• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.70-74
• /
• 2019

The kidney is a highly complex organ, and acute or chronic renal diseases can occur with various complications such as diabetes and hypertension. So far, no target specific treatment is available in acute or chronic renal failure, necessitating the development of alternative therapeutic strategy. Recent experimental findings suggest that the renal function and structure can be restored after being treated with various sources of stem/progenitor cells. In this review, we discuss up-to-date findings of the potential of renal progenitor/stem cells in alleviating renal injuries with a focus on preclinical studies. We also review cellular mechanisms underlying the therapeutic function of these cells.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.29 no.spc1
• /
• pp.35-38
• /
• 1996

Much of our knowledge about the formation and evolution of high-redshift galaxies has come from studying the absorption signatures they impress on the spectra of background QSOs. The damped Lyman $\alpha$ (DLA) systems, in particular, have proved to be valuable probes of the metallicity and dust at redshifts z $\~$2-3 in what are the likely progenitors of galaxies like our own. At z $\~$ 2 we find that the typical metallicity of the universe was 1/15 solar. In addition, we find clear evidence for the existence of trace amounts of interstellar dust in DLA galaxies and show that this is consistent with recent high resolution spectra of DLAs with the Keck telescope, despite claims to the contrary.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.40.1-40.1
• /
• 2017

Massive early-type galaxies (ETG) have been spectroscopically confirmed up to z>3 which, together with their ages and abundances at z>1.5, implies that their progenitors must have converted gas into stars on short timescales. The termination of star formation in these galaxies can occur through several channels, but they remain largely conjectural, in part due to the current lack of direct measurements of the amount of residual gas in high redshift ETGs. Here I will present constraints on the star formation rate and dust/gas content of z=1.4-2.5 ETGs. These galaxies, close to their epoch of quenching, contained more than 2 orders of magnitude more dust than their local counterparts, which suggests the presence of substantial amounts of gas and a low star formation efficiency.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.48 no.11
• /
• pp.599-608
• /
• 2015

Regeneration, a process of reconstitution of the entire tissue, occurs throughout life in the olfactory epithelium (OE). Regeneration of OE consists of several stages: proliferation of progenitors, cell fate determination between neuronal and non-neuronal lineages, their differentiation and maturation. How the differentiated cell types that comprise the OE are regenerated, is one of the central questions in olfactory developmental neurobiology. The past decade has witnessed considerable progress regarding the regulation of transcription factors (TFs) involved in the remarkable regenerative potential of OE. Here, we review current state of knowledge of the transcriptional regulatory networks that are powerful modulators of the acquisition and maintenance of developmental stages during regeneration in the OE. Advance in our understanding of regeneration will not only shed light on the basic principles of adult plasticity of cell identity, but may also lead to new approaches for using stem cells and reprogramming after injury or degenerative neurological diseases.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.141-145
• /
• 2007

Here we analyze if the ionized shells associated with giant HII regions represent the progenitors of the larger neutral hydrogen supershells detected in the Milky Way and other spiral and dwarf irregular galaxies. We calculate the evolutionary tracks that 12 HII shells found by Relano et al. (2005, 2007) would have if they expanded into the interstellar medium because of multiple supernovae explosions occurring inside the cavity. We find, contrary to Relano et al. (2007), that the evolutionary tracks of these HII shells are inconsistent with the observed parameters of the largest and most massive neutral hydrogen supershells. Thus, an additional energy source to the multiple supernovae explosions is required in order to explain the origin of the most massive neutral hydrogen shells.

• Development and Reproduction
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.391-399
• /
• 2019

Nicotinamide is used to maturate pancreatic progenitors from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into insulin-producing cells (IPCs). It has been known that nicotinamide inhibits the enzymatic activity of SIRT1, an NAD⁺-dependent deacetylase. Here we show that SIRT1 knockdown enhances the differentiation of human ESCs into IPCs. SIRT1 knockdown enhances the clustering size of IPCs and the expression of pancreatic genes including c-peptide, pancreas/duodenum homeobox protein 1 (PDX1), insulin, somatostatin, glucagon and Nkx6.1 in human ESC-derived IPCs. In addition, We found that IPCs differentiated from SIRT1 knockdowned human ESCs have more zinc compared to those from control human ESCs. Our data suggest that SIRT1 negatively regulates the differentiation of β cells from human ESCs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.27-27
• /
• 2013

Development of bolometer array and camera at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths plays an important role for detecting submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) which appear to be very bright at the submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths. These SMGs, luminous infrared galaxies detected at mm/submm wavelengths seem to be progenitors of present-day massive galaxies and account for their considerable contributions to the light from the early universe and their expected high star formation rates (SFRs) if there is a close link between the SMG phenomena and the star formation activities and the interstellar dust in galaxies is mainly heated by the star light. In this talk, we review assembly of SMGs compiled with observations using the bolometer arrays and cameras and investigate their spectral energy distribution fits including the data at other wavelengths which trace the photometric properties and the red-shift distribution of galaxies. We find that these bright SMGs significantly contribute to the cosmic star formation rate density at red-shifts of 2-3 (about 8 %) for the spatial distribution of these galaxies.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.49 no.1
• /
• pp.3-10
• /
• 2016

microRNAs (miRNAs) are key regulators of cell state transition and retention during stem cell proliferation and differentiation by post-transcriptionally downregulating hundreds of conserved target genes via seed-pairing in their 3' untranslated region. In embryonic and adult stem cells, dozens of miRNAs that elaborately control stem cell processes by modulating the transcriptomic context therein have been identified. Some miRNAs accelerate the change of cell state into progenitor cell lineages—such as myoblast, myeloid or lymphoid progenitors, and neuro precursor stem cells—and other miRNAs decelerate the change but induce proliferative activity, resulting in cell state retention. This cell state choice can be controlled by endogenously or exogenously changing miRNA levels or by including or excluding target sites. This control of miRNA-mediated gene regulation could improve our understanding of stem cell biology and facilitate their development as therapeutic tools. [BMB Reports 2016; 49(1): 3-10]

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.47 no.12
• /
• pp.660-665
• /
• 2014

Stathmin 1 is a microtubule destabilizer that plays an important role in cell cycle progression, segregation of chromosomes, clonogenicity, cell motility and survival. Stathmin 1 overexpression has been reported in malignant hematopoietic cells and Stathmin 1 inhibition reduces the highly proliferative potential of leukemia cell lines. However, during the differentiation of primary hematopoietic cells, Stathmin 1 expression decreases in parallel to decreases in the proliferative potential of early hematopoietic progenitors. The scope of the present review is to survey the current knowledge and highlight future perspectives for Stathmin 1 in normal and malignant hematopoiesis, with regard to the expression, function and clinical implications of this protein.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
• /
• v.66 no.1
• /
• pp.137-143
• /
• 2017

In this paper, we investigate static control of Boolean networks described in the framework of semi-tensor product (STP) operation. The control objective is to determine control input nodes and their logical values so as to stabilize the considered Boolean network to a desired fixed point or cycle. Using topology of Boolean networks such as incidence matrix and hub nodes, a set of appropriate control input nodes is selected, and based on STP operations, we assign constant control inputs so that the controlled network can converge to a prescribed fixed point or cycle. To validate applicability of the proposed scheme, we conduct a numerical study on the problem of determining control input nodes for a Boolean network representing hierarchical differentiation of myeloid progenitors.