• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1281-1291
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• 2005

Chungpae-tang is suggested to have the antitumor activity on lung cancer. This study was peformed to investigate apoptotic effect in vitro and antitumor effect and immune response after injection of B16-F10 melanoma cells and Chungpae-tang into a tail vein of C57BL/6 mice and administratition of Chungpae-tang in A549 human lung cancer cell line in vivo, respectively. Experimental studies were obtained by measuring the median survival time and cytokine expression through RT-PCR, and ELISA assay. The results were summarized as follows: 5 mg/ml of Chungpae-tang causing DNA fragmentation, caspase-3 enzyme activation, PARP fragmentation, and cytochrome c release, suggested that Chungpae-tang has in vitro apoptotic effect in A549 human lung cancer cell line in the apoptosis-induced experiment. The median survival time of the Chungpae-tang treated group was 21 days and that of control group was 22 days, suggesting that the median survival time between the Chungpae-tang treated group and the control group was not significant. Cytokine expression between the Chungpae-fang treated group and the control group was noticeable, but was not significant in the RT-PCR. In the ELISA assay, IL-2 productivity in the Chungpae-tang treated group was to increase more than that in the normal group (p<0.05) and was no significant between the Chungpae-tang treated group and the control group. $INF-\gamma$ productivity of the control group decreased more than that of the normal group (p<0.05) and that of the Chungpae-tang-treated group increased more than that of the control group (p<0.05). IL-12 productivity of the control group increased more than that of the normal group (p<0.05) and that of the Chungpae-tang-treated group decreased more than that of the control group (p<0.05) and the normal group. IL-4 productivity of the Chungpae-tang-treated group increased more than that of the normal group and the control group (p<0.05). IL-10 productivity of the Chungpae-tang-treated group increased more than that of the normal group and the control group (p<0.05). Accordingly the results show Chungpae-tang could induce apoptosis in A549 human lung cancer cell line and bring to antitumor effect and immune response against injection of B16-F10 melanoma cells into a tail vein of C57BL/6 mice but it needs more research on the precise mechanism of such effects.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.532-537
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• 2008

In order to investigate the factors affecting the culture of mouse preantral follicles in vitro, we examined the effect of culture media, protein supplements, and culture period on their growth. The oocyte diameter (initial size: $55.6{\pm}2.5{\mu}m$) was progressively increased during culture, and the maximum size ($72.0{\pm}2.4{\mu}m$) was reached on day 10 of the in vitro culture. The chromatin configuration in the germinal vesicle (GV) oocyte progressively shifted from a non-surrounded nucleolus (NSN) to a surrounded nucleolus (SN). On day 10 of the culture, most of the oocytes progressed to the SN pattern. The survival and metaphase II rates of the oocytes in alpha-minimal essential medium (alpha-MEM) were significantly higher (p<0.05) than those in Waymouth and tissue culture medium (TCM)-199. As a protein source, fetal bovine serum (FBS) was more suitable for the culture of mouse preantral follicles as compared to human follicular fluid (hFF) and bovine serum albumin (BSA); the optimal concentration of FBS was 5%. These results suggest that in a culture of mouse preantral follicles, alpha-MEM and 5% FBS are an optimal medium and a protein source, respectively; further, the 10 days of culture is required for the complete growth of oocytes in this culture system.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.482-495
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• 2015

Sphingolipids such as ceramide, sphingosine-1-phosphate and sphingomyelin have been emerging as bioactive lipids since ceramide was reported to play a role in human leukemia HL-60 cell differentiation and death. Recently, it is well-known that ceramide acts as an inducer of cell death, that sphingomyelin works as a regulator for microdomain function of the cell membrane, and that sphingosine-1-phosphate plays a role in cell survival/proliferation. The lipids are metabolized by the specific enzymes, and each metabolite could be again returned to the original form by the reverse action of the different enzyme or after a long journey of many metabolizing/synthesizing pathways. In addition, the metabolites may serve as reciprocal biomodulators like the rheostat between ceramide and sphingosine-1-phosphate. Therefore, the change of lipid amount in the cells, the subcellular localization and the downstream signal in a specific subcellular organelle should be clarified to understand the pathobiological significance of sphingolipids when extracellular stimulation induces a diverse of cell functions such as cell death, proliferation and migration. In this review, we focus on how sphingolipids and their metabolizing enzymes cooperatively exert their function in proliferation, migration, autophagy and death of hematopoetic cells, and discuss the way developing a novel therapeutic device through the regulation of sphingolipids for effectively inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing cell death in hematological malignancies such as leukemia, malignant lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.466-471
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• 2002

