• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.32 no.5 s.92
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• pp.492-498
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• 2006

Ultraviolet(UV) radiation causes a variety of biological effects on the skin, including inflammation, pigmentation, photoaging and cancer. Free radicals are involved in inflammatory skin reactions induced by UVB radiation. In this study, we investigated the effects of antioxidants(Tea, Korean red ginseng, Ginkgo biloba extract) on UVB-induced skin damage. Tea, KRG and EGb 761 were topically treated to dorsal skin of ICR mouse. The mice were also treated soon after IMED ($1.4KJ/m^{2}$) of UVB irradiation. Skin pigmentation of irradiated mouse was observed by a chromameter after 2 weeks. Topical application of Tea, KRG and EGb 761 for 2 weeks decreased skin pigmentation compared to DVB control group(p<.05). Tea, KRG and EGb 761 also reduced UVB-induced infiltration of inflammatory cells. These results showed that Tea, KRG and EGb 761 as a topical application may have preventive effect against UVB-induced skin damage.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 1982

Transesterification reactions were carried out with myo-inositol and five fatty acid methyl esters such as methyl laurate, methyl myristate, methyl palmitate, methyl stearate and methyl oleate in the dimethylsulfoxide solvent. Their products were separated by both thin layer chromatography and column chromatography, and myo-inositol monoesters were quantitatively separated by counter current distribution. We measured their surface tension, foaming power and emulsifying power, determined critical micelle concentrations by the color method, and evaluated their hydrophilic-lipophilic balance. The results show that myo-inositol monoesters exhibit surface activites.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 1997

The effects of light on the pigment production and chloroplast development were examined on ginseng hairy roots cultured in 1/2MS liquid medium. The chlorophyll and carotenoid production were increased from 1,000 to 3,500 lux condition, but decreased drastically in 7,000 lux condition. The anthocyanin production was significantly increased with increment light intensity(1,000∼7,000 lux). The thylakoid membrane of chloroplast was proplastid in dark condition and it began to develop into thylakoid membrane in 1,000 lux condition and then intact thylakoid membrane was developed in 3,500 lux condition. However, the development of thylakoid membrane in 7,000 lux condition was inhibited comparing to 3,500 lux condition. The total chlorophyll production in blue light condition were high comparing to other wavelength and same as 40% of total chlorophyll on white light(3,500 lux) condition. The chlorophyll and carotenoid production by sucrose concentration were high in 3% sucrose condition and anthocyanin production was high in 4% condition. The production of chlorophyll and carotenoid by light periods was high when explants were cultured in dark condition for 1 week and then transferred to light condition for 4 weeks. Our results suggest that pigment production and chloroplast development could be accelerated by light Intensity of specific wavelength in cultures of ginseng hairy root.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.83-91
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• 2018

Advances in bacterial and fungal genome mining uncover a plethora of cryptic secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters. Guided by the genome information, targeted transcriptional derepression could be employed to determine the product of a cryptic gene cluster and to explore its biological role. Monascus spp. are food grade filamentous fungi popular in eastern Asia and several genome data belong to them are now available. We achieved transcription activation of a cryptic fungal polyketide synthase-nonribosomal peptide synthase gene Mpfus1 in Monascus purpureus ${\Delta}MpPKS5$ by inserting Aspergillus gpdA promoter at the upstream of Mpfus1 through double crossover gene replacement. The gene cluster with Mpfus1 show a high similarity to those for the biosynthesis of conjugated polyene derivatives with 2-pyrrolidone ring and the mycotoxin fusarin is the representative member of this group. The ${\Delta}MpPKS5$ is incapable of producing azaphilone pigment, providing an excellent background to identify chromogenic and UV-absorbing compounds. Activation of Mpfus1 resulted in a yellow hue on mycelia and its methanol extract exhibit a maximum absorption at 365 nm. HPLC analysis of the organic extracts indicated the presence of a variety of yellow compounds in the extract. This implies that the product of MpFus1 is metabolically or chemically unstable. LC-MS analysis guided us to predict the MpFus1 product and to propose that the Mpfus1-containing gene cluster encode the biosynthesis of a desmethyl analogue of fusarin. This study showcases the genome mining in Monascus and the possibility to unveil new biological activities embedded in it.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.265-275
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• 2002

