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A Study on the Nature-friendly Management Regarding the User Pattern of Yangjae Stream (양재천의 이용특성을 고려한 환경친화적 관리방안에 관한 연구)

  • Kim Sun-Hee;Hong Suk-Hwan;Bae Jung-Nam
    • Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.306-315
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    • 2004
  • Yangjae stream, stretching through Seocho-gu and Gangnam-gu, is a representative city stream with its environmentally friendly stream makeover project model, launched in 1995. The district of Gangnam-gu, the subject of this study, is under high pressure from the residents for its use as a huge residential areas close to the stream. The study has two main purposes. The first is to identify the condition and characteristic of utilization of Yangjae stream which is currently being increased in use by the stream restoration. Secondly, the study aims to suggest the environment-friendly management to accomplish arrangement of the naturally friendly stream based on the identification survey, The result from the user survey with 303 valid answer sheets show that the people from neighboring residential areas use this stream a lot doing exercising(51.8%) and taking a walk(24.4%) in their free time. Also regular use rate is high, and people are likely to use it alone(30.4%) or as a family(28.4%). With regard to the need of facility increase, even though the respondents required resting places in the shade(80.8%) most, overall, additional introduction of facilities was analyzed as unnecessary(78.8%). safety issue(22.0%) and a lack of convenience facilities(17.6%) and resting places in the shade(16.6%) are pointed as main problems while the users are generally satisfied(59.5%) with the stream. Improving walk-way and planting trees for shade on the slope were designed as a solution for these problems. For securing safety through improvement of walk-way, the scattering of pressure of current walk with building new walk using berms was presented. In order to increase safety on the walk-way(see above figure), the study proposes to build a new walk-way with berms to disperse excessive pressure. It also suggests the tree planting to provide shade in the stream and to make a provision for the planting of forest trees in the current law.

A Study and Investigation for the Attitude about Smoking of Boys' and Girls' High School in Seoul (서울시내 남녀고교생의 흡연에 관한 태도 조사연구)

  • Sim Young Ae
    • Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.74-100
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    • 1989
  • Inspite of the lots of studies on the harmfulness of cigarette smoking to the body published by many researchers since 1950, cigarette smoking people are increasing in number especially, cigarette smoking by young and women causes a serious problem. Examining the physiological motives of youth shows that, impulse which the youth want to immitate the adults, alluring curiousity, and defiant physiology of escaping from the norm of traditional groups which has been banned are cooperated well compoundly. As the period of the youth is the one which they accumulate knowledge and charactor by learning as well as the period of growth mentally, and physically they should be rightly educated about smoking before they addicted to smoking and it is desirable for us to make the youth to understand how harmfully the smoking is to effect to their growth and mental soundness simply not as a social norm which they should not smoke. The main motive of this study on the attitude of smoking by the youth is to give basic materials related on this field. For this study, 647 questionnaires were used as studying material which were able to analyze among 720 questionnaires of 2 classes of each grade of 3 high schools among the high schools of boys, girls and co-educated in Seoul from Oct. 21, 1988 through Oct. 26, 1988. Study Instrument are graded in Likert's 5 point from 40 questions which are 20 questions m affirmations and 20 questions in negations after analyzing the factors on 60 simple sentence questions which the students showed in preliminary studies. And these are systemized to be measured from 1 point which means they think smoking IS very bad to 5points which means they think smoking is really good. In these collected materials, technical statistics of frequency. percentage, average, standard deviation are used for general character and smoking attitude, $X^2-test$ for examinning Independant variables of physical. emotional, ethical and other areas pearson's coefficient of correlation for related direction and degree" and step­regression analysis for the degree of relative contribution of all variables which effect smoking attitude. The results of this study are as follows; 1. The smoking attitude of high school boys and girls showed average of 1.78 in physical area, 2.63 in emotional area, 2.61 in ethical area, 2.29 in other area respectively in a negative attitude generally also the negative attitude are expressed most strongly in physical area. I've can also say by this results that smoking is harmful to their health and further more it can be judged that this proves the youth in the period of preparation be adults have a strong curiousity in the emotional, ethical and other areas. 2. The most influential variables in each field as related factors effecting smoking attitude of the student can be explained from 13.2 in physical area the lowest experienced variables to 25.2 in emotional area the highest of degree of smoking experience. The fact that the more the smoking experienced students are increasing in number the higher tendency which accept the' smoking tells as the importance of health education about the population of latest student's smoking as important variables shown equally in each area. Those of grade, age, numbers of smoking people in house are showed meaningful in pure interrelation. Those related to the acceptance of teacher's smoking, sex, mothors education are shown meaningful in opposite interrelations. This means that the' increasing number' of smoking people in grade age, the number of smoker in family have a affirmative attitude. And people who are not interested in teacher's smoking wants to quit it, and whose mother's education is higher have a negative attitude. 3. The most negatively answered questions of the smoking attitude In physical, emotional, ethical and other areas are as belows; Firstly too much smoking is harmful to our health is 1.12 point. Secondly smoking have a ill-effect on pregnancy and embryo is 1.13 point. Thirdly smoking is harmful· to our health is 1.27 point. Fourthly smoking in crowed area with the people such as In a bus or subway should be prohibited is 1.27point. Fifthly smoking can ruin lungs is 1.31 point. And the most affirmatively answered questions are also as below; Firstly we showed smoke depending on time and place is 3.96 points. Secondly smoking is just habit is 3.83 points. Thirdly smoking people seem to be unable and deplorable is 3.69 point. Fourthly smoking should be prohibited by law is 3.56 points. Fifthly high school student's smoking is immitation of adults is 3.52 points.

