• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1207-1214
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• 2017

Schisandrae Fructus (SF), the fruit of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill., is widely used in traditional medicine for the treatment of a number of chronic diseases. SF extracts have been recently reported to attenuate the inflammatory responses in SW1353 human chondrocyte cells in in vitro and monosodium iodoacetate (MIA)-induced cartilage degradation in in vivo osteoarthritis (OA) models. However, their protective and therapeutic potentials against OA in primary culture chondrocytes and animal models remain unclear. Therefore, we investigated the effects of the ethanol extract of SF on the activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), biomarkers for diagnosis of OA, on interleukin $(IL)-1{\beta}-induced$ primary cultured rat cartilage chondrocytes and MIA-induced osteoarthritis in a rat model. Our data indicated that SF treatment significantly reduced the mRNA expression and enzyme activity of MMP-1, -3 and -13 in $IL-1{\beta}-induced$ primary cultured rat cartilage chondrocytes. The chondro-protective effects of SF were then analyzed in a rat OA model using a single intra-articular injection of MIA in the right knee joint. According to our results, the elevated levels of MMP-1 and -3 were markedly ameliorated by SF administration. Collectively, these findings indicate that SF could be a candidate for the treatment of OA.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.363-374
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• 2017

Dried fruits of Schizandra chinensis Baillon, Fructus Schisandrae, have been widely used for many years to prevent and treat various diseases in Asian countries including Korea and Russia. It has recently been reported that extracts of Fructus Schisandrae are effective for controlling muscle and skeletal diseases. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of ethanol extract of Fructus Schisandrae (EEFS) on apoptosis and inflammatory response in gastrocnemius muscle of dexamethasone-induced catabolic muscle atrophy mice as part of natural substance discovery and functional analysis for improving muscle function. According to the results of this study, EEFS supplementation attenuated body weight gains and suppressed calf thickness loss in dexamethasone-induced muscle atrophic mice. Gastrocnemius muscle immunohistochemistry showed that expression of caspase-3 and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, which are representative apoptotic markers, was markedly increased in dexamethasone control mice; however, their expression was effectively reduced in the EEFS-fed mice. EEFS supplementation also prevented dexamethasone-induced increases in immunoreactivity of muscle fibers for myostatin, an important negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass. In addition, EEFS significantly normalized the increased numbers of nitrotyrosine, 4-hydroxynonenal and inducible nitric oxide synthase-positive muscle fibers compared to that found in dexamethasone control mice. These results suggest that EEFS protects dexamethasone-induced muscular atrophy by decreasing apoptosis and inflammatory responses, and EEFS is more likely to be developed as a muscle strengthening agent.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.97-102
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• 2019

Several studies have recently demonstrated that skeletal muscle is an endocrine organ releasing and expressing myokines acting in an endocrine or paracrine manner. Irisin is a hormene-like myokine induced after physical exercise by muscle fibers. It was primarily recognized as a molecule able to advance the "browning response" in white adipose tissue, however, it has been recetly identified that irisin also has a fundamental role in the control of bone mass. We study evidence for its possible skeletal effects, including the fundamental role that irisin is involved in the control of bone mass, with beneficial effects on geometry and cortical mineral density. As loss of muscle mass and bone density occurs with immobility, metabolic disease and aging, future studies researching the efficacy of irisin in reversing muscle wasting and restoring bone would be important to proving irisin as a molecule that combines helpful effects for treating muscular atrophy and osteoporosis in elderly people.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.313-321
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• 2014

Objective: The purpose of this study is to develop products that prevent muscular skeletal disease of farm workers, which would bring improvement for an efficient harvesting work. Background: A pretest for product development and a survey research was carried out to inspect the problems of current harvesting work procedure. The product was developed and assessed based on ideas to supplement and improve these weak points. Method: A total of twenty men were recruited to evaluate the effects of harvest baskets on the upper-limb muscle activity, working hours. For the usability evaluation, electromyogram and working hours of previous working method (disuse of harvest basket, one-hand carriage of the basket) and new working method with the usage of newly-developed harvest basket was examined. The whole anterior deltoid, biceps brachii and erector spinae on both sides, which make a total of six muscle parts, were used for this experiment. The results were analyzed using ANOVA with muscle activity (%MVC) of each three forms of work and required work time from SPSS 18.0. Results: According to the test result, all muscles did not demonstrate any statistically significant difference, with an exception of the backbone erector (right). The muscle activity of backbone erector (right) in the work method that uses the harvest basket developed in this study was detected to be approximately 23% less than that of the previous working method. Moreover, compared to the previous working method, the required work time decreased to a statistically significant degree. Conclusion: As such, the decrease in the amount of waist muscle usage at harvesting work would enable the prevention of muscular skeletal disease and stabilization of lumbar spine. Application: Which in turn would increase the effectiveness and reduce personnel expense (labor costs) while enhancing productivity with a decreased working hours.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.207-215
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• 2018

