• Title/Summary/Keyword: human life

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A Novel Mannose-binding Tuber Lectin from Typhonium divaricatum (L.) Decne (family Araceae) with Antiviral Activity Against HSV-II and Anti-proliferative Effect on Human Cancer Cell Lines

  • Luo, Yongting;Xu, Xiaochao;Liu, Jiwei;Li, Jian;Sun, Yisheng;Liu, Zhen;Liu, Jinzhi;Damme, Els Van;Balzarini, Jan;Bao, Jinku
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.40 no.3
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    • pp.358-367
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    • 2007
  • A novel mannose-binding tuber lectin with in vitro antiproliferative activity towards human cancer cell lines and antiviral activity against HSV-II was isolated from fresh tubers of a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, Typhonium divaricatum (L.) Decne by a combined procedure involving extraction, ammonium sulfate precipitation, ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-SEPHAROSE, CM-SEPHAROSE and gel-filtration on sephacryl S-200. The apparent molecular mass of the purified Typhonium divaricatum lectin (TDL) was 48 kDa. TDL exhibits hemagglutinating activity toward rabbit erythrocytes at 0.95 $\mu$g/ml, and its activity could be strongly inhibited by mannan, ovomucoid, asialofetuin and thyroglobulin. TDL showed antiproliferative activity towards some well established human cancer cell lines, e.g. Pro-01 (56.7 $\pm$ 6.8), Bre-04 (41.5 $\pm$ 4.8), and Lu-04 (11.4 $\pm$ 0.3). The anti-HSV-II activity of TDL was elucidated by testing its HSV-II infection inhibitory activity in Vero cells with $TC_50$ and $EC_50$ of 5.176 mg/ml and 3.054 $\mu$g/ml respectively. The full-length cDNA sequence of TDL was 1145 bp and contained an 813-bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a 271 amino acid precursor of 29-kDa. Homology analysis showed that TDL had high homology with many other mannose-binding lectins. Secondary and three-dimensional structures analyses showed that TDL is heterotetramer and similar with lectins from mannose-binding lectin superfamily, especially those from family Araceae.

Emodin-Provoked Oxidative Stress Induces Apoptosis in Human Colon Cancer HCT116 Cells through a p53-Mitochondrial Apoptotic Pathway

  • Xie, Mei-Juan;Ma, Yi-Hua;Miao, Lin;Wang, Yan;Wang, Hai-Zhen;Xing, Ying-Ying;Xi, Tao;Lu, Yuan-Yuan
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.15 no.13
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    • pp.5201-5205
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    • 2014
  • Emodin, a natural anthraquinone isolated from the traditional Chinese medicine Radix rhizoma Rhei, can induce apoptosis in many kinds of cancer cells. This study demonstrated that emodin induces apoptosis in human colon cancer HCT116 cells by provoking oxidative stress, which subsequently triggers a p53-mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. Emodin induced mitochondrial transmembrane potential loss, increase in Bax and decrease in Bcl-2 expression and mitochondrial translocation and release of cytochrome c to cytosol in HCT116 cells. In response to emodin-treatment, ROS increased rapidly, and subsequently p53 was overexpressed. Pretreatment with the antioxidant NAC diminished apoptosis and p53 overexpression induced by emodin. Transfecting p53 siRNA also attenuated apoptosis induced by emodin, Bax expression and mitochondrial translocation being reduced compared to treatment with emodin alone. Taken together, these results indicate that ROS is a trigger of emodin-induced apoptosis in HCT116 cells, and p53 expression increases under oxidative stress, leading to Bax-mediated mitochondrial apoptosis.

Derivation of endothelial cells from porcine induced pluripotent stem cells by optimized single layer culture system

  • Wei, Renyue;Lv, Jiawei;Li, Xuechun;Li, Yan;Xu, Qianqian;Jin, Junxue;Zhang, Yu;Liu, Zhonghua
    • Journal of Veterinary Science
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.9.1-9.15
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    • 2020
  • Regenerative therapy holds great promise in the development of cures of some untreatable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, and pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) including induced PSCs (iPSCs) are the most important regenerative seed cells. Recently, differentiation of human PSCs into functional tissues and cells in vitro has been widely reported. However, although porcine reports are rare they are quite essential, as the pig is an important animal model for the in vitro generation of human organs. In this study, we reprogramed porcine embryonic fibroblasts into porcine iPSCs (piPSCs), and differentiated them into cluster of differentiation 31 (CD31)-positive endothelial cells (ECs) (piPSC-derived ECs, piPS-ECs) using an optimized single-layer culture method. During differentiation, we observed that a combination of GSK3β inhibitor (CHIR99021) and bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) promoted mesodermal differentiation, resulting in higher proportions of CD31-positive cells than those from separate CHIR99021 or BMP4 treatment. Importantly, the piPS-ECs showed comparable morphological and functional properties to immortalized porcine aortic ECs, which are capable of taking up low-density lipoprotein and forming network structures on Matrigel. Our study, which is the first trial on a species other than human and mouse, has provided an optimized single-layer culture method for obtaining ECs from porcine PSCs. Our approach can be beneficial when evaluating autologous EC transplantation in pig models.

