• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.40
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• pp.10.1-10.6
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• 2018

Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes in gene expression after incubation of cells with proteins released from different silk mat layers. Methods: A silk cocoon from Bombyx mori was separated into four layers of equal thickness. The layers were numbered from 1 to 4 (from the inner to the outer layer). The proteins were released by sonication of a silk mat layer in normal saline. The concentration of proteins was determined by spectrophotometry. They were incubated with RAW264.7 cells, and changes in the expression of genes were evaluated by cDNA microarray analysis and quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results: Layer 1 and 4 groups had higher protein concentrations compared to those in layer 2 and 3 groups. The genes associated with inflammation and angiogenesis showed significantly higher expression in layer 1 and 4 groups. The results of qRT-PCR were in agreement with those of the cDNA microarray analysis. Conclusions: The silk mat from the middle portion of the silkworm cocoon yielded a lower protein release and caused an insignificant change in the expression of genes that are associated with inflammation and angiogenesis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Sericultural Science Conference
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• 1997.06a
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• pp.1-21
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• 1997

Silk is praised "Queen of Fiber", which wrote a glorious page in the history of human adornment culture. Thanks to the development of science and technology, silk production has been increased dramatically during last half century. Nowadays, as "Healthy Fiber" silk lets all the globe to be forming the "Silk Boom" Like in other scientific fields, a great deal of progress has been made in sericultural science and technology, which also accelerated the development of multipurpose utilization of sercultural recourses. The main tendency of the sericulture development is raising the quality of cocoon, and at the same time, increasing the output per unit mulberry area and labor production efficiency. The chief measure of raising the cocoon quality is breeding and selecting the new mulberry and silkworm varieties, preventing and curing the diseases and pests and improving the environment of mounting, and the symble for increasing the labor productivity is carrying out the technological system of saving labor and operation ease, and enlarging the production scale. As a natural protein fiber, silk will be still a favorite with human in the next century, because its structure and properties can not be replaced by other any fiber. The 21st century is the biological time, and measures of developing sericulture will use the achievement on the field of molecular biology and biotechnology to carry out the molecular breeding, development regulating, silkworm rearing industrializing, exploiting the new silk and its new usage, utilizing the sericultural resources, and producing the special protein from silkworm as a host of expressing exogenous genes so that make the sericulture to contribute more what it can do for the human being.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2020

This study investigates the crystallinity distribution of ancient silk. Owing to the inherent multi-hierarchical structure of silk protein and the complicated structural changes that occur due to various burial environments, it is challenging but worthwhile to study ancient silk ageing behavior, which is based on the fact that ageing begins with a single fiber and then spreads to a whole fabric. Crystallinity was one of the most effective indicators found to reveal the ageing status of silk. Therefore, a synchrotron radiation-based X-ray diffraction(SR-XRD) method was employed to study the crystallinity distribution of single fibers of ancient silk unearthed from seven archaeological sites in China from historical periods including the warring states, Han dynasty, Song dynasty, and Ming dynasty. In comparison, the conventional X-ray diffraction method, which uses large amounts of samples, was also performed to determine the integral crystallinity of ancient silk. Thermal stability experiments by thermogravimetry(TG) as well as morphology observations by scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and optical microscopy(OM) all confirmed the deterioration of ancient silk. Moreover, the ageing mechanism of ancient silk was proposed with the assistance of an artificial ageing study. The results confirmed the effectiveness of SR-XRD as an ageing indicator, revealing the crystallinity distribution. This research could provide motivation to determine the deterioration status of ancient silk, and would also aid in explaining the fragility of ancient silk due to ageing.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.217-223
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• 2022

