• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.1-18
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• 2008

Objectives: Galgeunhaegitang-gamibang(GH) and Samhwangseze-gamibang(SG) has been known that they are helpful for treatment of atopic dermititis clinically, but there is no report about the effect of GH and SG. So, author aimed to investigate the effects of GH and SG on atopic dermititis of NC/Nga mice. Methods : NC/Nga mice were divide into three group : normal, control, and experimental group. Atopic dermatitis was induced in the control and experimental group by spreading DNCB. Then GH was orally administered three times in a week for 8 weeks to the experimental group and SG was spreaded two times in a day for 8 weeks to the experimental group, while the control group was given normal saline. We observed changes of clinical skin severity score, serum IgE, IL-4, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IgM, IgGl, $IFN-{\gamma}$ and so on. We used one-way ANOVA test statistically(p<0.01). Results : Clinical skin severities of experiment group in 13 and 16weeks were significantly decreased by 48% and 55% compared to the control group. Serum IgE, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IgM, IgGl levels of experimental group were singnificantly decreased compared to the control group. Serum $IFN-{\gamma}$ level of the experimental group was significantly increased against control group. mRNA expression levels of IL-4, IL-5, IL-6 and CCR3 in the skin tissues of experimental group were significantly decreased compared to the control group. In contrary, $IFN-{\gamma}$y mRNA expression level were increased compared to the control group. Histological observation of the ear and skin tissues showed that the extents of inflammation and infiltrated immune cells in the epidermis and dermis of experimental group were highly deminished compared to the control group. Judging from that $IL-1{\beta}$, $TNF-{\alpha}$, IL-6 expression of gene, the effects of inflammatory cytokine revelation were significantly decreased compared to the control group. In the model inducing COX-2 activity in RAW 264.7 cell, COX-2 activity was significantly inhibited depending on the density of GH compared to the control serum. According to cell multiplication, examination of cell toxicity showed that GH is safe at the density of 10, 50, 100mg/l and even 1000mg/l. Conclusion : Accordin to the above results, it is considered that GH and SG is effective treatment for the atopic dermatitis.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.231-239
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• 2013

BACKGROUND: The disease resistant (OsCK1) rice was generated by inserting choline kinase (CK1) and phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (PAT) genes isolated from Oriza sativa and Streptomyces hygroscopicus into the genome of rice (Nakdongbyeo). With the potential problems of safety, the non-target organism evaluation is required as an essential element for the environmental risk assessment of genetically modified (GM) crops. In present study, we studied the effects on survival of Misgurnus anguillicaudatus and Cyprinus carpio, commonly used as a model organism in ecotoxicological studies. METHODS AND RESULTS: The M. anguillicaudatus and C. carpio were fed on disease resistant (OsCK1) rice and non-genetically modified (non-GM) rice (Nakdongbyeo) to 0, 10, 100, 1,000 and 5,000 mg/L, as treatment concentration respectively. The OsCK1 rice used for the test was confirmed to have the OsCK1/PAT gene expression by the PCR and ELISA analysis. Feeding test showed that no significant differences in cumulative immobility and abnormal response of M. anguillicaudatus and C. carpio fed on between OsCK1 rice and non-GM rice. The 96hr-$LC_{50}$ values showed no difference between OsCK1 rice (>5,000 mg/L) and non-GM rice (>5,000 mg/L). CONCLUSION(S): The results of this study suggested that there was no significant difference in toxicity for M. anguillicaudatus and C. carpio between OsCK1 rice and non-GM counterparts.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.639-647
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• 2018

A new heat shock protein 70 was identified in red-spotted grouper (Epinephelus akaara) based on an expression analysis. The cDNA of red-spotted grouper Hsp70 (designated RgHsp70) was cloned by the rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) techniques. The full-length of RgHsp70 cDNA was 2,152 bp, consisting of a 5'-terminal untranslated region (UTR) of 105 bp, a 3'-terminal UTR of 274 bp, and an open reading frame (ORF) of 1,773 bp that encode a polypeptide of 590 amino acids with a theoretical molecular weight of 64.9 kDa and an estimated isoelectric point of 5.2. Multiple alignment and phylogenetic analyses revealed that the RgHsp70 gene shares a high similarity with other Hsp70 fish genes. RgHsp70 contained all three classical Hsp70 family signatures. The results indicated the RgHsp70 is a member of the heat shock protein 70 family. RgHsp70 mRNA was predominately expressed in the liver, with reduced expression noted in the head-kidney tissues. The expression analysis of different water temperatures (21, 18, 15 and $12^{\circ}C$) for sampled livers revealed that expression gradually increased at $12^{\circ}C$ compared to $21^{\circ}C$. In this study, the effects of water temperature lowering on the physiological conditions were investigated, and the results revealed that novel RgHsp70 may be an important molecule involved in stress responses.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1383-1392
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• 2003

