• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.213-218
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• 2008

Swertia chirata is an endangered gentian species that prefers to grow at higher altitudes. This ethnomedicinal herb is known primarily for its bitter taste caused by the presence of important phytochemicals that are directly associated with human health benefits. Due to a continuous loss of habitat and inherent problems of seed viability and seed germination, alternative strategies for propagation and conservation are urgently required to prevent the possible extinction of this species. We have formulated a reproducible protocol for the rapid propagation and conservation of this plant using leaves taken from in vitro shoot cultures. Direct induction of more than seven shoot buds per explant was achieved for the first time when the explants were placed on MS medium supplemented with $2.22{\mu}M$ N-6-benzyladenine, $11.6{\mu}M$ kinetin, and $0.5{\mu}M$ ${\alpha}-naphthalene$ acetic acid. Direct organogenesis was noted exclusively from the adaxial surface of the basal segments of leaves. Leaves closer to the apical meristem were more responsive than those farther away from the meristem. Plants raised through direct organogenesis were evaluated for their clonal fidelity by chromosomal analysis and DNA fingerprinting. Complete plants were successfully transferred to the field condition and produced viable seeds. Given the enormous potential of this age-old medicinal plant in terms of potential health-benefitting drugs, this protocol can be used for commercial propagation purposes and to initiate future genetic improvement studies.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• 제5권3호
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• pp.214-218
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• 2011

Diets based on carbohydrates increase rapidly the blood glucose level due to the fast conversion of carbohydrates to glucose. High glucose diets have been known to induce many lifestyle diseases. Here, we demonstrated that high glucose diet shortened the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans through apoptosis induction. Control adult groups without glucose diet lived for 30 days, whereas animals fed 10 mg/L of D-glucose lived only for 20 days. The reduction of lifespan by glucose diet showed a dose-dependent profile in the concentration range of glucose from 1 to 20 mg/L. Aging effect of high glucose diet was examined by measurement of response time for locomotion after stimulating movement of the animals by touching. Glucose diet decreased the locomotion capacity of the animals during mid-adulthood. High glucose diets also induced ectopic apoptosis in the body of C. elegans, which is a potent mechanism that can explain the shortened lifespan and aging. Apoptotic cell corpses stained with SYTO 12 were found in the worms fed 10 mg/L of glucose. Mutation of core apoptotic regulatory genes, CED-3 and CED-4, inhibited the reduction of viability induced by high glucose diet, which indicates that these regulators were required for glucose-induced apoptosis or lifespan shortening. Thus, we conclude that high glucose diets have potential for inducing ectopic apoptosis in the body, resulting in a shortened lifespan accompanied with loss of locomotion capacity.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.55-59
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• 2014

Dehydroevodiamine HCl (DHED) has been reported to prevent memory impairment and neuronal cell loss in a rat model with cognitive disturbance. We investigated the effect of DHED on memory impairment and behavioral abnormality caused by stress. We demonstrated that DHED can improve stress-induced memory impairments and depression-like behaviors by using open-field test, Y-maze test and forced swimming test. DHED treatment significantly recovered the decreases in the levels of neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) proteins caused by stress and the decreases in cell viability. Our results suggested that DHED is a potential drug candidate for neuronal death, memory impairment and depression induced by stress.

• 한국임상약학회지
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• 제5권2호
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• pp.75-84
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• 1995

Drug delivery by red cells was established to maintain the release of drugs in the blood. The entrapment method by amphotericin B was re-examined and evaluated for obtaining the suitable entrapping conditions without hemolysis. The amphotericin B treatment below $10{\mu}g/ml$ induced the non-hemolysis to entrap daunorubicin into red cells within 10min. Under these conditions intracellular ATP level was decreased as $18\%$. Membrane fluidity and the shape factor of red cells were maintained. To maintain intracellular ATP, ATP and sodium pyruvate were added during the entrapment procedure because hemolysis during the release test would reflect the loss of intracellular ATP that would be postulate the decrease of the viability invivo. Consequently, the addition of ATP in the reaction solution can raise the intracellular level of ATP.

• 대한의생명과학회지
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.79-82
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• 2013

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease with a wide range of dopaminergic neuron cell death in the substantia nigra. Oxidative stress and neural degeneration are suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. In this study, we investigated whether a novel herbmedicine, Hepad protects against 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridnium [MPP(+)]-induced dopaminergic neurotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells. We found that pretreatment with Hepad significantly increases the proliferation of SH-SY5Y cells (P<0.05) and reversed the loss of cell viability induced by $MPP^+$. Hepad may be a promising neuroprotective agent for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권7호
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• pp.4267-4271
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• 2013

