• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.83-89
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• 2020

Osteoporosis is a worldwide disease leading to significant economic and societal burdens globally. Osteoporosis is caused by unbalanced bone remodeling between the rate of osteoclast bone resorption and osteoblast bone formation. Acer tegmentosum Maxim (AT) is a traditional herbal medicine containing multiple biological activities such as anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory purposes. However, its role in osteoporosis has not been fully studied. Therefore, we investigated whether AT has a potent inhibitory effect on osteoporosis and its mechanism through a systemic evaluation in ovariectomized (OVX) mice. OVX mice were orally administrated with the AT at doses of 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg for 10 weeks. Histological images and histomorphometry analyses were performed by H&E and Toluidine blue satin, and the expression levels of receptor activator for nuclear factor-kB ligand (RANKL), nuclear factor of activated T cells cytoplasm 1 (NFATc1), c-Fos, and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) related to the osteoclast differentiation were investigated using immunohistochemical analysis. Administration of AT prevented bone loss and the alternations of osteoporotic bone parameters at the distinct regions of the distal femur and spongiosa region in OVX mice. Further, administration of AT increased periosteal bone formation in a dose-dependent manner. Meanwhile, AT inhibited not only the expression of NFATc1 and c-Fos, which are two major regulators of osteoclastogenesis but also reduced bone resorbed encoding expression of MMP9 and RANKL. Our results indicated that administration of AT prevented bone loss and the alternations of osteoporotic bone parameters at the distinct regions of the distal femur and spongiosa region in OVX mice. Also AT has the bone protective effect through the suppression of osteoclast and promotion of osteoblast, suggesting that it could be a preventive and therapeutic candidate for anti-osteoporosis.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.3-7
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• 2009

Background and Objectives : Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer is a medical plant that has been widely utilized as a tonic and nutritional agent since ancient times in Korea. Ginseng has anti-metastatic property of cancer and immunomodulating activity. The novel acidic polysaccharide compound(MB40) was isolated from the leaves of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer. To determine immunomodulating activities of MB40, we evaluate anti-cancer and anti-metastatic effects of MB40 in tumor bearing immune competent mice. Material and Methods : C3H mice were divided into three equal groups(Cisplatin treatment group, MB40 treat-ment group, Cisplatin and MB40 treatment group) and were transplanted SCC(Squamous Cell Carcinoma) cells(2${\times}$106) to the lateral side of abdomen. From day 4 after transplantation, MB40 was administrated at dose of 10mg/kg, respectively, every other day by intratumoral injection. Cisplatin was systemically administrated at doses of 1mg/kg, respectively, every week by intraperitoneal injection. Results : 5 days after administration, tumors can be palpated in every mice group. After 13 days of administration, the mice group to which MB40 were administrated exhibited reduction in tumor size respectively, compared to cisplatin group. Overall status of mice such as body weight and activity were superior in MB40 group than cisplatin group. Conclusion : The result of this study indicates MB40 may have significant therapeutic effect and decreases complications induced by systemic chemotheraphy. MB40 may be developed as a novel and potent immunotropics to improve the cell immune system and anti-cancer drug for the treatment of cancer patients in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.37-49
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• 2002

