• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.40 no.6
• /
• pp.493-498
• /
• 2016

In the present study, graphene oxide based polyurethane foams were manufactured as a part of the development process of mechanically strengthened polyurethane foam insulation material. This material is used in a liquefied natural gas carrier cargo containment system. The temperature of the containment system is $-163^{\circ}C$. First, graphene oxide was synthesized using the Hummers' method, and it was supplemented into polyol-isocyanate reagent by considering a different amount of graphene oxide weight percent. Then, a bulk form of graphene-oxide-polyurethane foam was manufactured. In order to investigate the cell stability of the graphene-oxide-polyurethane foam, its microstructural morphology was observed, and the effect of graphene oxide on microstructure of the polyurethane foam was investigated. In addition, the compressive strength of graphene-oxide-polyurethane foam was measured at ambient and cryogenic temperatures. The cryogenic tests were conducted in a cryogenic chamber equipped with universal testing machine to investigate mechanical and failure characteristics of the graphene-oxide-polyurethane foam. The results revealed that the additions of graphene oxide enhanced the mechanical characteristics of polyurethane foam. However, cell stability and mechanical strength of graphene-oxide-polyurethane foam decreased as the weight percent of graphene oxide was increased.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.94 no.1 s.158
• /
• pp.16-20
• /
• 2005

Tricholoma matsutake ectomycorrhizas are unique in their morphology: not bifurcated broom shaped roots with not easily wettable brilliant and profuse white hyphae. To understand these characteristics the ectomycorrhizas were investigated with electron microscopy. T. matsutake ectomycorrhiza have thin mantle and typical Hartig net development in the epidermis and cortex, but no fungal mantle on the root apex. There were no penetrating hyphae inside of the cells of either epidermis, cortex or stele. Inside of the walls of epidermis and cortex cells are lined with ca. $2{\mu}m$ hemispherical amyloplasts. The brilliant hyphal surface was covered with various fine amorphous granules. The hyphal cell wall was thin membrane less than $0.3{\mu}m$ thick. There is no clamp connection on the hyphae. This thin membraneous cell wall with high elasticity can be related to survival strategy of the species without plasmolysis under frequent soil water stress environment. And the coarse hyphal surface with some water repellency can control sudden inrush of water of the hyphae with an extremely low osmotic potential. It is concluded that no mantle on the tip can induce mycorrhizas not bifurcated and that finely coarse surface of T. matsutake hyphae can make the hyphae brilliantly white but less wetted.

• Applied Microscopy
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.63-77
• /
• 1994

This experiment was performed to study the morphological responses of the epidermis of the rat scalp, following X-ray irradiation. Male rats were divided into normal and experimental groups. Rats anesthetized with sodium thiopental, were exposed only on their head areas with a single dose of 3,000rads or 6,000rads, respectively. Radiation was produced by Mitsubishi Linea Accelerator ML-4MV at the speed of 200rads/min. The target distance was 80cm. Animals were sacrificed on six hours, two days and six days following irradiation. By the perfusion fixation through the heart, rats were fixed with 1% glutaraldehyde-1% paraformaldehyde solution. Pieces of the tissue taken from the scalp were refixed in 2.5% glutaraldehyde-1.5% paraformaldehyde solution, followed by post-fixation with 1% osmium tetroxide, and embedded within araldite mixture. The sections were cut on a LKB-V ultratome, stained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate, and were observed with JEM 100CX-II electron microscope. The results were as follow; 1. Six hours after exposure to 3,000rads of X-ray. Disrupted intercellular spaces, within which some amorphous materials were filled, disrupted mitochondria, and vacuoles in the keratinocytes were frequently observed, but six days after exposure to 3,000rads of X-ray, Morphology of the keratinocytes was generally restored. 2. Many of the morphological changes were seen on the six days after exposure to 6,000rads of X-ray. 3. Widened intercellular spaces and thickened dense plaques of the desmosomes were frequently observed after exposure to 6,000rads of X-ray. 4. In the experimental groups, the Langerhans and the Merkel cells were damaged, similarly to the keratinocyte. Above results suggest that head irradiation with the dose of 3,000rads temporarily damaged the epidermis of the scalp, though most of the structures recover within six days, whereas with the dose of 6,000rads it severely damaged the epidermis without showing any recovering tendency.

