• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1020-1030
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• 2017

Epidemiology studies have reported a reduced incidence of colon cancer among populations that consume a large quantity of ${\omega}3-polyunsaturated$ fatty acids (${\omega}3-PUFAs$) of marine origin. Herein, we demonstrated a mechanism of anticancer action of ${\omega}3-PUFAs$, showing that they suppressed invasion and tumorigenicity in colon cancer cells. Docosahexaenoic acids (DHA) inhibited the cell growth of HT29 cells. This action likely involved apoptosis, given that the DHA treatment increased the cleaved form of PARP and sub G1 cells. Moreover, the invasiveness of HT29 cells was inhibited following DHA treatment, whereas arachidonic acid (AA) had no effect. The levels of Matrix-metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and MMP-2 mRNA decreased after DHA pretreatment. DHA treatment inhibited MMP-9 and MMP-2 promoter activities and reduced VEGF promoter activity. DHA pretreatment also inhibited the activities of prostaglandin-2 (PGE2)-induced MMPs and the VEGF promoter. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) overexpression increased the activity of MMPs and that of the Vascular endotherial growth factor (VEGF) promoter in HT29 cells, and DHA inhibited NF-kB and COX-2 promoter reporter activities. As shown by in vivo experiments, when mouse colon cancer cells (MCA38) were implanted into Fat-1 and wild-type mice, both the tumoral size and volume were dramatically inhibited in Fat-1 transgenic mice. Furthermore, TUNEL-positive cells increased in tumors from Fat-1 mice compared with wild mice. In immunohistochemistry, the intensity of CD31 in Fat-1 tumors was weaker. These findings suggest that ${\omega}3-PUFAs$ may inhibit tumorigenicity and angiogenesis as well as cancer cell invasion by suppression of COX-2, MMPs and VEGF via the reduction of NF-kB in colon cancer.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.561-567
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• 1995

Using superoxide dismutase (SOD)-deficient mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the oxygen toxicity induced by paraquat was studied. In aerobic culture condition, yeasts lacking MnSOD (milochondrial SOD) showed more significant growth retardation than CuZnSOD (cytoplasmic SOD)-deficient yeasts. However, not so big differences in growth pattern of those mutants compared with wild type were observed under anaerobic condition. When exposed to paraquat, the growth of yeasts lacking CuZnSOD was severely affected by higher than 0.01mM of paraquat in culture medium. By the analysis of several cellular components ivolved in free radical generating and scavenging system, it was found that, under aerobic condition, the content of lipid peroxides in cell membrane as well as cellular activity of glutathion peroxidase of CuZnSOD-deficient mutants was increased in the presence of paraquat, although significant decrease of catalase activity was observed in those stratns. In MnSOD-deficient yeast, however, increment in cellular activity of glutathion peroxldase and catalase by paraquat was observed without any deterioration of membrane lipid. It implies that the lack of mitochondrial SOD could be compensated by both of glutathion peroxldase and catalase, but that only glutathion peroxidase might act for CuZnSOD in cytoplasm. In contrast, all of SOD-deficient mutants showed a significant decrease in catalase activity, but slight increase in the activities of glutathion peroxidase, when cultivated anaerobically in the medium containing paraquat. Nevertheless, any significant changes of lipid peroxides in cell membranes were not observed during anaerobic cultivation of SOD-deficient mutants. It suggests that a little amount of free radicals generated by paraquat under anaerobic condition could be sufficiently overcome by glutathion peroxidase but not by catalase.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2012

This study's aim was to isolate microorganisms producing agarase with a high activity, with possible applications in improving the performance of the pretreatment processes for bioethanol production. Marine algaes were collected from the south coast of Korea, from which three kinds of microorganisms were isolated. After a 4-day culture of these strains at $25^{\circ}C$, crude enzymes were obtained from culture supernatant or cell-free extract by ammonium sulfate precipitation and membrane dialysis. Agarase activity was observed in these crude enzymes. Notably higher specific activity was observed in the crude enzyme obtained from the culture supernatant rather than that from the cell-free extract. This indicates that a secreted enzyme has a much greater activity than a cellular enzyme. Crude enzymes from the GNUM08122 strain were inferred to have ${\alpha}$-agarase activity because release of p-nitrophenol was observed, possibly due to the cleavage of p-nitrophenyl-${\alpha}$-D-galactopyranoside. The 16S rRNA sequence of GNUM08122 showed a close relationship to Pseudoalteromonas issachenkonii KMM 3549 (99.8%) and Pseudoalteromonas tetraodonis IMA 14160 (99.7%), which led us to assign it to the genus Pseudoalteromonas. Biochemical and physiological study revealed that this strain can grow well at $40^{\circ}C$ under a wide range of pH (pH 4~8) in high-salt conditions (10% NaCl).

