• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1247-1255
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• 2016

Heparin binding proteins (HBPs) are produced by accessory glands. These are secreted into the seminal fluid, bind to the spermatozoa at the time of ejaculation, favour capacitation, acrosome reaction, and alter the immune system response toward the sperm. The present study was conducted with an objective to assess the effect of purified seminal plasma-HBPs (SP-HBPs) on cross bred cattle bull sperm attributes during two phases of cryopreservation: Pre freezing and freezing-thawing. SP-HBPs were purified from pooled seminal plasma by heparin affinity chromatography. Three doses of SP-HBPs i.e. 10, 20, $40{\mu}g/mLs$ semen were standardized to find out the optimum dose and $20{\mu}g/mLs$ was found to be an optimum dose. Semen as such and treated with SP-HBPs was diluted with sodium citrate-egg yolk diluter and cryopreserved as per the standard protocol. Sperm parameters i.e. motility, viability, Hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOST), acrosome damage, in vitro capacitation and lipid peroxidation were evaluated in SP-HBP treated and untreated (control) semen at both phases of cryopreservation. A considerable variation in percent sperm motility, viability, membrane integrity (HOST), acrosome damage, acrosome reaction and lipid peroxidation was observed at both phases among the bulls irrespective of the treatment. Incubation of neat semen with $20{\mu}g/mL$ SP-HBP before processing for cryopreservation enhanced the average motility, viability, membrane integrity by 7.2%, 1.5%, 7.9%, and 5.6%, 6.6%, 7.4% in pre-frozen and frozen-thawed semen in comparison to control. There was also an average increase of 4.1%/3.9% in in vitro capacitation and acrosome reaction in SP-HBPs-treated frozen-thawed semen as compared to control. However, binding of SP-HBPs to the sperm declined acrosome damage and lipid peroxidation by 1.3%/4.1% and 22.1/$32.7{\mu}M$/$10^9$ spermatozoa in SP-HBP treated pre-frozen/frozen-thawed semen as compared to control, respectively. Significant (p<0.05) effects were observed only in motility, HOST and in vitro acrosome reaction. It can be concluded that treatment of neat semen with SP-HBPs before cryopreservation minimized the cryoinjury by decreasing the generation of reactive oxygen species.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.819-823
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• 2014

Objective: The aim was to evaluate roles of vitamin D3 (VD3) and beta-carotene (BC) in the development of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in a high-risk area, Huai'an District, Huai'an City, China. Methods: 100 new ESCC diagnosed cases from 2007 to 2008 and 200 residency- age-, and sex-matched healthy controls were recruited. Data were collected from questionnaires, including a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to calculate the BC intake, and reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) was used to measure the serum concentrations of BC and VD3. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated in conditional logistic regression models. Results: The average dietary intake of BC was $3322.9{\mu}g$ (2032.4-5734.3) in the case group and $3626.8{\mu}g$ (1961.9-5827.9) in control group per capita per day with no significant difference by Wilcoxon test (p>0.05). However, the levels of VD3 and BC in the case group were significantly lower than in the control group (p<0.05). The OR values of the highest quartile and the lowest quartile of VD3 and BC in serum samples were both 0.13. Conclusion: Our results add to the evidence that high circulating levels of VD3 and BC are associated with a reduced risk of ESCC in this Chinese population.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.127-133
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• 2015

Objectives : Previous studies have shown that the amount of melittin, the main active ingredient in bee venom pharmacopuncture, tends to decrease substantially with time during pharmacopuncture manufacture. This study aimed to assess whether the stability of bee venom pharmacopuncture improved with pharmacopuncture additives. Methods : Components were measured using high performance liquid chromatography. Acute toxicity and antigenicity tests by subcutaneous and venous routes were conducted at Korea Pharmaceutical Test & Research Institute and mortality, adverse reactions, and body weight changes were assessed. Results : Stability tests using additives revealed that bee venom without additives was most stable. Bee venom pharmacopuncture without additives was further tested for toxicity in subcutaneous and venous administration in mice and no changes pertaining to toxicity were found over the testing period. Conclusions : Bee venom pharmacopuncture without additives was found to be most stable, and further, it did not show toxicity or antigenicity in subcutaneous and venous administration in mice.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.42-46
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• 2008

