• Journal of Life Science
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.653-658
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• 1999

A novel marine microorganism, Vibrio sp. YE-101, was isolated from pufferfish and investigated for its ability to synthesize tetrodotoxin (TTX). Various strains isolated from the intestine of pufferfish were grown on TCBS agar plate, and then cultured on Ocean Research Institute (ORI) medium supplemented with 3% NaCl at 23$^{\circ}C$ for 3days. The cells were harvested, disrupted, fractionated by Bio-Gel P-2 column chromatography and then TTX-producing strain, Vibrio sp. YE-101, was identified using mouse bioassay. The isolated TTX from Vibrio sp. YE-101 was also analyzed and identified by HPLC and gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS). The mass fragmentation of trimethylsilyl derivatives of C9-base of TTX from Vibrio sp. YE-101 was interpreted and the pattern of fragmentation was same with that of authentic standard. The purfied TTX was also positive to the mouse bioassay, which clearly represents that Vibrio sp. YE-101 can synthesize TTX.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Fisheries Technology Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.348.2-349
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• 1998

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.309-314
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• 2008

The toxicity of five species of puffer fish, Arothron firmamentum (Byeolbok), Lagocephalus gloveri (Heukmilbok), L. wheeleri (Eunmilbok), L. inermis (Minmilbok) and L. lunaris (Milbok), collected from fish markets in Korea, was determined using a mouse bioassay. In A. firmamentum, the proportion of toxic specimens containing >10 MU/g was 87.5% in the ovaries, and 10.0% in the skin; no toxicity was detected in the muscle, fin, liver, intestine and gallbladder using the mouse bioassay. The highest toxin levels were found to be 87 MU/g in the ovaries, and 13 MU/g in the skin. Toxic specimens containing >10 MU/g were not detected from samples taken from any of the organs in L. wheeleri and L. inermis. In L. gloveri, most specimens were found to be non-toxic, but toxin levels of 11-72 MU/g were detected from within the skin, fins, and intestines in one specimen. In L. lunaris, the proportion of toxic specimens was 50.0% in the ovaries, and 7.1% in the gallbladder; no toxicity was detected in the other organs by the mouse bioassay. The highest toxin levels were 75 MU/g in the ovaries, and 14 MU/g in the gallbladder. Therefore, the toxicities of edible muscle and skin in the five species of puffer fish marketed in Korea were found to be within acceptable levels for human consumption.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.159-164
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• 2013

The mouse bioassay and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) post-column oxidation method are different methods of quantifying paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins. In this study, we compared their ability to accurately quantify the toxicity levels in two types of field sample (oysters and mussels) with different toxin profiles for routine regulatory monitoring. A total of 72 samples were analyzed by both methods, 44 of which gave negative results, with readings under the limit of detection of the mouse bioassay ($40{\mu}g/100g$ saxitoxin [STX] eq). In 14 oysters, the major toxin components were gonyautoxin (GTX) 1, -2, -3, -4, -5, decarbamoylgonyautoxin-2 (dcGTX2), and decarbamoylsaxitoxin (dcSTX), while 14 mussels tested positive for dcSTX, GTX2, -3, -4, -5, dcGTX2, neosaxitoxin (NEO), STX, and dcSTX. When the results obtained by both methods were compared in two matrices, a better correlation ($r^2=0.9478$) was obtained for mussels than for oysters ($r^2=0.8244$). Additional studies are therefore needed in oysters to investigate the differences in the results obtained by both methods. Importantly, some samples with toxin levels around the legal limit gave inconsistent results using HPLC-based techniques, which could have a strong economic impact due to enforced harvest area closure. It should therefore be determined if all paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins can be quantified accurately by HPLC, and if the uncertainties of the method lead to doubts regarding regulatory limits.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2005

