• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.713-717
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• 1999

In order to utilize protein hydrolysate produced from hoki (Johnius Belengeri) frame among many different fish processing wastes, hoki frame peptide (PHFP) and phosphorylated hoki frame peptide (PHFP) were prepared, and their calcium absorption accelerating effects were investigated in comparison to control and casein phosphopeptide (CPP). In in vitro experiment, HFP and PHFP inhibited calcium phosphate formation as high as 1.5-fold and 2.5-fold, respectively, comparing to control, In addition, the inhibition rate of calcium phosphate precipitation as increasing concentrations of HFP and PHFP was risen and was similar to that of CPP at 2.0 mg/ml of PHFP concentration, In in vivo experiment using the rats, the groups fed HFP and PHFP indicated significantly increased calcium content in the femur. In particular, the calcium content in the small intestine of the rat fed PHFP was higher than that of control group by approximately $60\%$.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.38-45
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• 2015

Most tumors are believed to overexpress several receptors, and small peptides targeting these receptors were developed for diagnosis and tumor therapy during past decade. Here we report that fibroadenoma can be visualized by bladder cancer specific peptide. A 9-mer bladder cancer specific peptide, which was discovered from the phage display method, was synthesized by peptide synthesizer, and additional tyrosine was conjugated at the N-terminal for radioiodination (Y-BP). Y-BP was radiolabeled with $^{131/124}I$ using Iodogen tube. The rat treated with N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl)nitrosamine for 8 weeks was allowed to grow until large size tumor was developed under axilla. The tumor model was microPET imaged sequentially using [$^{18}F$]FDG and radioiodinated $^{124}I-Y-BP$. The tumor was excised and examined by immunostaining studies. Radioiodinated $^{124}I-Y-BP$ was purified using fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) in > 90% radiochemical purity. The whole tumor was well visualized by [$^{18}F$]FDG with several intense focal uptake within tumor. The tumor was also clearly seen with $^{124}I-Y-BP$ at 4 h post-injection, and to our surprise the tumor uptake of $^{124}I-Y-BP$ lasted up to three days. The tumor was diagnosed histologically as a fibroadenoma derived from mammary gland. In conclusion, the bladder cancer specific peptide showed the good potential as a new radiotracer for the detection of breast fibroadenoma.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.261-279
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• 2016

Trends of food and energy consumptions in South Korea, North Korea, and the Korean Peninsula were shown and consumptions of food and energy for the integrated Korean Peninsula with several Cases were predicted, and the directions for the environmental resources management were suggested in this study. The Food Supply Quantity, the Protein Supply Quantity, and the Food Supply of North Korea were less than those of South Korea, the Eastern Asia, and World after 1990s. However, it is expected that the food consumption in North Korea will increase, if two Koreas are integrated. If the Food Supply Quantity of North Korea is the same as that of South Korea with the maximum projected population of integrated two Koreas by 2055, the food consumption in the Korean Peninsula would increase by 25% compared with the 2011 food consumption of integrated two Koreas. Thus, the choice of diet should be carefully considered and the increase of agricultural productivity is required. Energy consumption in North Korea is very small comparing to that of South Korea and fraction of coal in energy usage of North Korea is very high. If the energy consumption per capita of North Korea after integration be the same as that of South Korea in 2011, the energy consumption in the Korean Peninsula would increase by 45% compared with the 2011 energy consumption of integrated two Koreas. To minimize the environmental effects caused by energy consumption, the energy plan with the reduced fraction of coal in energy supply of North Korea should be adopted and advanced technology with higher efficiency should be applied to establish or expand the energy facility in North Korea.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.48-62
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• 1994