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.19-28
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• 2012

After the internet era, we are moving to the ubiquitous society. Nowadays the people are interested in the multimodal interaction technology, which enables audience to naturally interact with the computing environment at the exhibitions such as gallery, museum, and park. Also, there are other attempts to provide additional service based on the location information of the audience, or to improve and deploy interaction between subjects and audience by analyzing the using pattern of the people. In order to provide multimodal interaction service to the audience at the exhibition, it is important to distinguish the individuals and trace their location and route. For the location tracking on the outside, GPS is widely used nowadays. GPS is able to get the real time location of the subjects moving fast, so this is one of the important technologies in the field requiring location tracking service. However, as GPS uses the location tracking method using satellites, the service cannot be used on the inside, because it cannot catch the satellite signal. For this reason, the studies about inside location tracking are going on using very short range communication service such as ZigBee, UWB, RFID, as well as using mobile communication network and wireless lan service. However these technologies have shortcomings in that the audience needs to use additional sensor device and it becomes difficult and expensive as the density of the target area gets higher. In addition, the usual exhibition environment has many obstacles for the network, which makes the performance of the system to fall. Above all these things, the biggest problem is that the interaction method using the devices based on the old technologies cannot provide natural service to the users. Plus the system uses sensor recognition method, so multiple users should equip the devices. Therefore, there is the limitation in the number of the users that can use the system simultaneously. In order to make up for these shortcomings, in this study we suggest a technology that gets the exact location information of the users through the location mapping technology using Wi-Fi and 3d camera of the smartphones. We applied the signal amplitude of access point using wireless lan, to develop inside location tracking system with lower price. AP is cheaper than other devices used in other tracking techniques, and by installing the software to the user's mobile device it can be directly used as the tracking system device. We used the Microsoft Kinect sensor for the 3D Camera. Kinect is equippedwith the function discriminating the depth and human information inside the shooting area. Therefore it is appropriate to extract user's body, vector, and acceleration information with low price. We confirm the location of the audience using the cell ID obtained from the Wi-Fi signal. By using smartphones as the basic device for the location service, we solve the problems of additional tagging device and provide environment that multiple users can get the interaction service simultaneously. 3d cameras located at each cell areas get the exact location and status information of the users. The 3d cameras are connected to the Camera Client, calculate the mapping information aligned to each cells, get the exact information of the users, and get the status and pattern information of the audience. The location mapping technique of Camera Client decreases the error rate that occurs on the inside location service, increases accuracy of individual discrimination in the area through the individual discrimination based on body information, and establishes the foundation of the multimodal interaction technology at the exhibition. Calculated data and information enables the users to get the appropriate interaction service through the main server.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.39 no.4 s.261
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• pp.261-268
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• 2006

Background: Current vascular prostheses are still inadequate for reconstruction of small-diameter vessels. Autologous pericardium can be a good alternative for this purpose as it already possesses good blood compatibility and shows a mechanical behavior similar to that of natural arteries. However, the clinical use of autologous pericardial tissue as a small-diameter vascular graft has limitations due to mixed outcomes from uncertain biological behavior and difficulty to gain reliable patency results in animal experiments. To study this issue, we implanted fresh and glutaraldehyde-treated autologous pericardium as small-diameter arterial grafts in dogs, and compared their time-related changes histologically. Material and Method: As a form of 5mm-diameter arterial graft, one pair of autologous pericardial tissue was used for comparison between the glutaraldehyde-treated and the glutaraldehyde-untreated grafts in the bilateral carotid arteries in the same dog. The patency of the grafts were evaluated at regular intervals with Doppler ultrasonography. After the predetermined periods of 3 days, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months, the grafts in each animal were explanted. The retrieved grafts were processed for light and electron microscopic analyses following gross observation. Result: Of 7 animals, 2 were excluded from the study because one died postoperatively due to bleeding and the other was documented as one side of the grafts being obstructed. All 10 grafts in the remaining 5 dogs were patent. Grossly, a variable degree of thromboses were observed in the luminal surfaces of the grafts at 3 days and 2 weeks, despite good patency. Pseudointimal smooth blood-contacting surfaces were developed in the grafts at f month and later. By light microscopy, mesothelial cell layers of the pericardial tissue were absent in all explanted grafts. Newly formed endothelial cell layers on the blood-contacting surface were observed in both the glutaraldehyde-treated and fresh grafts at 3 months and later. The collagen fibers became degraded by fragmentation in the fresh graft at 1 month and In the glutaraldehyde-treated graft at 3 months. At 6 months, the collagen layers were no longer visible in either the glutaraldehyde-treated or fresh grafts. By electron microscopy, a greater amount of coarse fibrin fibers were observed in the fresh grafts than in the glutaraldehyde-treated grafts and, more compact and well-arrayed layers were observed in the glutaraldehyde-treated grafts than in the fresh grafts. Conclusion: The glutaraldehyde-treated small-diameter pericardial arterial grafts showed a better endothelialization of the blood-contacting surface and a slower fragmentation of the collagen layers than the fresh grafts, although it has yet to be proven whether these differences are so significant as to affect the patency results between the groups.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1467-1476
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• 2006

