• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.535-537
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• 2021

In the 1918 influenza pandemic, more than 95% of mortalities were ascribed to bacterial pneumonia. After the primary influenza infection, the innate immune system is attenuated, and the susceptibility to bacteria is increased. Subsequent bacterial pneumonia exacerbates morbidity and increases the mortality rate. Similarly, COVID-19 infection attenuates innate immunity and results in pneumonia. In addition, the current pneumococcal conjugate vaccine may have limited defense against secondary pneumococcal infection after influenza infection. Therefore, until a fully protective vaccine is available, a method of increasing immunity may be helpful. Ginseng has been shown to increase the defense against influenza in clinical trials and animal experiments, as well as the defense against pneumococcal pneumonia in animal experiments. Based on these findings, ginseng is suspected to be helpful for providing immunity against COVID-19.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.65-70
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• 2004

In this paper, we described 23 cases of animal experiment with our pneumatic ventricular assist device and new durability-improvement method. The blood pump consists of blood housing, and back plate made by the injection molding of isoplast, and the diaphragm fabricated by dipping of polyurethane solution onto the aluminum mold. Its volume was 75 $m\ell$ and in-vitro test showed that maximum output was 4.5 $\ell$/min at the 100 mmHg. The adult female sheep with weight of 50 ＋ 10 kg were employed for tile in-vivo experiments and the mean blood flow was sustained at 3.0 1/min. 4 animals survived more than 15 days and the longest survival time was 28 days. In the prior 10 cases, the major causes of death were the tearing of diaphragm at the diaphragm to blood housing junction. By the new mesh and alumina ball milling methods, the durability was enhanced, and its qualitative and quantitative improvement was proved via the in-vivo and in-vitro methods. Animal experiments demonstrated that all the physiologic parameters a ere maintained within the permissible ranges and no thrombus formation was observed through the visual and blood test. The in-vivo experiments demonstrated our pneumatic ventricular assist device to he one month's bridge to transplantation device.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.1030-1034
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• 2003

Two experiments of four-week duration were conducted to investigate the effect of caecectomy on the intestinal characteristics, body weight gain and gas production in the caeca of White Roman goslings. In experiment I, forty eight 2-wk-old female goslings with similar body weight were randomly divided into four treatments: sham (SHAM), left side caecum removed (LSCR), right side caecum removed (RSCR) and both caeca removed (CAECECTOMY). Smimilarly, experiment II was conducted with twelve 5-wkold male goslings in two treatments: SHAM and CAECECTOMY. Free choice water with ad libitum feed was provided during experiment. At the end of experiment I, goslings were sacrificed and gut length and weight were determined. At 7 and 9 wks of age, birds in experiment II were subjected to respiration calorimetry studies. In both experiments, final body weights were not affected by caecectomy. Results of experiment I indicated that caecectomy did not significantly affect the relative weight (g/100 g BW) of gizzard, small intestine, rectum and colon (p>0.05); however, the relative length of colon and rectum did increase (p<0.05). The remaining caecum did not show compensatory growth in both LSCR and RSCR treatments. In experiment II, results indicated that the average enteric methane production from the caecetomised goslings was significantly lower than that from the bird in SHAM goslings (p<0.05). In comparison with SHAM goslings, calorific loss from entric methane in caecetomised birds was lower (p<0.05). There was no effect of age on methane production. The enteric nitrous oxide production in caeca of goslings was very low with no significantly different between two treatments.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.82-88
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• 2007

Two experiments were conducted to see the effects of lacquer meal (Rhus verniciflua) on layer performance. In Exp. 1, seventy-two Hy-Line brown layers, 46 wk of age were fed 0, 1.5% and 3.0% lacquer added diets for 6 weeks. Diets contained 2,650 kcal/kg ME and 16.50% CP. In Exp. 2, high-energy diets were fed to 72 Hy-line brown layers of 46 wk age for 6 wk. The diets were: control (3,000 kcal/kg ME and 16.50% CP); T1 and T2 contained 1.5 and 3.0% lacquer respectively, in addition to high energy levels. Each treatment had four replicates with 6 birds each in both the experiments. During Exp.1, there was no effect on average daily feed intake, egg production and feed efficiency, however, egg weight was linearly (p=0.0128) decreased with the addition of lacquer in diets. The egg quality parameters measured at bi-weekly intervals did not reveal any particular trend. In Exp 2., high-energy diets have decreased the feed intake and egg production in all groups. However, feeding lacquer at 1.5% increased the egg production by 9% than control. The yolk fat content was increased due to treatments showing quadratic trend (p=0.0683). The liver fat content was decreased by 40-43% than control in lacquer added diets. Except palmitic, oleic and arachidonic acids, some yolk fatty acids showed a linear decreasing trend in lacquer diets. The serum triglycerides and total cholesterol levels were not influenced with lacquer in the diets; however, the serum glucose level was linearly decreased with the addition of lacquer. In conclusion, lacquer meal supplementation significantly affected the performance of layers fed high-energy diets.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.675-690
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• 2019

