• The Korea Journal of Herbology
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.27-36
• /
• 2006

Objectives : This study was performed for the investigation of anticancer effects of methanol extract of Rheum Rhizoma (MeOH-RR) on a human liver cancer cell line (HepG2). Methods : To study the cytotoxic effect of MeOH-RR on HepG2 cells, the cell viability was determined by XTT reduction method and trypan blue exclusion assay. The cleavage of poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP), a substrate for caspase-3 and a typical sign of apoptosis, and the activation of procaspase-3, -8 and -9 were examined by western blot analysis. Furthermore, MeOH-RR-induced apoptosis was confirmed by DNA fragmentation. The release of cytochrome c from mitochondria to cytosol, the level of Bcl-2 and Bax were examined by western blot analysis. Results : MeOH-RR reduced proliferation of HepG2 cells in a dose-dependent manner at 24 h and 48 h treatment. MeOH-RR induced the activation of caspase-3, -8, and -9 and the cleavage of poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP), a substrate for caspase-3. Furthermore, treatment with MeOH-RR resulted in internucleosomal DNA fragmentation, evidenced by the formation of a DNA ladder on agarose gel, a hallmark of cells undergoing apoptosis. MeOH-RR downregulated Bcl-2, upregulated Bax, and increased the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria into cytosol in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, MeOH-RP increased caspase-3 activity. Conclusion : There results suggest that MeOH-RR induce apoptosis via mitochondrial pathway and caspase-3-dependent pathway in HepG2 cells. There results suggest that MeOH-RR is potentially useful as a chemotherapeutic agent in human liver cancer.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.851-857
• /
• 2011

Sulforaphane (SFN) is an isothiocyanate, isolated from glucoraphanin in broccoli and other cruciferaous vegetables. Recent studies have revealed that SFN induces anti-proliferation and apoptosis by cell cycle arrest in various cancer cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of SFN induced apoptosis in chondrosarcoma HTB-94 cells. SFN caused suppression of proliferation and apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner as determined by cell phenotype, MTT assay and FACS analysis in HTB-94 cells. Treatment of SFN led to caspase-3 activation and p53 accumulation as determined by Western blot analysis. Also, SFN significantly induced DNA fragmentation and nuclear degradation though activation of caspase-3, as detected by DNA electrophoresis and immunostaining, respectively. Our results indicate that SFN-induced apoptosis was regulated by p53 and caspase-3 dependent pathways. Furthermore, SFN may act as a potent anti-proliferation agent, and as a promising candidate for molecular-targeting chemotherapy against human chondrosarcoma cells.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.23 no.8
• /
• pp.1050-1056
• /
• 2013

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia throughout the world. The bacteria invade through lung tissue and cause sepsis, shock, and serious sequelae, including rheumatic fever and acute glomerulonephritis. However, the molecular mechanism associated with pneumonia's penetration of lung tissue and invasion of the blood stream are still unclear. We attempted to investigate the host cell response at protein levels to S. pneumoniae D39 invasion using human lung cancer epithelial cells, A549. Streptococcus pneumoniae D39 began to change the morphology of A549 cells to become round with filopodia at 2 hours post-infection. A549 cell proteins obtained at each infection time point were separated by SDS-PAGE and analyzed using MALDI-TOF. We identified several endoplasmic reticulum (ER) resident proteins such as Grp94 and Grp78 and mitochondrial proteins such as ATP synthase and Hsp60 that increased after S. pneumoniae D39 infection. Cytosolic Hsc70 and Hsp90 were, however, identified to decrease. These proteins were also confirmed by Western blot analysis. The identified ER resident proteins were known to be induced during ER stress signaling. These/ data, therefore, suggest that S. pneumoniae D39 infection may induce ER stress.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.9
• /
• pp.3723-3727
• /
• 2015