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A Study on the effect of Friend-praise activity program of Elementary students for Self-esteem and Personal Relationship (초등학생의 또래 칭찬활동 프로그램이 자아존중감 및 대인관계에 미치는 효과)

  • Oh, Eun-Ju
    • The Korean Journal of Elementary Counseling
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    • v.5 no.1
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    • pp.159-184
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    • 2006
  • Lately, the rapid social and family system change, the entrance examination-centered circumstance in education have a negative influence not only on making up the affirmative self-esteem but also on building up the personal relationship through mutual communication with friends of the same age. Making children adapt well to school life and develop a good relationship in the class is an important subject in educational field. Thus, various school activities should offer lots of opportunities to increase their affirmative self-esteem and more specified performance-centered programs are required toform a harmonious relationship among parties of students. The purpose of this study is to improve an affirmative self-esteern and a desirable personal relationship of children through developing friend-praise program and adapting it to children. Based on the above purpose, the following subjects for this study 'are suggested. Firstly, is the friend-praise program effective in forming an affirmative self-esteem of elementary students? Secondly, is the friend-praise program successful in improving a desirable personal relationship in an elementary school? In addition, two hypotheses of study are decided on the basis of theoretical background and the former study. Hypothesis 1. The friend-praise program will have a meaningful effect on improving an affirmative self-esteem. Hypothesis 2. The friend-praise program will have a meaningful effect on improving a desirable personal relationship. In order to improve the above hypotheses, the experiment was carried out with two classes on the fourth grade in M elementary school in Wonju with being divided into one experimental group and the other comparative group. The friend-praise program which was adapted to the experimental group was composed with four steps as 'introduction', 'preparation', 'operation' and 'closing'. This program which has twelve categories was executed once or twice in a week and each class was continued for forty or sixty minutes. Contrastively, comparative group had no application of the main program. For the purpose of proving the hypotheses after adapting the program to students, I have executed both self-esteem test and personal relationship test. The tests were performed with using SPSS/Windows V10.0 and the statistic was conducted through independant sample t-test for the difference between groups and contrastive sample t-test for the individual difference in each group. The results of this study can be summarized like the followings: Firstly, from the result of previous and after tests, there was no meaningful change in the comparative group, but the experimental group showed meaningful difference in all categories of self-esteem(t=-4.496, p=.000). Especially, the general self-esteem(t=-3.216, p=.003), social self-esteem(t=-2.680, p=.012), homely self-esteem(t=-3.732, p=.001), and school self-esteem(t=-3.902, p=.000) showed a meaningful difference. At the same time, the experimental group also showed meaningful difference with the comparative group in self-esteem(t=-4.758, p=.000). Especially, the general self-esteem(t=2.581, p=.017), social self-esteem(t=3.160, p=.003), homely self-esteem(t=4.283, p=.000), and school self-esteem(t=4.110, p=.000) showed a meaningful difference. As a result of this experiment, the friend-praise program will have a meaningful effect on improving an affirmative self-esteem was proved. Secondly, there was no meaningful change in the comparative group, but the experimental group showed meaningful difference in all categories of personal relationship(t=-4.131, p=.000). Specifically, satisfaction(t=-2.113, p=.045), communication(t=-3.381, p=.002), confidence(t=-3.517, p=.001), intimacy(t=-3.958, p=.000), sensibility(t=-2.955, p=.006), openness(t=-4.318, p=.000) and interest(t=-2.941, p=.000) showed a meaningful difference. In the same instant, the experimental group also showed meaningful difference with the comparative group in all categories of personal relationship(t=3.897, p=.000). Especially, satisfaction(t=2.257, p=.003), communication(t=3.527, p=.001), confidence(t=3.704, p=.001), intimacy(t=3.904, p=.000), sensibility (t=4.382, p=.000), openness(t=2.648, p=.013) and interest(t=2.944, p=.006) showed a meaningful difference. Accordingly, the friend-praise program will have a meaningful effect on improving a desirable personal relationship was proved. Judging from all these results, we should provide primary students with various opportunities to take part in active programs which help them to set up their righteous sense of value, to solve their own problems and to develop their potentials. Consequently, many kinds of practice-centered program like the friend-praise program should be developed more systematically and teachers should apply all those programs to students according to their individual level and developmental stage.

