• The Journal of Dong Guk Oriental Medicine
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• v.11
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• pp.41-51
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• 2008

Dietary supplements are used by more than one-half of the adult US population. By contrast, herbal products in Germany are carefully regulated by the same standards as drugs, and efforts are under way to standardize their regulation in the entire European Union. Most herbal users do not inform their physicians that they are taking these supplements, and most physicians do not inquire. Although some herbal products have clinically proven benefits, it is increasingly apparent that many contain potentially toxic substances, particularly in relation to interactions with drugs. Hence, it is essential that practicing physicians develop a working knowledge of herbals-specifically, about claims for their usage and potential or proven efficacies and toxicities-and that they incorporate such knowledge into the evaluation and management of their patients. By contrast, functional foods-integral components of the diet that are understood to contribute added health benefits-are the subject of intense and widespread research in food and nutritional science. Examples include many polyphenolic substances, carotenoids, soy isoflavones, fish oils, and components of nuts that possess antioxidant and other properties that decrease the risk of vascular diseases and cancer. Practicing physicians are advised to stay abreast of these emerging findings in order to best advise their patients on the value of health-promoting diets in disease prevention.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.57-66
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• 2010

Purpose: To provide basic informations for guidelines of Ginseng usage during lactation. Method: Based on a regulation of scope and preparation of herbal prescriptions by Ministry of health and welfare of Korea, we selected the formulae for postpartum care and disease in 7 Korean Medical Classics. And we searched the number of formulae including Ginseng, dosage and indications of Ginseng in formulae in those books. Results: The range of Ginseng dosage during lactation from medical classics is 1.5-18.75g/day for medical purposes. Indications of Ginseng are lethargy, excessive bleeding, asthma, fever, cold, pain, dizziness, mental disorder, spasm, digestive problem, constipation, diarrhea, urinary incontinence, edema, breast engorgement, lack of breastmilk, breast ulcer, etc. But Ginseng had not been used in the case of stroke, epistaxis, beginning of mastitis, tumor of lower abdomen. Conclusions: Ginseng should be recommended less than 1.5g/d as a nutritional supplement. If breastfeeding woman wants to take Ginseng as a medication or as a tonic, she should consult with a official specialist about proper prescription and dosage instead of risky random medication.

• Nutritional Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.76-81
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• 1999

Sodium restricted diets are known to lower blood pressure in salt sensitive, hypertensive patients. Thare is increasing evidence that potassium plays an important role as a protective factor in the regulation of blood pressure. The objective of the current study was to measure parameters of sodium, potassium, and chloride utilization as affected by feeding of substantial quantities of bread made from whole ground white torn meal, whole ground yellow corn meal, and whole ground wheat flour. The breads provided 40 percent of a caloric content of the constant, measured laboratory diet. The 28-day study was divided into an introductory period of 7-days and three experimental periods of 7-days each. Order of assignment to specific treatments for 12 healthy subjects were according to a complete randomized block design. Yellow corn bread diets resulted in the highest potassium retention (243 mg/day) and the lowest urinary sodium and potassium ratio (1.53 $\pm$ 0.26) numerically in comparison to the other test breads. The excretions of sodium and chloride were higher during controlled feeding periods than during the self-selected diet period(p < 0.05). This indicates a response to the higher intake of these electrolytes from the experimental diets than from self-selected diets. There was no significant difference in the effect of white corn bread, yellow corn bread, or whole wheat bread diet on electrolyte status in humans. However, the yellow corn bread diet resulted in a somewhat more favorable urina교 sodium to potassium ratio than that from white corn bread or whole wheat bread diet.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.293-299
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• 2008

