• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.96-105
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• 2023

Probiotic supplements have promising therapeutic effects on chronic diseases. In this study, we demonstrated the anti-obesity effects of two potential probiotics, Bifidobacterium bifidum DS0908 (DS0908) and Bifidobacterium longum DS0950 (DS0950). Treatment with DS0908 and DS0950 postbiotics significantly induced the expression of the brown adipocyte-specific markers UCP1, PPARγ, PGC1α, PRDM16 and beige adipocyte-specific markers CD137, FGF21, P2RX5, and COX2 in C3H10T1/2 mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In mice with high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity, both potential probiotics and postbiotics noticeably reduced body weight and epididymal fat accumulation without affecting food intake. DS0908 and DS0950 also improved insulin sensitivity and glucose use in mice with HFD-induced obesity. In addition, DS0908 and DS0950 improved the plasma lipid profile, proved by reduced triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein, and cholesterol levels. Furthermore, DS0908 and DS0950 improved mitochondrial respiratory function, confirmed by the high expression of oxidative phosphorylation proteins, during thermogenesis induction in the visceral and epididymal fat in mice with HFD-induced obesity. Notably, the physiological and metabolic changes were more significant after treatment with potential probiotic culture-supernatants than those with the bacterial pellet. Finally, gene knockdown and co-treatment with inhibitor-mediated mechanistic analyses showed that both DS0908 and DS0950 exerted anti-obesity-related effects via the PKA/p38 MAPK signaling activation in C3H10T1/2 MSCs. Our observations suggest that DS0908 and DS0950 could potentially alleviate obesity as dietary supplements.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.55-74
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• 2024

Objectives: This study reviewed the status of adverse event (AE) reporting in VigiAccess using anti-obesity agents as examples and explored the possibility of its use and future challenges. Methods: AE reports related to some representative drugs among herbal medicines (HMs), complex HM prescriptions, ingredients of supplements, and over-the-counter and prescription medicines were investigated using VigiAccess on February 1, 2024. Results: AE reports on prescription drugs were overwhelmingly higher than those on HMs or supplements. Although most reports were submitted from North America, reports on Ephedra sinica and green tea extract (GTE) were more from Asia and Europe, respectively. The female population reported more, and the difference in the sex ratio was the smallest for Ephedra spp. The age group was concentrated on young adults, but many older patients reported GLP-1 receptor agonist-related AEs. Symptoms related to the gastrointestinal and nervous systems were most commonly reported, but mental and cardiac disorders were common in Ephedra-type HMs. Hepatobiliary disorders are also commonly found in GTE-related reports. Conclusions: VigiAccess was useful for easily checking the global status of AE reporting for prescription drugs. However, several limitations were observed in using VigiAccess for HMs because of the few reports. Thus, it is necessary to increase the number of reports by education and to promote AE reporting among HM prescribers and users. The full range of HMs should be included in the pharmacovigilance system, and the coding and classification of HMs should be revised.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.762-768
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• 2004

Chromium has been known to be involved in the glucose metabolism, and hence the utilization of cellular glucose is impaired in the chromium deficiency. Chromium has been recognized as an essential nutrient since the finding of low-molecular-weight Cr-binding substance (LMWCr) as a biological modifier of insulin action. Clinical chromium deficiency associated with glucose intolerance that respond to the administration of chromium. The major impediment to the use of orally administered chromium is poor absorption of trivalent chromium in its inorganic form. Trivalent chromium is more available in yeast md, more recently, as chromium picolinate for oral absorption. The widespread use of these supplements has resulted in controversy regarding chromium's role as a nutrient, its use for treatment of insulin resistance, and its potential toxicity. Most recent evidence strongly supports tile conclusion that there is little fear of toxic reactions from chromium consumption. This report reviews the evidence for the potential toxicity of chromium supplements in contrast with its usefulness as a nutrient or therapeutic agent in the treatment or prevention of insulin resistance.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.183-190
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• 1994

