• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.394-402
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• 2014

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of chronic unpredictable stress on the reproductive function and ovarian luteinizing hormone receptor (LHR) expression. 9-week-old C57BL/6 female mice were randomly divided into two groups: control group and stressed group. Mice have been stressed twice a day for 35 days with 12 different stressors which were randomly selected. The results demonstrate that there is significant increase in the anxiety-related behaviors (P < 0.05), decrease body weight gain rate (P < 0.01) and decrease in the average of litter size in stressed mice compared with control group (P < 0.01). Furthermore, the rate of primary, secondary and early antral follicles in stressed mice significantly decreased (P < 0.05), whereas that of atretic follicles significantly increased compared with control mice (P < 0.01). The immunohistochemical analysis revealed that reduced LHR expression in granulosa cells of follicle and luteal cells of corpus luteum in response to chronic unpredictable stress. The western blot analysis revealed significantly decrease in LHR expression in the stressed mice ovaries compared with the control (P < 0.05). These results suggest that ovarian LHR expression affected by chronic unpredictable stress and the modulated ovarian LHR is responsible for ovarian follicular maldevelopment and reproductive dysfunction.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.169-175
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• 2023

As a protective defensive mechanism against ultraviolet (UV) light exposure in skin tissue, melanocytes produce the pigment melanin. Tyrosinase plays a key role in melanin production in melanocytes. However, the overproduction of melanin can lead to lesions, such as freckles and dark spots. Thus, it is clinically important to find a modulating molecule to control melanogenesis by regulating tyrosinase expression and/or activity. It is known that catechin, a plant flavonoid, can reduce melano- genesis through the downregulation of tyrosinase expression. Here, we tested whether catechin derivatives isolated from the stem bark of Ulmus parvifolia have an effect on melanin production by regulating tyrosinase in mouse melanoma cells and in vitro mushroom tyrosinase. The catechin derivatives used in this study included C5A, C7A, C7G, and C7X. Treatments using these catechin derivatives reduced melanin production in mouse melanoma B16F10 cells in which melanogenesis was stimulated by α-MSH. Notably, the anti-melanogenic effects of catechin derivatives were similar to those of kojic acid, a well-known anti-melanogenic molecule. Both C5A and C7A directly inhibited the activity of tyrosinase isolated from mushrooms in vitro. Furthermore, our in silico computational simulation showed that these two compounds were expected to bind to the active site of tyrosinase, which is similar to kojic acid. In addition, all four catechin derivatives reduced tyrosinase protein expression. In summary, our results showed that catechin derivatives can reduce melanogenesis by regulating tyrosinase activity or expression. Thus, this study suggests that catechin derivatives isolated from U. parvifolia can be novel modulators of melanin production.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.91-103
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• 2003

Background : Histamine is widely distributed in the lung. It increases capillary permeability and the P-selectin expression on vascular endothelial cell surfaces. We studied the role of endogenous histamine on the pathogenesis of endotoxin-induced acute lung injury (ALI) in rats. Methods: We instilled either normal saline (control group) or lipopolysaccharide (3 mg/Kg, LPS group) to tracheas of Sprague-Dawley rats. H1-receptor blocker (mepyramine, 10 mg/Kg, H1RB group), H2-receptor blocker (ranitidine, 10 mg/Kg, H2RB group), and H3-receptor blocker (thioperamide, 2 mg/Kg, H3RB group) were administered through vein or peritoneum along with intratracheal LPS administration. Statistical significance was accepted at p<0.05. Results : LPS increases the histamine level in BAL fluid significantly at 2 h after the treatment compared with control group. LPS significantly increases protein concentration, PMN cell count in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in the lung tissue at 6 h compared to control group. PMN cell count in BAL fluid and MPO activity in lung tissue were significantly lower in H2RB-group compared to LPS-group. However, protein concentration in BAL fluid showed no significant differences between the LPS alone and LPS with histamine receptor blockade. Conclusions : Endogenous histamine might be involved in the recruitment of PMNs in LPS-induced ALI via H2 receptor. However, its role in ALI would not be significant in this model.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.292-294
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• 2013

In February 2010, the grayish fungus was found on Neofinetia falcata at Namsa-myeon, Yongin city, Gyeonggi-do, Korea. The symptoms start mainly on the leaves and stems, and the infected stems were rotten. Many conidia appeared on the lesions under humid condition. Colonies were grayish brown color and sclerotial formation was observed on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Conidia were mostly ellipsoidal to ovoid in shape, hyaline, one-celled, and $5.3-16.5{\times}3.8-11.0{\mu}m$ in size. Based on morphological characteristics and pathogenicity, the causal fungus was identified as Botrytis cinerea Pers. This is the first report of gray mold on N. falcata caused by B. cinerea in Korea.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.67-73
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• 2002

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of organic agricultural materials, chitosan and wood vinegar, on the growth and yield of red pepper and soil microflora. In the chitosan treatments, the density of actinomycetes in soils increased, while the density of fungi decreased. Compared with the conventional cultivation, the stem diameter of red pepper was greater in the chitosan or wood vinegar experimental plots at 50 days after transplanting, though there was no difference in chlorophyll content among treatments. The incidence of disease and insect was higher in the treatments of organic agricultural materials than the conventional cultivation, regardless of application frequency. Contents of cations such as Ca and K in leaves and fruits increased by chitosan treatment. In all experimental plots, fruit yield decreased because of diseases and insects. But in chitosan treatment plot with 10 times of application, characteristics of fruits were superior to others and the yield index of red pepper was the highest as 92.4% as compared to the conventional cultivation.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.312-318
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• 2008