• The Journal of Korean Society of Virology
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.129-136
• /
• 1999

Transient transfection assay has been done to evaluate whether the c-jun activation would be prerequisite to the induction of permissiveness against human cytomegalovirus using in vitro cell model in which U937 has been induced to express CD11b and CD14 to become potential monocyte/macrophage cells by TPA treatment. U937 cells were treated with $10\;{\mu}M$, $50\;{\mu}M$ or $100\;{\mu}M$ of TPA. The cell morphology change was observed and the expression of the CD11b and CD14 was confirmed by FACS. Differentiated cells were transfected with pJLuc reporter vector which contained the wild type murine c-jun promoter spanning the SP1, CTF, ATF/CREB and MEF-2 binding sites upstream of the firefly luciferase gene. After 48 hrs of transfection, the cells were infected with HCMV Towne strain and the luciferase activity was assessed at 1 hand 4 h pi. The transfection assay showed no activation of the c-jun promoter at 1 h pi, instead, it showed 2 times increase of the its activity at 4 h pi. There was no difference of the c-jun promoter activation between TPA treated and untreated U937 cells, implying that c-jun activation might not be prerequisite for allowing cells to be premissive to HCMV, although HCMV infection itself could activate c-jun promoter.

• 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.

• Development and Reproduction
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.53-58
• /
• 1999

The androgenic gland secretes a hormone, androgenic gland hormone, which is believed to act on the differentiation of the primary, secondary, and behavioral sex characteristics in most malacostracan crustaceans. This report presents the ultrastructural morphology of the androgenic gland in the freshwater prawn Macrobrachium nipponense. This gland, located in the coxopodite of the last pair of walking legs, was attached to the subterminal region of the sperm duct. The gland was composed of simple cellular strands, encased by a fibrous sheath. Microvilli were situated in the fibrous sheath, especially at the edge of each cellular strand. The androgenic gland cells had the large and round nucleus and rough endoplasmic reticulum arranged either in spirals or in concentric circles throughout the cytoplasm of the cell. They also had the well-developed Golgi complex and long mitochondria with flat and transverse cristae. The Golgi complex was similar to microvesicular cluster, but usually in the shape of typical dictyosomes, These features of androgenic gland cells coincides well with the protein/peptide secretion in their function. However, despite the apparent ultastructual equipment for protein/peptide secretion, no accumulation of materials secreted were noticed in the cytoplasm. Therefore it is strongly suggested that the transient transportation of the materials into the hemocoel has occurred just after synthesis.

• Development and Reproduction
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.173-181
• /
• 2009

One of the most extensively studied populations of multipotent adult stem cells are mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). MSCs derived from the human umbilical cord vein (HUC-MSCs) are morphologically and immunophenotypically similar to MSCs isolated from bone marrow. HUC-MSCs are multipotent stem cells, differ from hematopoietic stem cells and can be differentiated into neural cells. Since neural tissue has limited intrinsic capacity of repair after injury, the identification of alternate sources of neural stem cells has broad clinical potential. We isolated mesenchymal-like stem cells from the human umbilical cord vein, and studied transdifferentiation-promoting conditions in neural cells. Dopaminergic neuronal differentiation of HUC-MSCs was also studied. Neural differentiation was induced by adding bFGF, EGF, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) in N2 medium and N2 supplement. The immunoreactive cells for $\beta$-tubulin III, a neuron-specific marker, GFAP, an astrocyte marker, or Gal-C, an oligodendrocyte marker, were found. HUC-MSCs treated with bFGF, SHH and FGF8 were differentiated into dopaminergic neurons that were immunopositive for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) antibody. HUC-MSCs treated with DMSO and BHA rapidly showed the morphology of multipolar neurons. Both immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR analysis indicated that the expression of a number of neural markers including NeuroD1, $\beta$-tubulin III, GFAP and nestin was markedly elevated during this acute differentiation. While the stem cell markers such as SCF, C-kit, and Stat-3 were not expressed after neural differentiation, we confirmed the differentiation of dopaminergic neurons by TH/$\beta$-tubulin III positive cells. In conclusion, HUC-MSCs can be differentiated into dopaminergic neurons and these findings suggest that HUC-MSCs are alternative cell source of therapeutic treatment for neurodegenerative diseases.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.291-295
• /
• 2004

Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) (RB) is a leguminous shrub native to the mountainous areas of the northwestern Cape Province in South Africa. RB tea infusions are the fermentation products of its leaves and fine sterns, and known to have a high antioxidative activity due to the presence of flavonoids and phenolic acids. We investigated the effects of RB tea on the alleviation of oxidative stress on cultured rat cortical neurons in a hypoxic model. Measurement of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) released into culture media revealed that RB increased cell viabilities in both normoxia (6-18%) and hypoxia (2-24%) dose-dependently (10-100 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml) on 16 days in vitro (3 days after treatment). Visualization of cell morphology by expression of GFP-Hsc70 fusion protein showed that RB (50 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml) reduced the average vacuolated soma from 55.4$\pm$4.59% (no RB addition) to 40.9$\pm$6.3% (RB addition) on 5 days after hypoxia. Our results proves efficacy of RB in the neuroprotection of hypoxic neurons and extend application for RB into the prevention and/or treatment of neuronal damages.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.24 no.7
• /
• pp.721-727
• /
• 2014

Mushroom-derived ${\beta}$-glucan, a polysaccharide (GLP) isolated from the mycelium of Ganoderma lucidum, was previously shown to have inhibitory effects against tumor-bearing mice in vivo. We investigated the apoptotic effect of mushroom-derived ${\beta}$-glucan in a sarcoma-180 tumor cell- bearing mice model using an ELISA to determine the levels of tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF-${\alpha}$) in the mice. The morphology of the tumor cells was assessed with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). GLP was injected into the tumor-bearing mice at a dose (i.p.) of 20 mg/kg for 10 days. After 30 days, the tumor mass from the inguinal region was collected, weighed, and assayed using TEM and a TNF-${\alpha}$ ELISA kit. The tumors that developed in the mice treated with GLP were 71.4% smaller than those in the control group, showing the ability of GLP to inhibit tumor growth. The levels of TNF-${\alpha}$ in the serum of the sarcoma-180 bearing mice were 12 times greater than in the serum of the nonbearing tumor mice. An ultrastructural study demonstrated that the GLP-treated sarcoma-180 tumor cells were condensed, with rearranged chromatin. In addition, the marginated chromatin in nucleus induced the nuclear compartment, and there were many vacuolization in the cell. GLP could be an effective apoptosis-inducing compound in sarcoma-type cancers.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.217-220
• /
• 1981

A trematode, Cercaria tapidis which is parasitic to short necked clam, Tapes philippinarum was studied in terms of its morphology and incidence of infection rate. The host bivalve was collected from Solri near Gunsan from September 1980 to August 1981. Sporocysts were observed mainly in tissues of gonad of the short necked clams. Minimum infection rate ($0.85\%$) was found in May, while maximum infection rate ($23.27\%$) in December. The sporocyst is 1.1 mm long and 0.27 mm wide. Ellipsoidal body of cercaria is $283{\mu}m$ long and $120{\mu}m$ wide. Oral sucker is much larger than ventral sucker. Moderately small pharynx, a long esophagus, and a long intestine reaching to the posterior end of the body are distinctive. Globular excretory bladder is located at the posterior part of the body and bears numerous granules of various size. The flame-cell arrangement is represented by a formula 2[(3+3+3)+(3+3)]=30. Tail is five times body length.