• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.389-397
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• 1996

Gatric mucosa is exposed to toxic, reactive oxygen species generated within the lumen. Nitric oxide protected acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity by maintaining glutathione homeostasis. The present study examined the role of nitric oxide in mediating hydrogen peroxide - induced damage to gastric cells. Hydrogen peroxide was generated by glucose oxidase acting on ${\beta}-D-glucose$. L-arginine, $N^G-nitro-L-arginine$ methyl ester, or $N^G-nitro-L-arginine$ were treated to the cells with glucose/glucose oxidase. Lipid peroxidation and nitrite release and cellular content of glutathione were determined. As a result, dose - dependent increase in lipid peroxide production as well as dose - dependent decrease in nitrite release and cellular glutathione content were observed in glucose/glucose oxidase - treated cells. Pretreatment of L-arginine, a substrate for nitric oxide synthase, prevented the increase of lipid peroxide production and the reduction of nitrite release as well as glutathione content. Inhibitors of nitric oxide synthase such as $N^G-nitro-L-arginine$ methyl ester and $N^G-nitro-L-arginine$ did not protect hydrogen peroxide - induced cell damage. In conclusion, nitric oxide protects gestric cells from hydrogen peroxide possibly by inhibiting lipid peroxidation and by preserving cellular glutathione stores.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.300-306
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• 2000

The rate of apparent nitric oxide (NO) release, as measured in the exhaust gas of green alga, Scenedesmus obliquus, depended on the light intensity and pH. It doubled after lowering the temperature from $25^{\circ}C{\;}to{\;}15^{\circ}C$ and strongly decreased from $35^{\circ}C{\;}to{\;}42^{\circ}C$. The Scenedesmus cells, deficient in nitrogen or phosphorus, demonstrated a significant increase in NO production following their transfer to nitrate- and phosphate-rich media. The addition of herbicides (DCMU and glyphosate) or toxic concentrations of $Cu^{2+}{\;}or{\;}Fe^{3+}$ produced strong NO peaks, resembling those that occurred after sudden darkening. An increase in the $Ni^{2+}$ concentration to 20 ppm resulted in a gradual increase of NO release from the initial ~1.5 ppbv to>20 ppbv, whereas $Cd^{2+}$ instantaneously suppressed the NO by the cultures of Scenedesmus was not altered by L-NNA, an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), or by its substrate, L-arginine. This seems to exclude the role of NOS in the NO formation under study. Accordingly, it can be assumed that the rate of NO formation is mainly a function of dynamic nitrite pool sizes and environmental factors significantly affect the NO production in algae.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.258-263
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• 2013

We demonstrate herein that silibinin, a polyphenolic flavonoid compound isolated from milk thistle (Silybum marianum), inhibits LPS-induced activation of macrophages and production of nitric oxide (NO) in RAW 264.7 cells. Western blot analysis showed silibinin inhibits iNOS gene expression. RT-PCR showed that silibinin inhibits iNOS, TNF-${\alpha}$, and $IL1{\beta}$. We also showed that silibinin strongly inhibits p38 MAPK phosphorylation, whereas the ERK1/2 and JNK pathways are not inhibited. The p38 MAPK inhibitor abrogated the LPS-induced nitrite production, whereas the MEK-1 inhibitor did not affect the nitrite production. A molecular modeling study proposed a binding pose for silibinin targeting the ATP binding site of p38 MAPK (1OUK). Collectively, this series of experiments indicates that silibinin inhibits macrophage activation by blocking p38 MAPK signaling.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.390-399
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• 2014