To screen the differentially expressed genes in cadmuim-exposed marine medaka fish (Oryzias javanicus), a candidate marine test fish for ecological toxicity, the differential display polymerase chain reaction (DD-PCR) was carried out, since the genome-wide gene expression data are not available in this fish species yet. A total of 35 clones were isolated from cadmium-exposed fish and their nucleotide sequences were analyzed. The differentially expressed gene candidates were categorized to response to stimulus (3); ion binding (3); DNA binding (1); protein binding (6); carbohydrate binding (1); metabolic process (4); biological regulation (3); cellular process (2); protein synthesis (2); catalytic activity (2); sense of sight (1); immune (1); neurohormone (1); signaling activity (1); electron carrier activity (1) and others (3). For real-time quantitative RT-PCR, we selected catalase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, heat shock protein 70, and metallothionein and confirmed that cadmium exposure enhanced induction of these four genes.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.216-225
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• 1999

Safety of present food has been accepted on the basis of extensive use experience for a long time. Many food resources have been developed by traditional techniques without any significant adverse impacts on the safety of food. Recently recombinant DNA techniques are being used to develop new food resources. These techniques enable developers to make specific genetic modifications in food resources that introduce substances that could not be introduced by traditional methods. With these techniques food resources are being to resist pests and disease, to tolerate herbicides, and to have improved characteristics for food preservation and nutritional contents. Because the properties of an organism results from interaction between biochemical pathways controlled by many genes, the genes conferring these traits usually encode directly responsible proteins for the new trait as well as proteins that indirectly modify carbohydrates or lipids in food. Therefore, this kind of food is regarded as new food that has not been existed before, and the safety of the food developed by recombinant DNA techniques should be evaluated upon scientific basis. In this paper, the issues upon safety of the food developed by gene manipulation are diseased in terms of composional changes that can be introduced, potential food safety harzards that might arise, present status of safety regulations in various countries and international organizations, and suggestions for the safety regulation in Korea.

• Nutritional Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.240-247
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• 2006

In this study we investigated the neuroprotective, antioxidative, and hypocholestrolemic effects of dietary soy protein and soy isoflavone in a rat focal brain ischemia model. Weaning Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a 20% casein-based diet (CA), 20% soy protein-based diet (SP), or 0.2% soy isoflavones-supplemented diet (ISO) for 6 weeks. The cortical infarction volume of the ISO group was significantly lower than that of the SP group. The thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were considerably lower in the ISO group than the CA group. Glutatbione peroxidase activities of the SP group were notably higher than those of the CA group. Acetylcholinesterase (AchE) activities of the SP group were significantly decreased compared to the CA group. LDL cholesterol levels and LDL/HDL ratios of the ISO group were lower than those of the CA and SP groups. Our results collectively suggest that soy isoflavones may contribute to neuroprotection by reducing the TBARS and serum LDL/HDL ratio, whereas soy protein may be associated with the regulation of cognitive functions by modulating AchE activity.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.3731-3736
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• 2014

Phytic acid (PA) has been reported to have positive nutritional benefits and prevent cancer formation. This study investigated the anticancer activity of rice bran PA against hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells. Cytotoxicty of PA (0.5 to 4mM) was examined by MTT and LDH assays after 24 and 48h treatment. Apoptotic activity was evaluated by expression analysis of apoptosis-regulatory genes [i.e. p53, Bcl-2, Bax, Caspase-3 and -9] by reverse transcriptase-PCR and DNA fragmentation assay. The results showed antioxidant activity of PA in Fe3+ reducing power assay ($p{\leq}0.03$). PA inhibited the growth of HepG2 cells in a concentration dependent manner ($p{\leq}0.04$). After 48h treatment, cell viability was recorded 84.7, 74.4, 65.6, 49.6, 36.0 and 23.8% in MTT assay and 92.6, 77.0%, 66.8%, 51.2, 40.3 and 32.3% in LDH assay at concentrations of 1, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, and 3.5mM, respectively. Hence, treatment of PA for 24h, recorded viability of cells 93.5, 88.6, 55.5, 34.6 and 24.4% in MTT assay and 94.2, 86.1%, 59.7%, 42.3 and 31.6%, in LDH assay at concentrations of 1, 2.2, 3.0, 3.6 and 4.0mM, respectively. PA treated HepG2 cells showed up-regulation of p53, Bax, Caspase-3 and -9, and down-regulation of Bcl-2 gene ($p{\leq}0.01$). At the $IC_{50}$ (2.49mM) of PA, the p53, Bax, Caspase-3 and-9 genes were up-regulated by 6.03, 7.37, 19.7 and 14.5 fold respectively. Also, the fragmented genomic DNA in PA treated cells provided evidence of apoptosis. Our study confirmed the biological activity of PA and demonstrated growth inhibition and induction of apoptosis in HepG2 cells with modulation of the expression of apoptosis-regulatory genes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nutrition Society Conference
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• 1995.11b
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• pp.11-34
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• 1995

