• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.26-32
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• 2015

Objectives: Rheum undulatum L. has traditionally been used for the treatment of many diseases in Asia. However, its anti-proliferative activity in cancer has still not been studied. In the present study, we investigated the anti-cancer effects of methanol extract of Rheum undulatum L. (MERL) on human adenocarcinoma gastric cell lines (AGS). Methods: To investigate the anti-cancer effect of MERL on AGS cells, we treated the AGS cells with varying concentrations of MERL and performed 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays. Cell cycle analyses, measurements of the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), caspase activity assays and Western blots were conducted to determine whether AGS cell death occurred by apoptosis. Results: Treatment with MERL significantly inhibited growth of AGS cells in a concentration dependent manner. MERL treatment in AGS cells leaded to increased accumulation of apoptotic sub G1 phase cells in a concentration dependent manner. In control cultures, 5.38% of the cells were in the sub G1 phase. In MERL treated cells, however, this percentage was significantly increased (9.95% at $70{\mu}g/mL$, 15.94% at $140{\mu}g/mL$, 26.56% at $210{\mu}g/mL$ and 38.08% at $280{\mu}g/mL$). MERL treatment induced the decreased expression of pro-caspase-8 and -9 in a concentration dependent manner, whereas the expression of the active form of caspase-3 was increased. A subsequent Western blot analysis revealed increased cleaved levels of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) protein. Also, treatment with MERL increased the activities of caspase-3 and -9 compared with the control. MERL treatment increased the levels of the pro-apoptotic truncated Bid (tBid) and Bcl2 Antagonist X (Bax) proteins and decreased the levels of the anti-apoptotic B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) protein, whose is the stabilization of mitochondria. However, inhibitions of p38, extracellular signal regulated kinases (ERKs) and C-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNK) by MERL treatment did not affect cell death. Conclusion: These results suggest that MERL mediated cell death is associated with an intrinsic apoptotic pathway in AGS cells.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.609-617
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• 1994

This study was performed for assessing carcinogenicity of Folpet using medium-term carcinogenicity bioassay. Sprague-Dawley rats aged six weeks divided into four grout's and were initially given an intraperitoneal injection of diethylnirosamine at 200mg/kg body weight. Two weeks later, group 1(negative control) was treated with basal diet. A Folpet was given per oral administration to group 2(100 ppm) and goup 3(1,000 ppm). Group 4 was fed on water containing 0.05% phenobarbital sodium as a promtor for six weeks. At three weeks after beginning of the experiment, partial hepatectomy was performed in all rats. The tumor-promoting effects were examined by the numbers and areas per $cm^2$ of induced glutathion S-tranferase placetal form(GST-P) positive foci in liver, and silver stained nucleolar organizer regions(AgNORs) which have recently introduced as one of the indicators for the cell proliferative activity. As the results, Folpet didn't have tumor-promoting effects on GST-P positive foci developement and AgNORs during promoting stage after initiation, whereas phenobarbital sodium treatment group showed promoting effect. It was concluded that Folpet didn't have promoting effect at 500, 1,000 ppm using this midium-term carcinogenicity bioassay model.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.175-186
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• 1976

The cellular change of the pulmonary tuberculous lesions may be divided into two groups,exudative and proliferative form by their course and fate. In the most cases, the patients usually have very much complex type of cellular changes. Therefore, the shadows of the chest films in pulmonary tuberculosis are also much variable in nature. And Daniel said that knowledge of the pathology of tuberculosis and an appreciation of the method of progression and healing are essential to proper interpretation of the films. Author, having reviewed 33 cases of resected tuberculous lung obtained in N.M.T.H. for one year from Oct. '75 to Sep. '76 by surgical managements, classified the Pathological findings such as: 1) caseation only, 2) tuberculoma, 3) atelectatic lung 4) cavitary lesion and 5) atelectasis with cavity, and examined the relationship between the roentgenological characteristics of the chest films and the pathological process of tuberculous lesions of the resected lungs, The result were obtained as follows. (1) Tuberculoma was commonly appeared in $S_2$ segment in right and $S_6$ segment in left. (2) Atelectasis and destroyed lung were more commonly appeared in left lung than right, and their containing rate of cavity was 82%. (3) Cavities were mostly appeared in $S_1$ and $S_2$ segments of both lung and the appearance-rate of cavity on $S_6$ segment was higher in left than right. And among the cavitary lesions of the resected lung, cavity was not seen in the preoperative chest films in 22%. (4) The configuration, thickness and sharpness of the walls of cavities, which revealed the cavitary shadows in the preoperative chest films, were mostly depended on the degree of increased collagenous fiber of the wall, existence of perifocalitis, and more or less of the caseous masses on the inner surface of the cavity wall.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 1996