Flavonoid biosynthesis is one of the most extensively studied areas in the secondary metabolism. Due to the study of flavonoid metabolism in diverse plant system, the pathways become the best characterized secondary metabolites and can be excellent targets for metabolic engineering. These flavonoid-derived secondary metabolites have been considerably divergent functional roles: floral pigment, anticancer, antiviral, antitoxin, and hepatoprotective. Three species have been significant for elucidating the flavonoid metabolism and isolating the genes controlling the flavonoid genes: maize (Zea mays), snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) and petunia (Prtunia hybrida). Recently, many genes involved in biosynthesis of flavonoid have been isolated and characterized using mutation and recombinant DNA technologies including transposon tagging and T-DNA tagging which are novel approaches for the discovery of uncharacterized genes. Metabolic engineering of flavonoid biosynthesis was approached by sense or antisense manipulation of the genes related with flavonoid pathway, or by modified expression of regulatory genes. So, the use of a variety of experimental tools and metabolic engineering facilitated the characterization of the flavonoid metabolism. Here we review recent progresses in flavonoid metabolism: confirmation of genes, metabolic engineering, and applications in the industrial use.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.455-464
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• 2018

This study investigated whether the whitening effects of fullerene serum occurred through improvement of melanin production and skin tone and evaluated its potential for use as a cosmetic material for adult women aged 30-55 with dull skin color and pigmentation. Subjects were divided into a control group with fullerene-less serum (B) and an experimental group with serum containing 0.1% fullerene (A) and evaluated over 8 weeks. Visual assessment and measurement of skin conditions (melanin index, skin brightness) were conducted before use of and 4 and 8 weeks after use of the product, and a questionnaire survey and safety assessment were conducted at the end of the experiment. The results revealed that the highest decrease was 0.37% in the experimental group (A) after eight weeks of use of the product, but that this difference was not statistically significant. Moreover, no significant differences were observed upon inter-group comparison. Evaluation of changes in the melanin index and inter-group comparison revealed a significant decline in the experimental group (A) at all time points. Additionally, the $L^*$ value (skin brightness) of the experimental group (A) showed a significant increase (improvement) after eight weeks, while in inter-group comparison revealed a significant increase (improvement) at all time points (4 and 8 weeks later) (p<0.05). Based on a questionnaire survey of efficacy, positive response rates such as improvement of the target parts on week 8 were high in terms of 'improvement of skin color.' Moreover, the safety assessment revealed no adverse reactions. In conclusion, serum containing 0.1% fullerene revealed improved melanin production and skin tone (brightness) and confirmed its potential for use as a cosmetic material with brightening efficacy. Taken together, the results of this study indicate systematic investigation of the effective application and cosmetics formulations of this product are warranted.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.126-136
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• 2021

Oxidative stress causes injury to and degeneration of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. It is involved in several retinal disorders and leads to vision loss. In the present study, we investigated the effect of 14 kinds of natural compounds and two kinds of synthetic compounds on oxidative stress-induced cellular damage in human PRE cell lines (ARPE-19). From among them, we selected five kinds of compounds, including auranofin, FK-509, hemistepsin A, honokiol, and spermidine, which have inhibitory effects against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-mediated cytotoxicity. In addition, we found that four kinds of compounds (excluding auranofin) have protective effects on H2O2-induced mitochondrial dysfunction. Furthermore, the expression of phosphorylation of histone H2AX, a sensitive marker of DNA damage, was markedly up-regulated by H2O2, whereas it was notably down-regulated by FK-506, honokiol, and spermidine treatment. Meanwhile, five kinds of candidate compounds had no effect on H2O2-induced intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, suggesting that the five candidate compounds have protective effects on oxidative stress-induced cellular damage through the ROS-independent pathway. Taken together, according to the results of H2O2-mediated cellular damage―such as cytotoxicity, apoptosis, mitochondrial dysfunction, and DNA damage―spermidine and FK-506 are the natural and synthetic compounds with the most protective effects against oxidative stress in RPE. Although further studies on the identification of the mechanism responsible are required, the results of the present study suggest the possibility of using spermidine and FK-506 to suppress the risk of retinal disorders.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.260-274
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• 2015

