• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.125-133
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• 2012

Anaerobic digestion is an alternative method to digest food wastes and to produce methane that can be used as a renewable energy source. We investigated bacterial and archaeal community structures in a three-stage methane production process using food wastes with concomitant wastewater treatment. The three-stage methane process is composed of semianaerobic hydrolysis/acidogenic, anaerobic acidogenic, and strictly anaerobic methane production steps in which food wastes are converted methane and carbon dioxide. The microbial diversity was determined by the nucleotide sequences of 16S rRNA gene library and quantitative real-time PCR. The major eubacterial population of the three-stage methane process was belonging to VFA-oxidizing bacteria. The archaeal community consisted mainly of two species of hydrogenotrophic methanogen (Methanoculleus). Family Picrophilaceae (Order Thermoplasmatales) was also observed as a minor population. The predominance of hydrogenotrophic methanogen suggests that the main degradation pathway of this process is different from the classical methane production systems that have the pathway based on acetogenesis. The domination of hydrogenotrophic methanogen (Methanoculleus) may be caused by mesophilic digestion, neutral pH, high concentration of ammonia, short HRT, and interaction with VFA-oxidizing bacteria (Tepidanaerobacter etc.).

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.118-124
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• 2018

Juglans mandshurica is a fast growing hard species, which is a tree in family of Juglandaceae and has a wide distribution in China, Korea and eastern Russia. Plant materials from J. mandshurica have extensively been used in folk medicines to prevent or cure gastric, esophageal, lung and cardiac cancer. As one chain of our searching for anticomplementary agents from natural sources, two epimeric ellagitannins, [2,3-O-4,4',5,5',6,6',-hexahydroxydiphenoyl (HHDP))-(${\alpha},{\beta}$)-D-glucose] (I) and pedunculagin (II) were purified from 70% acetone extracts of the stem barks of J. mandshurica by Thin Layer Chromatography and Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography approaches. The chemical structures of the isolated compounds were characterized by MS, NMR, and a careful comparation with published literatures. The epimeric ellagitannins I and II exhibited inhibitory properties against a classical pathway of complementary system with 50 % inhibitory concentrations ($IC_{50}$) values of 65.3 and $47.7{\mu}M$, respectively, comparing with riliroside ($IC_{50}=104{\mu}M$) and rosmarinic acid ($IC_{50}=182{\mu}M$), which were used as positive controls. Thus, the work indicated both the two secondary metabolites possess excellent inhibitory activity and might be developed as potential anticomplementary chemicals.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.81-84
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• 2005

Henoch-$Sch{\ddot{o}}nlein$ purpura (HSP) is a systemic disorder characterized by leukocytoclastic vasculitis that can affect multiple organs predominantly the skin, joints, gastrointestinal tract and kidney. Although the specific pathogenesis of HSP is not known, there are several hypotheses. Although the importance of the complement activation in glomerular injury in HSP has been suggested, the complement levels and the blood pressure in those patients are usually normal and massive proteinuria is not common. And pathologic renal changes also have been reported to show a large variety of glomerular changes. However, to our knowledge, a membranoproliferative glomerulo-nephritis (MPGN) is a rare renal clinicopathologic manifestation of HSP. We report a 6-year-old boy with HSP who developed MPGN with hypertension, massive proteinuria, and hypo-complementemia revealed activation of the classical complement pathway, although we could not exclude the possibility of other hypocomplementemic glomerulonephritis including post-streptococcal acute glomerulonephritis.

• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.639-645
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• 2005

Protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes, a family of serine-threonine kinases, are important regulators of cell proliferation and malignant transformation. Phorbol esters, the prototype PKC activators, cause PKC translocation to the plasma membrane in prostate cancer cells, and trigger an apoptotic response. Studies in recent years have determined that each member of the PKC family exerts different effects on apoptotic or survival pathways. $PKC{\delta}$, one of the novel PKCs, is a key player of the apoptotic response via the activation of the p38 MAPK pathway. Studies using RNAi revealed that depletion of $PKC{\delta}$ totally abolishes the apoptotic effect of the phorbol ester PMA. Activation of the classical $PKC{\alpha}$ promotes the dephosphorylation and inactivation of the survival kinase Akt. Studies have assigned a pro-survival role to $PKC{\varepsilon}$, but the function of this PKC isozyme remains controversial. Recently, it has been determined that the PKC apoptotic effect in androgen-dependent prostate cancer cells is mediated by the autocrine secretion of death factors. $PKC{\delta}$ stimulates the release of $TNF{\alpha}$ from the plasma membrane, and blockade of $TNF{\alpha}$ secretion or $TNF{\alpha}$ receptors abrogates the apoptotic response of PMA. Molecular analysis indicates the requirement of the extrinsic apoptotic cascade via the activation of death receptors and caspase-8. Dissecting the pathways downstream of PKC isozymes represents a major challenge to understanding the molecular basis of phorbol ester-induced apoptosis.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 1992