Even though fuel cell have high efficiency when pure hydrogen from gas tank is used as a fuel source, it is more beneficial to generate hydrogen from city gas (mainly methane) in residential application such as domestic or office environments. Thus hydrogen is generated by reforming process using hydrocarbon. Unfortunately, the reforming process for hydrogen production is accompanied with unavoidable impurities. Impurities such as CO, $CO_2$, $H_2S$, $NH_3$, $CH_4$, and $CH_4$ in hydrogen could cause negative effects on fuel cell performance. Those effects are kinetic losses due to poisoning of the electrode catalysts, ohmic losses due to proton conductivity reduction including membrane and catalyst ionomer layers, and mass transport losses due to degrading catalyst layer structure and hydrophobic property. Hydrogen produced from reformer eventually contains around 73% of $H_2$, 20% or less of $CO_2$, 5.8% of less of $N_2$, or 2% less of $CH_4$, and 10ppm or less of CO. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of carbon dioxide on fuel cell performance. The performance of PEM fuel cell was investigated using current vs. potential experiment, long run(10 hr) test, and electrochemical impedance measurement when the concentrations of carbon dioxide were 10%, 20% and 30%. Also, the concentration of impurity supplied to the fuel cell was verified by gas chromatography(GC).

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.390-397
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• 2010

Residual solvents in foods are defined as organic volatile chemicals used or produced in manufacturing of extracts or additives, or functional foods. The solvents are not completely eliminated by practical manufacturing techniques and they also may become contaminated by solvents from packing, transportation or storage in warehouses. Because residual solvents have no nutritional value but may be hazardous to human health, there is a need to remove them from the final products or reduce their amounts to below acceptable levels. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate an analytical method for the screening of residual solvents in health functional foods. Furthermore, the aim of this study was to constitute a reasonable management system based on the current state of the market and case studies of foreign countries. Eleven volatile solvents such as MeOH, EtOH, trichloroethylene and hexane were separated depending on their column properties, temp. and time using Gas Chromatography (GC). After determining the GC conditions, a sample preparation method using HSS (Head Space Sampling) was developed. From the results, a method for analyzing residual solvents in health functional foods was developed considering matrix effect and interference from the sample obtained from the solution of solvents-free health functional foods spiked with 11 standards solutions. Validation test using the developed GC/HSS/MS (Mass Spectrometry) method was followed by tests for precision, accuracy, recovery, linearity and adequate sensitivity. Finally, examination of 104 samples grouped in suits was performed by the developed HSS/GC/MS for screening the solvents. The 11 solvents were isolated from health functional foods based on vapor pressure difference, and followed by separation within 15 minutes in a single run. The limt of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), recovery and coefficient of variation (C.V.) of these compounds determined by the HSS/GC/MS were found to be 0.1 pg/mL, 0.1-125 pg/g, 51.0-104.6%, and less than 15%, respectively. Using the developed HSS/GC/MS method, residual solvent from 16 out of 104 health functional products were detected as a EtOH. This method therefore seems t o be a valuable extension ofanalytical method for the identification of residual solvents in health functional food.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.1392-1399
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• 2016

Jaspine B is an anhydrophytosphingosine that is isolated from a marine sponge. Because of its structural similarity to sphingosine, it shows anti-cancer effects in human carcinomas. Therefore, this study aims to investigate its anti-proliferative effect on various cancer cells and to correlate its association with the intracellular accumulation of Jaspine B in relevant cancer cells. The anti-proliferative effect of Jaspine B in various cancer cells was determined by a cell viability test, and the intracellular concentration of Jaspine B in relevant cancer cells was determined using mass spectrometry coupled with liquid chromatography. The correlation coefficient and p value between the cytotoxicity and the cell accumulation of Jaspine B were determined using SPSS 16.1. The cytotoxicity of Jaspine B varied depending on the type of cancer cell when compared the $EC_{50}$ values of Jaspine B. Breast and melanoma cancer cells were susceptible to Jaspine B, whereas renal carcinoma cells were resistant. The intracellular concentrations of Jaspine B had a reciprocal correlation with the $EC_{50}$ values in the same cells (r = 0.838). The results suggested that the anti-proliferative effect of Jaspine B was associated with the cellular accumulation of this compound. However, Jaspine B was not a substrate for P-glycoprotein and breast cancer resistance protein, as major efflux pumps caused multidrug resistance. The maintenance of a high intracellular concentration is crucial for the cytotoxic effect of Jaspine B; however, efflux pumps may not be a controlling factor for Jaspine B-related resistance in cancer cells.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.44 no.1 s.137
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• pp.49-54
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• 2006

