• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1517-1526
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• 2016

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from fermented foods have potential as a treatment for immune-related disorders and the use of LAB has been increasing worldwide. In this study, the differential cytokine regulatory effect was examined with three isolates of lactobacilli strains; namely, Lactobacillus plantarum K55-5 isolated from dairy product, and L. sakei K101 and L. plantarum K8 previously isolated from kimchi (a Korean traditional fermented vegetable). Production of cytokines such as IL-10, IL-12, IFN-γ, and TNF-α was significantly increased in L. sakei K101- and L. plantarum K55-5-treated splenocytes as compared with controls. The oral administration of L. sakei K101 and L. plantarum K55-5 increased cytokine production in the immunosuppressed mouse splenocytes and blood. NK cell cytotoxic activity was also increased in L. sakei K101- and L. plantarum K55-5-fed mice. On the other hand, L. plantarum K8 did not affect cytokine induction in all the experiments performed in this study. The cytokine-inducing effect of L. plantarum K55-5 was significantly increased by lysates of heat-killed bacteria as compared with live, heat-killed, or supernatant of cell lysates. TNF-α production by lipoteichoic acids (LTAs) isolated from the three isolates of lactobacilli was compared, and it was found that K55-5 LTA had a highest cytokine-inducing ability, which was mediated by TLR2-mediated NF-κB and ERK activation. Taken together, our study suggests that L. plantarum K55-5 and L. sakei K101 can be used for the treatment of immunosuppressed disorders.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.151-159
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• 2019

Lipoteichoic acid isolated from Lactobacillus plantarum K8 (pLTA) alleviates lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced excessive inflammation through inhibition of $TNF-{\alpha}$ and interleukin (IL)-6. In addition, pLTA increases the survival rate of mice in a septic shock model. In the current study, we have found that pLTA contributes to homeostasis through regulation of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine production. In detail, pLTA decreased the production of IL-10 by phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA)-differentiated THP-1 cells stimulated with prostaglandin E2 (PGE-2) and LPS. However, $TNF-{\alpha}$ production which was inhibited by PGE-2+LPS increased by pLTA treatment. The regulatory effects of IL-10 and $TNF-{\alpha}$ induced by PGE-2 and LPS in PMA-differentiated THP-1 cells were mediated by pLTA, but not by other LTAs isolated from either Staphylococcus aureus (aLTA) or L. sakei (sLTA). Further studies revealed that pLTA-mediated IL-10 inhibition and $TNF-{\alpha}$ induction in PGE-2+LPS-stimulated PMA-differentiated THP-1 cells were mediated by dephosphorylation of p38 and phosphorylation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), respectively. Reduction of pLTA-mediated IL-10 inhibited the metastasis of breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231), which was induced by IL-10 or conditioned media prepared from PGE-2+LPS-stimulated PMA-differentiated THP-1 cells. Taken together, our data suggest that pLTA contributes to inflammatory homeostasis through induction of repressed pro-inflammatory cytokines as well as inhibition of excessive anti-inflammatory cytokines.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.87-101
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• 2022

In addition to administering a questionnaire (J-survey), which questions individuals on subjective vocal fatigue, voice samples were collected before and after speech-language pathology sessions from 50 female speech-language pathologists in their 20s and 30s in the Daejeon and Chungnam areas. We identified significant differences in Korean Vocal Fatigue Index scores between the fatigue and non-fatigue groups, with the most prominent differences in sections one and two. Regarding acoustic phonetic characteristics, both groups showed a pattern in which low-frequency band energy was relatively low, and high-frequency band energy was increased after the treatment sessions. This trend was well reflected in the low-to-high ratio of vowels, slope LTAS, energy in the third formant, and energy in the 4,000-8,000 Hz range. A difference between the groups was observed only in the vowel energy of the low-frequency band (0-4,000 Hz) before treatment, with the non-fatigue group having a higher value than the fatigue group. This characteristic could be interpreted as a result of voice abuse and higher muscle tonus caused by long-term voice work. The perturbation parameter and shimmer local was lowered in the non-fatigue group after treatment, and the noise-to-harmonics ratio (NHR) was lowered in both groups following treatment. The decrease in NHR and the fall of shimmer local could be attributed to vocal cord hypertension, but it could be concluded that the effective voice use of speech-language pathologists also contributed to this effect, especially in the non-fatigue group. In the case of the non-fatigue group, the rhamonics-to-noise ratio increased significantly after treatment, indicating that the harmonic structure was more stable after treatment.