• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.12
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• pp.893-905
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• 2019

Mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles that constantly undergo fission and fusion processes that closely related to their function. Disruption of mitochondrial dynamics has been demonstrated in acute kidney injury (AKI), which could eventually result in cell injury and death. Previously, we reported that augmenter of liver regeneration (ALR) alleviates renal tubular epithelial cell injury. Here, we gained further insights into whether the renoprotective roles of ALR are associated with mitochondrial dynamics. Changes in mitochondrial dynamics were examined in experimental models of renal ischemia-reperfusion (IR). In a model of hypoxia-reoxygenation (HR) injury in vitro, dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) and mitochondrial fission process protein 1 (MTFP1), two key proteins of mitochondrial fission, were downregulated in the Lv-ALR + HR group. ALR overexpression additionally had an impact on phosphorylation of Drp1 Ser637 during AKI. The inner membrane fusion protein, Optic Atrophy 1 (OPA1), was significantly increased whereas levels of outer membrane fusion proteins Mitofusin-1 and -2 (Mfn1, Mfn2) were not affected in the Lv-ALR + HR group, compared with the control group. Furthermore, the mTOR/4E-BP1 signaling pathway was highly activated in the Lv-ALR + HR group. ALR overexpression led to suppression of HR-induced apoptosis. Our collective findings indicate that ALR gene transfection alleviates mitochondrial injury, possibly through inhibiting fission and promoting fusion of the mitochondrial inner membrane, both of which contribute to reduction of HK-2 cell apoptosis. Additionally, fission processes are potentially mediated by promoting tubular cell survival through activating the mTOR/4E-BP1 signaling pathway.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2024

FUN14 domain-containing protein 1 (FUNDC1), an outer mitochondrial membrane protein, contributes to removal of damaged mitochondria through mitophagy. In this study, to elucidate the role of the FUNDC1 in the amyloid beta peptide (A_β)-induced neuropathy, changes in the degree of mitochondrial dysfunction and cell injury caused by A_β treatment were examined in the HT-22 neuronal cells in which the FUNDC1 expression was transiently silenced or overexpressed. We found that A_β treatment causes a time-dependent decrease of the FUNDC1 expression. In the A_β-treated cells, there were a drop in MTT reduction ability, depletion of cellular ATP, disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential, stimulation of cellular ROS production, and increased mitochondrial Ca²⁺ load. Activation of caspase-3 and induction of apoptotic cell death were also observed. Transient silencing of the FUNDC1 expression by transfection with the FUNDC1 small interfering RNA per se caused mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptotic cell death like the effect of A_β treatment. Conversely, in cells in which the FUNDC1 was transiently overexpressed by FUNDC1-Myc transfection, overexpression itself had no effect on the mitochondrial functional integrity and cell survival but showed a significant prevention effect against mitochondrial and cell injury caused by A_β treatment. Overall, these results suggest that the FUNDC1 is importantly involved in the A_β-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and cell injury in the HT-22 neuronal cells.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.23-34
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• 1989

Gentamicin (GM) is a polybasic, aminoglycoside antibiotic used frequently for the treatment of serious gram-negative infections. The major limiting factors in the clinical use of GM as well as other aminoglycoside antibiotics are their nephrotoxicity and ototoxicity. The primary mechanism of cell injury in aminoglycoside toxicity appears to be the disruption of normal membrane function and the inhibition of $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase activity. There are both indirect and direct evidences which suggests that the effect of aminoglycoside antibiotics on $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase may explain, or contribute to, their toxicity. It has been shown that aminoglycoside reduce total ATPase activity (Kaku et al., 1973) and $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase activity (linuma et al., 1967) in the stria vascularis and spiral ligament of the guinea-pig cochlea. Lipsky and Lietman (1980) reported that aminoglycoside antibitoics inhibited the activity of $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase in microsomal fractions of the cortex and medulla of the guinea-pig kidney, isolated rat renal tubule and human erythrocyte ghosts. The present invstigation was undertaken to elucidate the mechanism of GM on human erythrocytes by examining its effect on $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase activity, actives sodium and potassium transport across red blood cell and $^{3}H-ouabain$ binding to red blood cell membranes. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1) CM inhibited significantly both the activity of total ATPase and $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase at all concentrations tested. 2) GM inhibited active $^{22}Na$ efflux across red blood cell. When ouabain is present, the rate of $^{22}Na$ efflux was completely inhibited. When both GM and ouabain were added, the inhibitory effect of active $^{22}Na$ efflux was more pronounced. 3) Active $^{86}Rb$ influx was inhibited significantly by GM. In the presence of ouabain, the rate of $^{86}Rb$ influx is markedly inhibited. But $^{86}Rb$ influx is not appreciably altered by the presence of both GM and ouabain. 4) In the presence of GM, $^{3}H-ouabain$ binding to red blood cell membrane increased. From the above results, it may be concluded that the inhibition of active sodium and potassium transport across red blood cell by gentamicin appears to be due to the inhibition of $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase activity and an increase in ouabain binding to red blood cell membranes.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1393-1400
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• 2019