Objectives: Maekmoondong-tang and Jeongcheonhwadamgangki-tang are herbal decoctions which have been used as traditional therapeutic agents for asthma. This study was performed to investigate the effects of Maekmoondong-tang and Jeongcheonhwadamgangki-tang on immune Cell & serum OA-specific 19B in broncho-alveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in rat asthma model. Methods: Rats were sensitized with ovalbumin (OA); at day I the sensitized group and Maekmoondong-tang and Jeongcheonhwadamgangki-tang groups were systemically immunized by subcutaneous injection of 1mg OA and 300mg of $Al(OH)_3$ in a total volume of 2ml. At the same time, 1ml of 0.9% saline containing $6{\times}10^9$ B. pertussis bacilli was injected by i.p. for 14 days. After systemic immunization, the rats received local immunization by inhaling 0.9% saline aerosol containing 2% (wt/vol) OA. A day after local immunization, BAL fluid was collected from the rats. A day after local immunization, rats were orally administered with each of Maekmoondong-tang and Jeongcheonhwadamgangki-tang extract for 14 days. Lymphocyte, CD4+T-cell CD8+ T-cell counts, CD4+/CD8+ ratio in BALF, change of serum OA-specific IgE level, and CD4+T-cell CD8+T-cell percentage in the peripheral blood were measured and evaluated. Results: Maekmoondong-tang and Jeongcheonhwadamgangki-tang showed a suppressive effect on the rat asthma model. Maekmoondong-tang decreased total cell, lymphocyte, CD4+T-cell, CD8+T-cell in BALF, and serum OA specific 19B level as compared with the control group, whereas Maekmoondong-tang decreased CD4+/CD8+ ratio in BALF with statistical nonsignificance as compared with the control group. 1 decreased total cell, CD4+T-cell, CD4+/CD8+ ratio in BALF, and serum OA specific IgE level, whereas Jeongcheonhwadamgangki-tang decreased ymphocyte, and CD8+T-cell in BALF with statistical nonsignificance as compared with the control group. CD4+T-cell and CD8+ T-cell percentage in peripheral blood were not changed significantly in all the experimental groups. Conclusions: This study shows that Maekmoondong-tang and Jeongcheonhwadamgangki-tang have a suppressive effect on asthma. Maekmooruiong-tang and Jeongcheonhwadamgangki-tang would be useful asthma treatment agents.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.13-22
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• 1992

Traditionally. the wedge factor of universal wedge is regarded as constant for small depth. Recently. some investigators have reported the beam hardening effect from wedged beam even in small depth. suggesting that the wedge factors are depth dependent values. Here authors performed the study to determine the proper depth of measurement for wedge factor. In this study. we have measured the wedge factors (nominal wedge angles 15, 30, 45, and 60) not only for depth maximum. but also for each depth, for several energies (4MV, 6MV, 10MV, and 15MV) of various machines (Varian, Siemens, Mitsubishi). And we have analysed the treatment depth of 614 patients who had been treated with wedged field at our hospitals to determine of the proper depth of the measurement point for wedge factor. More than 60% of the patients are treated at the depth of 8cm$\pm$2.5cm with the wedged field for various machines. energies, and wedge angles. The results of the wedge factor measurements show that the systemic error of average 2% (maximum 4%) might be inherently originated for the patients who had been treated with wedged field if we adapt the depth maximum as the wedge factor determination depth due to beam hardening effect. But we could achieve average error less than 0.5% (maximum within 1.7%) if we use 8cm for wedge factor measurement point We conclude that the measurement depth point for wedge factor should be 8cm in order to deliver more accurate dose to target for Korean patients. instead of depth maximum.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.360-367
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• 2014

Candida albicans is an opportunistic and the most prevalent fungal pathogen that can cause superficial and systemic infections in immunocompromised patients. C. albicans can promote the transition from budding yeast to filamentous form, generating biofilms. Infections associated with C. albicans biofilms are frequently resistant to conventional antifungal therapy. Therefore, the development of more effective antifungal drugs related with biofilm formation is required urgently. The roots of Rheum undulatum have been used for medicinal purposes in Korea and China traditionally. The aim of present study was to evaluate the effect of R. undulatum extract upon preformed biofilms of 12 clinical C. albicans isolates and the antifungal activities. Its effect on preformed biofilms was evaluated using XTT reduction assay, and metabolic activity of all tested strains was reduced significantly ($49.4{\pm}6.0%$) at 0.098 mg/ml R. undulatum. The R. undulatum extract blocked the adhesion of C. albicans biofilms to polystyrene surfaces, and damaged the cell membrane integrity of C. albicans which was analyzed by CFDA, AM, and propidium iodide double staining. It caused cell lysis which was observed by Confocal laser scanning and phase contrast microscope after propidium iodide and neutral red staining, respectively. Membrane permeability was changed as evidenced by crystal violet uptake. The data suggest that R. undulatum inhibits biofilm formation by C. albicans, which can be associated with the damage of the cell membrane integrity, the changes in the membrane permeability and the cell lysis of C. albicans.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.7 no.1 s.12
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• pp.53-61
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• 2004