This paper has shown the experimental results about the physiological activities of water-, ethanol-, ethyl acetate-soluble fractions from ethanolic extracts of leaves, stems and roots of Cudrania tricuspidata on the skin, which has been used for a long time as a traditional herb medicine in Korea and China. The effects of these fractions on the secretion of nitric oxide and cytokines from macrophage(RAW 264.7 cell) exhibited that the ethyl acetate and water fractions from leaves inhibited the release of nitric oxide, all fractions inhibited thoses of inflammatory cytokine $IL-1{\alpha}$, and the ethyl acetate fractions of leaves, stems and roots inhibited thoses of inflammatory cytokine IL-6. The only ethylacetate fraction of leaves demonstrated significantly the reduction of melanin synthesis in melanoma cells. In order to evaluate the efficacy of collagen synthesis, the treatment with extracts on the human normal fibroblast cell(CCD-986sk cell) resulted in finding that the water fractions of leaves, stems and roots and the ethanol fractions of leaves and stems showed the increased synthesis of collagen.

• Proceedings of the Korean Journal of Food and Nutrition Conference
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• 1997.06b
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• pp.11-12
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• 1997

니트로소디메틸아민이 발암성 물질이라는 것이 1954년 Barnes와 Magee에 의해 발견된 이래 이것이 지금까지 학자들에게 관심의 대상이 되고 있는 이유는 발암력이 강하여 극미량으로도 생체내에 암을 유발시킬 수 있을 뿐만 아니라, 대부분의 발암성 물질이 신체의 특정기관에 발암작용을 나타내는데 비해 이 물질은 신체의 여러 부위에 암을 유발시킬 수 있다는 점 그리고 이 물질이 햄, 소시지, 베이컨, 알코올음료, 김치 및 어류 가공품 등 어려 가지 식품에 널리 분포되어 있다는 사실 등을 들 수 있다. 니트로소 화합물은 구조로 보아 티트로소아민과 니트로소아미드로 구분되는데 전자는 제 2급 아연이 산화질소 유도체와 반응하여 생성된 니트로소 유도체이과 후자는 오소, 아미드 등이 치환된 니트로소 유도체로서 화학적인 성질이나 생물학적인 작용이 상이하다. 즉 니트로소아민은 식품에서 안정한 화합물인 반면에 대부분의 니트로소아미드는 불안정하다. 지금까지 연구된 바에 의하면 3백 여종의 니트로소 화합물에 대하여 동물실험을 행한 결과 발암성이 90% 이상 인정되었다. 식품 중 니트로소 화합물의 전구물질 중 질산염과 아질산염은 식품의 가공 저장 및 조리과정 중 니트로화의 된 전구물질인데 이는 육가공품의 색소고정, Cl. Botulinum에 의한 식중독 방지 및 풍미의 향상을 위하여 수 세기 동안 식품첨가제를 사용되어 왔으며, 유럽이나 미국 등지에서는 아직도 육가공품에 아질산염의 첨가가 논란의 대상이 되고 있다. 식품 중 니트로소 화합물에 대한 북유럽 식품 3천여 점을 분석한 결과 검출된 니트로소 화함물은 니트로소디메틸아민이 대부분이며 맥주에서 66%로 검출률이 가장 높았고 다음으로 염지육 및 치즈의 순 이었다. 