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Anti-Inflammmatiry Effects of Nerium indicum Ethanol Extracts through Suppression of NF-kappaB Activation (NF-κB 활성 저해를 통한 협죽도 에탄올 추출물의 항염증 효능)

  • Kim, Tae-Hwan;Ko, Seog-Soon;Park, Cheol;Park, Sang-Eun;Hong, Sang-Hoon;Kim, Byung-Woo;Choi, Yung-Hyun
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.20 no.8
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    • pp.1221-1229
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    • 2010
  • Nerium indicum, an India-Pakistan-originated shrub belonging to the oleander family, is reported to possess many pharmacological activities including cardiac muscle stimulation, and anti-diabetes, anti-angiogenesis, anti-cancer and neuro-protective activities. However, the anti-inflammatory properties of N. indicum were unclear. In this study, we investigated the effects of ethanol extract of the N. indicum leaf and stem (ENIL and ENIS) on the expression of anti-inflammatory mediators in U937 human pre-monocytic cell models. In U937 cells stimulated with phorbol 12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA), pre-treatment with ENIS significantly inhibited the expression of both cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mRNA and protein, which are associated with inhibition of the release of prostaglandin $E_2\;(PGE_2)$, whereas the inhibitory effects appeared weakly in ENIL. Moreover, ENIS significantly attenuated PMA-induced IkappaB ($I{\kappa}B$) degradation and suppressed elevated nuclear factor kappa B (NF-${\kappa}B$) nuclear translocation. Taken together, these findings provide important new insights that N. indicum exhibits anti-inflammatory properties by suppressing the transcription of pro-inflammatory cytokine genes through the NF-kB signaling pathway.