Transgenic mouse models have been introduced and accepted by regulatory bodies as an alternative to carcinogenicity assay models to predict and evaluate chemical carcinogens. The recent research outcomes in transgenic mouse models have made progressive advances in the understanding of chemical carcinogenesis and the evaluation of potential human carcinogens. However, these models still remain to be insufficient assay systems although the insufficiencies have been recognised and are being resolved. Based on up to date information from literature, this review article intends to understand currently accepted transgenic mouse models, issues arising from study design, interpretation of the study, results of validation project and their cancer prediction rate, and further perspectives of cancer assay models from the regulatory view point.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2012

The current standard for testing tetrodotoxin (TTX) in foodstuffs is the mouse bioassay (MBA) in Korea as in many other countries. However, this test suffers from potential ethical concerns over the use of live animals. In addition, the mouse bioassay does not test for a specific toxin thus a sample resulting in mouse incapacitation would need further confirmatory testing to determine the exact source toxin (e.g., TTX, STX, brevotoxin, etc.). Furthermore, though the time of death is proportional to toxicity in this assay, the dynamic range for this proportional relationship is small thus many samples must be diluted and new mice be injected to yield a result that falls within the quantitative dynamic range. Therefore, in recent years, there have been many efforts in this field to develop alternative assays. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) has been emerged as one of the most promising options. A LC-MS-MS method involves solid-phase extraction (SPE) and followed by analysis using an electrospray in the positive ionization mode and multiple reactions monitoring (MRM). To adopt LC-MS-MS method as alternative standard for testing TTX, we performed a validation study for the quantification of TTX in puffer fish. This LC-MS-MS method showed good sensitivity as limits of detection (LOD) of $0.03{\sim}0.08{\mu}g/g$ and limits of quantification (LOQ) of $0.10{\sim}0.25{\mu}g/g$. The linearity ($r^2$) of tetrodotoxin were 0.9986~0.9997, the recovery were 80.9~103.0% and the relative standard deviations (RSD) were 4.3~13.0%. The correlation coefficient between the mouse bioassay and LC/MS/MS method was higher than 0.95.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.349-354
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• 2006

The aromatic hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor that mediates many of the biological and toxicological effects of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD, dioxin) and related chemicals. The application of recombinant reporter plasmid such as the firefly luciferase gene has proven to be a very effective method to detect these chemicals. The bioassay system, CALUX, is sensitive in directly detecting AhR-agonists from a variety of environmental and biologic materials. However, responses of the AhR-dependent bioassays are dependent on the cell types used. Thus, we developed a sensitive bioassay using the recombinant mouse hepatoma cell (Hepa1c1c7) for the determination of dioxins. The recombinant cell line was stably transfected with firefly luciferase reporter gene (pGudLuc1.1). The transfected cells showed the highest induction of luciferase activity at 4.5 hr and a decrease beyond this time point. The system showed the highest sensitivity of detection ever reported. Upon TCDD exposure cells showed 2 fold increase at 10 pM and 7 fold increase at 100 pM, respectively. The passage number after the transfection played an important role in the sensitivity. The increase of passage number tended to increase the sensitivity of the cells up to 15. The media without phenol red showed a higher induction rate than with phenol red, suggesting the preferable use of phenol red-free media for the bioassay. Since each of the assays has unique characteristics that make them suitable for some screening applications and not others, development of sensitive bioanalytical methods based on a variety of cellular systems in a key to the successful determination of dioxins. The bioassay system developed in this study will contribute to further development of successful screening the AhR agonists among the environmental mixture. In addition, the rapid and sensitive nature of this cellular system can be applied as a valuable tool to screen the dioxin-like moieties among the prodrugs at the initial stage, thereby expediting the new drug discovery.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.255-260
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• 2003

