• 한국약용작물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.251-252
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• 2007

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.307-314
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• 2008

Retinal prostheses are being developed to restore vision for the blind with retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP) or age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Among the many issues for prosthesis development, stimulation encoding strategy is one of the most essential electrophysiological issues. The more we understand the retinal circuitry how it encodes and processes visual information, the greater it could help decide stimulation encoding strategy for retinal prosthesis. Therefore, we examined how retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in in-vitro retinal preparation act together to encode a visual scene with multielectrode array (MEA). Simultaneous recording of many RGCs with MEA showed that nearby neurons often fired synchronously, with spike delays mostly within 1 ms range. This synchronized firing - narrow correlation - was blocked by gap junction blocker, heptanol, but not by glutamatergic synapse blocker, kynurenic acid. By tracking down all the RGC pairs which showed narrow correlation, we could harvest 40 functional connectivity maps of RGCs which showed the cell cluster firing together. We suggest that finding functional connectivity map would be useful in stimulation encoding strategy for the retinal prosthesis since stimulating the cluster of RGCs would be more efficient than separately stimulating each individual RGC.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.927-937
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• 2022

To confirm the therapeutic effect of the water extract from Ecklonia cava (WEE) against PM_2.5 induced systemic health damage, we evaluated gut health with a focus on the microbiota and metabolites. Systemic damage in mice was induced through PM_2.5 exposure for 12 weeks in a whole-body chamber. After exposure for 12 weeks, body weight and food intake decreased, and WEE at 200 mg/kg body weight (mpk) alleviated these metabolic efficiency changes. In addition, PM_2.5 induced changes in the length of the colon and fecal water content. The administration of the WEE at 200 mpk oral dose effectively reduced changes in the colon caused by PM_2.5 exposure. We also attempted to confirm whether the effect of the WEE is mediated via regulation of the microbiota-gut-brain axis in mice with PM_2.5 induced systemic damage. We examined changes in the fecal microbiota and gut metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and kynurenine metabolites. In the PM_2.5 exposed group, a decrease in the abundance of Lactobacillus (Family: Lactobacillaceae) and an increase in the abundance of Alistipes (Family: Rikenellaceae) were observed, and the administration of the WEE showed a beneficial effect on the gut microbiota. In addition, the WEE effectively increased the levels of SCFAs (acetate, propionate, and butyrate). Furthermore, kynurenic acid (KYNA), which is a critical neuroprotective metabolite in the gut-brain axis, was increased by the administration of the WEE. Our findings suggest that the WEE could be used as a potential therapeutic against PM_2.5 induced health damage by regulating gut function.