• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.1573-1578
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• 2011

Milk thistle (silybum marianum) is a famous dietary supplement widely used in the United States and Europe. Silbinin is a major biologically active compound of milk thistle and has strong antioxidant and radical scavenger activities. Anticancer activities, as well as chemopreventive effects on various cancer cell lines, including prostate, lung, colon, skin, and bladder, have also been reported in silbinin. In the present study, we investigated the anticancer effects of silibinin and apoptosis through cell cycle arrest on prostate cancer cell PC-3. We performed cell viability by MTT assay and western blotting to confirm cell cycle check point proteins such as cyclin A/D1/E and cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 2/4/6. To quantify silibinin-induced apoptotic cell death of PC-3, Annexin V and PI double staining was performed by flow cytometry, by which its cell distribution was determined. As a result, silibinin inhibited the cell growth of PC-3 cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner, and its treatment resulted in cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase. Also the level of cell cycle check point proteins (cyclin, CDK) was decreased by silibinin in a dose-dependent manner. Taken together, we suggest that apoptosis of prostate cancer cell line PC-3 induced by silibinin is associated with cell cycle arrest through decrease of cell cycle check point proteins, caspase-3 activation and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.877-884
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• 2010

We investigated the growth inhibitory effect of internal organs of Aplysia kurodai (AK) on proliferation in cancer cell lines in vitro. The internal organs of AK were extracted with methanol (AKM), which were then further fractionated into four subfractions by using solvent partition method, resulting in hexane (AKMH), methanol (AKMM), butanol (AKMB), and aqueous (AKMA) soluble fractions. We determined the cytotoxic effect of these four fractions in four kinds of cancer cell lines - HepG2, MCF-7, HT29 and B16-F10 - by MTT assay. Among the four subfractions of AKM, AKMM showed the strongest cytotoxic effects on all cancer cell lines which were used. Morphological changes such as membrane shrinking and blebbing of cells were also observed in AKMM treatment in HepG2 cells. In addition, we also observed quinone reductase (QR) induced effect in the methanol layer (AKMM) of HepG2 cells. AKMM showed the highest induction activity of quinone reductase on HepG2 cells among the partition layers. The QR induced effect of AKMM was determined to be 2.4 at $100\;{\mu}g/ml$ level with a control value of 1.0. Although further studies are needed, the present work suggests that internal organs of Aplysia kurodai (AK) may be a chemopreventive agent for the treatment of human cells.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2011

Sphagnum palustre is a semi aquatic moss. S. palustre has been used as Korean traditional medicine to treat cardiac pain and stroke. This study was carried out to analyze phytochemical constituents of S. palustre and investigate the biological activity for the promotion of human health. At first, we isolated seven compounds from the ethanolic extract of this plant, and their structures were characterized by spectroscopic methods. Their structures were characterized to be Coumarin(1), Caffeic acid(2), Quercetin(3), Astragalin(4), Luteolin(5), Chlorogenic acid(6), Rutin(7) were for the first time reported from this source. The ethanol extract from S. palustre which was tested for its anticancer activity against three human tumor cell line by in vitro assay.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.655-663
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• 2002