Purpose of the present study was to find the optimal culture conditions for the maturation and fertilization of immature oocytes by the use human body fluids and gonadotropins (Gn) in the mouse model. Cumulus-enclosed mouse immature oocytes were incubated in the medium containing various human body fluids with or without Gn in vitro, and examined to confirm nuclear maturation (NM) and fertilization. Female ICR mice were stimulated with 7.5 IU pregnant mares' serum gonadotropin (PMSG). Cumulus-enclosed immature oocytes were isolated at 48-52 hr post PMSG injection and cultured in TCM 199 supplemented with various concentrations (20, 50, and 70%) of human body fluids such as fetal cord serum (hCS), follicular fluid (hFF), peritoneal fluid (hPF) and amniotic fluid (hAF) in the presence or absence of 10 IU/ml PMSG and 10 IU/ml human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) for 18 hr. Fetal calf serum (FCS) was used as a control for the supplements. Matured oocytes were fertilized with sperm collected from the epididymis of male mice. Fertilization was conducted in T6 medium containing 15 mgl ml bovine serum albumin, and confirmed at 6 hr post-insemination. Evaluation of nucler maturation and fertilization was carried out by rapid staining using fuchin. There was no significant difference between the effects of human body fluids and FCS supplements on nuclear maturation of cumulus enclosed mouse immature oocytes. When maturation medium was supplemented with 20% hPF or 20% hAF, fertilization rates were significantly (P<0.01) lower than that of 20% FCS, hCS and hFF groups. However, higher concentrations of body fluids during IVM were not more beneficial on fertilizability of oocytes. The addition of Gn significantly increased the fertilization rates in hPF and hAF groups (hPF without Gn; 51.5%, compared with 85.1% for addition of Gn, and hAF without Gn; 30.1% compared with 85.8% for addition of Gn) at 20% concentration. These results suggest that human body fluids at 20% concentration and gonadotropins can be used as supplements for the maturation of mouse immature oocytes in vitro. When gonadotropins supplemented with the human body fluids in the maturation medium, fertilizability of mouse immature oocytes was increased in hPF and hAF groups. These results can be applied to maturation of human immature oocytes in vitro.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2024

Background: In recent years, studies have shown conflicting results regarding the benefits of dietary supplements in reducing healthcare expenditures. This study aimed to address this inconsistency by examining the association between supplement consumption and health expenditures using nationally representative data from the Korea Health Panel Survey (2019-2020). Methods: A 1:1 matched case-control dataset was established using propensity score matching technique based on supplement consumption. Then, total annual healthcare expenditures were compared between the two groups. In addition, a multivariate regression analysis (Proc Surveyreg) was performed to determine the association between the supplement consumption and medical costs. Results: The supplement user group spent about 1.72 million Korean won, while the non-user group spent about 1.43 million Korean won on medical services (p=0.0186). The results of multivariate regression showed that the costs were approximately 26.15% higher in the user group than in the non-user group (p=0.0004). Conclusion: Contrary to the previous studies that have shown the benefits of supplement use in reducing healthcare costs, this study showed that those who consistently consumed supplements spent more on medical services. This can be interpreted in the same context as previous studies suggesting that dietary supplement intake is a healthy behavior for managing one's health. However, we caution against drawing firm conclusions due to data limitations. Further analysis using patient-level epidemiologic data is needed.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.447-460
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• 2013