조리한 일본산 해산 식품 중에 니트로소디메틸아민이 최고 313$\mu$g/kg, 캐나다산 해산 건조 식품에서는 67$\mu$g/kg, 홍콩산 염건어에는 1,400 $\mu$g/kg , 훈연어류에는 N-nitrosothiazolidine이 13,700 $\mu$g/kg , 우리 나라 해산 식품 중 니트로소디메틸아민은 건조가오리, 동결건조명태, 건조오징어, 굴비 및 소건새우 등에서 2.8~86.0 $\mu$g/kg 으로서 비교적 높은 양이 검출되었을 뿐 아니라 이들 식품을 조리할 경우 3.6~13배 증가하였다. 또한 김치와 젓갈류 중에서도 니트로소디메틸아민이 검출된다는 연구가 있다. 식품 중 니트로소 화합물의 생성율 억제시키기 위하여 최근 20여년간 연구된 바를 요약하면 아스코르브산과 같은 억제제의 첨가, 가공방법 및 조리방법의 개선이 비교적 바람직한 방법으로 인정되고 있다. 위의 방법을 적용하여 베이컨을 조리한 결과 낮은 온도에서 오랜 시간 가열하는 것이 높은 온도에서 짧은 시간 가열한 것보다 니트로화 반응이 훨씬 낮았고 또 마이크로웨이브로 조리하는 것이 니트로소아민을 최소화 시키는 방법이었다. 염지육은 아스코르브산이나 토코페롤 등의 니트로화 억제제를 첨가할 경우 니트로소 화합물이 현저히 감소 하였는데 이는 산화질소의 소거 능력이 우수하기 때문인 것으로 밝혀졌다. 가공방법의 개선으로서는 가공시 식품을 공기에 노출시킬 경우 특히 직화로 가열된 공기에 노출되면 니트로소아민의 생성이 매우 높은 것으로 보고되어 있는데 그 대표적인 예로 맥아를 직화로 건조할 경우 맥주 중에 니트로소 화합물이 훨씬 높은 양이 검출된다고 보고되어 있다. 대체로 식품의 가공 조리 및 저장 중 니트로소화합물에 대한 메커니즘은 상세히 밝혀져 있으나 생체내에서의 생성이나 억제 등에 대한 연구는 아직도 미흡한 실정이라이 분야에 대한 연구가 절실히 요구된다.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1617-1624
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• 2010

Recently, it has been found that Asiasari radix showed a hypopigmenting effect on melanogenesis through activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK)/extracellular signal-activated kinase (ERK) in B16F10 melanoma cells. However, the hypopigmenting effect of A. radix on the $\alpha$-melanocyte stimulating hormone ($\alpha$-MSH)-stimulated melanogenesis has remained unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the inhibitory mechanism of the partially purified A. radix (PPAR)-induced hypopigmentating effects on $\alpha$-MSH-stimulated melanogenesis in B16F10 mouse melanoma cells. PPAR strongly inhibited tyrosinase activity and leads to decreased melanin synthesis in $\alpha$-MSH-stimulated B16F10 melanoma cells. PPAR also decreased the $\alpha$-MSH-induced over-expression of the melanogenic enzymes, tyrosinase, tyrosinase-related protein (TRP)-1, dopachrome tautomerase (Dct) and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF). We further showed that PPAR inhibits $\alpha$-MSH-induced melanogenesis via phosphorylation of MEK/ERK and PI3K/Akt, and that their activation was blocked by MEK inhibitors, PD98059 and PI3K inhibitors, LY294002 in $\alpha$-MSH-stimulated B16F10 melanoma cells. These results suggest that PPAR inhibits $\alpha$-MSH-induced melanogenesis by activation of MEK/ERK and PI3K/Akt through MITF degradation, which may lead to down-regulation of tyrosinase.