MAP kinases are a family of serine/threonine specific protein kinases becoming activated in response to different proliferative stimuli by phosphorylation at both threonine and tyrosine residue. Present study shows that MAP kinase was purified from P388 murine leukema cells by SP sephadex C-50, phenyl superose and Mono Q column chromatography and identified with anti-ERKl antibody by western blotting. Immnublotting analysis to the crude extract of P388 cell lysate shows 44 kD and other minor bands but partial purified fraction eluted from phenyl supherose column have 44kD and 66 kD isoform. Subcloned GST-fusion protein from N-terminal of $p56^{kk}$ was tested as a substrate for MAP kinase phosphorylation. It was showed that the wild type and mutant forms(S42A) were fully phosporylated by purified MAP kinase fraction as com-pare with the other mutant form(S59A). This finding suggest that those GST-fusion proteins may be used as substrate for the in vitro test of MAP kinase.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 2003

Alkylating agents form alkylated base adducts in the DNA and cause DNA lesions leading to cell killing. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of apoptosis induced by N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) in PC-3 and DU145 human prostate carcinoma cell lines. MNNG treatment resulted in the inhibition of cell proliferation in a concentration-dependent manner to a similar extent in both cell lines. This anti-proliferative effect of PC-3 and DU145 cells by MNNG was associated with morphological changed such as membrane shrinking, cell rounding up and formation of apoptotic bodies. MNNG treatment also induced a proteolytic cleavage of specific target proteins such as poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and $\beta$-catenin proteins in DU145 cells but in PC-3 cells. Furthermore, we observed an increase of proapoptotic protein Bax family expression and a decrease of antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2 family by MNNG treatment in a concentration-dependent manner MNNG also induced a proteolytic activation of caspase-3 and -9, which is believed to play a central role in the apoptotic signaling pathway.

• BMB Reports
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• v.51 no.10
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• pp.481-483
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• 2018

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive form of human adult brain malignancy. The identification of the cell of origin harboring cancer-driver mutations is the fundamental issue for understanding the nature of GBM and developing the effective therapeutic target. It has been a long-term hypothesis that neural stem cells in the subventricular zone (SVZ) might be the origin-of-cells in human glioblastoma since they are known to have life-long proliferative activity and acquire somatic mutations. However, the cell of origin for GBM remains controversial due to lack of direct evidence thereof in human GBM. Our recent study using various sequencing techniques in triple matched samples such as tumor-free SVZ, tumor, and normal tissues from human patients identified the clonal relationship of driver mutations between GBM and tumor-free SVZ harboring neural stem cells (NSCs). Tumor-free SVZ tissue away from the tumor contained low-level GBM driver mutations (as low as 1% allelic frequency) that were found in the dominant clones in its matching tumors. Moreover, via single-cell sequencing and microdissection, it was discovered that astrocyte-like NSCs accumulating driver mutations evolved into GBM with clonal expansion. Furthermore, mutagenesis of cancer-driving genes of NSCs in mice leads to migration of mutant cells from SVZ to distant brain and development of high-grade glioma through the aberrant growth of oligodendrocyte precursor lineage. Altogether, the present study provides the first direct evidence that NSCs in human SVZ is the cell of origin that develops the driver mutations of GBM.

