• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.1324-1329
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• 2007

Resveratrol (3,5,4'-trihydroxystilbene) is a naturally occurring, multi-biofunctional chemical existing in grapes and various other plants as a polyphenol type, and it is one of the best known natural anticancer and antiatherosclerosis reagents. In this study, we investigated the antifungal action by resveratrol in Candida albicans, which is a human infectious fungi as an agent of candidiasis. Resveratrol displayed potent fungicidal activity in an energy-dependent manner, without any hemolytic effects against human erythrocytes. It was found that the serum-induced mycelial forms, which playa crucial role in the pathogenesis of C. albicans during host tissue invasion, were disrupted by resveratrol. To understand the correlation between lethal effects and resveratrol action, we examined the physiological changes of C. albicans. A significant accumulation of intracellular trehalose was induced by stress responses to resveratrol action, and a remarkable arrest of cell-cycle processes at the S-phase in C. albicans occured. Therefore, the fungicidal effects of resveratrol demonstrate that this compound is a potential candidate as an antifungal agent in treating infectious diseases by candidal infections.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.465-473
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• 2011

Dietary fatty acids are under intense research to identify anti-atherogenic mechanisms, so we investigated green tea powder (GT) as a protector against atherogenesis originating from lipid peroxidation such as 4-hydroxynonemal (4-HNE) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in different dietary fatty acid-treated apo E KO mice. Growth rate and dietary efficiency were lower in apo E KO mice with or without LA compared to wild type. Plasma total cholesterol (TC) and triacylglycerol (TG) did not correspond to values in other tissues, but TG in heart tissue decreased significantly by GT after linoleic acid (LA) or docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) was administered. LA induced apoptosis as evidenced by changes in aorta morphology and immunohistochemistry. Lipid peroxides (LPO) was increased in apo E KO mice with or without LA corresponding to the accumulation of 4-HNE or MDA in the proximal aorta above the atria. GT consumption tended to reduce the primary causal mechanism of atherogenic phenomena such as oxidizability in both LA and DHA treated atherogenic mice. A high polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) diet involved the changes on stress-induced apoptotic signaling by increasing caspase 3, cytochrome c, and nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ in the heart tissue, but decreasing the bcl-2 protein. However, GT remarkably reduced the expression of apoptotic signaling, in contrast to the PUFA diet. Therefore, the potential of GT as an anti-atherosclerotic dietary antioxidant was tested in this study.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.155-161
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• 2015

Background: Korean ginseng is an ethnopharmacologically valuable herbal plant with various biological properties including anticancer, antiatherosclerosis, antidiabetic, and anti-inflammatory activities. Since there is currently no drug or therapeutic remedy derived from Korean ginseng, we developed a ginsenoside-enriched fraction (AP-SF) for prevention of various inflammatory symptoms. Methods: The anti-inflammatory efficacy of AP-SF was tested under in vitro inflammatory conditions including nitric oxide (NO) production and inflammatory gene expression. The molecular events of inflammatory responses were explored by immunoblot analysis. Results: AP-SF led to a significant suppression of NO production compared with a conventional Korean ginseng saponin fraction, induced by both lipopolysaccharide and zymosan A. Interestingly, AP-SF strongly downregulated the mRNA levels of genes for inducible NO synthase, tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$, and cyclooxygenase) without affecting cell viability. In agreement with these observations, AP-SF blocked the nuclear translocation of c-Jun at 2 h and also reduced phosphorylation of p38, c-Jun N-terminal kinase, and TAK-1, all of which are important for c-Jun translocation. Conclusion: Our results suggest that AP-SF inhibits activation of c-Jun-dependent inflammatory events. Thus, AP-SF may be useful as a novel anti-inflammatory remedy.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.1145-1151
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• 2009

This study was performed to investigate the effects of Sineui-Dae (Sasa coreana Nakai, a kind of bamboo) extracts on the improvement of serum lipid composition by using rats fed a hypercholesterol diet for 4 weeks. The experiment animals were administered with the following diets; high cholesterol diet group (HC diet) as a control and three supplemented groups with high cholesterol diets (HCW, HCM or HCH diet). Three kinds of extracts were prepared by orderly extraction with hexane, methanol, and water. We measured free cholesterol, cholesteryl ester, total cholesterol LDL- and HDL-cholesterol triglyceride and phospholipid in the serum of rats in three experimental and control groups. There were no significant differences in body weights and feed intakes between the HC control group and the extract supplemented groups. The levels of total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol in the serum of extract supplemented groups were lower than that of the group fed with HC diet only. Serum HDL-cholesterol levet which is known as an antiatherosclerosis factor, was higher in all groups supplemented with bamboo extract by 17.2-21.9% compared to the HC control group. All groups supplemented with bamboo extracts showed the lowering effect of atherogenic index compared to the HC control group (HC group: 2.96${\pm}$0.08, HCM group: 1.48${\pm}$0.02, HCW group: 1.69${\pm}$0.04, HCH group: 1.84${\pm}$0.01). Furthermore, serum triglyceride and phospholipid decreased significantly in the HCM diet compared to the HC control diet. These results suggest that Sineui-Dae bamboo extract, especially methanol extract, has improving effects on hyperlipidemia of rats fed a high cholesterol diet.