Flame-retardant finished silk fabrics could release carcinogenic formaldehyde resulting from the conventional finishing agents. New water-soluble cyclophosphazene derivative can be used as a formaldehyde-free flame retardant for the silk protein. Dichloro tetrakis{N-[3-dimethylamino)propyl]methacrylamido}cyclophosphazene(DCTDCP) can be cured by heat or UV irradiation as a durable flame retardant for the silk fabrics. Treatment conditions were optimized including curing temperature and time, finishing formulations, and UV energy. At the 30% DCTDCP application, peak HRR and THR decreased by 42.6% and 49.6% respectively compared to the pristine silk fabrics. Also char residue increased up to 48% from 11% indicating solid-phase retarding mechanism. The flame-retardant silk fabrics showed a LOI of 31.1 and the washed sample maintained a LOI of 26.8 even after ten laundering cycles.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.113-120
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• 2012

In our previous studies, dietary supplements of silk protein, sericin, and fibroin, were beneficial for improving epidermal levels of ceramides, which are the major lipids for maintaining the epidermal barrier. In this study, we investigated the dietary effects of silk protein on epidermal levels of free sphingoid bases and their phosphates such as $C_{18}$ sphingosine (So), $C_{18}$ sphinganine (Sa), $C_{18}$ sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), and $C_{18}$ sphinganine-1-phosphate (Sa1P), which are either synthetic substrate or degradative metabolites of ceramides. Forty-five male NC/Nga mice, an animal model of atopic dermatitis (AD), were divided into three groups: group CA was an atopic control and fed a control diet, group S was fed a 1% sericin diet, and group F was fed a 1% fibroin diet. Fifteen male BALB/c mice served as group C (control group) and were fed the control diet. All mice were fed with diets and water $ad$ $libitum$ for 10 weeks. Sa in group CA was lower than that in group C, but So in group CA was similar to that in group C. So and Sa were higher in groups S and F than those in group CA; So level was even higher than that in group C, and Sa level was similar to that of group C. The So/Sa ratio in group CA, which is reported to increase in AD, was significantly higher than that of group C. The So/Sa ratio was lower in groups S and F than that in group CA, and decreased further in group F. However, S1P and Sa1P in groups S and F were similar to those in group CA. Taken together, we demonstrated that silk protein, sericin and fibroin dietary supplements, increased So and Sa levels, and decreased the So/Sa ratio.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.113-120
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• 2009

Embryonic lethal abnormal visual (elav) is a lethal gene in Drosophila inducing the abnormal development and function of nervous system. We cloned a Bm-elav gene by bioinformatics and biological experiment, based on sequence of ELAV protein and dbEST of Bombyx mori. The full-length of Bm-elav cDNA is 1498 bp, contains a 906 bp open read frame (ORF) encoding a precursor of 301 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular weight of 34 kDa and pI of 8.99. Bm-ELAV protein precursor contains three RNA recognition motifs (RRM) in $24{\sim}91$, $110{\sim}177$ and $222{\sim}295$ bit amino acid residues respectively, and belongs to RNA-binding protein family. Bm-ELAV shared varying positives, ranging from 56% to 60% (Identities from 41% to 45%), with RRM from other species of Xenopus tropicalis, Apis mellifera, Tribolium castaneum, Branchiostoma belcheri and Drosophila. Gene localization indicated that Bm-elav is a single-copy gene, gene mapping within 12-chromosome from 7916.68 knt to 7918.16 knt region of nscaf2993. Spatiotemporal expressions pattern analysis revealed that Bm-elav expressed higher in most tested tissues and developmental stages in whole generation, such as silk gland, fat body, midgut, hemopoietic organ and ovary, but almost no expression in terminated diapause eggs. This suggested that the expression of Bm-elav in early developmental embryonic stages might induce abnormal development like in Drosophila. Cloning of the Bm-elav gene enables us to test its potential role in controlling pests by transferring the gene into field lepidopteran insects in the future.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.550-558
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• 2017