This study was to evaluate the effect of Bulhwangeumjeonggi-san (BS) on mouse Th1 and Th2 cells' differentiation and ovalbumin (OVA)-induced allergic inflammation. The proliferation of mouse CD4 T cells and the secretion of Th1/Th2 cytokines under the influence of BS extract were measured as well as the amount ${\beta}$-hexosaminidase in RBL-wH3 cells and the levels of TNF-${\alpha}$ and IL-6 secretion in Raw264.7 cells. BALB/c mice were orally administered with BS extract and simultaneously inoculated with OVA to induce allergic reaction and measure the level of total lgE, OVA-specific lgE and the production of IFN- g, IL-4, IL-5 by the spleen cells. When mouse CD4- T cell were stimulated with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 for 48 hours in various concentrations of BS extract, it increased proliferation of CD4 cells by 14% in 50 ${\mu}g/m{\ell}$ concentration but it showed an inhibition in higher concentrations. CD4 T cells under Th1/Th2 polarizing conditions for 3 days with BS resulted in mild decrease of IFN- g in Th1 cells and mild increase of IL-4 in Th2 cell at 50 ${\mu}g/m{\ell}$ but the level of IL-4 decreased by 18% at 100 ${\mu}g/m{\ell}$. BS extract had a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on antigen-induced release of ${\beta}$-hexosaminidase in RBL-2H3 cells. Treatment of BS extract on LPS stimulated Raw 264.7 cells showed dose-dependent decrease in TNF-${\alpha}$ production. Oral administration of BS extract on OVA-induced allergic mice showed an inhibitory effect on the levels of total serum lgE and OVA-specific lgE by 50% and 55%, respectively. Culture of spleen cells with OVA resulted in significant increase of IFN- g by 25% and significant decrease of IL-4 and IL-5 by 53%, and 38%, respectively. The results show that BS does not strongly induce mouse T cells to transform into Th1 or Th2 but it has an anti-allergic effect in vitro, and that it also corrects the unbalance between the reactions of Th cells in allergic diseases.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.79-92
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• 2007