Molecular Cloning and Phylogeny of the Human Endogenous Retrovirus HERV-W LTR Family in cDNA Library of Human Fetal Brain (인간 태아의 뇌로부터 만들어진 cDNA library에서 내생 레트로바이러스 HERV-W LTR의 클로닝 및 분자계통분류)

  • 이주민;허재원;신경미;이지원;이영춘;백인호;장경립;김희수
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.11 no.4
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    • pp.379-384
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    • 2001
  • Long terminal repeats(LTRs) of the human endogenous retrovirus(HERV) heve been found to be coexpresed with genes located nearby. It has been suggested that the LTR elements have contributed to the genetic variation of human genome connected to various diseases. Recently, HERV-W family was identified in the cerebrospinal fluids and brains of individuals with schizophrenia. Using cHNA library derived from human fetal brain, we performed PCR amplification and identified seven new HERV-W LTR elements. Those LTR elements showed a high degree of sequence similarity(98∼99%) with HERV-W (AF072500). A phylogentic tree obtained by the neighbor-joining method revealed that seven new HERV-W LTR elements(FB-1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12) were closely related to the AX000960, AF072504, and AF072506 from Gen Bank database. Our data suggest that several copy numbers of the HERV-W LTR elements are expressed in human feta brain and may contribute to an understanding of biological function connected to neuropsychiatric diseases.

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Effect of Green Dietary Life Recognition and Low-Carbon Green Life Practice on Health-Related Dietary Habits in High School Students in the Incheon Area (인천지역 고등학생의 녹색식생활 인지와 저탄소 녹색생활 실천이 건강관련 식습관에 미치는 영향)

  • Park, So-Hyun;Son, Eun-Ju;Chang, Kyung Ja
    • Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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    • v.25 no.6
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    • pp.952-962
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    • 2015
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of green dietary life recognition and low-carbon green life practice on health-related dietary habits in high school students. The subjects were 367 high school students in the Incheon area. This cross-sectional survey was conducted using a questionnaire, and data were analyzed with the SPSS 20.0 program. According to the findings, green dietary life recognition were categorized into two sub-factors: 'Eco-friendly traditional dietary life', and 'Life of consideration and thanks'. Low-carbon green life practice was 'Low-carbon green life', and health-related dietary habits were categorized into four sub-factors: 'Vegetables-oriented traditional dietary habits', 'Balanced dietary habits', 'Life practice for health', and 'Various cereals intake'. Green dietary life recognition showed a significantly positive relationship with all sub-factors of health-related dietary habits (p<0.05), whereas 'Eco-friendly traditional dietary life' had no significant effect on 'Balanced dietary habits'. Low-carbon green life practice showed a significantly positive relationship with all sub-factors of health-related dietary habits (p<0.01). Students who received green growth education showed significantly higher health-related dietary habits than those who did not (p<0.01). Girls showed significantly higher green dietary life recognitions and low-carbon green life practice than boys (p<0.01). Therefore, more green dietary life and low-carbon green life education programs targeting students are need. Voluntary activities, along with green dietary life and low-carbon green life education will help students improve their health-related dietary habits.

Gene Cloning and Nucleotide Sequence of Human Dihydrolipoamide Dehydrogenase-Binding Protein

  • Lee, Jeongmin;Ryou, Chongsuk;Jeon, Bong Kyun;Lee, Poongyeon;Woo, Hee-Jong;Kwon, Moosik
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.15 no.3
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    • pp.421-426
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    • 2002
  • The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC), a member of $\alpha$-keto acid dehydrogenase complex, catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate with the formation of $CO_2$, acetyl-CoA, NADH, and $H^+$. This complex contains multiple copies of three catalytic components including pyruvate dehydrogenase (E1), dihydrolipoamide acetyltransferase (E2), and dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (E3). Two regulatory components (E1-kinase and phospho-E1 phosphatase) and functionally less-understood protein (protein X, E3BP) are also involved in the formation of the complex. In this study, we have partially cloned the gene for E3BP in human. Nine putative clones were isolated by human genomic library screening with 1.35 kb fragment of E3BP cDNA as a probe. For investigation of cloned genes, Southern blot analysis and the construction of the restriction map were performed. One of the isolated clones, E3BP741, has a 3 kb-SacI fragment, which contains 200 bp region matched with E3BP cDNA sequences. The matched DNA sequence encodes the carboxyl-terminal portion of lipoyl-bearing domain and hinge region of human E3BP. Differences between yeast E3BP and mammalian E3BP coupled with the remarkable similarity between mammalian E2 and mammalian E3BP were confirmed from the comparison of the nucleotide sequence and the deduced amino acid sequence in the cloned E3BP. Cloning of human E3BP gene and analysis of the gene structure will facilitate the understanding of the role(s) of E3BP in mammalian PDC.