The Proteasome Inhibitor MG132 Sensitizes Lung Cancer Cells to TRAIL-induced Apoptosis by Inhibiting NF-κ Activation (폐암세포주에서 NFκ 활성 억제를 통한 Proteasome 억제제 MG132의 TRAIL-유도성 Apoptosis 감작 효과)

  • Seo, Pil Won;Lee, Kye Young
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.65 no.6
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    • pp.476-486
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    • 2008
  • Background: TRAIL (TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand) is a newly identified member of the TNF gene family which appears to have tumor-selective cytotoxicity due to the distinct decoy receptor system. TRAIL has direct access to caspase machinery and induces apoptosis regardless of p53 phenotype. Therefore, TRAIL has a therapeutic potential in lung cancer which frequently harbors p53 mutation in more than 50% of cases. However, it was shown that TRAIL also could activates $NF-{\kappa}B$ in some cell lines which might inhibit TRAIL-induced apoptosis. This study was designed to investigate whether TRAIL can activate $NF-{\kappa}B$ in lung cancer cell lines relatively resistant to TRAIL-induced apoptosis and inhibition of $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation using proteasome inhibitor MG132 which blocks $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ degradation can sensitize lung cancer cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Methods: A549 (wt p53) and NCI-H1299 (null p53) lung cancer cells were used and cell viability test was done by MTT assay. Apoptosis was confirmed with Annexin V assay followed by FACS analysis. To study $NF-{\kappa}B$-dependent transcriptional activation, a luciferase reporter gene assay was used after making A549 and NCI-H1299 cells stably transfected with IgG ${\kappa}-NF-{\kappa}B$ luciferase construct. To investigate DNA binding of $NF-{\kappa}B$ activated by TRAIL, electromobility shift assay was used and supershift assay was done using anti-p65 antibody. Western blot was done for the study of $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ degradation. Results: A549 and NCI-H1299 cells were relatively resistant to TRAIL-induced apoptosis showing only 20~30% cell death even at the concentration 100 ng/ml, but MG132 ($3{\mu}M$) pre-treatment 1 hour prior to TRAIL addition greatly increased cell death more than 80%. Luciferase assay showed TRAIL-induced $NF-{\kappa}B$ transcriptional activity in both cell lines. Electromobility shift assay demonstrated DNA binding complex of $NF-{\kappa}B$ activated by TRAIL and supershift with p65 antibody. $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ degradation was proven by western blot. MG132 completely blocked both TRAIL-induced $NF-{\kappa}B$ dependent luciferase activity and DNA binding of $NF-{\kappa}B$. Conclusion: This results suggest that inhibition of $NF-{\kappa}B$ can be a potentially useful strategy to enhance TRAIL-induced tumor cell killing in lung cancer.

Expressional Analysis of Superoxide Dismutase in Olive Flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) against Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia Virus Infection (Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) 감염에 대한 넙치 superoxide dismutase(Of-SOD)의 발현분석)

  • Lee, Young Mee;Kim, Jung-Eun;Noh, Jae Koo;Kim, Hyun Chul;Park, Choul-Ji;Park, Jong-Won;Kim, Kyung-Kil;Lee, Jeong-Ho
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.24 no.12
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    • pp.1371-1377
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    • 2014
  • Superoxide dismutase is a family of important antioxidant metalloenzymes and catalyzes the dismutation of toxic superoxide anions into dioxygen and hydrogen peroxide. A recent study identified the partial superoxide dismutase (SOD) gene in olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus). The same study reported that it strongly induced benzo[a]pyrene and that it was an indicator of aquatic oxidative stress responses. However, its transcriptional response against viral infection has not been investigated. In the present study, the spatial and temporal expression profiles were analyzed to investigate the function of Of-SOD in the antiviral response. The Of-SOD transcripts were ubiquitously detected at various levels in diverse tissues in a real-time PCR. The expression of Of-SOD was significantly higher in the muscles, liver, and brain but extremely low in the stomach and spleen. Following a VHSV challenge, the expression of Of-SOD increased within 3 h in the kidneys and decreased to the original level 2 days postchallenge. In muscle, liver, and brain, Of-SOD mRNA was similarly up-regulated at 3-6 h postchallenge and then decreased to the basal level. Although the expression pattern and induction time differed slightly depending on the tissue, the transcript of Of-SOD consistently increased in the acute infection response, but the expression was low in the chronic response. The expression of Of-SOD was induced after the VHSV infection, and Of-SOD was probably involved in the immune response against the viral challenge. These results suggest that SOD may play important roles in the immune defense system of P. olivaceus and perhaps contribute to the protective effects against oxidative stress in olive flounder.