Oxidative stress have known to be a risk factor for the degenerative processes and closely related to a lot of diseases. It is well established that antioxidants are good in protection and therapeutic means against oxidative damage. There is increasing interest in natural antioxidants and many natural antioxidants have been found and utilized as the possible protection for various diseases and skin aging. We have screened natural antioxidant agents for cosmeceuticals, nutraceuticals, and drugs as therapeutic and preventive means against oxidative stress, and have developed a number of novel antioxidants from various natural sources. A novel melanin synthesis inhibitor, Melanocin A, isolated from the metabolite of a fungal strain Eupenicillium shearii F80695 inhibited mushroom tyrosinase and melanin biosynthesis of B16 melanoma cells with $IC_{50}$ value of 9.0 nM and MIC value of $0.9\;{\mu}M$, respectively. Melanocin A also exhibited potent antioxidant activity by scavenging of DPPH and superoxide anion radicals. UV was found to increase the level of hydrogen peroxides and other reactive oxygen species (ROS) in skin tissues. This increase in ROS may not only alter the structure and function of many genes and proteins directly but may also modulate their expressions through signal transduction pathways and, ultimately, lead to skin damage. We investigated the effect of Melanocin A on UV-induced premature skin aging. Firstly, the effect of Melanocin A on UV-induced matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 expression in an immortalized human keratinocyte cell line, HaCaT in vitro was investigated. Acute UV irradiation induced MMP-9 expression at both the mRNA and protein levels and Melanocin A suppressed this expression in a dose-dependent manner. We then investigated UV-induced skin changes in hairless mice in vivo by Melanocin A. Chronic exposure of hairless mouse dorsal skin to UV increased skin thickness and induced wrinkle formation and the gelatinase activities of MMP-2 and MMP-9. Moreover, Melanocin A significantly suppressed UV-induced morphologic skin changes and MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression. These results show that Melanocin A can prevent the harmful effects of UV that lead to skin aging. Therefore, we suggest that Melanocin A should be viewed as a potential therapeutic agent for preventing and/or treating premature skin aging. Terrein is a bioactive fungal metabolite isolated from Penicillium species. Terrein has a relatively simple structure and can be easily synthesized. However, the biologic effects of terrein are comparatively unknown. We found for the first time that terrein potently inhibit melanin production in melanocytes and has a strong hypopigmentary effect in a spontaneously immortalized mouse melanocyte cell line, Mel-Ab. Treatment of Mel-Ab cells with terrein (10-100 mM) for 4 days significantly reduced melanin levels in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, terrein at the same concentration also reduced tyrosinase activity. We then investigated whether terrein influences the extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) pathway and the expression of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF), which is required for tyrosinase expression. Terrein was found to induce sustained ERK activation and MITF down-regulation, and luciferase assays showed that terrein inhibits MITF promoter activity in a dose-dependent manner. To elucidate the correlation between ERK pathway activation and a decreased MITF transcriptional level, PD98059, a specific inhibitor of the ERK pathway, was applied before terrain treatment and found to abrogate the terrein-induced MITF attenuation. Terrein also reduced the tyrosinase protein level for at least 72 h. These results suggest that terrain reduces melanin synthesis by reducing tyrosinase production via ERK activation, and that this is followed by MITF down-regulation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.300-308
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• 2011

Osteoporosis is a disease involving a decrease in bone mineral density and increased risk of fractures. Osteoblast and osteoclast activities are important for bone formation. The MC3T3-E1 osteoblastic cell line is a well-accepted model of osteogellsis in vitro. Hijikia fusiforme is a kind of edible brown seaweed that grows mainly in the Northwest Pacific region, including the countries of Korea, Japan and China, and it has been widely used as a medicinal and health food in Korea. In this study, by using osteoblasts, the effects of Hijikia fusiforme fractions on proliferation, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, collagen synthesis and mineralization of cells were investigated. Hijikia fusiforme were subjected to fractionation by using hexane, methanol, butanol and aqueous. Proliferation of the MC3T3-E1 osteoblastic cells that were treated with Hijikia fusiforme fractions increased by approximately 120%. Regarding effects of Hijikia fusiforme fractions on ALP activity, 1 ${\mu}g$/ml butanol fraction showed the highest activity. The synthesis of collagen increased significantly in response to treatment with Hijikia fusiforme fractions, with the exception of the hexane fraction. Moreover, mineralization in the MC3T3-E1 cells that were treated with 100 ${\mu}g$/ml butanol fraction increased by 281%. Also, when 100 ${\mu}g$/ml aqueous fraction was added, mineralization increased by 240%. These results indicate that Hijikia fusiforme fractions have anabolic effect on bone through the promotion of osteoblastic differentiation, suggesting that it could be used for the treatment of common metabolic bone diseases.

• Laboratory Medicine Online
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.163-169
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• 2017

Background: An automated immunohematology analyzer, DAYMATE M (DAY Medical, Switzerland), has been recently developed. The potential of this analyzer to improve test results has been evaluated. Methods: A total of 300 blood samples from Seoul St. Mary's hospital and Incheon St. Mary's hospital were tested for ABO and RhD typing. In addition, 336 antibody screening test (AST) samples and 82 patients treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) were included. AST results by DAYMATE M were compared with those obtained by a manual method using DS-Screening II (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Switzerland) and red blood cells from Selectogen (Ortho-Clinical diagnostics Inc., USA). Results: Of the 300 patients enrolled, 87, 73, 79, and 61 had type A, B, O, and AB blood, respectively. The concordance rate was 99.9% for cell typing and 97.0% for serum typing. One discordant case was classified as type B instead of AB, and six discordant serum-typing cases were type A, but classified as type AB. Among the 336 AST samples, the concordance rate was 93.2%. From 136 positive cases, six were discordant. Within the 82 HSCT-treated patients, the concordance rate for ABO blood typing was 92.2%. Among the six discordant cases, DAYMATE M typed four cases as donor type where the standard method typed them as the recipient blood type. Conclusions: The DAYMATE M automated immunohematology analyzer performs reliably for ABO and RhD typing, as well as for ASTs and on samples from patients treated with HSCT.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2019.04a
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• pp.21-22
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• 2019