The purpose of current study is to investigate the beneficial effect of enzyme (Alcalase) hydrolysates of silk protein in rat. Alcalase-treated silk protein hydrolysate (ATSH) itself did not show any cytotoxicity on the hepatic tissues and blood biochemistry, similar to the normal condition. ATSH played a protective role in tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BHP)-induced hepatotoxicity and liver damage. The values of AST (aspartate aminotransferase) and ALT (alanine aminotransferase), which are the indicators of the liver function, were effectively alleviated with the ATSH treatment in a dose dependent manner. The level of Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and Malondialdehyde (MDA), which were increased with t-BHP treatment, were significantly reduced by ATSH. High dose of ATSH (2 g/kg) reduced the t-BHP-induced LDH release by 48%. Antioxidant and antioxidant enzymes in liver cells were significantly increased by ATSH treatment in their level and activities. ATSH (2 g/kg) increased glutathione (GSH), an intracelluar antioxidant, by 2.5-fold compared with the t-BHP treated group. The activities of glutathione-s-transferase (GST), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase were also elevated by 38%, 60%, and 45%, respectively, with ATSH (2 g/kg) treatment. The antioxidative effect of ATSH was recapitulated to the protection from t-BHP induced liver damages in hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Thus, ATSH might be used as a hepatoprotective agent.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.306-313
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• 2010

To achieve color diversification of natural dyeing, color mixture dyeing with Indigo and Japanese pagoda tree is applied to wool and silk fabrics. After dyeing with Japanese pagoda tree extract solution of 5~25%(o.w.f.), the indigo dyeing was carried out up to four times. Alternatively after repeat dyeing with indigo one to seven times, the dyeing with Japanese pagoda tree extract solution was applied in 5 steps(5~25%). In color mixture dyeing, the dye uptake of wool fabrics appears higher than that of silk. The sequence of Japanese pagoda tree extract dyeing after Indigo dyeing was generally higher dye uptake compared with that of Indigo dyeing after Japanese pagoda tree extract dyeing. For wool and silk fabric, the pre-dyeing with Japanese pagoda tree solution was more effective for color diversification but the pre-dyeing with Indigo was more effective for the exhibition of intermediate color shade.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2024

For over five millennia, humans have benefited from the valuable byproducts of Bombyx mori silkworms nourished on mulberry leaves and a multitude of potential applications remains available due to the diverse array of silkworm varieties. In this work, we discuss the utilization of Daehwangjam (DHJ), golden silk (GS), and Juhwangjam (JHJ), distinctive colored silks found in Korea, as chemosensors. These novel silks emit fluorescence under external stimuli and show a diminishing fluorescence intensity when exposed to HCl vapor. The considerable surface-to-volume ratio of these cocoons allows for the identification of 5 ppm, 300 ppm, and 3000 ppm HCl vapors through decreased fluorescence intensity. The results show the suitability of natural DHJ, GS, and JHJ for applications in biosensing applications.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.84-89
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• 1999

To determine phylogenetic relatedness of four silk-producing silkmoths (B. mori, B. mandarina, A. yamamai and A. pernyi), internal coding region of arylphorin which is a storage protein in hemolymph protein of insects were amplified by polymerase chain reaction and then sequenced and compared each other. The nucleotide composition was biased toward adenine and thymine(59% A+T) and a strong bias for use of C in the third position of codons was found for Phe and Tyr. Together TTC(Phe) and TAC(Tyr) account for about 16.8% (10 for TTC and 8 for TAC) of all codon usage. The nucleotide similarity of arylphorin gene from B. mori showed 99%, 98% and 97% homology with those of B. mandarina, A. yamamai and A. pernyi, respectively. Also, the nucleotide sequence of arylphorin gene from B. mandarina showed 98% and 97% homology with those of A. yamamai and A.pernyi, respectively. Between A. yamamai and A. pernyi, the sequence homology was 97%. The deduced amino acid sequences in B. mori, B. mandarina and A. yamamai showed almost 99% homology. Although the aryphorin gene provided insufficient variability among the four insect species, A UPGMA tree is generated that supported the monophyly of silk-producing insects, with M. sexta placed basal to it. It is suggest that silk-producing insects have a close relationship and a homogeneous genetic background from comparison with those of other insects.