Inflammatory response and oxidative stress play critical roles in the development and progression of many human diseases. Therefore, a great deal of attention has been focused on finding functional materials that can control inflammation and oxidative stress simultaneously. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Socheongja and Socheong 2, Korean black seed coat soybean varieties, on the inflammatory and oxidative stress induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in RAW 264.7 macrophages. Our data indicated that the extracts of Socheongja (SCJ) and Socheong 2 (SC2) significantly suppressed LPS-induced production of nitrite oxide (NO) and prostaglandin $E_2$, key pro-inflammatory mediators, by suppressing the expression of inducible NO synthase and cyclooxygenase-2. It was also found that SCJ and SC2 reduced the LPS-induced secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis $factor-{\alpha}$ and $interleukin-1{\beta}$, which was concomitant with a decrease in the protein levels. In addition, SCJ and SC2 markedly diminished LPS-stimulated intracellular reactive oxygen species accumulation, and effectively enhanced nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and heme oxygenase (HO)-1 expression. Furthermore, LPS-induced activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) was abrogated by SCJ and SC2. Taken together, these data suggest that SCJ and SC2 may offer protective roles against LPS-induced inflammatory and oxidative responses in RAW 264.7 macrophages through attenuating MAPKs pathway, and these effects are mediated, at least in part, through activating Nrf2/HO-1 pathway. Given these results, we propose that SCJ and SC2 have therapeutic potential in the treatment of inflammatory and oxidative disorders caused by over-activation of macrophages.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1070-1077
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• 2017

Chondrocyte apoptosis induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis. Schisandrin A, a bioactive compound found in fruits of the Schisandra genus, has been reported to possess multiple pharmacological and therapeutic properties. Although several studies have described the antioxidant effects of analogues of schisandrin A, the underlying molecular mechanisms of this bioactive compound remain largely unresolved. The present study investigated the cytoprotective effect of schisandrin A against oxidative stress (hydrogen peroxide [$H_2O_2$]) in SW1353 human chondrocyte cells. The results showed that schisandrin A preconditioning significantly inhibited $H_2O_2-induced$ growth inhibition and apoptotic cell death by blocking the degradation of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase proteins and down-regulating pro-caspase-3. These antiapoptotic effects of schisandrin A were associated with attenuation of mitochondrial dysfunction and normalization of expression changes of proapoptotic Bax and antiapoptotic Bcl-2 in $H_2O_2-stimulated$ SW1353 chondrocytes. Furthermore, schisandrin A effectively abrogated $H_2O_2-induced$ intracellular ROS accumulation and phosphorylation of histone H2AX at serine 139, a widely used marker of DNA damage. Thus, the present study demonstrates that schisandrin A provides protection against $H_2O_2-induced$ apoptosis and DNA damage in SW1353 chondrocytes, possibly by prevention of ROS generation. Collectively, our data indicate that schisandrin A has therapeutic potential in the treatment of oxidative disorders caused by overproduction of ROS.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.57-62
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• 2020

Objectives : This study is retrospective chart review research on the combined-prescription of Western and Korean medicine in Public Health Center in rural area. Methods : Researchers reviewed medical records of patients who was prescribed Korean medicine and Western medicine from 1st, Jan, 2019 to 31st, Dec, 2019 in Public Health Center. 50 patients' medical records were included. Results : Total number of treatment is 3,808 cases and 1.3% of them is prescribed Korean medicine and Western medicine simultaneously. Prescription of Korean medicine is 153 cases and Western medicine is 160. Jowiseunggi-tang and Diroba tablet were the most frequently prescribed Korean medicine and Western medicine. Furthermore, Korean Medicine Doctors of Public Health Center use muscular skeletal disease system code(M code among KCD code) for prescription and Western Medicine Doctors use diseases of the circulatory system(I code among KCD code) frequently. Conclusions : We analyze 50 patients who were prescribed both Korean medicine and Western medicine. Mostly, patients were prescribed medicine for different diseases in each clinic. In western medicine clinic, drugs about circulatory or endocrine disease were prescribed frequently and in Korean Medicine clinic, drugs about muscular skeletal disease were most frequently prescribed. This result imply the real world's combination of prescription status that was different from result of National health insurance corporation database. Senior patients in rural area take medicine long period and have various underlying disease. We call for some attention about senior and rural area patients' prescription status in interaction studies of Korean medicine and Western medicine.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2012