Melanin is a mixture of pigmented biopolymers synthesized by epidermal melanocytes that determine the skin, eye, and hair colors. Melanocytes produce two different kinds of melanin, eumelanin (dark brown/black insoluble pigments found in dark skin and dark hair and pheomelanin (lighter red/yellow). The biological role of melanin is to prevent skin damage by ultraviolet (UV) radiation. However, the overproduction or deficiency of melanin synthesis could lead to serious dermatological problems, which include melasma, melanoderma, lentigo, and vitiligo. Therefore, regulating melanin production is important to prevent the pigmentation disorders. Myanmar has a rich in natural resources. However, the chemical constituents of these natural resources in Myanmar have not been fully investigated. In the effort to search for compounds with anti-melanin deposition activity from Myanmar natural resources, five plants were collected in Myanmar. Extracts of these collected five plants were tested for anti-melanin deposition activity against a mouse melanoma cell line (B16-F10) induced with ${\alpha}$-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (${\alpha}$-MSH) and 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX), and their anti-melanin deposition activities were compared with the positive control, arbutin. Among the tested extracts, the CHCl3 extracts of the Premna serratifolia (syn: P. integrifolia) wood showed anti-melanin deposition activities with IC50 values of $81.3{\mu}g/mL$. Hence, this study aims to identify secondary metabolites with anti-melanin deposition activity from P. serratifolia wood of Myanmar. P. serratifolia belongs to the Verbenaceae family and is widely distributed in near western sea coast from South Asia to South East Asia, which include India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. People in Tanintharyi region located in the southern part of Myanmar utilize the P. serratifolia, Sperethusa crenulata, Naringi crenulata, and Limonia acidissima as Thanaka, traditional cosmetics in Myanmar. Thanaka is applied in the form of paste onto skins to make it smooth and clear, as well as to prevent wrinkles, skin aging, excessive facial oil, pimples, blackheads, and whiteheads. However, the chemical constituents responsible for their cosmetic properties are yet to be identified. Moreover, the chemical constituents of P. serratifolia was almost uncharacterized. Investigation of the P. serratifolia chemical constituents is thus an attractive endeavor to discover new anti-melanin deposition active compounds. The investigation of the chemical constituents of the active CHCl3 extract of P. serratifolia led to isolation of four new lignoids, premnan A (1), premnan B (2), taungtangyiol C (3), and 7,9-dihydroxydolichanthin B (4), together with premnan C (5) (assumed to be an artifact), one natural newlignoid,(3R,4S)-4-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-ylcarbonyl)-3-[(R)-1-(1,3-benzo dioxol-5-yl)-1-hydroxy methyl]tetrahydro-2-furanone (6), and five known compounds (7-11)1,2). The structures of all isolated compounds were determined on the basis of their spectroscopic data and by comparison with the reported literatures. The absolute configurations of 1-3 and 5 were also determined by optical rotation and circular dichroism (CD) data analyses1). The anti-melanin deposition activities of all the isolated compounds were evaluated against B16-F10 cell line. 7,9-Dihydroxydolichanthin B (4) and ($2{\alpha},3{\alpha}$)-olean-12-en-28-oic acid (11) showed strong anti-melanin deposition activities with IC50 values of 18.4 and $11.2{\mu}M$, respectively, without cytotoxicity2). On the other hand, compounds 1-3, 5, and 7 showed melanogenesis enhancing activities1). To better understand their anti-melanin deposition mechanism, the effects of 4 and 11 on tyrosinase activities were investigated. The assay indicated that compounds 4 and 11 did not inhibit tyrosinase. Furthermore, we also examined the mRNA expression of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF), tyrosinase (TYR), tyrosinase-related protein-1 (TRP-1), and tyrosinase-related protein-2 (TRP-2). Compounds 4 and 11 down-regulated the expression of Tyr and Mitf mRNAs, respectively. Although the P. serratifolia wood has been used as traditional cosmetics in Myanmar for centuries, there are no scientific evidences to support its effectiveness as cosmetics. Investigation of the anti-melanin deposition activity of the chemical constituents of P. serratifolia thus provided insight into the effectiveness of the P. serratifolia wood as a cosmetic agent.