Liver fibrosis is a prepathological state wherein damaged liver tissues in chronic liver diseases, such as hepatitis, are not repaired to normal tissues, but converted to fibrous tissue. 5-(2-Pyrazinyl)-4-methyl-1,2-dithiol-3-thione (oltipraz), a cancer chemopreventive agent, is effective against a wide variety of chemical carcinogens. Recently, we reported that oltipraz inhibits liver fibrogenesis (Kang et al., 2002). In the present study, the effects of oltipraz in combination with dimethyl-4,4'-dimethoxy-5,6,5',6'-dimethylene dioxybiphenyl-2,2'-dicarboxylate (DDb) on dimethylnitrosamine (DMN)-induced liver fibrogenesis were assessed in rats. Oltipraz (30 mg/kg body weight, po, 3 times per week for 4 weeks) was found to inhibit the increases in plasma ALT, AST and bilirubin by DMN, whereas DDB (30 mg/kg body weight, po, 3 times per week for 4 weeks) attenuated the increases in the plasma ALT and bilirubin. The lowered plasma protein and albumin contents in DMN-treated rats were completely restored by oltipraz, but not by DDB. DDB decreases liver cell injury and inflammation through inhibition of nuclear factor-kB. DMN increased the accumulation of liver collagen, as indicated by the increase in the 4-hydroxyproline content in liver homogenates, which was reduced by treatment with oltipraz, but not by DDB. Given the differential effect between oltipraz and DDB, the potential enhancement of antifibrotic efficacy by the drugs was assessed in the animal model. Despite the minimal effect of DDB on DMN-induced fibrogenesis, DDB (5-25 mg/kg), administered together with oltipraz (25-5 mg/kg), showed an additive protective effect against hepatotoxicity and fibrosis induced by DMN, which was shown by the blood chemistry parameters and histopathological analysis. The adequate composition ratio of oltipraz to DDB was 5:1. These results provide information on the pharmaceutical composition, comprising of oltipraz and DDB as the active components, for the treatment and/or prevention of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.381-386
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• 2008

Deep sea water was tested for cancer chemopreventive activity by measuring the activities of ${\beta}-$ naphthoflavone $({\beta}-NF)-induced$ cytochrome P 450 1A2 (CYP 1A2), quinone reductase (QR) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST), glutathione (GSH) levels, and ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity. The in vitro incubation of rat liver microsome with deep sea water (a hardness range of $100{\sim}1,000$) showed a hardness-dependent inhibition of CYP 1A2 activity. QR and GST activities were induced about $1.1{\sim}1.2$ fold with the treatment of deep sea water in murine hepatoma Hepa 1clc7 cells. In addition GSH levels were increased $1.3{\sim}1.4$ fold in a hardness range of $100{\sim}1,000$. The deep sea water showed 20.3 and 35.0% inhibition of 12-O- tetradecanoylphorbol-13-a-cetate (TPA)-induced ODC activity at hardness 800 and 1,000, respectively. Therefore, deep sea water is worth further investigation with respect to cancer chemoprevention or therapy.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.911-920
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• 2006

Phenolic antioxidant butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is a commonly used food preservative with broad biological activities, including protection against chemical-induced carcinogenesis, acute toxicity of chemicals, modulation of macromolecule synthesis and immune response, induction of phase II detoxifying enzymes, as well as its undesirable potential tumor-promoting activities. Understanding the molecular basis underlying these diverse biological actions of BHA is thus of great importance. Here we studied the pharmacokinetics, activation of signaling kinases and induction of phase II/III drug metabolizing enzymes/transporter gene expression by BHA in the mice. The peak plasma concentration of BHA achieved in our current study after oral administration of 200 mg/kg BHA was around $10\;{\mu}M$. This in vivo concentration might offer some insights for the many in vitro cell culture studies on signal transduction and induction of phase II genes using similar concentrations. The oral bioavailability (F) of BHA was about 43% in the mice. In the mouse liver, BHA induced the expression of phase II genes including NQO-1, HO-1, ${\gamma}-GCS$, GST-pi and UGT 1A6, as well as some of the phase III transporter genes, such as MRP1 and Slco1b2. In addition, BHA activated distinct mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK), as well as p38, suggesting that the MAPK pathways may play an important role in early signaling events leading to the regulation of gene expression including phase II drug metabolizing and some phase III drug transporter genes. This is the first study to demonstrate the in vivo pharmacokinetics of BHA, the in vivo activation of MAPK signaling proteins, as well as the in vivo induction of Phase II/III drug metabolizing enzymes/transporters in the mouse livers.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.85-91
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• 2005