The acute irradiation effect on rat Purkinje cell was carried out. Anesthetized rats, weighing 200-250g each, were exposed their heads to the linear accelerator (ML-4MV) with the doses of 3,000 rads or 6,000 rads respectively. Irradiated rats were sacrificed by perfusion fixation under anesthesia, six hours, two days and six days following the irradiations. Rats were perfused with the fixative of 1% glutaraldehyde-1% paraformaldehyde solution (pH 7.4). Small pieces of cerebellar cortices were taken out. Tissue blocks were washed out, and were refixed in the 2% osmium tetroxide solution. After dehydration, tissues were embedded in the araldite mixture. Ultrathin sections stained with uranyl acetate-lead citrate solution, were examined with an electron microscope. The results observed were as follow; 1. Many dark Purkinje cells exhibited most severe cellular alterations on 6 hours. But after the 2 or 6 days, the cells exhibited only some alterations of cytoplasmic organelles. 2. Many granular and agranular endoplasmic reticula exhibited the fusion of cisterns. These reticular alterations were most severe on 6 hours following irradiation. But the alterations were hardly found on 6 days. 3. In the Golgi region, alterations including the adhesion of lamelliform cisterns, enlarged saccules, and increased number of vesicles, etc, were seen on 6 hours. But the Golgi complexes were almost recovered on 6 days. 4. Lysosomes were abundant on 6 hours or 2 days, but some residual bodies were found on 6 days. 5. Mitochondrial changes were also most severe at on hours, and they were recovered thereafter. From the results, it was concluded that the cerebellar Purkinje cells reacted to the high doses of irradiation by hyperactive protein synthesis, autolytic activities and energy metabolism. The reaction was most active in the early stage. It implies that motor-control function of Purkinje cells are severely disturbed in the early stage of irradiation.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.715-722
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• 2009

The aim of this study was to investigate the safety of short-term use of Korean herbal medicine (KHM; prescribed herbal medicine by doctors of traditional Korean medicine) on liver function. Three hundred eighty four outpatients who took KHM for various conditions were enrolled for multi-center, prospective observational study. Of them 237 patients completed questionnaire and were checked liver function (aspartic aminotransferase;AST, alanine aminotransferase;ALT, alkaline phosphatase;ALP, total bilirubin;t-Bil, direct bilirubin;d-Bil, gamma glutamyltranspeptidase;GGT, protein and albumin) before and after taking KHM (duration; 21.4${\pm}$10.0 days), and data were analysed statistically. Of the 213 patients showing normal liver function test (LFT) at baseline, 209 (98.1%) remained within the normal range at the second test while 3 (1.4%) revealed slight increase of LFT. Only one subject had raised LFT regarding level of liver injury without perceived symptoms. Twenty-four of 237 patients were abnormal at baseline, and 16 at the second testing. Of the patients taking KHM, only 4 changed from normal to abnormal while 12 from abnormal to normal in their LFT. There were no significant increase in LFT level between the first and second test, except in the t-Bil level, however, the change of t-Bil was small and within normal range. The current study showed that the use of KHM did not increase the frequency of abnormal LFTs, at least in the short term.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2013

The tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a member of the tumor necrosis factor family of cytokines. TRAIL selectively induces apoptotic cell death in various tumors and cancer cells, but it has little or no toxicity in normal cells. Agonism of TRAIL receptors has been considered to be a valuable cancer-therapeutic strategy. However, more than 85% of primary tumors are resistant to TRAIL, emphasizing the importance of investigating how to overcome TRAIL resistance. In this report, we have found that nemadipine-A, a cell-permeable L-type calcium channel inhibitor, sensitizes TRAIL-resistant cancer cells to this ligand. Combination treatments using TRAIL with nemadipine-A synergistically induced both the caspase cascade and apoptotic cell death, which were blocked by a pan caspase inhibitor (zVAD) but not by autophagy or a necrosis inhibitor. We further found that nemadipine-A, either alone or in combination with TRAIL, notably reduced the expression of survivin, an inhibitor of the apoptosis protein (IAP) family of proteins. Depletion of survivin by small RNA interference (siRNA) resulted in increased cell death and caspase activation by TRAIL treatment. These results suggest that nemadipine-A potentiates TRAIL-induced apoptosis by down-regulation of survivin expression in TRAIL resistant cells. Thus, combination of TRAIL with nemadipine-A may serve a new therapeutic scheme for the treatment of TRAIL resistant cancer cells, suggesting that a detailed study of this combination would be useful.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.199-206
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• 1985

Viroids are the smallest. well-characterized infectious agents presently known. and so far viroids have been found only in higher plants. The structures of viroid-molecules are single-stranded, covalently closed circular RNA molecules with a range of 240 to 380 nucleotides according to the various viroids. Viroids are remarkable not only as a new category of pathogen, which cause economically important diseases, but also as an excellent model system for biochemical and biophysical investigations because of their small size, relative stability and their self-replication. Four different patato spindle tuber viroid isolates, which express the different symptoms on the same host plant exchange only 2 to 6 nucleotides in the total number of 359 nucleotides, but now the mechanism of viroid pathogenicity is not explained fully. Viroid-melecules are replicated without any special viroid-associated proteins, and during the process of viroid replication oligomeric viroid-associated RNAs are detected at nuclei of viroid infected leaf tissue. The mechanism of viroid replication can now be illustrated according to a possible explanation of rolling-circle system. Although the rapid progress have been made in elucidation of the biochemical and biophysical properties of PSTV and other viroids, the mechanism of viroid replication and pathogenicity is less known and is still a matter of speculation. When these problems can be sufficiently explained, the viroid molecule could play an important role as an available vector in plant genetic engineering.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.1777-1786
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• 2009