Apoptosis is a morphologically and biochemically district form of cell death that occurs in many different cell types in a wide variety of organisms. Albizzia julibrissin belonging the family Leguminosae has been used for the treatment of contusion, sore throat, amnesia, and insomnia in oriental traditional medicine. This study investigates whether the water extract of A. julibrissin induce apoptotic cell death in Jurkat T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells. Jurkat cells were increased inhibitions of cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner by A. julibrissin. This herbal medicine also caused apoptosis as measured by cell morphology and DNA fragmentation. The capability of A. julibrissin to induce apoptosis was associated with proteolytic cleavage of specific target proteins such as poly (ADP-ribose)polymerase (PARP) and beta-catenin proteins suggesting the possible involvement of caspases. Our result showed that Bcl-2 and Bax protein levels were not changed in all A. julibrissin-treated groups compared to control group. These results suggest that A. julibrissin-mediated apoptosis is independent with Bcl-2 related signaling pathway in this cells. The purpose of the present study is also to investigate the Effect of A. julibrissin on cell cycle progression. Our results showed that G1 checkpoint related gene products (cyclin D1, cyclin dependent kinase 4, retinoblastoma, E2F1) were decreased in their protein levels in a dose-dependent manners after treatment of the extract. These results indicate that the increase of apoptotic cell death by A. julibrissin may be due to the inhibition of cell cycle progression in wild type p53-lacking Jurkat cells.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.343-354
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• 2014

Rice blast disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae is one of the most serious diseases of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) in most rice-growing regions of the world. In order to investigate early response genes in rice, we utilized the transcriptome analysis approach using a 300 K tilling microarray to rice leaves infected with compatible and incompatible M. oryzae strains. Prior to the microarray experiment, total RNA was validated by measuring the differential expression of rice defense-related marker genes (chitinase 2, barwin, PBZ1, and PR-10) by RT-PCR, and phytoalexins (sakuranetin and momilactone A) with HPLC. Microarray analysis revealed that 231 genes were up-regulated (>2 fold change, p < 0.05) in the incompatible interaction compared to the compatible one. Highly expressed genes were functionally characterized into metabolic processes and oxidation-reduction categories. The oxidative stress response was induced in both early and later infection stages. Biotic stress overview from MapMan analysis revealed that the phytohormone ethylene as well as signaling molecules jasmonic acid and salicylic acid is important for defense gene regulation. WRKY and Myb transcription factors were also involved in signal transduction processes. Additionally, receptor-like kinases were more likely associated with the defense response, and their expression patterns were validated by RT-PCR. Our results suggest that candidate genes, including receptor-like protein kinases, may play a key role in disease resistance against M. oryzae attack.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.413-419
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• 2013

The mainstay therapy against leishmaniasis is still pentavalent antimonial drugs; however, the rate of antimony resistance is increasing in endemic regions such as Iran. Understanding the molecular basis of resistance to antimonials could be helpful to improve treatment strategies. This study aimed to recognize genes involved in antimony resistance of Leishmania tropica field isolates. Sensitive and resistant L. tropica parasites were isolated from anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis patients and drug susceptibility of parasites to meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime$^{(R)}$) was confirmed using in vitro assay. Then, complementary DNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism (cDNA-AFLP) and real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) approaches were utilized on mRNAs from resistant and sensitive L. tropica isolates. We identified 2 known genes, ubiquitin implicated in protein degradation and amino acid permease (AAP3) involved in arginine uptake. Also, we identified 1 gene encoding hypothetical protein. Real-time RT-PCR revealed a significant upregulation of ubiquitin (2.54-fold), and AAP3 (2.86-fold) (P<0.05) in resistant isolates compared to sensitive ones. Our results suggest that overexpression of ubiquitin and AAP3 could potentially implicated in natural antimony resistance.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.80-85
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• 2010