The p53 tumor suppressor protein is a principal mediator of growth arrest, senescence, and apoptosis in response to a broad array of cellular damage. p53 is a substrate for the ubiquitin-proteasome system, however, the ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes (E2s) involved in p53 ubiquitination have not been well studied. UBE2Q1 is a novel E2 ubiquitin conjugating enzyme gene. Here, we investigated the effect of UBE2Q1 overexpression on the level of p53 in the MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cell line as well as the interaction between UBE2Q1 and p53. By using a lipofection method, the p53 mutated breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-468, was transfected with the vector pCMV6-AN-GFP, containing UBE2Q1 ORF. Western blot analysis was employed to verify the overexpression of UBE2Q1 in MDA-MB-468 cells and to evaluate the expression level of p53 before and after cell transfection. Immunoprecipitation and GST pull-down protocols were used to investigate the binding of UBE2Q1 to p53. We established MDA-MB-468 cells that transiently expressed a GFP fusion proteins containing UBE2Q1 (GFP-UBE2Q1). Western blot analysis revealed that levels of p53 were markedly lower in UBE2Q1 transfected MDA-MB-468 cells as compared with control MDA-MB-468 cells. Both in vivo and in vitro data showed that UBE2Q1 co-precipitated with p53 protein. Our data for the first time showed that overexpression of UBE2Q1can lead to the repression of p53 in MDA-MB-468 cells. This repression of p53 may be due to its UBE2Q1 mediated ubiquitination and subsequent proteasome degradation, a process that may involve direct interaction of UBE2Q1with p53.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.63-70
• /
• 2018

Brazzein is the smallest sweet protein and was isolated from the fruit pulp of Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baillon, native to tropical Africa. From ancient times, the indigenous people used this fruit in their diet to add sweetness to their daily food. Brazzein is 500 to 2000 times sweeter than sucrose on a weight basis and 9500 times sweeter on a molar basis. This unique property has led to increasing interest in this protein. However, it is expensive and difficult to produce brazzein other than in its native growing conditions which limits its availability for use as a food additive. In this study, we report high production yields of, brazzein protein in transgenic rice plants. An ORF region encoding brazzein and driven by the $2{\times}CaMV\;35S$ promoter was introduced into rice genome (Oryza sativa Japonica) via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. After transformation, 17 regenerated plant lines were obtained and these transgene-containing plants were confirmed by PCR analysis. In addition, the selected plant lines were analyzed by Taqman PCR and results showed that 9 T0 lines were found to have a single copy out of 17 transgenic plants. Moreover, high and genetically stable expression of brazzein was confirmed by western blot analysis. These results demonstrate that recombinant brazzein was efficiently expressed in transgenic rice plants, and that we have developed a new rice variety with a natural sweetener.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.297-306
• /
• 2004

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) were induced in cells in the thermal stress, and the HSP90 family is one of the major classes of HSPs. Gene encoding HSPs have been characterized from various mammals and piscine. We have cloned and sequenced the HSP90 cDNA from a brain cDNA library constructed from flounder (Paralichthys oliThe result of sequence analysis shows it to be the HSP90~. The nucleotide sequence of the HSP90$\beta$ was composed of 2791 long, encoding 726 amino acid residues. The flounder hsp90$\beta$ gene showed very high sequence homology with hsp90f3 of European sea bass (96.6%), zebrafish (92.9%), Atlantic salmon (92.0%) and human (89.5%). We also constructed a phylogenetic tree based on HSP90 amino acid sequences from vertebrate species. Gene-specific primers were selected and used in RT-PCR reactions to measure the basal hsp90$\beta$ mRNA. The hsp90f3 gene is constitutively expressed at a fairly high level in all examined tissues (brain, liver, kidney, muscle, and spleen). In order to express protein of flounder hsp90$\beta$ in E. coli, we used the His-tagged pETvector. Then, the expression of flounder HSP90$\beta$ was confirmed by Western blot analysis.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.88-94
• /
• 2009