In order to know the defense mechanism of fish, bactericidal activity was examined into the sera of carp Cyprinus carpio, tilapia Oreochromis niloticus and flounder Paralichthys olivaseus. Each examined normal serum of fishes showed the bactericidal activity against avirulent Escherichia coli but it wasn't appeared against virulent Edwardsiella tarda. When the normal serum of each fish was treated with zymosan, it lost the bactericidal activity completely. After addition of EGTA into the normal serum of each fish, the sera of tilapia and flounder still exhibited the bactericidal activity but the serum of carp lost it. In the presence of specific antibody and complement, bactericidal activity of each antiserum was exhibited high level with in one hour incubation. On the other hand, heat inactivated antiserum showed bacteriostatic reaction. From the above results, although the activity of alternative or classical pathway of each fish complement is different, it is an important function in fish defense mechanism.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.205-213
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• 2011

Ethanol treatment during the brain growth spurt period has been known to induce the death of Purkinje cells. The underlying molecular mechanisms and the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in triggering ethanol-induced Purkinje cell death are, however, largely unresolved. We undertook TUNEL staining, western blotting assay and immunohistochemistry for the cleaved forms of caspase-3 and -9, with calbindin D28K double immunostaining to identify apoptotic Purkinje cells. The possibility of ROS-induced Purkinje cell death was immunohistochemically determined by using anti-8-hydroxy-2'deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), a specific cellular marker for oxidative damage. The results show that Purkinje cell death of PD 5 rat cerebellum following ethanol administration is mediated by the activation of caspase-3 and -9. However, unexpectedly, TUNEL staining did not reveal any positive Purkinje cells while there were some TUNEL-positive cells in the internal and external granular layer. 8-OHdG was detected in the Purkinje cell layers at 8 h, peaked at 12-24 h, but not at 30 h post-ethanol treatment. No 8-0HdG immunoreactive cells were detected in the internal and external granular layer. The lobule specific 8-OHdG staining patterns following ethanol exposure are consistent with that of ethanol-induced Purkinje cell loss. Thus, we suggest that ethanol-induced Purkinje cell death may not occur by the classical apoptotic pathway and oxidative damage is involved in ethanol-induced Purkinje cell death in the developing cerebellum.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.161-165
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• 2004

Exogenous carbon monoxide (0.2%) increases L-type calcium $(Ca^{2+})$ current in human jejunal circular smooth muscle cells. The stimulatory effect of carbon monoxide (CO) on L-type $Ca^{2+}$ current is inhibited by pre-application of L-NNA, a classical competitive inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) with no significant isoform selectivity (Lim, 2003). In the present study, we investigated which isoform of NOS affected CO induced stimulation of L-type $Ca^{2+}$ current in human jejunal circular smooth muscle cells. Cells were voltage clamped by whole-cell mode patch clamp technique, and membrane currents were recorded with 10 mM barium as the charge carrier. Before the addition of CO, cells were pretreated with each inhibitor of three NOS isoforms for 15 minutes. CO-stimulating effect on L-type $Ca^{2+}$ current was partially blocked by N-(3-(Amino-methyl) benzyl) acetamidine 2HCl (1400W, an iNOS inhibitor). On the other hand, 3-bromo-7-nitroindazole (BNI, a nNOS inhibitor) or $N^5-(1-Iminoethyl)-L-ornithine$ dihydrochloride (L-NIO, an eNOS inhibitor) completely blocked the CO effect. These data suggest that low dose of exogenous CO may stimulate all NOS isoforms to increase L-type $Ca^{2+}$ channel through nitric oxide (NO) pathway in human jejunal circular smooth muscle cells.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.3641-3648
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• 2013