Chalcones (1,3-diaryl-2-propen-1-ones), a flavonoid subfamily, are widely known for their anti-inflammatory properties. Propenone moiety in chalcones is known to play an important role in generating biological responses by chalcones. In the present study, we synthesized chalcone derivatives structurally modified in propenone moiety and examined inhibitory effect on nitric oxide (NO) production and its potential mechanisms. Among the chalcone derivatives used for this study, TI-I-174 (3-(2-Hydroxyphenyl)-1-(thiophen-3-yl)prop-2-en-1-one) most potently inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated nitrite production in RAW 264.7 macrophages. TI-I-174 treatment also markedly inhibited inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression. However, TI-I-174 did not significantly affect production of IL-6, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF-${\alpha}$), implying that TI-I-174 inhibits production of inflammatory mediators in a selective manner. Treatment of macrophages with TI-I-174 significantly inhibited transcriptional activity of activator protein-1 (AP-1) as determined by luciferase reporter gene assay, whereas nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ (NF-${\kappa}B$) activity was not affected by TI-I-1744. In addition, TI-I-174 significantly inhibited activation of c-Jun-N-Terminal kinase (JNK) without affecting ERK1/2 and p38MAPK, indicating that down-regulation of iNOS gene expression by TI-I-174 is mainly attributed by blockade of JNK/AP-1 activation. We also demonstrated that TI-I-174 treatment led to an increase in heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression both at mRNA and protein level. Transfection of siRNA targeting HO-1 reversed TI-I-174-mediated inhibition of nitrite production. Taken together, these results indicate that TI-I-174 suppresses NO production in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages via induction of HO-1 and blockade of AP-1 activation.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.477-483
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• 2005

Anammox (Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation) bacteria is recently discovered microorganism which can oxidize ammonium to nitrogen gas in the presence of nitrite under anaerobic conditions. The anammox process can save an energy for nitrification and need not require a carbon source for denitrification, however, the start-up periods takes a long time more than several months due to the long doubling time (approximately 11 days). In order to find the effects of seeding microorganisms, hydrazine, and nitrite concentration on the enhancement of the anammox activity, five kinds of microorganisms were selected. Among the several kinds of seeding microorganisms, the granule from acclimated microorganisms treating high concentration of ammonia nitrogen (A-1) and sludge from piggery wastewater treatment plant (A-2) were found to have a high anammox activity. In the case of A-1, the maximum nitrogen conversion rate represented 0.4 mg N/L-hr, and the amount of nitrite utilization was high compared to those of other seeding microorganisms. The A-4 represented a higher nitrogen conversion rate to 0.7 mg N/L-hr although the ammonium concentration in the serum bottle was high as 200 mg/L. Meanwhile, the anaerobic granule from UASB reactor treating distillery wastewater showed a low anammox activity due to the denitrification by the remained carbon sources in the granule. Hydrazine, intermediate product in anammox reaction, enhanced the anammox activity by representing 1.4 times of nitrogen gas was produced in the test bottle than that of control, when 0.4 mM of $N_2H_4$ was added to serum bottle which contains 5 mM of nitrite. The high concentration of nitrite (10 mM) resulted in the decrease of the anammox activity by showing lower production of nitrogen gas compared to that of 5 mM addition of nitrite concentration. As a result of FISH (Florescence In-Situ Hybridization) experiment, the Amx820 probe showed a more than 13% of anammox bacteria in a granule (A-1).

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.643-650
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• 2005

In order to treat leachate from aged landfill site effectively, removal of biologically recalcitrant organic matter and denitrification efficiency were evaluated through the combination of $H_2O_2/O_3$ AOP pretreatment process and UASB process. The results can be summarized as follows. In case of leachate having low COD/N ratio from aged landfill site, it is possible to increase available COD for denitrification in nitrate utilizing denitrification and nitrite utilizing denitrification both by enhancing biodegradability of recalcitrant organic matter as applying $H_2O_2/O_3$ AOP to pretreatment process. In this experiment, it is found that available COD for denitrification can be increased to 1.0 and 0.4 g/day, respectively. Comparison has been made between requiring COD and available COD for denitrification in each experimental stages. It is expected that high rate of denitrification can be achieved with leachate from young landfill site because higher amount of available COD for denotrification is present in the leachate than the amount of requiring COD for denitrification. Especially, In leachate from aged landfill site with low COD/N ratio, it can be concluded that denitrification using nitrite nitrogen can enhance overall denitrification performance efficiently because denitrification using nitrite nitrogen requires less amount of carbon source than denitrification using nitrate nitrogen. Comparing the biogas production rate and nitrogen content of biogas under the condition of same amount of nitrate and nitrite addition, biogas production and nitrogen content of biogas are increased during denitrification after $H_2O_2/O_3$ AOP pretreatment process. Therefore, it can be confirmed that COD/N ratio in the leachate is increased. Applying $H_2O_2/O_3$ AOP as pretreatment system of landfill leachate seems to have little economic benefit because it requires additional carbon source to denitrify ammonia nitrogen in leachate coming from aged landfill site. However, it is possible to apply this pretreatment process to leachate from old landfill site in view of AOP process can achieve removal of biologically recalcitrant organic matter and increase of available COD for denitrification simultaneously.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.21 no.1 s.59
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• pp.52-57
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• 2006