• Journal of the Korean Arthroscopy Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.264-267
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• 2009

Pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) is a benign proliferative disorder of the synovium of joints. It occurs most commonly in the knee joint. The disease is composed of 2 different forms: diffuse and localized. The localized form is less frequent than the diffuse one. Most cases of localized PVNS involve the anterior compartment of the knee and can be usually easily diagnosed and treated with arthroscopy. We experienced a patient of localized PVNS developed on the posterior cruciate ligament, whose main symptom was persistent pain after trauma. This case occurs rarely and complete removal of the lesion was performed arthroscopically, using posterior trans-septal portal. We report this case with review of literatures.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.196-206
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• 2021

The main purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between the consumption of red ginseng-based 'SSR' for 30 days and the reduction in human fatigue, blood component changes, and immune cell activity in 35 human subjects. 'SSR' is composed of zinc oxide, folic acid, and D-α-tocopherol with red ginseng as the main component. According to the protocol criteria of the study, 35 subjects who understood the purpose of the study and signed an informed consent form were selected. The fatigue survey was conducted through a questionnaire, and after taking 'SSR', a decreased tendency of physical, mental, and neurosensory fatigue was observed. In hematological analysis, no significant changes were observed in the levels of WBC, RBC, and hemoglobin; however, AST (SGOT) and ALT (SGPT) levels were statistically significantly decreased. In immunological analysis, it was observed that the proliferative effect of T cells (CD3+CD4+) was greater than that of NK cells (CD16+CD56+). The collected data were subjected to t-test analysis using the SPSS 25.0 statistical program. The result from this study proposes that 'SSR' can be used as a functional food material as it reduces human fatigue and enhances immune function.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.117-125
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• 2019

Mebendazole (MBZ), a microtubule depolymerizing drug commonly used for the treatment of helminthic infections, has recently been noted as a repositioning candidate for angiogenesis inhibition and cancer therapy. However, the definite anti-angiogenic mechanism of MBZ remains unclear. In this study, we explored the inhibitory mechanism of MBZ in endothelial cells (ECs) and developed a novel strategy to improve its anti-angiogenic therapy. Treatment of ECs with MBZ led to inhibition of EC proliferation in a dose-dependent manner in several culture conditions in the presence of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) or FBS, without selectivity of growth factors, although MBZ is known to inhibit VEGF receptor 2 kinase. Furthermore, MBZ inhibited EC migration and tube formation induced by either VEGF or bFGF. However, unexpectedly, treatment of MBZ did not affect FAK and ERK1/2 phosphorylation induced by these factors. Treatment with MBZ induced shrinking of ECs and caused G2-M arrest and apoptosis with an increased Sub-G1 fraction. In addition, increased levels of nuclear fragmentation, p53 expression, and active form of caspase 3 were observed. The marked induction of autophagy by MBZ was also noted. Interestingly, inhibition of autophagy through knocking down of Beclin1 or ATG5/7, or treatment with autophagy inhibitors such as 3-methyladenine and chloroquine resulted in marked enhancement of anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects of MBZ in ECs. Consequently, we suggest that MBZ induces autophagy in ECs and that protective autophagy can be a novel target for enhancing the anti-angiogenic efficacy of MBZ in cancer treatment.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.249-261
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• 2020

Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) have stemness characteristics, including germ cell-specific imprints that allow them to form gametes. Spermatogenesis involves changes in gene expression such as a transition from expression of somatic to germ cell-specific genes, global repression of gene expression, meiotic sex chromosome inactivation, highly condensed packing of the nucleus with protamines, and morphogenesis. These step-by-step processes finally generate spermatozoa that are fertilization competent. Dynamic epigenetic modifications also confer totipotency to germ cells after fertilization. Primordial germ cells (PGCs) in embryos do not enter meiosis, remain in the proliferative stage, and are referred to as gonocytes, before entering quiescence. Gonocytes develop into SSCs at about 6 days after birth in rodents. Although chromatin structural modification by Polycomb is essential for gene silencing in mammals, and epigenetic changes are critical in spermatogenesis, a comprehensive understanding of transcriptional regulation is lacking. Recently, we evaluated the expression profiles of Yin Yang 1 (YY1) and CP2c in the gonads of E14.5 and 12-week-old mice. YY1 localizes at the nucleus and/or cytoplasm at specific stages of spermatogenesis, possibly by interaction with CP2c and YY1-interacting transcription factor. In the present article, we discuss the possible roles of YY1 and CP2c in spermatogenesis and stemness based on our results and a review of the relevant literature.