Oxidative stress is considered to be associated with many diseases, such as inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases, aging and cancer. An important etiological mechanism of these diseases may be a causal relationship between the presence of oxidants and the generation of lipid hydroperoxides derived from enzymatic reactions or xenobiotic metabolism. The hydroperoxides can be decomposed to alkoxy- (ROㆍ) and peroxy- (ROOㆍ) free radicals that can oxidize other cell components, resulting in changes in enzyme activity or the generation of mediators, which can cause further cell damage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of aqueous extract from the roots of Platycodon grandiflorum A. DC (Campanulaceae), Changkil (CK), to affect cellular response in primary cultures of rat hepatocytes to t-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BHP) induced oxidative stress and hepatotoxicity. CK-treated cells showed an increased resistance to oxidative challenge, as revealed by a higher percent of survival capacity in respect to control cells. CK reduced t-BHP-enhanced lipid peroxidation measured as production of malondialdehyde and enhanced intracellular reduced glutathione depletion by t-BHP. Furthermore, CK protected from the t-BHP-induced intracellular generation of reactive oxygen species assessed by monitoring dichlorodihydrofluorescein fluorescence. It can be concluded that CK exerts an antioxidant action inside the cell, responsible for the observed modulation of the cellular response to oxidative challenge, and CK have a marked antioxidative and hepatoprotective potency.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.89-92
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• 2001

Aspergillus niger has been used as a host system to express many heterologous proteins. It has various advantages over other expression systems in that it is a small eukaryotic GRAS (Generally Recognized aS Safe) organism with a capacity of secreting large amount of foreign proteins. However, it has been known that the presence of an abundant protease is a limiting factor to express a heterologous protein. The proteases deficient mutants of A. niger were obtained using UV -mutagenesis. A total of 1 ${\times}$ $10^5$ spores were irradiated with 10-20% survival dose of UV, 600J/M2 at 280nm, and the resulting spores were screened on the casein -gelatin plates. Ten putative protease deficient mutants were further analyzed on the starch plates to differentiate the pro from the secretory mutant. An endogenous extracellular enzyme, glucose oxidase, was also examined to confirm that the mutant phenotype was due to the proteases deficiency rather than the mutation in the secretory pathway. The reduced proteolytic activity was measured using SDS-fibrin zymography gel, casein degradation assay, and bio-activity of a supplemented hGM -CSF (human Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor). Comparing with the wild type strain, less than 30 % of proteolytic activity was observed in the culture filtrate of the protease deficient mutant (pro -20) without any notable changes in cell growth and secretion.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.513-516
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• 2001

This study was to develop of efficient microbial agent for malodor removal. Total ten strains of beneficial bacteria Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp., and photosynthetic bacteria were isolated and identified on the basis of their morphological and biochemical characteristics. The enzyme activities such as amylase, protease, lipase and cellulase of bacteria cells were measured. Furthennore, effective formulation procedure 、 ,vas developed with nutrient additive, stabilizing agent and mineral materix. For preparation of microbial agent, developing of formulation technique was very helpful for incresing the cell survival rate.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.1170-1177
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• 2005

Terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis was used to monitor inoculated oil-degrading microorganisms during bioremedial treatability tests. A pair of universal primers, fluorescently labeled 521F and 1392R, was employed to amplify small subunit rDNA in order to simultaneously detect two bacterial strains, Corynebacterium sp. IC10 and Sphingomonas sp. KH3-2, and a yeast strain, Yarrowia lipolytica 180. Digestion of the 5'-end fluorescence/labeled PCR products with HhaI produced specific terminal-restriction fragments (T-RFs) of 185 and 442 bases, corresponding to Corynebacterium sp. IC10 and Y. lipolytica 180, respectively. The enzyme NruI produced a specific T-RF of 338 bases for Sphingomonas sp. KH3-2. The detection limit for oildegrading microorganisms that were inoculated into natural environments was determined to be $0.01\%$ of the total microbial count, regardless of the background environment. When three oil-degrading microorganisms were released into oil-contaminated sand microenvironments, strains IC10 and 180 survived for 35 days after inoculation, whereas strain KH3-2 was detected at 8 days, but not at 35 days. This result implies that T-RFLP could be a useful tool for monitoring the survival and relative abundance of specific microbial strains inoculated into contaminated environments.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.474-480
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• 2007

Fusarium wilt of cucumbers was effectively controlled by Escherichia coli expressing an endochitinase gene (chiA), and the rate was as effective (60.0%) as the wild-type strain S. proteamaculans 3095 (55.0%) where the gene was cloned. However, live cells of soil inoculated E. coli host harboring the chiA gene did not proliferate but declined 100-fold from $10^8$ CFU during the first week and showed less than 10 cells after day 14, suggesting that E. coli was able to express and produce the chitinase enzyme to the soil even as the population was gradually decreasing. Because the majority of the strains was alive for only a short period of time and the Fusarium-affected seedlings showed symptoms of wilting within 7-10 days, it seems that the pathogen control was decided early after the introduction of the biocontrol agent, eliminating the survival of the antagonist. These results indicated that soil inoculated E. coli could sufficiently express and produce the recombinant protein to control the pathogen, and root or soil colonization of the antagonist might not be a significant factor in determining the efficacy of biological control.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.591-598
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• 2020

Lactobacillus plantarum KU15149 was demonstrated to have probiotic behavior and functions, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. L. plantarum KU15149 obtained from homemade diced-radish kimchi has a high survival rate under artificial gastric acid (pH 2.5, 0.3% pepsin) and bile salt (0.3% oxgall) conditions. However, L. plantarum KU15149 did not produce β-glucuronidase, which is known to be a carcinogenic enzyme with resistance to several antibiotics, such as gentamycin, kanamycin, streptomycin, tetracycline, and ciprofloxacin. L. plantarum KU15149 strongly adhered to HT-29 cells and had high antioxidant activity in terms of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical-scavenging and β-carotene bleaching assays. L. plantarum KU15149 also exhibited a pronounced inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production, along with expression of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase -2 (COX-2) as well as pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6, when RAW 264.7 cells were stimulated with LPS. Therefore, L. plantarum KU15149 exhibited pharmaceutical functionality as a potential probiotic.

• Mycobiology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.229-237
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• 2010

Members of the genus Aspergillus are the most common fungi and all reproduce asexually by forming long chains of conidiospores (or conidia). The impact of various Aspergillus species on humans ranges from beneficial to harmful. For example, several species including Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus niger are used in industry for enzyme production and food processing. In contrast, Aspergillus flavus produce the most potent naturally present carcinogen aflatoxins, which contaminate various plant- and animal-based foods. Importantly, the opportunistic human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus has become the most prevalent airborne fungal pathogen in developed countries, causing invasive aspergillosis in immunocompromised patients with a high mortality rate. A. fumigatus produces a massive number of small hydrophobic conidia as the primarymeans of dispersal, survival, genome-protection, and infecting hosts. Large-scale genome-wide expression studies can now be conducted due to completion of A. fumigatus genome sequencing. However, genomics becomes more powerful and informative when combined with genetics. We have been investigating the mechanisms underlying the regulation of asexual development (conidiation) and gliotoxin biosynthesis in A. fumigatus, primarily focusing on a characterization of key developmental regulators identified in the model fungus Aspergillus nidulans. In this review, I will summarize our current understanding of how conidiation in two aspergilli is regulated.