In the present study, we examined the effect of mitochondrial K⁺ channel opener diazoxide on the mitochondria-dependent apoptotic signaling in endothelial cells exposed to high glucose (HG) media. Endothelial cells derived from human umbilical veins were exposed to HG media containing 30 mM glucose, and the degree of apoptotic cell death associated with activation of the mitochondria-dependent apoptotic signaling pathway was determined. Exposure to HG media was seen to enhance apoptotic cell death in a time-dependent manner. In these cells, activation of caspases 3, 8, and 9 was observed, and while caspase-3 and -9 inhibitors suppressed the HG-induced apoptotic cell death, a caspase-8 inhibitor did not. The HG-treated cells exhibited disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential, formation of permeability transition pores, and cytosolic release of cytochrome c. Subsequently, diazoxide was seen to attenuate the HG-induced apoptotic cell death; caspase-9 activation was suppressed but caspase 8 was not. Diazoxide also suppressed the depolarization of mitochondrial membrane potential, the formation of mitochondrial permeability transition pores, and the release of cytochrome c. These effects were significantly inhibited by 5-hydroxydecanoate, a selective blocker of ATP-sensitive K⁺ channels (K_ATP). The present results demonstrate that diazoxide exhibits a beneficial effect to ameliorate HG-induced endothelial cell apoptosis. Opening the K_ATP could help preserve the functional integrity of mitochondria and provide an underlying mechanism to suppress HG-triggered apoptotic signaling.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 1976

An electron microscopic study has been made of the effects of change of cell structure of Escherichia coli treated with several disinfectants. The alterations observed as follows: 1. Nucleoid, cytoplasm which contain ribosomes and cell wall appeared to be composed of a parallel triple. layered membrane can observed in control Escherichia coli. 2. The nuclear material was no longer demonstrable in its normal sites. The cytoplasm lost its granularity, became homogeneous and disruption of cell wall were observed by the treatment with 70% ethyl alcohol and 3% $H_2O_2$. 3. Aggregation of ribosomes and condensation of nuclear material were also observed by the treatment of 5% lysol solution and 1% dodecyl-diamino-ethyl-glycin-hydrochloride. 4. In autoclaved group, the each layer of cell wall was separated and destroyed in some sites where cytoplasm was extracted.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.16-24
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• 2012

Polyamines are essential for cell growth and differentiation; however their precise roles are unclear yet. In the present study, the cytotoxic effect of spermine (spm) on MCF-7 cells was investigated. In the MTT assay of MCF-7 cells treated with spm, cell viability was significantly decreased in a time-and dose-dependent manner. Cell viability measurement was confirmed by trypan blue staining. FACS analysis shows that sub-G1 was increased in a time-and dose-dependent manner too. When the cells were treated with spm, cells started to show morphological changes within 2 hrs. The expression of adhesion proteins (FAK and integrin ${\beta}1$), and cytoskeletal protein (actin) was checked by Western blotting analysis. Integrin ${\beta}1$ levels were slightly decreased, and FAK and actin levels were rapidly decreased with spm treatment. In confocal laser scanning microscopy, the distribution of actin did not change but the expression decreased in a dose-dependent manner with spm treatment. FAK was evenly distributed under the plasma membrane in the untreated control. However, at 10 ${\mu}M$ spm FAK seemed to move toward the cell nucleus. Integrin ${\beta}1$, which was mainly found in the focal point of the plasma membrane in the untreated control, dispersed through the entire plasma membrane in spm treatment. The present results indicate that cytotoxic effects of spm are triggered by the disruption of adhesion proteins and cytoskeletal protein.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.1209-1215
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• 2017

