• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.969-978
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• 2014

The aprE2 gene with its prosequence from Bacillus subtilis CH3-5 was overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) by using plasmid pET26b(+). After IPTG induction, active and mature AprE2 was produced when cells were grown at $20^{\circ}C$, whereas inactive and insoluble enzyme was produced in a large amount when cells were grown at $37^{\circ}C$. The insoluble fraction was resuspended with 6 M guanidine-HCl and dialyzed against 2 M Tris-HCl (pH 7.0) or 0.5 M sodium acetate (pH 7.0) buffer. Then active AprE2 was regenerated and purified by a Ni-NTA column. Purified AprE2 from the soluble fraction had a specific activity of $1,069.4{\pm}42.4U/mg$ protein, higher than that from the renatured insoluble fraction. However, more active AprE2 was obtained by renaturation of the insoluble fraction. AprE2 was most stable at pH 7 and $40^{\circ}C$, respectively. The fibrinolytic activity of AprE2 was inhibited by PMSF, but not by EDTA and metal ions. AprE2 degraded $A{\alpha}$ and $B{\beta}$ chains of fibrinogen quickly, but not the ${\gamma}$-chain. AprE2 exhibited the highest specificity for N-succinyl-Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe-pNA. The $K_m$ and $k_{cat}/K_m$ of AprE2 was 0.56 mM and $3.10{\times}10^4S^{-1}M^{-1}$, respectively.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.217-225
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• 2022

The population of pet cats has increased significantly, from 0.3% in 2002 to 5.6% in 2017. Large-scale feline demographic and disease data from Korea are lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the demographic data (breed, sex, and age) and disease distribution of cats who visited private veterinary practices in Korea. Data including breed, sex, age, and disease, were compiled from 32,728 electronic medical records from 30 selected private veterinary practices, between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2017. Diseases were classified based on the International Classification of Diseases 11 by the World Health Organization, and then compared and cross-analyzed according to breed, sex, and age. Korean shorthair was the most common breed. There was a high distribution of young cats, with 77.6% of the cats under 4 years of age, and an average age of 2.5 years. Diagnoses related to preventative medicine were the most frequent and diagnoses common to young cats had higher incidence. This demographic data and information about disease distribution can be used as a basis for future research and may be helpful for determining priorities in the diagnosis of diseases and establishing strategies for health management in cats.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.240-245
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• 2008

Aloe vera extract was fermented by Lactobacillus casei. The ability of fermented Aloe vera (FAV) as an antioxidant to protect against $CCl_4$-induced oxidative stress and hepatotoxicity in rats was investigated. The rats were administered orally with various doses of FAV with 50, 100 mg/kg for 14 consecutive days. For this study, we not only tested activity of various plasma enzymes (AST, ALT), which are used as indicators of liver disease, but also checked those change of liver components such as superoxide dismutase and catalase activity. Pretreatment of FAV for two weeks significantly reduced the elevated plasma enzyme activities induced by $CCl_4$. Pretreatment of FAV also restored the hepatic enzyme, malonedialdehyde (MDA) formation. The results indicate that FAV has a protective effect against acute hepatotoxicity induced by the administration of $CCl_4$ in rats, and that the hepatoprotective effects of FAV may be due to both the inhibition of lipid peroxidation and the increase of antioxidant activity.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.363-367
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• 2004

