• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 2022

Seahorses, which have been cultivated since the 2000s, are economically very important. Gas bubble disease (GBD) is a significant concern in the cultivation of seahorses; therefore, this study aimed to determine the cause of GBD-induced death in two species of Syngnathidae (Syngnathus schlegeli and Hippocampus haema). Rod-shaped bacteria were observed histopathologically and identified as Vibrio splendidus by conventional and real-time PCR analyses. The lethality of V. splendidus varies depending on the host's immune status, and the disease can be prevented through water quality management or improvement of the breeding environment. In this study, the GBD lesions (gas bubbles) were observed at 12℃, 8.0 mg/L of dissolved oxygen, 30 ppt of salinity, and pH 7.7. In addition, rod-shaped bacteria, infiltration of inflammatory cells, and extensive serous exudate were confirmed in the lesions where gas bubbles were found. PCR analysis was able to detect V. splendidus, possibly a secondary infection of the immunocompromised syngnathid fish. Understanding the risk of immunity control and the correlation between these lesions and causal agents will be of great help to the aquaculture industry and the ornamental fish market.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.795-808
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• 2022

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to report two cases of prostate cancer patients whose side effects after surgery were treated with traditional Korean medicine. Methods: Two prostate cancer patients underwent robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy, and both patients were treated with traditional Korean medicine. Subjective discomfort symptoms were evaluated using the Numerical Rating Scale. Adverse events were evaluated using the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 5.0. Daily life vitality was evaluated by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. Results: After treatment with traditional Korean medicine, discomfort symptoms that occurred after surgery, such as frequent urination, nocturia, insomnia, and depression, all gradually improved, and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group scores also improved from two points to one point. Additionally, there were no hematologic side effects from the traditional Korean medicine treatment. Conclusions: This case study suggests that traditional Korean medicine may contribute to the improvement of side effects caused by robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy, quality of life, and immunity.

• Journal of Convergence Korean Medicine
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2024

Objectives: Gyeongokgo is a traditional medicine typically used for individuals with wasting disorders and decreased immunity. Carop is well-known for its exceptional antioxidant effects. The objective of this study was to determine whether the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of Gyeongokgo may be enhanced by the addition of carob. Methods: Cytotoxicity was confirmed using an MTT assay. Free radical scavenging activity ability was evaluated using DPPH assay. The amount of produced nitrogen oxide, TNF-α, and IL-6 were measured using an ELISA reader. Results: The Gyeongokgo with carob showed no cytotoxicity and a synergistic effect on antioxidant activity, when compared with the Gyeongokgo without carob. In addition, the inhibitory effect on nitric oxide production was higher for the Gyeongokgo with carob when compared with the Gyeongokgo without carob. The anti-inflammatory response of the Gyeongokgo with carob was possibly through the suppression of the production of TNF-α and IL-6. Conclusion: The addition of carob to Gyeongokgo may be an effective measure to enhance the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1830-1836
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• 2003

Studies using natural resistance-associated macrophage protein (NRAMP) identification indicated that cattle could be selected for immunity. Several studies performed on intracellular organisms such as Mycobacterium, Salmonella, Brucella and Leishmania in human and mouse revealed that resistance against these bacteria was dependent on high activity of NRAMP1 in macrophages. However, hardly any researches have been done on Staphylococcus aureus in bovine mastitis, which is an intracellular organism and the main cause of bovine mastitis. The objectives of this study were to establish reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) methods, through which NRAMP1 mRNA expression could be compared and analyzed between mastitis-resistant and -susceptible cows. NRAMP1 gene and its expression were investigated using 20 cows (Holstein Friesian) in Korea. Cows were evenly split into two groups, with and without histories of clinical mastitis. Equivalent numbers of cows were randomly selected from each group. Monocytes were isolated from the bovine peripheral blood of each selected cows and activated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). mRNA was separated from the monocytes and cDNA of NRAMP1 was synthesized and amplified using RT-PCR with amplification of $\beta$-actin as a control. The difference in NRAMP1 expressions of mastitis-resistant (n=10) and -susceptible (n=10) Holstein cows was analyzed. Results demonstrate that resistant cows produced more NRAMP1 mRNA than the susceptible ones, and ratios of NRAMP1:$\beta$-actin expression were higher in resistant cows with or without LPS activation. Therefore, this study could be applied to select bovine mastitis resistant cows before infection based on the expression of NRAMP1.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.655-663
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• 2018