Metallothioneins(MTs) belong to the class of low molecular weight proteins. Recently, it has been suggested that MTs may playa direct role in cellular defense against oxidative stress by functioning as antioxidants. Oxidative damage to different cellular components makes a major contribution to many pathogenenesses. Several studies have demonstrated that MT is able to quench a wide range of reactive oxygen species at a higher efficiency than other well known antioxidants such as superoxide dismutate(SOD). The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of MT on the activities of the reactive oxygen species removal system. MT showed the scavenging of superoxide in the SOD assay system in the presence or absence of SOD. When MT was added to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate(NADPH) oxidation system in presence of fixed amount of SOD increase the breakdown rate of superoxide. When MT was added to the system that form nitrite from hydroxylammonium chloride, the formation of nitrite was inhibit. We concluded that the function of MT as antioxidant might have an effect on the level of superoxide scavenging.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.87-92
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• 1990

To produce ergosterol Saccharomyces toke KBA No. 6 was used and various factors related to ergosterol accumulation were investigated. The most effective inorganic nitrogen source was ammonium chloride and 3.50 % of ergosterol was accumulated in the cell when the C/N ratio was 200/1. When Tween 80 and potassium nitrite were used simultaneously, ergosterol content and total amount of ergosterol were increased by 56 % and 45 %, respectively, compared to their control in which 0.2 % of Tween 80 and 0.1 % of potassium nitrite were used. Under the optimum conditions, ergosterol content increased from 1.73 % to 5.3 % and the total amount of ergosterol was increased from 65.2 mg/l to 135.15 mg/l.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.196-202
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• 2005

Nitric oxide (NO) is a small, diffusible, and highly reactive molecule, which plays dichotomous regulatory roles under physiological and pathological conditions. NO promotes apoptosis in some cells, and inhibits apoptosis in other cells. In the present study, we attempted to characterize the NO signaling pathway and cellular response in PC12 cells treated with cytokines. $IFN{\gamma}\;and\;TNF{\alpha}$ treatment resulted in a synergistic increase of nitrite accumulation, with the induction of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in the PC12 cells. Moreover, as nitrite concentration increased, cell viability decreased. In order to explore MAP kinase involvement in nitric oxide production resultant from $IFN{\gamma}\;and\;TNF{\alpha}$ stimulation, we measured the activation of MAP kinase using specific MAP kinase inhibitors. PC12 cells pretreated with SB203580, a p38 MAP kinase-specific inhibitor, resulted in the inhibition of iNOS expression and NO production. However, PD98059, an ERK/MAP kinase-specific inhibitor, was not observed to exert such an effect. In addition, Stat1 activated by $IFN{\gamma}\;and\;TNF{\alpha}$ was interacted with p38 MAPK. These data suggest that p38 MAP kinase mediates cytokine-mediated iNOS expression in the PC12 cells, and Jak/Stat pathway interferes with p38 MAPK signaling pathway.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.161-165
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• 2006

NO and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) are contributes to vascular inflammation induced by various stimulation. The mechanism, which explains a linkage between NO and COX-2, could be of importance in promoting pathophysiological conditions of vessel. We investigated the effects of NO donors on the COX-l and COX-2 mRNA/protein expression, as well as the nitrite production in culture medium of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC). VSMC was primarily cultured from thoracic aorta of rat. In this experiments, COX-l and COX-2 mRNA/protein expressions were analysed and nitrite productions were investigated using Griess reagent. VSMC did not express COX-2 protein in basal condition (Nonlipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated). In LPS-stimulated experiments, after 3 hours of NO donor pretreatment, LPS $10{\mu}g/ml$ was treated for 24 hours. COX-l protein expressions were unchanged by SNP and NOR-3. NOR-3 significantly increased COX-2 mRNA/protein expression under LPS stimulation. In contrast, SNP did not increase COX-2 mRNA/protein expression under LPS stimulation. Nitrite production was higher in NOR-3 treatment than SNP treatment under LPS stimulation. These results suggest that the expression of COX-2 in VSMC is regulated by NOR-3, COX-2 expressions were depending on the types of NO donor and LPS stimulation in VSMC.