Background: As natural medicines in Asia, curcumin and triptolide extracted from different drug plants have proven to possess anticancer potential and widely used for anti-cancer research. The present study attempted to clarify that curcumin and triptolide synergistically suppress ovarian cancer cell growth in vitro. Methods: To test synergic effects, cell viability and apoptosis were analyzed after curcumin and triptolide combination treatment on ovarian cancer cell lines. Synergistic effects on apoptosis induction were determined by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage assay, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) assay, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) loss assay and flow cytometry analysis. Critical regulators of cell proliferation and apoptosis related were analyzed by qRT-PCR and Western blotting. Results: We showed that the combination of curcumin and triptolide could synergistically inhibit ovarian cancer cell growth, and induce apoptosis, which is accompanied by HSP27 and HSP70, indicating that HSP27 and HSP70 play the important role in the synergic effect. Conclusions: From the result present here, curcumin and triptolide combination with lower concentration have a synergistic anti-tumor effect on ovarian cancer and which will have a good potential in clinical applications.

• 약학회지
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• 제36권1호
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• pp.80-86
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• 1992

Streptozotocin (STZ) is a naturally occurring nitrosoamide used extensively to produce diabetes in experimental animals. Our previous study has demonstrated that i.v. administraton of streptozotocin induces significant red blood cell hemolmysis in rats. Since it has been reported that the highest concentration of STZ is found in the liver, the effect of STZ in freshly isolated rat hepatocytes has been investigated. STZ treatment (10 mM) did not cause significant loss of viability throughout 4 hour incubation, while high dose of STZ (300 mM) to hepatocytes resulted in complete cell death within 3 hours. Addition of 40 mM glucose to incubation medium did not potentiate STZ-induced hepatotoxicity, suggesting that STZ-induced hyperglycemia in vivo did not affect its hepatotoxicity. To investigate the mechanixm of the toxicity, intracellular total glutathione level was determined. Tratment with 10 mM STZ which was not toxic to hepatocytes led to complete depletion of intracellular glutathione level within 1 hour incubation. These results suggest that STZ-induced hepatotoxicity may be independent on the intracellular glutathione depletion.

• Toxicological Research
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.229-235
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• 1997

The elevation of intracellular calcium in various tissues due to oxidative stress induced by either menadione or adriamycin has been well documented. The increase of calcium level in platelets results in aggregation of platelets. To test the hypothesis that chemically induced calcium elevations can play a role in platelet aggregation, we have studied the effects of menadione and adriamycin on aggregation of platelets isolated from female rats. Treatment with menadione and adriamycin to platelet rich plasma (PRP) appeared to induce platelet aggregations up to 60%, as determined by aggregometry. However, exposure of PRP to rnenadione or adriamycin led to a loss of viability, as measured by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage. Morphological studies of platelets revealed that, when PRP was treated with menadione, aggregates of platelets were not observed and the numbers of platelets were decreased significantly. This suggests that menadione and adriamycin decreased turbidity by inducing platelet lysis rather than platelet aggregation. These cellular toxicities induced by menadione or adriamycin was not correlated with oxygen consumption rate but with depletion of protein thiols, suggesting that protein thiols might play an important role in chemical-induced platelet toxicity.

• Toxicological Research
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.247-250
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• 1997

We have studied cytotoxicity of S-nitroso-N-acetyl- N-DL-penicillamine(SNAP), a Nitric oxide (NO)-releasing compound, in RAW264.7 macrophages. SNAP is cytotoxic to RAW264.7 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. PMA(200 nM) stimulated cells to produce superoxide anton radical($O_2^{-\cdot}$) and caused a little loss of RAW264.7 cell viability for 12 hr and diminished the cytotoxicity of SNAP. The mechanism by which PMA can protect cells against NO-mediated cytotoxicity was studied by peroxynitrite-enhanced chemiluminescence method. Observed results suggested that $O_2^{-\cdot}$ produced by PMAstimulated RAW264.7 cells may quench NO released by SNAP and reduce NO, thus attenuating NO-related damages.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제30권5호
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• pp.622-637
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• 2017

Fatty acids such as n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are critical nutrients, used to improve male reproductive performance through modification of fatty acid profile and maintenance of sperm membrane integrity, especially under cold shock or cryopreservation condition. Also, PUFA provide the precursors for prostaglandin synthesis and can modulate the expression patterns of many key enzymes involved in both prostaglandin and steroid metabolism. Many studies carried out on diets supplemented with PUFA have demonstrated their capability to sustain sperm motility, viability and fertility during chilling and freezing as well as improving testis development and spermatogenesis in a variety of livestock species. In addition to the type and quantity of dietary fatty acids, ways of addition of PUFA to diet or semen extender is very crucial as it has different effects on semen quality in male ruminants. Limitation of PUFA added to ruminant ration is due to biohydrogenation by rumen microorganisms, which causes conversion of unsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids, leading to loss of PUFA quantity. Thus, many strategies for protecting PUFA from biohydrogenation in rumen have been developed over the years. This paper reviews four aspects of PUFA in light of previous research including rumen metabolism, biological roles, influence on reproduction, and strategies to use in male ruminants.