Leuconostoc mesenteroides NRRL B-1149 produces various glucoseyltransferases for the synthesis of dextran, levan and glucose-1-phosphate using sucrose as a substrate. A sucrose phosphorylase (1149SPase) was purified from L. mesenteroides NRRL B-1149 culture by using hollow fiber filtration (30 kDa cut off), Toyopearl DEAE 650 M column chromatography and following two times of DEAE-Sepharose column chromatographies. The specific activity of the purified 1149SPase was 25.7 (U/mg) with $16\%$ yield. The 1149SPase showed a molecular size of 56 kDa on denatured $10\%$ SDS-PAGE. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the enzyme was MEIQNKAM. The optimum pH and temperature of this enzyme were 6.2~6.5 and 37^{circ}C, respectively. It had an apparent K_{m} of 6.0 mM and K_{cat} of 1.62/s for sucrose. 1149SPase crystal was formed by hanging drop diffusion technique using 20 mM calcium chloride dihydrate, 100 mM sodium acetate trihydrate pH 4.6 and $30\%$ 2-methyl-2,4-pentanediol as vaporizing and reservation solution. The 1149SPase catalyzes transferring of glucose from isomaltose or sucrose to salicin and salicyl alcohol by disproportionation reaction or acceptor reaction and synthesized two acceptor products, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.345-351
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• 2010

Toxoplasma gondii is a species of parasitic protozoa in the genus Toxoplasma. The definitive host of T. gondii is the cat, but the parasite can be carried by the vast majority of warm-blooded animals, including humans. It is often found in the tissues of food animals including pigs and sheep. To determine the regional prevalence of infection with T. gondii, bloods (n=300) from domestic pigs and tissues (n=200) from slaughter pigs in Gyeongnam province were tested using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of antibody and antigen. A total of 115 sero-positive pigs were identified for a prevalence rate of 38.3%. Of the 50 herds from domestic pigs tested, 34 had at least one sero-positive pig for a herd prevalence rate of 68.0%. Sero-positive rates of pigs in fattening farm were higher than that of pigs in breeding company. Sero-positive rates of sows were higher than that of growing pigs. Seasonally, sero-positive rates of pigs were highest in winter (80.0%) and lowest in spring (23.8%). According to farm size, sero-positive rates of pigs were higher in small size farms (${\leq}$2,000) than that of big size farms (>2,000). However, none of the bloods (n=300) from domestic pigs and tissues (n=200) from slaughter pigs were positive for T. gondii specific DNA by PCR.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 1990

Zoonoses are those diseases and infections that are naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and man. At present, approximately 175 diseases caused by virus, rickettsia, bacteria, protozoa and helminthes as well as some of arthropods and the number is continually increasing. Although zoonoses are generally recognized as significant health problems, the actual prevalence and incidence of zoonotic infections is difficult to determine. Medical services in a rural area are scarce and ill persons may have little chance to see a physician. Furthermore, a lack of physician awareness and of appropriate diagnostic support is made often misdiagnosis. In rural Korea, parasitic disease is still important subject in the field of zoonotic infections considering its number and morbidity. Recently there was conspicuous reduction of soil-transmitted parasitic diseases (i.e. ascariasis. hookworms, trichuriasis), but clonorchiasis. intestinal trematodiases and taeniasis are a considerable problem. This is often significantly related to human behavioral patterns based on socio-economic and cultural conditions and linked with the local biologic and physical environment. The most of all parasitic zoonoses to man and animals are the food-transmitted parasitic diseases, and domestic animals such as dog, cat, pig, as well as fat and some mammals, ruminants and birds are act as reservoir hosts. In the present topics, current problems of parasitic zoonoses caused by protozoan infections (i. e. toxoplasmosis, pneumocystosis and cryptosporidiosis) which are the most common opportunistic in AIDS or immunocompromised persons, trematode infections (i.e. clonorchiasis, paragonimiasis and some intestinal tremadodiases). cestode infections such as cysticercosis and sparganosis, and some nematode infections of anisakiasis, thelaziasis and strongyloidiasis, are discussed here those on the occurrence in man and animals and the source of transmission as well as prevention and control measures in Korea.