The process of atherosclerosis begins through secretion of inflammatory cytokine or adhesion of leukocyte from damage in blood vessels and transmigration. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of delphinidin chloride (DC) in the initial process of atherosclerosis on the expression of ICAM-1 (Intracellular Adhesion Molecule-1) and VCAM-1 (Vascular Adhesion Molecule-1) related to adhesion of leukocyte at the HUVEC (human umbilical vein endothelial cell line. As a result, cell growth inhibition rate at 50 ${\mu}M$ was respectively 4, 3 and 5% without cell toxicity. As a result of morphological observation monocyte-endothelial cell adhesion assay and optical microscope carried out to measure attachment of mononuclear cells to endothelial cells induced by Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-$\alpha$) at concentrations without cell toxicity, DC concentration-dependently suppressed attachment. When effects on the expression of VCAM-1 and ICAM-1, cell adhesion molecules induced from endothelial cells by TNF-$\alpha$, were comparatively analyzed using western blot analysis and RT-PCR methods, protein of VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 and expression at the level of mRNA were concentration-dependently reduced. Taken together, the results of this studies provide evidence that DC possess an anti-metastatic activity.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.403-413
• /
• 2020

While searching for useful microorganisms, Saccharomycopsis fibuligera which can be used as cosmetic materials were divided from Jeju island's traditional fermented foods. In this study, blackcurrant extract which contains a large amount of anthocyanin glycosides was fermented with S. fibuligera. HPLC analysis was performed to analyze the components of blackcurrant extract (BE) and fermented blackcurrant fruit extract (FBE). As a result, bio-conversion of delphinidin and cyanidin were able to be identified. In order to verify the anti-oxidant effect of BE and FBE, we investigated radical scavenging ability with DPPH and ABTS. In addition, to confirm anti-inflammatory effect, we investigated inhibition effect of nitric oxide (NO) production on lipopolysaccharide (LPS) - stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages, and inhibition effect of the expression of inflammatory-related proteins (iNOS, COX-2) by western blot analysis. As a result, as FBE has anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, we suggest that it might be used as an active ingredient for cosmetics.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.233-240
• /
• 2015

Some virulence proteins of Helicobacter pylori, such as vacuolating cytotoxic protein A (VacA) and cytotoxin-associated gene protein A (CagA) have been reported to be causative agents of various gastric diseases including chronic gastritis, gastric ulcer or gastric adenocarcinoma. The expression level of these virulence proteins can be regulated when H. pylori is exposed to the antibacterial agent, cyanidin 3-O-glucoside (C3G) as previously reported. In this study, we analyzed the quantitative change of various virulence proteins including CagA and VacA by C3G treatment. We used 2-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) to analyze the quantitative change of representative ten proteome components of H. pylori 60190 ($VacA^+/CagA^+$; standard strain of Eastern type). After 2-DE analysis, spot intensities were analyzed using ImageMaster$^{TM}$ 2-DE Platinum software then each spot was identified using matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) or peptide sequencing using Finnigan LCQ ion trap mass spectrometer (LC-MS/MS). Next, we selected major virulence proteins of H. pylori among quantitatively meaningful ten spots and confirmed the 2-DE results by Western blot analysis. These results suggest that cyanidin 3-O-glucoside can modulate a variety of H. pylori pathogenic determinants.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.18 no.8
• /
• pp.1042-1048
• /
• 2008

Prostate cancer is the most predominant cancer in men and related death rate increases every year. Till date, there is no effective therapy for androgen independent prostate cancer. To investigate the mechanism for cell growth inhibition or apoptosis in human androgen independent prostate cancer PC-3 cells after gamma irradiation. The aim of this study was to examine the potential of gamma irradiation to induce apoptosis in PC-3 cells and to assess the mechanism of gamma irradiation-induced apoptosis. Five different assays were employed in this study: cell proliferation assay, morphological assessments of apoptotic cells, DNA fragmentation analysis, quantification of apoptosis by annexin V (AV) and propidium iodide (PI) staning, and western blot analysis. Cell viability was inversely related to radiation dose. DAPI-positive cells were detected 48 hr after 40 Gy radiation exposure. And nuclear morphological changes of cells were observed by gamma irradiation. DNA ladder patterns in the cells exposed to gamma-radiation were appeared at 24 hr. Also, gamma irradiation induces apoptosis of PC-3 cells via Caspase3, Bax and PARP-dependent fashion.