Anti-Obestic Effects of Artemisiae Capillaris Herba, Artemisia Capillaris Stem Aqueous Extracts on the High Fat Diet Supplied Mice (고지방 사료 급여 마우스에서 인진쑥 추출물의 항비만 효과)

  • Kim, Hong-Tae;Kim, Dae-Dong;Ku, Sae-Kwang;Kim, Ju-Wan;Jang, Kwang-Ho;Oh, Tae-Ho;Lee, Keun-Woo
    • Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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    • v.27 no.4
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    • pp.348-365
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    • 2010
  • Artemisia capillaries THUNB is a perennial herb that belongs to the family compositae spp. and the most common plant among the various herbal folk remedies used in treatment of abdominal pain, hepatitis, chronic liver disease, jaundice and coughing in Korea. The object of this study is to observe the dosage-dependent anti-obestic effects of an aqueous extracts of dried aqueous extracts of stems of Artemisia capillaris Thunberg. [Artemisiae capillaris Herba, In-Jin in Korean, INJ] on 45%/Kcal high fat diet (HFD) supplied mice. 45%/Kcal rodent HFD are supplied to ICR mice from 1 week before initiation of INJ administration throughout the 12 weeks, and after the end of 12 weeks of 62.5, 125 and 250 mg/kg/day of INJ administration, the efficacy was divided into five categories 1) hypoglycemic, 2) hepato-protective, 3) nephroprotective, 4) hypolipemic, and 5) anti- obesity effects. The effects were compared to those of simvastatin (for hypolipemic activity), silymarin (for hepatoprotective and free radical scavenger effects) and metformin (for hypoglycemic and related anti-obesity effects). 7 animals per group (8 groups; total 56adapted mice on HFD were selected base on the body weight at 6 days after initiation of HFD supply) were used in this experiment. INJ and all three different reference drugs were directly suspended or dissolved in distilled water, and administered at a volume of 10 mL/kg, once a day for 84 days from 1 week after HFD supply. As results of 91 days of continuous HFD supply, mice showed marked obese states, hyperglycemia, hyperlipemia, liver damages and kidney damages. These mean the obesity, diabetes, diabetic hepatopathies, nephropathies and hyperlipemia were induced by HFD supply. After end of 84 days of continuous treatment of three different dosages of INJ, all diabetes related complications were inhibited; relatively favorable anti-obesity, hypolipemic, hepatoprotective, hypoglycemic and nephroprotective effects. These favorable effects showed relatively good dose-relations between all three different dosages of INJ treated, and INJ 250 mg/kg showed enough favorable effects on diabetes and related four complications tested as compared with one of each three different references. Otherwise, the efficacy of 62.5 and 125 mg/kg of INJ was somewhat slighter than those of all three reference drugs. Therefore, the suitable effective dosage of INJ is considered as 250 mg/kg/day in the present study. The overall anti-obesity effects of INJ 250 mg/kg-treated group was similar or more favorable than those of metformin 250 mg/kg-treated group, and INJ 250 mg/kg showed slighter hypoglycemic effects with silymarin 100 mg/kg and metformin 250 mg/kg, similar hypolipemic effects with simvastatin 10 mg/kg, and similar hepatoprotective effects with silymarin 100 mg/kg, and similar nephroprotective effects with that of silymarin 100 mg/kg and metformin 250 mg/kg, respectively. Obese, hyperglycemia, hyperlipemia, steatohepatitis and related nephropathies induced by HFD supply were dramatically inhibited by 84 days of continuous treatment of all three different dosages of INJ. It is, therefore expected that INJ extracts will be a favorable alternative agent for diet-related diabetes and complications.