Substantial evidence suggests that behavioral and reinforcing effects of cocaine can be mediated by the mesolimbic dopaminergic system. It has been shown that repeated injections of cocaine produce increase in locomotor activity, expression of the immediate-early gene, c-fos in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), which was one of the main dopaminergic terminal areas. Herbal-acupuncture as a therapeutic intervention has been widely used for the treatment of many functional disorders such as drug abuse. Coptidis Rhizoma (CR) and its main component, berberine (BER) were selected as herbal medicine of herbal-acupuncture. Both medicines have been known to have the therapeutic effect on the central nervous system. In order to investigate the effects of CR and BER herbalacupuncture at shenmen (HT7) point (CR/H and BER/H) on the cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization, the influence of CR/H and BER/H on repeated cocaine-induced locomotor activity, the change of c-Fos expression in the brain by immunohistochemistry were examined. Male SD rats were given CR/H (0.4mg/kg) and BER/H (0.1mg/kg) 30 min before daily injections of cocaine hydrochloride (15mg/kg. i.p.) 10 days. After 3 days withdrawal, rats received a challenge injection of cocaine (15mg/kg, i.p.). Systemic challenge with cocaine produced much larger increased locomotor activity, accumbal Fos-like immunoreactivity in the NAc. Pretreatment with CR/H and BER/H significantly inhibited cocaine-induced locomotor activity, the change of c-Fos expression in the rats. Our data demonstrated that the inhibitory effects of cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization by CR/H and BER/H were closely associated with the reduction of presynaptic dopamine release in the NAc. These results suggest that CR/H and BER/H can be effectively applied to cocaine addiction.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.83-91
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• 2009

$\beta$-glucan is a fiber-type complex sugar (polysaccharide) derived from the cell wall of baker's yeast, oat and barley fiber, and many medicinal mushrooms, such as maitake. The primary uses of $\beta$-glucan are to enhance the immune system, to lower blood cholesterol levels and to treat tumor. $\beta$-glucan has no systemic toxicity in mice, therefore it needed clinical trail to prove efficacy and safety for human. The subjects total 56 healty volunteers were divided into two groups including taken $\beta$-glucan tablet group and placebo group. Subjects were taken two tablets per oral for 4 weeks. They had agreed to take part in this experiment, and didn't take any other clinical trail products. After 4 weeks blood of subjects were checked. The check list are TNF-$\alpha$, INF-$\gamma$, IL-2, IL-4, total WBC, differential WBC, RBC, hemoglobin, platelet, MCV, MCH, MCHC, HCT, Na, K, Ca, Cl, AST, ALT, ALP, $\gamma$-GTP, total protein, triglyceride, total cholesterol, total bilirubin, albumin, uric acid, creatinine, BUN, pH, protein, glucose, ketone body, blood, bilirubin. We evaluated efficacy by cytokines that compare before and after taking. Collected data were analyzed as two sample t-test, chi-square test and ANOVA using SAS V.9.1.This study results are that in TNF-$\alpha$ of $1^{st}$ efficacy measurement item, all of two groups figure were increased significantly compare to before figure. In IL4 of $2^{nd}$ efficacy measurement item, experimental group figure were decreased significantly but placebo group figure were increased. The conclusions show that based on the above results, $\beta$-glucan has favorable effect to enhance immune system, especially IL4 results showed that it has effect to improve the allergic immune system.

• Proceedings of the Ginseng society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.55-65
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• 2002

