• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.411-419
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• 2022

Carotenoids are red, orange, and yellow fat-soluble pigments that exist in nature, and are known as physiologically active substances with various functions, such as provitamin A, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer. Because of their physiological activity and color availability, carotenoids are widely used in the food, cosmetics, and aquaculture industries. Currently, most carotenoids used industrially use chemical synthesis because of their low production cost, but natural carotenoids are in the spotlight because of their safety and physiologically active effects. However, the production of carotenoids in plants and animals is limited for economic reasons. Carotenoids produced by bacteria have a good advantage in replacing carotenoids produced by chemical synthesis. Since carotenoids produced from bacteria have limited industrial applications due to low productivity, studies are continuously being conducted to increase the production of carotenoids by bacteria. Studies conducted to increase carotenoid production from bacteria include the activity of enzymes in the bacterial carotenoid biosynthesis pathway, the development of mutant strains using physical and chemical mutagens, increasing carotenoid productivity in strain construction through genetic engineering, carotenoid accumulation through stress induction, fermentation medium composition, culture conditions, co-culture with other strains, etc. The aim of this article was to review studies conducted to increase the productivity of carotenoids from bacteria.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.429-435
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• 2023

Epidemiological studies suggest that maternal infection, maternal stress, and environmental risk factors during pregnancy increase the risk of brain development abnormalities associated with cognitive impairment in the offspring and increase susceptibility to schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder. Several animal models have demonstrated that maternal immune activation (MIA) is sufficient to induce abnormal brain development and behavioral defects in the fetus. When polyinosine:polycytodylic acid (poly I:C) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which is commonly used in maternal immune activation animal models, was introduced into a pregnant dam, an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines and microglial activity was observed in the offspring's brain. Microglia are brain-resident immune cells that play a mediating role in the central nervous system, and they are responsible for various functions, such as phagocytosis, synapse formation and branching, and angiogenesis. Several studies have reported that microglia are activated in MIA offspring and influence offspring behavior through interactions with various cytokines. In addition, it has been reported that they play an important role in brain circuits through interactions with neurons and astrocytes. However, there is controversy concerning whether microglia are essential to brain development or lead to behavioral defects, and the exact mechanism remains unknown. Therefore, for the potential diagnosis and treatment of brain developmental disorders, a functional study of microglia should be conducted using MIA animal models.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.730-735
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• 2023

In the past decade, numerous studies have been carried out to quantify aging with the help of artificial intelligence. Using DNA methylation data, various models have been developed; these are commonly called epigenetic clocks. Epigenetic age acceleration is usually associated with disease conditions. Schizophrenia is a mental illness associated with severe mental and physical stress. This disease leads to high mortality and morbidity rates in young people compared with other psychological disorders. In the past, the research community considered this disease to be related to the accelerated aging hypothesis. In the current study, we wanted to investigate the epigenetic age acceleration changes in schizophrenia patients to obtain epigenetic insights into the disease. To measure the epigenetic age acceleration, we used two different DNA methylation clock models, namely, Horvath clock and Epi clock, as these are pan-tissue models. We utilized 450k array data compatible with both clocks. We found a slower epigenetic acceleration in the patients' samples when we used the Epi clock. We further analyzed the differentially methylated CpG sites between the control and cases and performed pathway enrichment analysis. We found that most of the CpGs are involved in neuronal processes.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.343-348
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• 2023

Acne is one of the most common skin diseases, mainly occurring in adolescence. The pathophysiology of acne involves not only hormonal, genetic and environmental factors, but also other factors including hyperseborrhea, inflammation, over-keratinization of follicular keratinocytes and overgrowth of Cutibacterium acnes (C. acnes). Cannabidiol (CBD) is known to relieve pain, stress and inflammation. Moreover, cannabis extracts containing CBD have been reported to be effective in treating acne. However, the therapeutic effect of CBD on acne remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect and mechanism of CBD on lipogenesis in SEB-1 sebocytes. We treated sebocytes with CBD and found that it not only inhibited lipid synthesis, but also inhibited cell proliferation by inducing apoptosis. We then demonstrated that sterol response element-binding protein-1 (SREBP-1) mediates the inhibitory effect of CBD on lipogenesis. Furthermore, Akt and adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), upstream regulators of SREBP-1, were regulated by CBD treatment. Taken together, our studies demonstrate that CBD inhibits adipogenesis by regulating the Akt/AMPK-SREBP-1 signaling pathway, providing potential for use as a therapeutic agent for acne. Further research is needed to confirm the effect of CBD on inflammation caused by hyperkeratosis, which will increase the possibility of using CBD for acne treatment.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.349-356
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• 2023

Gout, a chronic inflammatory arthritic disease, is characterized by hyperuricemia. Gout can be induced by an inflammatory response to monosodium urate (MSU) crystals mediated by pro-inflammatory cytokine release following activation of the NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome. Many sulfur-containing phytochemical compounds in garlic (Allium sativum L.) are considered active ingredients because of their potential pharmacological benefits for various diseases, but their efficacy in NLRP3 inflammasome activation-mediated gout has not been demonstrated. In this study, we investigated whether diallyl disulfide (DADS) and diallyl trisulfide (DATS), representative garlic-derived sulfur compounds, have an inhibitory effect on MSU-induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Our results showed that under non-cytotoxic conditions, DADS and DATS significantly blocked nitric oxide production and interleukin (IL)-1β release in response to MSU in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-primed RAW 264.7 macrophages. DADS and DATS also attenuated enhanced expression of NLRP3 and its adapter protein, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein, which was associated with downregulation of and caspase-1 p20 and IL-1β expression, suggesting that MSU-induced LRP3 inflammasome activation was counteracted by DADS and DATS. Furthermore, DADS and DATS blocked oxidative stress, an upstream event for NLRP3 inflammasome activation, as evidenced by the fact that they scavenged reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that DADS and DATS suppressed NLRP3 inflammasome activation by inhibiting the ROS/NLRP3 pathway and that they have potential as treatments for NLRP3-dependent gouty arthritis.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.129-139
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• 2016