Energy transfer and bond dissociation of $C-H_{methyl}$ and $C-H_{ring}$ in excited toluene in the collision with $H_2$ and $D_2$ have been studied by use of classical trajectory procedures at 300 K. Energy lost by the vibrationally excited toluene to the ground-state $H_2/D_2$ is not large, but the amount increases with increasing vibrational excitation from 5000 and $40,000cm^{-1}$. The principal energy transfer pathway is vibration to translation (V-T) in both systems. The vibration to vibration (V-V) step is important in toluene + $D_2$, but plays a minor role in toluene + $H_2$. When the incident molecule is also vibrationally excited, toluene loses energy to $D_2$, whereas it gains energy from $H_2$ instead. The overall extent of energy loss is greater in toluene + $D_2$ than that in toluene + $H_2$. The different efficiency of the energy transfer pathways in two collisions is mainly due to the near-resonant condition between $D_2$ and C-H vibrations. Collision-induced dissociation of $C-H_{methyl}$ and $C-H_{ring}$ bonds occurs when highly excited toluene ($55,000-70,400cm^{-1}$) interacts with the ground-state $H_2/D_2$. Dissociation probabilities are low ($10^{-5}{\sim}10^{-2}$) but increase exponentially with rising vibrational excitation. Intramolecular energy flow between the excited C-H bonds occurring on a subpicosecond timescale is responsible for the bond dissociation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1553-1564
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• 2016

Identification of novel therapeutics in glioblastoma remains crucial due to the devastating and infiltrative capacity of this malignancy. The current study was aimed to appraise effect of arsenic trioxide (ATO) in U87MG cells. The results demonstrated that ATO induced apoptosis and impeded proliferation of U87MG cells in a dose-dependent manner and also inhibited classical NF-${\kappa}B$ signaling pathway. ATO further upregulated expression of Bax as an important proapoptotic target of NF-${\kappa}B$ and also inhibited mRNA expression of survivin, c-Myc and hTERT and suppressed telomerase activity. Moreover, ATO significantly increased adhesion of U87MG cells and also diminished transcription of NF-${\kappa}B$ down-stream targets involved in cell migration and invasion, including cathepsin B, uPA, MMP-2, MMP-9 and MMP-14 and suppressed proteolytic activity of cathepsin B, MMP-2 and MMP-9, demonstrating a possible mechanism of ATO effect on a well-known signaling in glioblastoma dissemination. Taken together, here we suggest that ATO inhibits survival and invasion of U87MG cells possibly through NF-${\kappa}B$-mediated inhibition of survivin and telomerase activity and NF-${\kappa}B$-dependent suppression of cathepsin B, MMP-2 and MMP-9.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.73-84
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• 1992

It was observed that the hot-water extract of the bark of Kalopanax pictus N. had the highest anti-complementary activity among the 11 kinds of forest materials. Methanol-and ethanol-soluble portions had low anti-complementary activities, but crude polysaccharide. HKP-0 had a high activity of 80%. HKP-0 contained 54.8% of total sugar and 27.9% of protein. The neutral sugars of HKP-0 consisted of mainly arabinose, galactose and glucose. HKP-4 fraction obtained by cetavlon treatment of HKP-0 showed the highest anti-complementary activity of 90%. The activity was not changed by pronase digestion bu decreased greatly by periodate oxidation. HKP-4 consisted of mainly arabinose and glucose with molar ratio of 1.0 : 22.4, HKP-4-I, an unabsorbed fraction from HKP-4 on DEAE Sepharose CL-6B column showed higher yield and activity than those of absorbed fractions. HKP-4-I was homogeneous, and its molecular weight was about 25,000. HKP-4-I contained 84.0% of neutral sugar and consisted of arabinose and glucose with molar ratio of 1.0 : 11.2. The anti-complementary activity of HKP-4-I was not decreased by the treatment of polymyxin B, and the polysaccharide activated both classical and alternative pathway in complement system. Void volume fraction obtained from HKP-4-I hydrolyzed with ${\alpha}$-amylase on Sephadex G-25 column only had a high anti-complementary activity.