Dietary supplement use is prevalent and represents an important source of nutrition. This study was conducted in order to assess the dietary maximum exposure of vitamins and minerals from various sources including regular diet, vitamin mineral supplements for non-prescription drug (VMS-NPD), vitamin mineral supplements for health functional foods (VMS-HFF), and fortified foods (FF). A total of 1,407 adolescent boys and girls attending middle or high schools were chosen from various cities and rural communities in Korea. Users of vitamin and mineral supplements (n = 60, 15-18 years of age) were chosen from the above 1,407 students. Intake of vitamins and minerals from a regular diet and FF was assessed by both food record method and direct interview for three days of two weekdays and one weekend, and those from VMS-NPD and VMS-HFF were assessed by both questionnaire and direct interview, and compared with the recommended nutrient intake (RNI) and the tolerable upper intake level (UL) for Korean adolescents. Daily average exposure range of vitamins and minerals from a regular diet was 0.3 to 4.4 times of the RNI. Some subjects had an excessive exposure to the UL in the following areas: from regular diets, vitamin A (1.7%) and niacin (5.0%); from only VMS-NPD, vitamin C (9.1%) and iron (5.6%); and from only VMS-HFF, niacin (8.6%) > vitamin $B_6$ (7.5%) > folic acid (2.9%) > vitamin C (2.3%). Nutrients of daily total intake from regular diet, VMS-NPD, VMS-HFF, and FF higher than the UL included nicotinic acid for 33.3% of subjects, and, then, in order, vitamin C (26.6%) > vitamin A (13.3%), iron (13.3%) > zinc (11.7%) > calcium (5.0%) > vitamin E (1.7%), vitamin $B_6$ (1.7%). Thus, findings of this study showed that subjects may potentially be at risk due to overuse of supplements, even though most of them took enough vitamins and minerals from their regular diet. Therefore, we should encourage adolescents to have sound health care habits through systematic and educational aspects.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.37-42
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• 2004

The relatively new concept of functional foods is supportive of sales of food products that deliver isolated 'nutrient' or 'food compound' substances, much as is done by dietary supplements. Whether such isolated substances have benefit must be investigated in each instance; such investigations can be complex. At the same time, simply prepared natural plant foods contain a myriad of substances that, in accord with the concept of food synergy, are beneficial for health. Whole grain foods are an example of such healthy fare, based on strong epidemiologic and experimental evidence. If the concept of functional foods is to be of use for the public health, it should support the consumption of healthy traditional foods as well as promoting 'novel' foods; in this sense, whole grain foods, which have great functionality, should be regarded as functional foods.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.11 no.sup1
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• pp.127-135
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• 2008

According to the hygiene hypothesis, westernized and urbanized life style leads to the increase of allergic disease. This hypothesis supports the use of probiotic therapy for the prevention or treatment of food allergy. The probiotics which contains potentially beneficial microorganism have been used for the treatment of some gastrointestinal disorders and atopic disease as dietary supplements. Many results of studies support the immunologic bases of probiotics therapy. The most important mechanism is that probiotics suppress Th2-skewed immunity as the stimulation of regulatory T cell. The difficulties of diagnosis of food allergy, variable symptoms, many kinds of microorganism, diet style and non-standardized study designs are attributed to the variety and controversy of the effectiveness of probiotics in food allergy with infant and children. More studies is needed to confirm the efficacy of probiotics in infant and children with food allergy.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.12 no.sup1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2009

Some pediatric patients who can not eat orally depend on enteral tube feedings, and some patients require more nutrients and calories to achieve the catch-up growth. If a patient is counting on the parenteral nutrition, early initiation of enteral feeding, orally or enterally, is a very good for the intestinal mucosal maturity and motility. There are numerous kinds of formulas and supplements for the enteral feeding for neonates, infants, and children. Depending on the intestinal symptoms, allergic symptoms, requirement of special nutrients, we can choose regular infant formula (milk-based, soy-based), protein hydrolysate formula, amino acid hydrolysate formula, elemental formula. Proper use of these formulas would help for the pediatric patients to recover from their diseases, to facilitate the intestinal mucosal maturity and to achieve their goal of growth.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2016

Pectolinarin was isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction of Cirsium setidens using open column chromatography and was analyzed using spectrometry. Pectolinarin content in Cirsium spp. was determined using HPLC/UV. Pectolinarin content in the aerial part of Cirsium spp. was higher than that in the root and pappus. Pectolinarin content was highest in the aerial part of C. chlorolepis (110.65mg/g extract). Consequently, the aerial part of C. chlorolepis has potential for use in new natural medicinal products, health supplements, and beverages.