Fish Fauna of the Saemankum Area in the West Coast of Chollabuk-do, Korea (새만금 일대의 어류상)

  • 심광수;이충렬
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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    • v.17 no.3
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    • pp.293-303
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    • 1999
  • Fish fauna of fishes collected from the Saemankum area in the west coast of Chollabuk-do was studied from October 1996 to April 1999. The specimens collected from the five sites in this area were identified into 107 species belonging to 83 genera and 52 families. Of them the largest group of fishes was order Perciformes, comprising 50 species and 21 families, and showed 46.7% in total numbers of species. Next larger groups were orders Scorpaeniformes and Pleuronectiformes containing 16 and 14 species respectively. In this area, the group comprising a lots of species was the family Gobiidae taking 13 species, and next groups were the families of Sciaenidae (6 species), Engraulidae (5 species) and Pleulonectidae (5 species). The dominant species was Engraulis japonicus which is 23.4 % in total indiyidual numbers, and subdominant species was Thryssa kummazensis which is 18.5%. The important species economically in the Saemankum area were Anguilla japonica, E. japonicus, T. kummalensis, Konosirus punctatus, Sardinella zunasi, Mugil cephalus, Argyrosomus argentatus, Pseudosciaena polyactis, Collichthys lucidus, Paralichthys olivuceus and Cynoglossus joyneri. The species of high frequency in this area from February to June every year were Anguilla japonica, E. japonicus, T. kammalensis, K. punctatus, S. zunasi, Coilia nasus, Syngnatuus schlegeli, P. polyactis, C. lucidus and Pholis fangi. Ophichthus rotundus, Repomucenus leucopoecitus and R. koreanus were Korean endemic species in the west coast of Chollabuk-do. On the other hand, Boleophthalmus pectinirostris was not found during this study, and Periophthalmus modertus, Tridentiger barbatus and Lophogobius ocellioauda sharply decreased in individual numbers in comparison to several years ago.

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Perilla frutescens Sprout Extracts Protected Against Cytokine-induced Cell Damage of Pancreatic RINm5F Cells via NF-κB Pathway (들깨 새싹 추출물의 췌장 RINm5F 세포에서 NF-κB 경로를 통한 사이토카인에 의한 손상 예방 효과)

  • Kim, Da Hye;Kim, Sang Jun;Jeong, Seung-Il;Yu, Kang-Yeol;Cheon, Chun Jin;Kim, Jang-Ho;Kim, Seon-Young
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.27 no.5
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    • pp.509-516
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    • 2017
  • Perilla frutescens (L.) Britton var. sprouts (PFS) is a plant of the labiatae family. The purpose of this work was to assess the preventive effects of PFS ethanolic extracts (PFSEs) on cytokine-induced ${\beta}$-cell damage. Cytokines, which are released by the infiltration of inflammatory cells around the pancreatic islets, are involved in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes mellitus. The combination of interleukin-$1{\beta}$ (IL-1), interferon-${\gamma}$ (IFN-${\gamma}$), and tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF-${\alpha}$) induced formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Accumulation of intracellular ROS led to ${\beta}$-cell dysfunction and apoptosis. PFSEs possess antioxidant activity and thus lead to downregulation of ROS generation. Cytokines decrease cell viability, stimulate the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and induce the production of nitric oxide (NO). PFSEs prevented cytokine-induced cell viability in a dose-dependent manner. Incubation with PFSE resulted in significant reduction in cytokine-induced NO production that correlated with reduced levels of the iNOS and COX-2 protein expression. Furthermore, PFSE significantly decreased the activation of nuclear factor ${\kappa}B$ (NF-${\kappa}B$) by inhibition of $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ phosphorylation in RINm5F cells. In summary, our results suggest that the protective effects of PFSE might serve to counteract cytokine-induced ${\beta}$-cell destruction. Findings indicate that consumption of Perilla frutescens (L.) Britton var. sprouts alleviates hyperglycemia-mediated oxidative stress and pro-inflammatory cytokine-induced ${\beta}$-cell damage and thus has beneficial anti-diabetic effects.