Ginseng has been used as a key constituent in traditional medicine prescriptions for centuries. Other than its well-known anti-stress and adaptogenic properties, ginseng has also been shown to be very effective in treating age-related deterioration in metabolic and memory functions. Although it is generally believed that the saponin (GS) fraction of the ginseng root accounts for the bioactivity of ginseng, a direct demonstration on which ginsenoside does what is still generally lacking. In the past decade, our laboratory has endeavored to identify the active GS components involved in energy metabolism, memory, and anti-neurotoxicity. To examine the ergogenic effects of GS in enhancing aerobic capacity, rats were subjected to either severe cold ($40^{\circ}C$ under helium-oxygen, two hours) or exercise workload $(70\%\;VO_{2}max,$ to exhaustion). Acute systemic injection (i.p.) of ginseng GS (5-20 mg/kg) significantly elevated both the total and maximum heat production in rats and improved their cold tolerance. However, pretreating the animal with the optimal dose (10 mg/kg) of GS devoid of $Rg_1\;and\;Rb_1$ failed to elicit any beneficial effects in improving cold tolerance. This indicates that either $Rb_1\;and/or\;Rg_1$ may be essential in exemplifying the thermogenic effect of GS. Further studies showed that only pretreating the animals with $Rb_1(2.5-5\;mg/kg),\;but\;not\;Rg_l,$ resulted in an increase in thermogenesis and cold tolerance. In contrast to the acute effect of GS on cold tolerance, enhancement of exercise performance in rats was only observed after chronic treatment (4 days). Further, we were able to demonstrate that both $Rb_1\;and\;Rg_1$ are effective in enhancing aerobic endurance by exercise. To illustrate the beneficial effects of GS in learning and memory, a passive avoidance paradigm (shock prod) was used. Our results indicated that the scopolamineinduced amnesia can be significantly reversed by chronically treating (4 days) the rats with either $Rb_1\;or\;Rg_1$ (1.25 - 2.5 mg/kg). To further examine its underlying mechanisms, the effects of various GS on ${\beta}-amyloid-modulated$ acetylcholine (ACh) release from the hippocampal slices were examined. It was found that inclusion of $Rb_1$ (0.1 ${\mu}M$), but not $Rg_1$, can attenuate ${\beta}-amyloid-suppressed$ ACh release from the hippocampal slices. Our results demonstrated that $Rb_1\;and\;Rg_1$ are the key components involved in various beneficial effects of GS but they may elicit their effects through different mechanisms.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.960-968
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• 2021

Since microalgae research started on late 18 century, they have been recognized as one of the most important bioresources used in bioindustry. Owing to the large efforts paid to industrial application of this microorganisms, their importance on food/feed and bioactive compounds has been further extending into the environmental research areas including alternative energy resources, mitigation of the carbon emission, and waste-water treatment. However, despite the importance on their industrial application, the fundamental research field related to the long-term preservation of microalgae culture has not received much attention. However, a less labor intensive and cost-efficient preservation technology enabling biologically active and stable microalgae-culture provides a key success factor in the biotechnological application. Therefore, this study investigated various cutting-edge microalgae cryopreservation technologies currently developed so far, mainly targeting Chlorophyta, which occupies the largest taxon in the classification system of microalgae. In addition, for the development of successful cryopreservation technique, the key factors such as temperature control effect and preservative effect during cryopreservation of microalgae culture were investigated. In addition, the problems with current preservation technology that is being used in Korean domestic biological resource banks and the international microalgal resource banks are described. According to our investigation, currently no standard method for long-term preservation of microalgae is available due to their various morphological and physiological characteristics. To overcome such issues, much more efforts on fundamental research area on the identification of specific biomarker used for microalgae taxonomical classification and further systemic approaches based on strain-specific cryopreservation methods needed.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.50-65
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• 2018

Objective : The purpose of this study is to analyze researches about sex education for children and adolescents with developmental disabilities in order to provide a basic data and a direction about sex education. Methods : For the systemic review, domestic and international research articles published from August 2008 to September 2018 were searched using the electronic databases PubMed, EBSCO host (CINAHL Plus with full text), Medline (ProQuest), RISS, and KISS. Keyword used for the search was 'Disability Disorder OR Autism (AND) AND (Effect OR Effectiveness)' for international papers and 'Disability AND Sex Education' for domestic papers. Total 15 articles were collected and analyzed in terms of participant, duration, type, contents, and teaching methods with PICO format. Results : In terms of level of evidence, majority was Level III evidence(60%). Most common contents of sex education were 'physical and growth' and 'relational skills'. Special education and occupational therapy were the field that sex education is provided most frequently. Effects of sex education identified were 'sex knowledge', 'sex attitudes', and 'inappropriate sexual behavior'. Conclusion : This study intend aimed to identify content, trends, and effects of sex education for children and adolescents with developmental disabilities in order to provide a basic data for clinical trial of sex education in occupational therapy practice. This study recommend further researches on the effects of sex education on occupational participation, occupational therapists' awareness of sexual activity of clients, and development of related measurement such as sexual development scale.