In order to develop tools for an early serodiagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum infection, we evaluated the usefulness of P. falciparum liver stage antigen-3 (LSA-3) as a serodiagnostic antigen. A portion of LSA-3 gene was cloned, and its recombinant protein (rLSA-3) was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by column chromatography. The purified rLSA-3 and 120 test blood/serum samples collected from inhabitants in malaria-endemic areas of Mandalay, Myanmar were used for this study. In microscopic examinations of blood samples, P. falciparum positive rate was $39.1\%$ (47/120) in thin smear trials, and $33.3\%$ (40/120) in thick smear trials. Although the positive rate associated with the rLSA-3 $(30.8\%)$ was lower than that of the blood stage antigens $(70.8\%)$, rLSA-3 based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay could detect 12 seropositive cases $(10.0\%),$ in which blood stage antigens were not detected. These results indicate that the LSA-3 is a useful antigen for an early serodiagnosis of P. falciparum infection.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.324-336
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• 1992

On the five interspecific protoplast fusants of Ganoderma lucidum and G. applanatum was the antitumor test performed. The fusant F-2 was selected, to examine the cultured mycelia (protein bound polysaccharide) as antitumor components. When a dose of 20 mg/kg/day of each components purifed from F-2 fusant was, i.p., injected into ICR mice, the inhibition ratio of Fr. II against the solid form of sarcoma 180 increased to 1.5 times as compared with that of their parents. When Fr. II was examined for immunopotentiation activity, it increased the amount of the superoxide anion in activated macrophages to 1.2 times and the count of hemolytic plaque forming cells in the spleen to 4.3 times as compared with that of each control group. Its chemical analysis showed 85.2% polysaccharide which consisted of glucose, galactose, mannose, fucose and xylose, and 0.39% protein of 15 amino acids. The content of hexosamine was 0.39% and the molecular weight of Fr. V was $5.6{\times}10^4$ dalton.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.234-241
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• 2016

The approach presented in this article refers to the bioanalytical method validation for the detection and quantitative determination of arsenic species including arsenite (As(III)), arsenate (As(V)), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) and monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) in dog plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP/MS). The arsenic species were separated using an agilent As speciation column by a mobile phase of 2 mM sodium phosphate monobasic, 0.2 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt dehydrate, 10 mM sodium acetate, 3 mM sodium nitrate and 1 % ethyl alcohol at pH 11 (adjusted with 1M NaOH). The method validation experiment was obtained selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, matrix effect, recovery, system suitability, dilution integrity and various stabilities. All calibration curves showed good linearity (R²>0.999) within test ranges. The lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) was 5 ng/mL for As(III), As(V) and DMA, and 20 ng/mL for MMA. The system suitability and dilution values were within 6.5 % and 7.7 %. Subsequently, the developed and validated HPLC-ICP/MS method was also successfully applied to determine the arsenic speciation in dog plasma samples, and the recoveries for the spiked samples were in the range of 91.5–102.2 %. Therefore, this method could be applied to the evaluation of arsenic exposure, health effect assessment and other bio-monitoring studies in biological samples.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.274-282
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• 2002

The ethanol extract and n-hexane fraction from Hypericum ascyron L. showed strong growth inhibition at 25 ppm on 5 strains of Listeria monocytogenes for 72 hr at $32^{\circ}C$. The purified substance, H2-5-2 fraction, was isolated by silica gel column and preparative thin layer chromatography from n-hexane fraction of Hypericum ascyron L. The H2-5-2 fraction showed a strong bacteriostatic activity on 5 strains of L. monocytogenes at 10 ppm in tryptic soy broth, and the viable cell was reduced 1 log cycle compared to initial cell number. The n-hexane fraction of Hypericum ascyron L. showed strong growth inhibition at 25 ppm on Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus, and at 50 ppm on Vibrio parahaemolyticus for 72 hr. The purified antimicrobial substance, the H2-5-2 fraction, was assumed as high unsaturated sterol by $^1H-NMR$ and $^{13}C-NMR$. On application test using minced Alaska pollack and ground beef, the n-hexane fraction of Hypericum ascyron L. at the level of 250 ppm was applied at $32^{\circ}C$ and $5^{\circ}C$. At $32^{\circ}C$ storage condition, the antimicrobial substances did not reduced L. monocytogenes ATCC 19113, meanwhile at $5^{\circ}C$ storage condition, L. monocytogenes ATCC 19113 was reduced in viable number.