Microwave sterilization was performed to inactivate the spores of biofilms of Bacillus cereus involved in foodborne illness. The sterilization conditions, such as the amount of water and the operating temperature and treatment time, were optimized using statistical analysis based on 15 runs of experimental results designed by the Box-Behnken method. Statistical analysis showed that the optimal conditions for the inactivation of B. cereus biofilms were 14 ml of water, $108^{\circ}C$ of temperature, and 15 min of treatment time. Interestingly, response surface plots showed that the amount of water is the most important factor for microwave sterilization under the present conditions. Complete inactivation by microwaves was achieved in 5 min, and the inactivation efficiency by microwave was obviously higher than that by conventional steam autoclave. Finally, confocal laser scanning microscopy images showed that the principal effect of microwave treatment was cell membrane disruption. Thus, this study can contribute to the development of a process to control food-associated pathogens.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.79-83
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• 2020

Fenbendazole (FBZ) is a benzimidazole anthelmintic that has been widely used in treatments for gastrointestinal parasites including pinworms and roundworms in animals. Recently, some studies demonstrated that FBZ has anti-cancer effects related to disruption of microtubule polymerization. In this study, we investigated whether FBZ has anti-cancer activity in HL-60 cells, a human leukemia cell line, and assessed its relationship with the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). FBZ treatment at 0.25-1 μM significantly decreased the metabolic activity of HL-60 cells. The mitochondrial membrane potential of FBZ-treated HL-60 cells decreased in a concentration-dependent manner. Apoptosis analysis using annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide staining demonstrated that 1 μM FBZ increased the percentages of cells in apoptosis and necrosis. In addition, Hoechst 33342 staining showed the presence of broken nuclei in HL-60 cells treated with 0.5 and 1 μM FBZ. To investigate the anti-cancer mechanism of FBZ, HL-60 cells were treated with FBZ in the absence or presence of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), an inhibitor of ROS production. NAC significantly recovered the decreased metabolic activity of HL-60 induced by 0.5 and 1 μM FBZ treatments. This study provides evidence that FBZ has anti-cancer activity in HL-60 cells provided, in part, via ROS production.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.63-69
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• 1997

We have previously reported that NF-kB is involved in the regulation of nitric oxide synthase gene expression during differentiation of chick embryonic myoblasts. However, how NF-kB is timely activated during myogenesis remains elusive. One of the most prominent events in myogenesis is myoblast membrane fusion, which is accompanied with massive cytoskeletal reorganization. Here we show that the activity of NF-kB markedly increases in L6 rat myogenic cells that have just initiated morphological changes by treating nocodazole, a microtubule-disrupting agent. Furthermore, the induction of NF-kB activation was closely correlated with the myoblast fusion. In addition, a variety of agents that disrupt microtubules stimulated the myoblast fusion as well as the induction of NF-kB activation. In contrast, taxol, a microtubule-stabilizing agent, suppressed the induction of NF-kB activation and inhibited spontaneous differentiation of L6 cells as well. In addition, we found that the NF-KB in the cells consists of p50/p65 heterodimers. These results support the idea that reorganization of microtubule at early stages of differentiation plays a role as a signal for NF-KB activation during myogenesis.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.116-122
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• 2014

Macrophage death plays a role in several physiological and inflammatory pathologies such as sepsis and arthritis. In our previous work, we showed that simvastatin triggers cell death in LPS-activated RAW 264.7 mouse macrophage cells through both caspase-dependent and independent apoptotic pathways. Here, we show that the nuclear orphan receptor NR4A1 is involved in a caspase-independent apoptotic process induced by LPS and simvastatin. Simvastatin-induced NR4A1 expression in RAW 264.7 macrophages and ectopic expression of a dominant-negative mutant form of NR4A1 effectively suppressed both DNA fragmentation and the disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) during LPS- and simvastatin-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, apoptosis was accompanied by Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) translocation to the mitochondria. Our findings suggest that NR4A1 expression and mitochondrial translocation of Bax are related to simvastatin-induced apoptosis in LPS-activated RAW 264.7 macrophages.