Growth hormone (GH) plays a key role in regulating postnatal growth and can stimulate growth of animals by acting directly on specific receptors on the plasma membrane of tissues or indirectly through stimulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I synthesis and secretion by the liver and other tissues. IGF-I and IGF-Ⅱ are polypeptides with structural similarity with proinsulin that stimulate cell proliferation by endocrine, paracrine and autocrine mechanisms. The initial event in the metabolic action of IGFs on target cells appears to be their binding to specific receptors on the plasma membrane. Current evidence indicates that the mitogenic actions of both IGFs are mediated primarily by binding to the type I IGF receptors, and that IGF action is also mediated by interactions with IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs). Six distinct IGFBPs have been identified that are characterized by cell-specific interaction, transcriptional and post-translational regulation by many different effectors, and the ability to either potentiate or inhibit IGF actions. Nutritional deficiencies can have their devastating consequence during growth. Although IGF-I is the major mediator of GH's action on somatic growth, nutritional status of an organism is a critical regulator of IGF-I and IGFBPs. Various nutrient deficiencies result in decreased serum IGF-I levels and altered IGFBP levels, but the blood levels of GH are generally unchanged or elevated in malnutrition. Effects of protein, energy, vitamin C and D, and zinc on serum IGF and IGFBP levels and tissue mRNA levels were reviewed in the text. Multiple factors are involved in the regulation of intestinal epithelial cell growth and differentiation. Among these factors the nutritional status of individuals is the most important. The intestinal epithelium is an important site for mitogenic action of the IGFs in vivo, with exogenous IGF-I stimulating mucosal hyperplasia. Therefore, the IGF system appears to provide and important mechanism linking nutrition and the proliferation of intestinal epithelial cells. In order to study the detailed mechanisms by which intestinal mucosa is regulated, we have utilized IEC-6 cells, an intestinal epithelial cell line and Caco-2 cells, a human colon adenocarcinoma cell line. Like intestinal crypt cells analyzed in vivo or freshly isolated intestinal epithelial cells, IEC-6 cells and Caco-2 cells possess abundant quatities of both type Ⅰ and type Ⅱ IGF receptors. Exogenous IGFs stimulate, whereas addition of IGFBP-2 inhibits IEC-6 cell proliferation. To investigate whether endogenously secreted IGFBP-2 inhibit proliferation, IEC-6 cells were transfected with a full-length rat IGFBP-2 cDNA anti-sense expression construct. IEC-6 cells transfected with anti-sense IGFBP-2 protein in medium. These cells grew at a rate faster than the control cells indicating that endogenous IGFBP-2 inhibits proliferation of IEC-6 cells, probably by sequestering IGFs. IEC-6 cells express many characteristics of enterocyte, but do not undergo differentiation. On the other hand, Caco-2 cells undergo a spontaneous enterocyte differentiation. On the other hand, Caco-2 cells undergo a spontaneous enterocyte differentiation after reaching confluency. We have demonstrated that Caco-2 cells produce IGF-Ⅱ, IGFBP-2, IGFBP-3, and an as yet unidentified 31,000 Mr IGFBP, and that both mRNA and peptide secretion of IGFBP-2 and IGFBP-3 increased, but IGFBP-4 mRNA and protein secretion decreased after the cells reached confluency. These changes occurred in parallel to and were coincident with differentiation of the cells, as measured by expression of sucrase-isomaltase. In addition, Caco-2 cell clones forced to overexpress IGFBP-4 by transfection with a rat IGFBP-4 cDNA construct exhibited a significantly slower growth rate under serum-free conditions and had increased expression of sucrase-isomaltase compared with vector control cells. These results indicate that IGFBP-4 inhibits proliferation and stimulates differentiation of Caco-2 cells, probably by inhibiting the mitogenic actions of IGFs.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.227-239
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• 2022