The insect gut microbiome is known to have important roles in host growth, development, digestion, and resistance against pathogens. In addition, the genetic diversity of the insect gut microbiota has recently been recognized as potential genetic resources for industrial bioprocessing. However, there is limited information regarding the insect gut microbiota to better help us understand their potential benefits for enhanced pig production. With the development of next-generation sequencing methods, whole genome sequence analysis has become possible beyond traditional culture-independent methods. This improvement makes it possible to identify and characterize bacteria that are not cultured and located in various environments including the gastrointestinal tract. Insect intestinal microorganisms are known to have an important role in host growth, digestion, and immunity. These gut microbiota have recently been recognized as potential genetic resources for livestock farming which is using the functions of living organisms to integrate them into animal science. The purpose of this literature review is to emphasize the necessity of research on insect gut microbiota and their applicability to pig production or bioindustry. In conclusion, bacterial metabolism of feed in the gut is often significant for the nutrition intake of animals, and the insect gut microbiome has potential to be used as feed additives for enhanced pig performance. The exploration of the structure and function of the insect gut microbiota needs further investigation for their potential use in the swine industry particularly for the improvement of growth performance and overall health status of pigs.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 1996

A Recent discovery of surface antigens in cells has led to the success of quantitative measurement of T-cell subpopulations, and this has especially opened the way for an epoch-making development in the understanding and classification of cellular immune mechanisms. It is known that phenotypes of T-cell subpopulations exist in many forms according to the variation of species or animal experimental models. In Korea, Clonorchis sinensis still gives rise to public concern as it infects more than eighty million people and threatens the public by causing cirrhosis of the liver, or liver cancer when liver infection becomes prolonged and chronic. Up until now there has been much progress in research and improvement in the classification system of Clonorchis sinensis in the area of humoral immunity, but as for research in the area of cellular immune mechanisms, there is almost none. Knowing all these circumstances, the authors delved for the characterization of Iymphocyte subpopulations with mice as Clonorchis sinensis in the area of cellular immunity, and obtained the following results. That is, we injected Clonorchis sinensis antigens mixed in Freund's ajuvant solution intraperitoneally in mice and measured the T-cell subpopulation characterization of spleen lymphocytes with flow cytometry. The results of these measurements showed that CD2, CD5 and CD8 decreased early following injections but then in-creased again seven weeks after the injections. CD4, however, showed a slight increase shortly after the injection but then a fair increase seven weeks after the injection.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.4037-4043
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• 2012

Despite progress in elucidating mechanisms associated with colorectal cancer and improvement of treatment methods, it remains a frequent cause of death worldwide. New and more effective therapies are therefore urgently needed. Recent studies have shown that immunogenicity of whole ovarian tumor cells and subsequent T cell response were potentiated by oxidation modification with hypochlorous acid (HOCl) in vitro and ex vivo. These results prompted us to investigate the protective antitumor response with an HOCl treated CT26 colorectal cancer cell vaccine in an in vivo mouse model. Administration of HOCl modified vaccine triggered robust antitumor immunity to autologous tumor cells in mice and prolonged survival period significantly. In addition, increased necrosis and apoptosis were found in tumor tissue from the oxidation group. Interestingly, ELISPOT assays showed that specific T cell responses were not elicited in response to the immunizing cellular antigen, in contrast to raising sera antibody titer and antibody binding activity shown by ELISA assay and flow cytometry. Further evaluation of the mechanisms underlying HOCl modified vaccine mediated humoral immunity highlighted the role of antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity. These results combined with previous studies suggest that HOCl oxidation modified whole cell vaccine has wide applicability as a cancer vaccine because it can target both T cell- and B cell-specific responses. It may thus represent a promising approach for the immunotherapy of colorectal cancer.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2009