• BMB Reports
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.142-147
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• 2020

Lipid accumulation in white adipose tissue is the key contributor to the obesity and orchestrates numerous metabolic health problems such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and cancer. Nonetheless, the prevention and treatment of obesity are still inadequate. Recently, scientists found that brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adult humans has functions that are diametrically opposite to those of white adipose tissue and that BAT holds promise for a new strategy to counteract obesity. In this study, we evaluated the potential of sinapic acid (SA) to promote the thermogenic program and lipolysis in BAT. SA treatment of brown adipocytes induced the expression of brown-adipocyte activation-related genes such as Ucp1, Pgc-1α, and Prdm16. Furthermore, structural analysis and western blot revealed that SA upregulates protein kinase A (PKA) phosphorylation with competitive inhibition by a pan-PKA inhibitor, H89. SA binds to the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) site on the PKA catalytic subunit where H89 binds specifically. PKA-cat-α1 gene-silencing experiments confirmed that SA activates the thermogenic program via a mechanism involving PKA and cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB) signaling. Moreover, SA treatment promoted lipolysis via a PKA/p38-mediated pathway. Our findings may allow us to open a new avenue of strategies against obesity and need further investigation.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.75-88
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• 1992

It is well established that neurons in ventrolateral medulla play a key role in determining the vasomotor tone. The purpose of present study is to identify sympathetic related, medullospinal tract neurons in ventrolateral medulla and to show that these mediate somato-sympathetic reflex. Medullospinal tract cells were identified by antidromic stimulation to intermediolateral nucleus (IML) of the second thoracic ($T_2$) spinal cord in anesthetized cats. Peripheral nerves were stimulated for orthodromic activation of these cells and peripheral receptive fields were determined. Post R wave histogram of unit and spike triggered averaging of sympathetic nerve discharge (SND) were used to define sympathetic related cell. A total of 113 neurons was recorded in ventrolateral medulla that had the axonal projections to $T_2$ spinal cord. Thirty four of these medullospinal cells showed spontaneous discharges and the others not. Between these two groups, rostro-caudal coordinate of the distribution from obex [$4.7{\pm}0.2\;$ (mean S.E.) mm, 4.1 0.1 mm], depth from dorsal surface ($5.5{\pm}0.2mm,\;4.9{\pm}0.1mm$ and conduction velocity ($9.9{\pm}1.7m/sec,\;16.7{\pm}1.9\;m/sec$) were significantly different (p<0.05). In spontaneously discharging group, characteristics of rostral and caudal groups were significantly different and we demonstrated that cells in rostral group mediate somatosympathetic reflex. From these results, we conclude that a certain portion of spontaneously discharging medullospinal tract cells in rostral ventrolateral medulla comprise the efferent outputs of somatosympathetic reflex to sympathetic preganglion neurons.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.71-77
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• 2001

Pepper (Capsicum annuum L. cv. Jokwang and cv. Johong) seeds were irradiated with the doses of 0-50 Gy to investigate the effect of the low dose ${\gamma}$-radiation on the early growth and resistance to subsequent high dose of radiation. Following effect was observed in Johong cultivar but not in Jokwang cultivar Germination and early growth rate of Johong cultivar were noticeably increased at 4, 8 and 20 Gy irradiation group. Resistance to subsequent high dose of radiation of Johong cultivar increased at almost all of the low dose irradiation group. Especially it was highest at 4 Gy irradiation group. Plant groups of Johong cultivar showing the resistance to subsequent high dose of radiation, which had been pre-irradiated with 4 Gy and 8 Gy, were also higher in the carotenoid contents and enzyme activity than the plant group not irradiated previously.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2006

This study was carried out to determine the antioxidative activities of tissue cells of mouse kidney isolated from mice fed with different formulation of drinks. The swimming ability of experimental groups without caffeine showed the same pattern, but caffeine group decreased slightly. Superoxide dismutase(SOD) and catalase(CAT) activities of caffeine-containing groups were decreased significantly, but the control and ginseng-containing groups were increased. Hydroperoxide contents did not increase significantly all experimental groups. Hydroperoxlde contents of the control and ginseng-containing groups were similar, but caffeine-containing groups increased. Compared to the control and ginseng-containing groups, lipid peroxidation level and protein contents in caffeine-containing groups were decreased significantly. In conclusion, the antioxidative activities of mouse kidney isolated from mice fed with ginseng-containing products was increased slightly.