Two different ${\alpha}$-amylase isozymes (AMY1 and AMY2) found in barley malt share up to 80% of amino acid sequence identity with each other, but their enzymatic properties differ remarkably. AMY1 shows the highest activity at low concentration of calcium ion, while AMY2 is highly active at high calcium concentration. Meanwhile, BASI (Barley ${\alpha}$-Amylase/Subtilisin Inhibitor) protein specifically inhibits only AMY2. In the present study, three separate regions in AMY genes (I, II, and III) were assigned on the basis of restriction enzyme sites and four kinds of chimeric amylases have been obtained by swapping a part of regions with each other. Each chimera gene was successfully over-expressed in Pichia pastoris. From the results of enzymatic characterization, both AMY211 and AMY122 showed the mixed or intermediate type of calcium-dependent activity between AMY1 and 2. Meanwhile, only AMY221 chimera could be significantly inhibited by BASI protein. As a result, it can be proposed that some amino acid residues in the region I and II, except region III, of barley ${\alpha}$-amylases play very important roles in calcium-dependency and interaction with BASI.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2004

To establish the phylogenetic relationships of Dictyophora spp., rDNA-ITS regions of 11 strains of veiled lady mushroom collected from various countries were amplified and sequenced. It was observed that the 11 strains were divided into four groups based on PCR band patterns of each ITS region cleaved by eight different restriction enzymes in cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence analysis (CAPS). The phylogenic relationship of each group by cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) analysis matches well with previously reported morphological phylogeny, such as 5 strains of D. indusiata, 4 strains of D. echinovolvata, and a strain of Phallus rugulosus. Sequence analysis using the cluster V methods showed more detail classification than CAPS analysis. The 5.8S region showed two point nucleotide base exchanges from G to A according to four groups, and four groups were subdivided by sequence variation of ITS I and ITS II regions. But sequence variation of Phallus rugulosus was not showed in full ITS region. This study further delineates the taxonomic level at which ITS sequences, in comparison to ribosomal gene sequence, are most useful in systematics and other mushroom study.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.93-98
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• 2010

Our previous study demonstrated that methanolic extract of Chrysanthemum zawadskii Herbich var. latilobum Kitamura (Compositae) has the potential to induce detoxifying enzymes such as NAD(P)H:(quinone acceptor) oxidoreductase 1 (EC 1.6.99.2) (NQO1, QR) and glutathione S-transferase (GST). In this study we further fractionated methanolic extract of Chrysanthemum zawadskii and investigated the detoxifying enzyme-inducing potential of each fraction. The fraction (CZ-6) shown the highest QR-inducing activity was found to contain (+)-(3S,4S,5R,8S)-(E)-8-acetoxy-4-hydroxy-3-isovaleroyloxy-2-(hexa-2,4-diynyliden)-1,6-dioxaspiro [4,5] decane and increased QR enzyme activity in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, CZ-6 fraction caused a dose-dependent enhancement of luciferase activity in HepG2-C8 cells generated by stably transfecting antioxidant response element-luciferase gene construct, suggesting that it induces antioxidant/detoxifying enzymes through antioxidant response element (ARE)-mediated transcriptional activation of the relevant genes. Although CZ-6 fraction failed to induce hepatic QR in mice over the control, it restored QR activity suppressed by $CCl_4$ treatment to the control level. Hepatic injury induced by $CCl_4$ was also slightly protected by pretreatment with CZ-6. In conclusion, although CZ-6 fractionated from methanolic extract of Chrysanthemum zawadskii did not cause a significant QR induction in mice organs such as liver, kidney, and stomach, it showed protective effect from liver damage caused by $CCl_4$.

• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.253-262
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• 2006

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder and is characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Although many studies showed that the aggregation of $\alpha$-synuclein might be involved in the pathogenesis of PD, its protective properties against oxidative stress remain to be elucidated. In this study, human wild type and mutant $\alpha$-synuclein genes were fused with a gene fragment encoding the nine amino acid trans activator of transcription (Tat) protein transduction domain of HIV-l in a bacterial expression vector to produce a genetic in-frame WT Tat-$\alpha$-synuclein (wild type) and mutant Tat-a-synucleins (mutants; A30P and A53T), respectively, and we investigated the protective effects of wild type and mutant Tat-$\alpha$-synucleins in vitro and in vivo. WT Tat-$\alpha$-synuclein rapidly transduced into an astrocyte cells and protected the cells against paraquat induced cell death. However, mutant Tat-$\alpha$-synucleins did not protect at all. In the mice models exposed to the herbicide paraquat, the WT Tat-$\alpha$-synuclein completely protected against dopaminergic neuronal cell death, whereas mutants failed in protecting against oxidative stress. We found that these protective effects were characterized by increasing the expression level of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) in the neuronal cells and this expression level was dependent on the concentration of transduced WT Tat-$\alpha$-synuclein. These results suggest that transduced Tat-$\alpha$-synuclein might protect cell death from oxidative stress by increasing the expression level of HSP70 in vitro and in vivo and this may be of potential therapeutic benefit in the pathogenesis of PD.