that 87.8% of contact lens wearers did not know about the term base curve, 92.9% did not listen to an explanation related to the base curve when purchasing contact lenses, and 96.9% did not experience with base curve test. Conclusion : It would be thought that satisfaction of the contact lens fitting of existing consumers should be improved by changing a proper base curve by confirming the fitting condition when prescribing soft contact lens.

• Genes and Genomics
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.1319-1329
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• 2018

SSRs were successfully isolated from the Perilla crop in our current study, and used to analyze Perilla accessions from East Asia. Analyses of the clear genetic diversity and relationship for Perilla crop still remain insufficient. In this study, 40 new simple sequence repeat (SSR) primer sets were developed from RNA sequences using transcriptome analysis. These new SSR markers were applied to analyze the diversity, relationships, and population structure among 35 accessions of the two cultivated types of Perilla crop and their weedy types. A total of 220 alleles were identified at all loci, with an average of 5.5 alleles per locus and a range between 2 and 10 alleles per locus. The MAF (major allele frequency) per locus varied from 0.229 to 0.943, with an average of 0.466. The average polymorphic information content (PIC) value was 0.603, ranging from 0.102 to 0.837. The genetic diversity (GD) ranged from 0.108 to 0.854, with an average of 0.654. Based on population structure analysis, all accessions were divided into three groups: Group I, Group II and the admixed group. This study demonstrated the utility of new SSR analysis for the study of genetic diversity and population structure among 35 Perilla accessions. The GD of each locus for accessions of cultivated var. frutescens, weedy var. frutescens, cultivated var. crispa, and weedy var. crispa were 0.415, 0.606, 0.308, and 0.480, respectively. Both weedy accessions exhibited higher GD and PIC values than their cultivated types in East Asia. The new SSR primers of Perilla species reported in this study may provide potential genetic markers for population genetics to enhance our understanding of the genetic diversity, genetic relationship and population structure of the cultivated and weedy types of P. frutescens in East Asia. In addition, new Perilla SSR primers developed from RNA-seq can be used in the future for cultivar identification, conservation of Perilla germplasm resources, genome mapping and tagging of important genes/QTLs for Perilla breeding programs.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.55-60
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• 2019

Colibacillosis is one of the major health problems in young piglets resulting in poor health and death caused by Escherichia coli producing F18 pili and Shiga toxin 2e. It is pivotal to reduce colibacillosis in weaned piglets to enhance production performance. In this study, we evaluated synbiotics as the gut health improvement agents in the mouse model challenged with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) isolated from piglets. Prebiotic lactulose was formulated with each $5.0{\times}10^6CFU/mL$ of Pediococcus acidilactici GB-U15, Lactobacillus plantarum GB-U17, and Lactobacillus plantarum GB 1-3 to produce 3 combinations of synbiotics. A total of 40 three weeks old BALB/c mice were randomly assigned to 4 groups (n = 10): a control group and 3 synbiotics treated groups. Each treatment groups were daily administrated with $5.0{\times}10^6CFU/mL$ of one synbiotics for the first week, and every 3 days during the second week. All the mice were challenged with $8.0{\times}10^8CFU/mL$ of STEC 5 days after animals began to receive synbiotics. Mice treated with synbiotics based on Pediococcus acidilactici GB-U15 and Lactobacillus plantarum GB-U17 significantly improved daily weight gain compared to mice in other groups. While mice treated with GB-U15 showed better fecal index, no significant differences were observed among groups. Gross lesion and histopathological evaluations showed that mice treated with GB-U15 moderately improved recovery from STEC infection. In conclusion, our results suggest that the synbiotics formulated with lactulose and Pediococcus acidilactici GB-U15 have potential benefits to prevent and improve colibacillosis in weaned piglets.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.391-398
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• 2018

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are an attractive resource for refractory patients because of their anti-inflammatory/immunomodulatory capability and multi-lineage differentiation potential. The transplantation of MSCs has led to positive results in preclinical and clinical application to various diseases, including autoimmune disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, liver cirrhosis, and ischemic stroke. On the other hand, studies have shown that paracrine factors, not direct cell replacement for damaged cells or tissue, are the main contributors in MSC-based therapy. More recently, evidence has indicated that MSC-derived exosomes play crucial roles in regulating the paracrine factors that can mediate tissue regeneration via transferring nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids to the local microenvironment and cell-to-cell communication. The use of these exosomes is likely to be beneficial for the therapeutic application of MSCs because their use can avoid harmful effects, such as tumor formation involved in cell transplantation. Therefore, therapeutic applications using MSC-derived exosomes might be safe and efficient strategies for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. This review summarizes the recent advances and provides a comprehensive understanding of the role of MSC-derived exosomes as a therapeutic agent.