In vivo bioassays for biological medicines have been considered final resort to unequivocally assess the biological activities for them because there are some cases in which the biological activities obtained from in vivo bioassay and in vitro bioassay quite differ each other. The in vivo biological activity of EPO depends on its sialic acid contents which confer microheterogeneity-isoforms to this protein. We have devise a method which consists of a in vitro bioassay using BaF3 cell line and a capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) for the measurement of the EPO isoform distribution. The biological activity of EPO obtained using in vitro bioassay with BaF3 cell line showed good correlation (C.V.(％) 7.34, 5.85, 8,16, 8.08, 8.8) to EPO content measured either spectrophotometric assay (A280 0.1 ％ ＝0.743) or radio immunoassay. The assay validation results of in vitro bioassay with 3 lot of in house EPO showed good results to EPO content measured either in vivo assay or radio immunoassay. and also showed good results the robustness of our method in terms of precision, accuracy, repeatability. The isoform distribution for EPO-BRP (1 : 1 mixture of epoetin-${\alpha}$ and epoetin-${\beta}$, European Pharmacopoeia) by CZE method resulted in isoform 2 through isoform 8. The major peaks in electrophoregram were composed of isoform 3 through 7. Our recombinant EPO (epoetin-${\alpha}$) having equivalent in vivo biological activity showed the isoform distribution of isoform 3 through 9. The major peaks consisted of isoform 4 through 8. The peak area of isoform 4 was always smaller than that of isoform 5. The preparations of recombinant epoetin-${\alpha}$ with lower in vivo biological activity than EPO-BRP showed the isoform 2 through 8 in their electrophoregrams whose major peaks consisted of the isoform 3 through 7. The peak area of isoform 4 was larger than that of isoform 5.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.382-390
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• 2018

The history of the pregnancy test started in ancient Egypt with a germination test using wheat and barley. Since then, unscientific methods have been used from the days of Hippocrates and Galen to the Middle Ages when uroscopy was used, even until the early 1800s. On the other hand, since the mid-1800s, scientific methods and evidence have begun to emerge, which led to scientific research on the physiological characteristics of pregnancy. The first attempt to utilize these scientific findings was initiated with the bioassay by Aschheim and Zondek using rats and mice in 1927, and then developed into experiments using rabbits and frogs. The immunoassay method, which started in the 1960s, contributed greatly to the generalization of the pregnancy tests while improving the problems of the bioassay. In 1976, a pregnancy test kit was introduced that can be used at home, contributing to the popularization of pregnancy tests. Since the 1980s, technological advances in diagnostic tests have also been applied to pregnancy tests to further improve the reliability of the diagnosis of pregnancy. In the 2000s, the accuracy and ease of use of the pregnancy test kits for home use have improved drastically. This study examined the history and scientific development of the pregnancy test.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.30-34
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• 2003

Recent industrial society has human widely exposed to PAHs (polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons) that are comming from the incomplete combustion of organic material as wider spread environmental contaminants. Biological activities of PAHs are not known although PAHs are considered as carcinogens. Our laboratory have been studied the effect of PAHs in the mouse liver hepa 1 cells. In this study, we examined the mouse liver hepa-l cells as a new bioassay system to evaluate bioactivity of PAHs. We have selected 13 PAHs to examine bioassay using cyp1a1-luciferase reporter gene expression system where cyp1a1 1.6 Kb 5flanking region DNA was cloned in front of luciferase reporter gene and this plasmid was transfected into hepa 1 cells transiently. This cells then used for the study to observe the effect of PAHs. We demonstrated that PAHs induced the CYP1A1 promoter and 7-ethoxyresolufin O-deethylase (EROD) activities in a concentration-dependant manner. Some of PAHs showed stronger stimulatory effect on CYP1 gene expression than TCDD. Acenaphthene, anthracene, fluorine, naphthalene, pyrene, phenanthrene, carbazole were weak responders to cyp1a1 promoter activity stimulation and EROD induction in hepa 1 cells and these chemicals seemed to respond less to EROD than cyp1a1 promoter activity. Benz(a)anthracene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, chrysene, and dibenzo(a,h)anthracene showed strong response to cyp1a1 promoter activity stimulation and also EROD induction in hepa 1cells. Results of dose response study suggested that four strong responding PAHs, such as benzo(a)anthracene benzo(k)fluoranthene, chrysene, and dibenzo(a, h)anthracene might be mediated through arylhydrocarbon receptor system in hepa1 cells.