Purpose: This study investigated the effects of water-soluble mulberry leaf extract (ME) on hepatic lipid accumulation in high-fat diet-fed rats via the regulation of hepatic microRNA (miR)-221/222 and inflammation. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats (4 weeks old) were randomly divided into 3 groups (n = 7 each) and fed with 10 kcal% low-fat diet (LF), 45 kcal% high-fat diet (HF), or HF + 0.8% ME for 14 weeks. Lipid profiles and cytokine levels of the liver and serum were measured using commercial enzymatic colorimetric and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. The messenger RNA (mRNA) and miR levels in liver tissue were assayed by real-time quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Results: Supplementation of ME reduces body weight and improves the liver and serum lipid profiles as compared to the HF group. The mRNA levels of hepatic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma, sterol regulatory element binding protein-1c, fatty acid synthase, and fatty acid translocase, which are genes involved in lipid metabolism, were significantly downregulated in the ME group compared to the HF group. In contrast, the mRNA level of hepatic carnitine palmitoyl transferase-1 (involved in fatty acid oxidation) was upregulated by ME supplementation. Furthermore, administration of ME significantly downregulated the mRNA levels of inflammatory mediators such as hepatic tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, and inducible nitric oxide synthase. The serum levels of TNF-α, IL-6, and nitric oxide were also significantly reduced in ME group compared to the HF group. Expression of hepatic miR-221 and miR-222, which increase in the inflammatory state of the liver, were also significantly inhibited in the ME group compared to the HF group. Conclusion: These results indicate that ME has the potential to improve hepatic lipid accumulation in high-fat diet-fed rats via modulation of inflammatory mediators and hepatic miR-221/222 expressions.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.1297-1304
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• 2007

We conducted a series of investigations in order to elucidate role of nutritional status in regulating GLUT expression and energy metabolism in porcine muscle. Firstly, the role of mild undernutrition in regulating muscle GLUT gene expression and function was studied in growing pigs (3 wk of age) on a high (H) or low (L) food intake (H = 2L) at $35^{\circ}C$ or $26^{\circ}C$. Low food intake selectively upregulates GLUT1 and GLUT4 gene expression; mRNA levels were elevated in longissimus dorsi (L. dorsi) and rhomboideus muscles but not in diaphragm or cardiac muscles. Our next step was to determine whether dietary lysine, a major primary limiting amino acid in diets for pigs, affects muscle GLUT4 expression. Pigs of 6 wk of age were pair-fed a control or low lysine (LL) diet. The control diet contained optimal amounts of all essential amino acids, including 1.15% lysine. The LL diet was similar but contained only 0.70% lysine. GLUT4 mRNA expression was upregulated by the LL diet in L. dorsi and rhomboideus muscles, whereas that in cardiac muscle was unaffected. GLUT4 protein abundance was also higher in rhomboideus muscle of animals on the LL diet. We conducted another investigation in order to elucidate effects of the LL diet on post-GLUT4 glucose metabolism. Activity of hexokinase was unaffected by dietary lysine levels while that of citrate synthase was higher both in L. dorsi and rhomboideus muscles of pigs fed on the LL diet. Glucose 6-phosphate content was higher in L. dorsi msucle in the LL group. Glycogen content was higher both in L. dorsi and rhomboideus muscles in the LL group. Further, we determined the effects of dietary lysine levels on accumulation of intramuscular fat (IMF) in L. dorsi muscle of finishing pigs. A low lysine diet (lysine content was 0.40%) meeting approximately 70% of the requirement of lysine was given to finishing pigs for two months. IMF contents in L. dorsi of the pigs given the low lysine diet were twice higher than those of the pigs fed on a control diet (lysine content was 0.65%). Finally, we proved that a well known effect of breadcrumbs feeding to enhance IMF of finishing pigs could be attributed to shortage of amino acids in diets including breadcrumbs.