The objective of this study was to investigate the changes in ice dendrite size during freezing process in gelatin matrix as a model food system in order to provide mathematical relation between freezing condition and ice dendrite size. Gelatin gel as a model matrix was frozen in unidirectional Neumann's type of heat transfer. The thermograms' analysis allowed to determine the freezing temperature of the sample, the position of the freezing front versus time, and thus, freezing front rate. The morphology of ice dendrites was observed by scanning electron microscopy after freeze-drying. We observed that the means size of ice dendrite increased with the distance to the cooling plate; however, it decreased with the cooling rate and the cooling temperature. In addition, the shorter durations of the freeze-drying process was shorter decreeing the decreased the freezing front rate, resulted in their resulting in a larger pore size of the ice dendrite pores for the sublimation channel of that operate as water vapor sublimation channels. From these results, we could derive a linear regression as an empirical mathematical model equation between the ice dendrite size and the inverse of freezing front rate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.39 no.8
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• pp.1137-1142
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• 2010

The chloroform layer of fermented glasswort (Salicornia herbacea) juice was found to have higher radical-scavenging activity than the other layers by the assays using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) ($ABTS^+$) radicals. Two antioxidative compounds were isolated and purified from the chloroform layer by Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography using the guided assay of DPPH radical scavenging. Based on mass spectrometer and nuclear magnetic resonance, the isolated compounds were identified as cirsiumaldehyde (1) and chrysoeriol (2). This is the first study to report the presence of those compounds in fermented glasswort juice. Compound 2 showed higher radical-scavenging activity than 1.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.643-649
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• 2002

This study was done to investigate effects of ${\gamma}$-irradiated pork feeding on the formation of glutathione S-transferase placental form positive (GST-P$^{+}$) foci, lipid peroxidation, cytochrome P450 system and microsomal glucose 6-phosphatase activity in diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-initiated rat hepatocarcinogenesis. Weaning Sprague-Dawley male rats were fed the diet containing ${\gamma}$-irradiated ground pork at the dose of 0, 3, 10, 30 kGy as a 20％ of protein source for 8 weeks. One week after feeding, rats were intraperitoneally injected twice with a dose of DEN (50 mg/kg BW). As a promote.,0.05％phenobarbital was fed in drinking water from one week after DEN treatment until the end of experiment. At the end of 8th week, rats were sacrificed and hepatic GST-P$^{+}$ foci, microsomal malondialdehyde (MDA) and conjugated diene contents were determined. In addition, cytochrome P450 content and the activities of NADPH cytochrome P450 reductase and glucose 6-phosphatase were also measured. There was no significant effect by gamma irradiation on microsomal MDA content, conjugated diene, cytochrome P450 content and activities of NADPH cytochrome P450 reductase and glucose 6-phosphatase. However with DEN treatment, microsomal MDA content showed a increasing tendency. Cytochrome P450 content was also significantly increased while microsomal glucose 6-phophatase activity was significantly decreased with DEN treatment. However the activity of NADPH cytochrome P450 reductase was not affected. An interesting finding in this study was that the number and area of hepatic GST-P$^{+}$ foci of rats fed gamma irradiated pork were tended to be decreased by high dose of irradiation, but were not significantly different. These results might imply that the consumption of low dose of gamma irradiated pork does not affect the formation of hepatic GST-P$^{+}$ foci and lipid peroxide and membrane stability.ability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.96 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2007

In order to examine the differences in antioxidant enzyme activities which represent defence mechanism to stressful environments, and soil properties between healthy and declining (or unhealthy) trees, we selected three sites, Witseorum, Youngsil and Sungpanak (Jindallebat). Antioxidant enzymes including Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and Glutathione Reductase (GR), forest soil properties including soil texture, soil pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphate, cation exchange capacity, exchangeable cation content and nutrient contents in leaves of Abies koreana (Korean fir) trees were analyzed. There were no significant differences between healthy and declining trees in GR activity. However, seasonal difference in antioxidant enzyme activity was observed. GR activity was lower in June and August than that of September. Soil chemical and physical properties of each site showed a tendency that organic content, total nitrogen content, available phosphorus, cation exchange capacity and cation content were lower at the site of declining trees than the site of healthy trees.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.1057-1062
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• 1997

In the course of searching for anticancer agents from 32 mushrooms, it was found that methanol extract of Lycoperdon perlatum showed inhibitory effect on topoisomerase II-mediated DNA cleavage. This active methanol extract was sequentially fractionated with hexane, chloroform, n-buthanol and water. Among the solvent-fractionated extracts, $1\;{\mu}g/mL$ hexane fraction of L. perlatum inhibited on topoisomerase II-mediated DNA cleavage. The effect of hexane fraction of L. perlatum was dose- and reaction time-dependent. The hexane fraction of L. perlatum was found to have inhibitory activity on relaxation assay of DNA topoisomerase I. The hexane fraction of cultured L. perlatum, however, had no inhibitory effect on either type of topoisomerase.