Curcumin plays a protective role in brain injury through its anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Moreover, peroxiredoxin-5 exerts a protective effect against oxidative stress. The aim of this study was to investigate whether curcumin modulated the peroxiredoxin-5 expression in focal cerebral ischemic animal model. Middle cerebral artery occlusion(MCAO) was performed to induce cerebral ischemic injury in rats. Adult male rats were injected intraperitoneally with vehicle or curcumin(50mg/kg B.W.) 1 h after MCAO and cerebral cortex tissues were collected 24 h after MCAO. Photographs of hematoxylin and eosin staining showed that MCAO induced necrotic changes with scalloped shrunken form and apoptotic changes with nuclear chromatin condensations. However, curcumin treatment attenuated MCAO-induced histopathological changes. Moreover, this study clearly showed that peroxiredoxin-5 expression was decreased in MCAO operated animal with vehicle using a proteomics approach. However, this decrease in peroxiredoxin-5 expression was attenuated by curcumin treatment. Reverse-transcription PCR and Western blot analyses confirmed that curcumin treatment alleviated the MCAO injury-induced decrease in peroxiredoxin-5 expression(p<0.05). These results demonstrated that curcumin regulates peroxiredoxin-5 expression in MCAO animal model. In conclusion, our findings suggest that curcumin exerts a neuroprotective effect in cerebral ischemia by attenuating the MCAO-induced decrease in peroxiredoxin-5 expression.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.51-58
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• 2018

Variations in water temperature are known to affect almost every part of fish physiology. The rise in water temperature due to climate change can physically damage fish. This study was conducted to evaluate the health status of the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) at high water temperature (20℃) than the optimum water temperature (15℃). Liver tissue exerts important metabolic functions in thermal adaptation. Therefore, liver tissue was used in this study. The evaluation method is to develop the biomarker gene using NGS RNAseq analysis and to examine the expression pattern using RT-qPCR analysis. The NGS RNAseq analysis revealed 1,366 differentially expressed genes, among which 880 genes were increase expressed and 486 genes were decrease expressed. The biomarker genes are such as heat shock protein 90 alpha (Hsp90α), heat shock protein 90 beta (Hsp90β) and cytochrome P450 1A (CYP1A). The selected genes are sensitive to changes in water temperature through NGS RNAseq analysis. Expression patterns of these genes through RT-qPCR were similar to those of NGS RNAseq analysis. The results of this study can be applied to other fish species and it is considered to be useful industrially.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.50-55
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• 2016

Glucose was continuously increased as time was elapsed under the temperature at 6℃ and 4℃. NH₃ was significantly increased at 4℃. AST was increased as temperature and salinity were decreased which indicated that it was affected by temperature, salinity and interaction of temperature×salinity. ALT was significantly increased as temperature was decreased. Free amino acid contents, excluding aspartic acid, threonine, serine and glycine were increased as temperature was decreased. This decreasing tendency was also observed when salinity was decreased. Taurine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid and arginine were significantly increased as salinity was decreased, while glycine, alanine, methionine, tyrosine, and histidine were decreased as salinity was decreased. The result of this study suggested that transport condition to minimize the stress is considered in the range of 30~34 psu, 8~10℃.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.59-66
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• 2018

The assessment of level of health of the tidal flats can be evaluate by health of organisms inhabit the tidal flats. It is possible to evaluate the precise health level of organisms inhabit the tidal flats using analysis of expression of biomarker genes. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the health of the tidal flats on the west coast using biomarker genes such as heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70), heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), glutathione S-transferases (GST) and thioredoxin (TRX). These genes are stress, immune, and antioxidant related genes that can be used to look at the health of an organism through gene expression. In this study, we collected manila clam (Ruditapes philippinarum) in 8 analysis areas on the west coast. Expression of the genes was analyzed by RT-qPCR method. Results showed that, the expression of Hsp70, Hsp90, GST and TRX genes were differentially expressed in the 8 analysis areas. In particular, the expression of Hsp90 and GST or the expression of Hsp70 and TRX were similar. This means that there is a substance that reacts specifically to each gene. Therefore, I think suggest that the based on the results of physicochemical analysis, it can be selected genes suitable for analysis. These results suggest that Hsp70, Hsp90, GST and TRX were played roles in biomarker for assessment of the health of tidal flats.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.518-526
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• 2022

The extension of life expectancy due to modernization means an extension of the benefit time for elderly care and disease. However, compared to the increase in the elderly, the attitude of children toward parental responsibility is gradually weakening. These social phenomena bring alienation, hopelessness, and stress to life in old age, and the resulting sense of helplessness leads to suicidal thoughts or intentional death (suicide), becoming a social problem. The intentional death (suicide) of the elderly is a social phenomenon that often occurs around them, and the reality can be seen through the movie. In this study, the main character 'Soyoung' in the movie 'The Woman Who Kills' and the surrounding characters 'Song Old Man', 'Jongsu', and 'Jaewoo' in conversations with the elderly problem and death factors were analyzed in the Matrix. ), and then applied to the 'flow chart of problems in the elderly due to modernization' compiled by Byeong-Woo Lim (2019), to explore the factors of intentional death (suicide). As a result of the analysis, the four elderly were exposed to problems of the elderly such as disease, alienation and loneliness, poverty, and loss. (Suicide) was analyzed.