Thymosin ${\beta}4$, a small protein containing 43 amino acids, has multi-functional roles in cell physiology. It was first identified as a thymic maturation factor and recently has been shown to accelerate wound healing, hair growth, angiogenesis, tumor growth, and metastasis. It was also reported to play a key role in developing organs, including the nervous system and heart. Thymosin ${\beta}4$ induces the expression of vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF), laminin-5, and other important biologically active genes. Using tissue microarray analysis, we investigated the expression patterns of thymosin ${\beta}4$ and VEGF in various normal human adult tissues. Thymosin ${\beta}4$ was highly expressed in the liver, pancreas, ductal epithelium of the salivary gland, and heart, and moderately expressed in the skin, lung, spleen, lymph node, thymus, ureter, and blood endothelial cells in both the lung and adrenal gland. The expression of VEGF generally co-localized with thymosin ${\beta}4$ and VEGF was highly expressed in the pancreas, ureter, mammary gland, liver, esophagus, and blood endothelial cells in both the lung and adrenal gland. These results suggest that thymosin ${\beta}4$ plays an important role in the function of various organs and since the expression pattern of thymosin ${\beta}4$ co-localized with VEGF, part of that function may be to induce or maintain angiogenesis.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.455-459
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• 2017

MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are a group of small noncoding RNAs that modulate gene expression. Many studies, demonstrating altered expressions of specific miRNAs in diverse types of human neoplasia, suggested that they may play a key role in tumorigenesis. Recently, miRNA genes were found to be abnormally expressed in several types of cancer, including endometrial cancer. However, miR-23b and miR-203 expression in endometrial cancer has yet to be studied in Korea. As such, the purpose of this study was to analyze miR-23b and miR-203 expressions in endometrial cancer and to evaluate the relationship between miR-23b and miR-203 expressions. A retrospective study was carried out on the formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues of 42 endometrial cancer tissues using quantitative real-time PCR. In endometrial cancer tissues, miR-23b expression levels ($2.70{\pm}4.45$) were higher than miR-203 expression levels ($-2.34{\pm}4.08$). Endometrial cancer tissues showed an overexpression of miR-23b in 30 (71.4%) of the 42 endometrial cancer cases, whereas miR-203 was underexpressed in 29 (69.0%) of the 42 cases. There was a significant association between miR-23b and miR-203 expressions in endometrial cancer tissues (p=0.0005). These findings suggest that miR-23b and miR-203 expressions may be involved in endometrial carcinogenesis. More studies are needed to further define the relationship between miR-23b and miR-203 expressions and tissue-specific protein expression.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.336-342
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• 1994

Changes in physicochemical characteristics were investigated for immature barley kernels roasted at $160{\sim}220^{\circ}C$ for $1{\sim}12$ min. Only small differences in chemical constituents including starch, protein, fat, ash, total dietary fiber, and ${\beta}-glucan were observed between immature and mature barley kernels. The amounts of 75% ethanol-soluble sugars and amino acids present in immature barley kernels were considerably higher than those in mature kernels, and gradually decreased in the process of roasting. Of free sugars, sucrose, raffinose, glucodifructose($GF_{2}$) and maltose were reduced by roasting. Glucose and fructose, simple reducing sugars, decreased at the early stage of roasting, followed by a slight increase at the later stage. Starch and nitrogen contents decreased slowly, while TDF(total dietary fiber) had a tendency to increase slightly. Stacking volume of immature barley kernels increased markedly, especially at the higher temperatures. L value of immature barley decreased throughout roasting, and a, b values increased at the early stage of roasting but b value decreased with continued roasting. The degree of roasting was strongly affected by the roasting temperature. Darkness of immature barley kernel, depending on the degree of roasting, was highly associated with concentrations of brown pigments extracted from roasted immature barley kernels.