Colostrum provide a complete diet for the newborn calves. In ruminants, colostrum is also the sole source of initial acquired immunity for the offspring. Colostrum, therefore, plays an important role in ruminants host defense. Bovine colostrum imparts passive immunity to newborn calves during the first 24h of life and generally has been fed for the first 3 days after birth. Colostrum can be preserved conveniently for future use by brief refrigeration, freezing, or storage at ambient temperatures (fermentation or chemical treatment). Colostrum management were surveyed via data collection from 67 dairy farms in Gyeonggi and Chungnam provinces. After parturition for five days the total amount of produced colostrum was 80.4 kg on average, and the average amount of lactation fed to a calf was 20.9 kg. According to the survey results, identified treatment methods for surplus colostrum are as follows; disposal 17.9%, other calf feeding 37.3%, storage 22.4%, other livestock feeding 20.9% and other treatment 1.5%. For improvement in the quality of colostrum, there must be controlled usage of medicines (such as antibiotics) before and after parturition, proper choices of milk-drying agents, and increased milking yields during the early stage of the milking period.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.330-338
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• 2019

Chronic infection with intracellular Brucella abortus (B. abortus) in livestock remains as a major problem worldwide. Thus, the search for an ideal vaccine is still ongoing. In this study, we evaluated the protective efficacy of a combination of B. abortus recombinant proteins; superoxide dismutase (rSodC), riboflavin synthase subunit beta (rRibH), nucleoside diphosphate kinase (rNdk), 50S ribosomal protein (rL7/L12) and malate dehydrogenase (rMDH), cloned and expressed into a pMal vector system and $DH5{\alpha}$, respectively, and further purified and applied intraperitoneally into BALB/c mice. After first immunization and two boosters, mice were infected intraperitoneally (IP) with $5{\times}10^4CFU$ of virulent B. abortus 544. Spleens were harvested and bacterial loads were evaluated at two weeks post-infection. Results revealed that this combination showed significant reduction in bacterial colonization in the spleen with a log protection unit of 1.31, which is comparable to the average protection conferred by the widely used live attenuated vaccine RB51. Cytokine analysis exhibited enhancement of cell-mediated immune response as IFN-${\gamma}$ is significantly elevated while IL-10, which is considered beneficial to the pathogen's survival, was reduced compared to control group. Furthermore, both titers of IgG1 and IgG2a were significantly elevated at three and four-week time points from first immunization. In summary, our in vivo data revealed that vaccination with a combination of five different proteins conferred a heightened host response to Brucella infection through cell-mediated immunity which is desirable in the control of intracellular pathogens. Thus, this combination might be considered for further improvement as a potential candidate vaccine against Brucella infection.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.64 no.5
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• pp.937-949
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• 2022

Health concern of dogs is the most important issue for pet owners. People who have companied the dogs long-term provide the utmost cares for their well-being and healthy life. Recently, it was revealed that the population and types of gut microbiota affect the metabolism and immunity of the host. However, there is little information on the gut microbiome of dogs. Hericium erinaceus (H. erinaceus; HE) is one of the well-known medicinal mushrooms and has multiple bioactive components including polyphenol, β-glucan, polysaccharides, ergothioneine, hericerin, erinacines, etc. Here we tested a pet food that contained H. erinaceus for improvement in the gut microbiota environment of aged dogs. A total of 18 dogs, each 11 years old, were utilized. For sixteen weeks, the dogs were fed with 0.4 g of H. erinaceus (HE-L), or 0.8 g (HE-H), or without H. erinaceus (CON) per body weight (kg) with daily diets (n = 6 per group). Taxonomic analysis was performed using metagenomics to investigate the difference in the gut microbiome. Resulting from principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) to confirm the distance difference between the groups, there was a significant difference between HE-H and CON due to weighted Unique fraction metric (Unifrac) distance (p = 0.047), but HE-L did not have a statistical difference compared to that of CON. Additionally, the result of Linear discriminate analysis of effect size (LEfSe) showed that phylum Bacteroidetes in HE-H and its order Bacteroidales increased, compared to that of CON, Additionally, phylum Firmicutes in HE-H, and its genera (Streptococcus, Tyzzerella) were reduced. Furthermore, at the family level, Campylobacteraceae and its genus Campylobacter in HE-H was decreased compared to that of CON. Summarily, our data demonstrated that the intake of H. erinaceus can regulate the gut microbial community in aged dogs, and an adequate supply of HE on pet diets would possibly improve immunity and anti-obesity on gut-microbiota in dogs.