Induction of Phase I, II and III Drug Metabolism/Transport by Xenobiotics

  • Xu Chang Jiang;Li Christina YongTao;Kong AhNg Tony
    • Archives of Pharmacal Research
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    • v.28 no.3
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    • pp.249-268
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    • 2005
  • Drug metabolizing enzymes (DMEs) play central roles in the metabolism, elimination and detoxification of xenobiotics and drugs introduced into the human body. Most of the tissues and organs in our body are well equipped with diverse and various DMEs including phase I, phase II metabolizing enzymes and phase III transporters, which are present in abundance either at the basal unstimulated level, and/or are inducible at elevated level after exposure to xenobiotics. Recently, many important advances have been made in the mechanisms that regulate the expression of these drug metabolism genes. Various nuclear receptors including the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), orphan nuclear receptors, and nuclear factor-erythoroid 2 p45-related factor 2 (Nrf2) have been shown to be the key mediators of drug-induced changes in phase I, phase II metabolizing enzymes as well as phase III transporters involved in efflux mechanisms. For instance, the expression of CYP1 genes can be induced by AhR, which dimerizes with the AhR nuclear translocator (Arnt) , in response to many polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs). Similarly, the steroid family of orphan nuclear receptors, the constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) and pregnane X receptor (PXR), both heterodimerize with the ret-inoid X receptor (RXR), are shown to transcriptionally activate the promoters of CYP2B and CYP3A gene expression by xenobiotics such as phenobarbital-like compounds (CAR) and dexamethasone and rifampin-type of agents (PXR). The peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR), which is one of the first characterized members of the nuclear hormone receptor, also dimerizes with RXR and has been shown to be activated by lipid lowering agent fib rate-type of compounds leading to transcriptional activation of the promoters on CYP4A gene. CYP7A was recognized as the first target gene of the liver X receptor (LXR), in which the elimination of cholesterol depends on CYP7A. Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) was identified as a bile acid receptor, and its activation results in the inhibition of hepatic acid biosynthesis and increased transport of bile acids from intestinal lumen to the liver, and CYP7A is one of its target genes. The transcriptional activation by these receptors upon binding to the promoters located at the 5-flanking region of these GYP genes generally leads to the induction of their mRNA gene expression. The physiological and the pharmacological implications of common partner of RXR for CAR, PXR, PPAR, LXR and FXR receptors largely remain unknown and are under intense investigations. For the phase II DMEs, phase II gene inducers such as the phenolic compounds butylated hydroxyanisol (BHA), tert-butylhydroquinone (tBHQ), green tea polyphenol (GTP), (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) and the isothiocyanates (PEITC, sul­foraphane) generally appear to be electrophiles. They generally possess electrophilic-medi­ated stress response, resulting in the activation of bZIP transcription factors Nrf2 which dimerizes with Mafs and binds to the antioxidant/electrophile response element (ARE/EpRE) promoter, which is located in many phase II DMEs as well as many cellular defensive enzymes such as heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), with the subsequent induction of the expression of these genes. Phase III transporters, for example, P-glycoprotein (P-gp), multidrug resistance-associated proteins (MRPs), and organic anion transporting polypeptide 2 (OATP2) are expressed in many tissues such as the liver, intestine, kidney, and brain, and play crucial roles in drug absorption, distribution, and excretion. The orphan nuclear receptors PXR and GAR have been shown to be involved in the regulation of these transporters. Along with phase I and phase II enzyme induction, pretreatment with several kinds of inducers has been shown to alter the expression of phase III transporters, and alter the excretion of xenobiotics, which implies that phase III transporters may also be similarly regulated in a coordinated fashion, and provides an important mean to protect the body from xenobiotics insults. It appears that in general, exposure to phase I, phase II and phase III gene inducers may trigger cellular 'stress' response leading to the increase in their gene expression, which ultimately enhance the elimination and clearance of these xenobiotics and/or other 'cellular stresses' including harmful reactive intermediates such as reactive oxygen species (ROS), so that the body will remove the 'stress' expeditiously. Consequently, this homeostatic response of the body plays a central role in the protection of the body against 'environmental' insults such as those elicited by exposure to xenobiotics.