Objective: This study investigated the effect of diet and roughage quality (RQ) on dry matter intake, duration and number of daytime and night-time eating bouts, idling sessions and ruminating activities in small ruminants. Methods: In Exp 1 and 2, RQ was improved by urea treatment of veld hay, while diet quality was improved by supplementing with Lucerne hay (Exp 3), sunflower meal and lespedeza (Exp 4), fish meal (Exp 5a), and sunflower meal (Exp 5b). In all experiments goats and sheep were blocked by weight and randomly allocated to experimental diets. Day-time (06:00 to 18:00 h) and night time (18:00 to 06:00 h) feeding behaviour activities were recorded. Results: RQ affected rumination index in Exp 1, but not in Exp 2, 3, and 5. Time spent eating and ruminating was affected by RQ (Exp 1, 3, and 4), period of day (all experiments) and their interaction (Exp 1). Intake rates (g/bout and g/min) were similar across diets. Period of day affected the duration of rumination sessions (Exp 1, 2, and 3); diet or RQ affected the duration of eating bouts (Exp 3) and rumination sessions (Exp 1 and 2). RQ had a significant effect on the duration of eating sessions in Exp 3 only, whilst period of day affected this same behaviour in Exp 2 and 3. Generally, goats and sheep fed on roughage alone ruminate at night and eat more during the day but those fed a roughage and supplemented with Lucerne hay spent more time ruminating than eating. Time spent eating and ruminating had positive correlations to crude protein and feed intake. Intake rates had strong positive correlations to intake. Conclusion: Chewing time, number of eating and ruminating sessions, and duration of eating bouts are physiologically controlled in small ruminants, though chewing time requires isometric scaling during modelling of intake.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1592-1605
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• 2022

Objective: The objective of this study was to select an effective in vitro digestion-fermentation model to estimate the effect of decreasing dietary crude protein (CP) on odor emission during pig production and to suggest potential prediction markers through in vitro and in vivo experiments. Methods: In the in vitro experiment, three diet formulations with different CP contents (170 g/kg, 150 g/kg, and 130 g/kg) but containing the same standardized ileal digestible essential amino acids (SID-EAA) were assessed. Each diet was evaluated by two different in vitro gastric-intestinal phase digestion methods (flask and dialysis), combined with fresh pig feces-ferment inoculation. Eighteen growing barrows (31.9±1.6 kg) were divided into three groups: control diet (180 g CP/kg, without SID-EAA adjustment), 170 g CP/kg diet, and 150 g CP/kg diet for 4 weeks. Results: The in vitro digestion results indicated that in vitro digestibility was affected by the gastric-intestinal phase digestion method and dietary CP level. According to the gas kinetic and digestibility results, the dialysis method showed greater distinguishability for dietary CP level adjustment. Nitrogen-related odor compounds (NH₃-N, indole, p-cresol, and skatole) were highly correlated with urease and protease activity. The feeding study indicated that both EAA-adjusted diets resulted in a lower odor emission especially in p-cresol and skatole. Both protease and urease activity in feces were also closely related to odor emissions from nitrogen metabolism compounds. Conclusion: Dialysis digestion in the gastric-intestinal phase followed by fresh fecal inoculation fermentation is suitable for in vitro diet evaluation. The enzyme activity in the fermentation and the fecal samples might provide a simple and effective estimation tool for nitrogen-related odor emission prediction in both in vitro and in vivo experiments.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.219-224
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• 2012

European Union prohibited the marketing of cosmetic products containing constituents that have been examined through animal experiments. Thus, non-animal test models are needed to replace animal experiments. The reconstructed skin models are important as a test system for cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and medical device safety testing. In the present study, we tried to develop an optimal skin equivalent model containing basement membrane and epidermis. For this purpose, we used mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and/or preadipocytes as well as fibroblasts as the dermal matrix cells. The formation of basement membrane and epidermis was verified by immunohistochemical stains. Among various models, the epidermis was thickest when MSCs were used in the dermal matrix. Furthermore, PCNA and involucrin distribution showed that dermal matrix with MSCs resembled human skin. Therefore, skin equivalents with MSCs could be developed as a non-animal test model to replace animal experiments.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.475-476
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• 2017

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1358-1364
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• 2011

The sex-determining region on the Y (SRY) gene is important in mammalian sex determination and differentiation. We report a study of the abundance of SRY gene products in bovine ejaculate. RT-PCR experiments using RNA extracted from bovine spermatozoa with SRY-specific primers yielded a 456 bp product, but the amount of SRY mRNA in sperm was lower than that in the testes (p<0.01). A protein of approximately 27 KDa was detected by western blotting. The SRY transcript was detected in the midpiece of approximately half the spermatozoa by in situ hybridization, and the SRY protein was detected in the heads of half the spermatozoa by immunofluorescence, indicating that SRY mRNA and protein may only be present in Y-bearing spermatozoa. These results suggest that the SRY transcript and protein are present in bovine ejaculated Y-sperm. The roles of the SRY gene in spermatogenesis, sperm motility, and the sperm-oocyte interaction merit further investigation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.937-943
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• 2018

Background: This work presents the performance of a novel electronic brachytherapy (EBT) device and radiotherapy (RT) experiments on both skin cancer cells and animals using the device. Methods and materials: The performance of the EBT device was evaluated by measuring and analyzing the dosimetric characteristics of X-rays generated from the device. The apoptosis of skin cancer cells was analyzed using B16F10 melanoma cancer cells. Animal experiments were performed using C57BL/6 mice. Results: The X-ray characteristics of the EBT device satisfied the accepted tolerance level for RT. The results of the RT experiments on the skin cancer cells show that a significant apoptosis induction occurred after irradiation with 50 kVp X-rays generated from the EBT device. Furthermore, the results of the animal RT experiments demonstrate that the superficial X-rays significantly delay the tumor growth and that the tumor growth delay induced by irradiation with low-energy X-rays was almost the same as that induced by irradiation with a high-energy electron beam. Conclusions: The developed new EBT device has almost the same therapeutic effect on the skin cancer with a conventional linear accelerator. Consequently, the EBT device can be practically used for human skin cancer treatment in the near future.