Numerous biochemical molecules have been implicated in the development of muscular atrophy. However, control mechanisms associated with muscular disease are not clear. The present study was conducted to investigate gene expression profiles of rat muscle during the denervation to atrophy transition processes. We isolated total RNA from rats suffering from partial muscle atrophy (P) and electromyostimulated atrophy (PE) and synthesized cDNA using annealing control primers. Using 20 ACPs for PCR, we cloned 18 DEGs using TOPO TA cloning vector, sequenced, and analyzed their identities using BLAST search. Sequences of 14 clones significantly matched database entries, while one clone was ESTs, and 3 clones were unidentified. Different expression profiles of selected DEGs between P and PE were confirmed. The troponin T, Fkbp1a, RGD1307554, Phtf1, Atp1a1 and Commd3 were highly expressed genes in the P and PE groups, while Krox-25 and TCOX2 were only expressed genes in the P group, the Sv2b and Marcks were only expressed genes in PE group. also, Cox8h was highly expressed genes in PE groups. The ASPH, ND1, and ARPL1 were highly expressed genes in the P and PE groups. List of genes obtained from the present study might provide an insight for the study of mechanism regulating muscle atrophy and electrostimulated muscle atrophy transitions. These data suggest that troponin T, Fkbp1a, RGD1307554, Phtf1, Atp1a1, and Commd3 are potentially useful as clinical biomarkers of age-related muscle atrophy and dysfunction.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.435-443
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• 2018

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) functions as a metabolic master through regulating and restoring cellular energy balance. In skeletal muscle, AMPK increases myofibril protein degradation through the expression of muscle-specific ubiquitin ligases. Mori Folium, the leaf of Morus alba, is a traditional medicinal herb with various pharmacological functions; however, the effects associated with muscle atrophy have not been fully identified. In this study, we confirmed the effects of AMPK activation by examining the effects of 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleotide (AICAR), an activator of AMPK, on the induction of atrophy and expression of atrophy-related genes in C2C12 myotubes. We also investigated the effects of the ethanol extract of Mori Folium (EEMF) on the recovery of AICAR-induced muscle atrophy in C2C12 myotubes. It was found that exposure to AICAR resulted in the stimulation of Forkhead box O3a (FOXO3a); an up-regulation of muscle-specific ubiquitin ligases such as Muscle Atrophy F-box (MAFbx)/atrogin-1 and muscle RING finger-1 (MuRF1), and a down-regulation of muscle-specific transcription factors, such as MyoD and myogenin; with the activation of AMPK. In addition, AICAR without cytotoxicity indicated a decrease in diameter of C2C12 myotubes. However, treatment with EEMF significantly suppressed AICAR-induced muscle atrophy of C2C12 myotubes in a dose-dependent manner as confirmed by a decrease in myotube diameter, which is associated with a reversed stimulation of FOXO3a by the inhibition of AMPK activation. These results indicate that the activation of AMPK by AICAR induces muscle atrophy, and EEMF has preeminent effects on the inhibition of AICAR-induced muscle atrophy through the AMPK signaling pathway.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.222-227
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• 2020

Background: This study investigated the effect of increased job stress, caused by musculoskeletal disease (MSD) among firefighters, on a firefighter's intention to leave the profession, henceforth referred to as "turnover intention," and verified the moderating effect of mindfulness on such a relationship. Methods: A survey involving a total of 549 Korean male firefighters as participants was conducted herein, and the following results were obtained: the mediation effect of the MSD to turnover intention through job stress was confirmed, and the indirect effect of job stress was verified. Results: We verified the moderated mediation effect of mindfulness on the relation:MSD, job stress, and turnover intention. The conditional indirect effect for middle and high levels of mindfulness is significant. Conclusion: The result of this study is supported by proofs of the relationship between a firefighter's MSD, job stress, and turnover intention, and these case studies reveal the moderated mediation effect of dispositional mindfulness.