Much of the interest on the chemopreventive properties of herbs and plants has been raised, whereas little is regarding to anti-tumor effect of farming and aquatic products. In the present study, the anti-tumor effect of hot-water extract of a seaweed, BLC (Sargassum fulvellum) and BLC/HEN egg was investigated using MCF-7 cells in vitro and in vivo systems. We found that the BLC extract and BLC/HEN egg inhibited cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner, which might be mediated through up-regulation of p53. Furthermore, this test compound can directly induce apoptosis in MCF-7 cells, which might be mediated through up-regulation of a pro-apoptotic Bax protein and down-regulation of a anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein, not by immune system. Nude mice bearing established breast tumors (with exogenous estradiol) were treated with BLC extract and BLC/HEN egg. Treatment BLC extract and BLC/HEN egg caused a 42% and 71% inhibition of tumor growth, respectively. Both agents caused a significant inhibition of volume and weight growth of estrogen independent human breast tumors established from MCF-7 cells. Our results suggested that BLC extract and BLC/HEN egg have the efficacious effect of human breast cancer not only in vitro but also in vivo.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.350-355
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• 2010

The hepatoprotective effects of theanine on acetaminophen (APAP)-induced hepatotoxicity were investigated in vivo and in vitro. The effects of theanine on liver toxicity induced by APAP were assessed by blood biochemical and histopathological analyses. APAP treatment (400 mg/kg) caused severe liver injury in mice as indicated by their significantly elevated plasma aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels. Pretreatment with theanine for 3 days attenuated the increase in ALT and AST when challenged with APAP. These protective effects of theanine against APAP-induced toxicity were consistent with the results from the histopathological examinations. We next examined the effects of theanine on the GSH concentration in liver plasma. The hepatic GSH level was significantly elevated in a dose-dependent manner by theanine treatment. The results suggest that the protective effects of theanine APAP-induced hapatotoxicity by antioxidative effect and GSH induction, implying that theanine should be considered a potential chemopreventive agent.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.381-392
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• 2004

Arsenic trioxide($As_2O_3$) was introduced into the treatment of refractory or relapsed acute promyelocytic Ieukemia. Some investigators have reported that arsenic trioxide had induced apoptosis in a variety of solid human tumor cell lines, including non-small cell lung cancer. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs(NSAIDs) are powerful chemopreventive agents for gastrointestinal cancers and the growth of established tumors are reduced by inducing apoptosis. It's also reported that NSAIDs enhanced tumor response to chemotherapeutic drugs or radiation. In this study, we aimed to determine whether combination of arsenic trioxide with sulindac augmented its apoptotic potential in NCI-H157 human lung cancer cells. The human lung cancer cell line NCI-H157 was treated with arsenic trioxide and sulindac. Cell viability was measured by the MTT assay. Apoptosis was measured by nuclear staining and flow cytometric analysis. The catalytic activity of the caspase families were measured by the fluorogenic cleavage of biosubstrates. The western blotting were also performed to define the mechanical basis of apoptosis. Combination treatment of arsenic trioxide and sulindac decreased the viability of NCI-H157 human lung cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. The catalytic activity of caspase-3, 8 and 9 proteases were increased after combination treatment. Consistently PARP was cleaved from 116kDa to 85kDa fragments, and the expression of ICAD was decreased by time-dependent manner. Also combination treatment increased the expression of Fas and Fas/L. Combination therapy of arsenic trioxide with sulindac augments cell death and induces apoptosis via the activation of caspase cascade in NCI-H157 human lung carcinoma cells.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.148-153
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• 2008

We investigated the growth inhibitory effect of Salicornia herbacea L. (SH) on human cancer cell lines in vitro. SH was extracted with methanol (SHM), followed by further fractionation into four subfractions according to polarity: hexane (SHMH), methanol (SHMM), butanol (SHMB), and aqueous (SHMA) soluble fractions. We determined the growth inhibitory effect of these fractions against human cancer cell lines using MTT assay. Among the four subfractions of SHM, the SHMM showed the strongest cytotoxic effects on cancer cell lines. We also observed quinone reductase (QR)-inducing effect of methanol layer (SHMM) on HepG2 cells and it was determined to be 3.00 at $100\;{\mu}g/mL$ level compared to the control value of 1.0. The SHMM showed the highest induction activity of quinone reductase on HepG2 cells among the partition layers. The present work suggests that SH merits further study to confirm its chemopreventive potential.