Glehnia littoralis Root Extract Induces G0/G1 Phase Cell Cycle Arrest in the MCF-7 Human Breast Cancer Cell Line

  • de la Cruz, Joseph Flores;Vergara, Emil Joseph Sanvictores;Cho, Yura;Hong, Hee Ok;Oyungerel, Baatartsogt;Hwang, Seong Gu
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.16 no.18
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    • pp.8113-8117
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    • 2016
  • Glehnia littoralis (GL) is widely used as an oriental medicine for cough, fever, stroke and other disease conditions. However, the anti-cancer properties of GL on MCF-7 human breast cancer cells have not been investigated. In order to elucidate anti-cancer properties and underlying cell death mechanisms, MCF-7cells ($5{\times}10^4/well$) were treated with Glehnia littoralis root extract at 0-400 ug/ml. A hot water extract of GL root inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Analysis of the cell cycle after treatment of MCF-7 cells with increasing concentrations of GL root extract for 24 hours showed significant cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase. RT-PCR and Western blot analysis both revealed that GL root extract significantly increased the expression of p21 and p27 with an accompanying decrease in both CDK4 and cyclin D1. Our reuslts indicated that GL root extract arrested the proliferation of MCF-7 cells in G1 phase through inhibition of CDK4 and cyclin D1 via increased induction of p21 and p27. In summary, the current study showed that GL could serve as a potential source of chemotherapeutic or chemopreventative agents against human breast cancer.

A 4-year Follow-up Survey of Flora at the Human-made Wetlands Along Boknaecheon of Juam Lake (주암호 복내천 인공습지 조성 후 4년간의 식물상 변화연구)

  • Kim, Chang-Hwan;Myung, Hyun
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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    • v.11 no.5
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    • pp.25-37
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    • 2008
  • A field survey was performed at the Human-made Wetlands along Boknaecheon of Juam Lake from March 2004 to October 2007 for the purpose of investigating changes of flora for 4 years since its creation. A total of 15 species including 10 families, 13 genera, 12 species and 3 varieties were planted at the Human-made Wetlands along Boknaecheon of Juam Lake which was completed in December 2002. The survey conducted in 2004, 15 months after creation of the Human-made Wetlands, revealed a flora composed of 47 families, 102 genera, 112 species and 19 varieties, 131 taxa in total. In 2007, further increase was registered with 46 species added compared to 2004 reaching 177 species in total. A 4-year monitoring of naturalized plants showed that no quick but constant increase was featured yearly in their number of species with 12 in 2004, 17 in 2005, 18 in 2006 and 19 in 2007. As for changes in life form, 13 species of perennial plants and 2 woody species, 15 in total, were planted initially but, in the survey 2004, 1- or 2-year old therophytes numbered 73, perennial plants 54 and woody species 4, indicating a large change of life form accompanied with increase in overall number of species. The number of 1- or 2-year old therophytes and perennial plants featured a steady increase each year from 2005 to 2007. The distribution ratio of 1- or 2-year old therophytes, however, showed a gradually decreasing tendency while perennial plants tended to increase, instead. As evidenced in changes of flora at the Human-made Wetlands, most of species in it have been determined to be fit or not within 1 to 2 years after its creation and, since the stable settlement of these species onward, its life forms have undergone stepwise changes together with the number of species and individuals in parallel with repeated extinction and penetration of plants.

Re-reading Women in Love : An ecological approach ("사랑하는 여인들" 다시 읽기: 생태학적 접근)

  • Ohm, Jeong-Ohk
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.119-136
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    • 2005
  • This paper attempts to prove the possibility that Women in Love can be approached by ecological thought. It is necessary to research the family of Lawrence's childhood, the environmental surroundings and Lawrence's viewpoint of nature to prove the possibility. The most urgent problem for us in the modern world is the ecological crisis due to the destructive aspect of modern civilization. This Lawrence's attitude toward the modern civilization is clearly reflected in Women in Love. Lawrence diagnoses the destructive aspects of modern civilization and the human relationship through Gerald, Gudrun, Hermione and Loerke who represent the industrial society and suggests the apocalyptic vision to the human being from the nature. Lawrence thinks that we must restore the animated power of life to revive the modern man who lost the vital power of life. Birkin and Ursula represent this thought of Lawrence and they accomplish the idealistic human relationship based upon the true love and the real life. They do not have the posture of the binomial contrast that separates the human being from the nature, This posture of the binominal brings to one of the causes of the present ecological crisis. As a result, we can say that Women in Love is the novel that belongs to the category of literary ecology. And we can regard that Lawrence previously presented the paradigm that ecologist advocates.

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