• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.311-316
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• 2003

A 34-year-old man was admitted to our hospital due to fever and cough. He received the combination anti-cancer chemotherapy for testicular tumor, including bleomycin. The chest X-ray showed consolidation and ground glass opacity on the right upper lobe and subpleural areas of other lobes. This condition was initially misdiagnosed as a pneuomonia, but consolidation did not disappear after antibiotics treatment. We performed transbronchial lung biopsy and bleomycin induced pulmonary toxicity was confirmed. The bleomycin induced lung injury is the most common chemotherapeutically induced pulmonary disease. Bleomycin induced Bronchiolitis Obliterans Organizing Pneumonia(BOOP) is less common than interstitial pneumonitis and responds well to corticosteroid treatment.

• Mycobiology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.450-457
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• 2015

Medicinal mushrooms have been used worldwide to treat cancer and modulate the immune system. Over the last several years, there has been increasing interest in isolating bioactive compounds from medicinal mushrooms and evaluating their health beneficial effects. Fomes fomentarius is used in traditional oriental medicine and is known to possess antioxidant, antiinflammatory, antidiabetic, and antitumor effects. In the present study, we isolated fomentariol from Fomes fomentarius and investigated its anti-inflammatory effect in murine macrophages (RAW264.7 cells) stimulated with lipopolysaccharides. Fomentariol inhibited the production of nitric oxide and intracellular reactive oxygen species triggered by lipopolysaccharides. Interestingly, fomentariol differentially regulated cytokine production triggered by lipopolysaccharides. Fomentariol effectively suppressed the production of interleukin-$1{\beta}$ and interleukin-6 but not tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$. The inhibitory effect of fomentariol against nitric oxide, interleukin-$1{\beta}$, and interleukin-6 production was possibly mediated by downregulation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase signaling pathway. Taken together, our results suggest that fomentariol differentially modulated inflammatory responses triggered by lipopolysaccharides in macrophages and is one of the bioactive compounds that mediate the physiological effects of Fomes fomentarius.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2016.05a
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• pp.39-39
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• 2016

There is a growing consumer preference for self-medication, which has resulted in the growth of the Korean functional food market to \1.5 trillion in 2014. Functional foods that can modulate immune responses and enhance liver health are in the top 2 product-specific health functional food categories. The aim of this project was to develop and commercialize new health functional foods incorporated with Cordyceps militaris. Cordyceps genus includes about 400 species, many of which have been used as traditional medicines for many years in Asian countries. C. militaris belongs to the class Ascomycetes and has been used extensively as a crude drug and tonic food in East Asia. Owing to the various physiological activities of its main active constituent, cordyceptin, C. militaris is currently being used for multiple medicinal purposes. Recently, many studies have tried to elucidate the pharmacological mechanisms underlying the activities of Cordyceps spp., which include immune activation, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antiviral effects. After continuous attempts and research toward industrialization, C. militaris cultivated using brown rice was developed into a product by a standardized process and mass-cultivating system. It was successfully introduced into the market and was approved as a functional food ingredient for the first time in Korea. Based on this information, C. militaris containing functional food product for strengthening the immune system was released in August 2014 under the brand name "Dongchoong Ilgi." Dongchoong Ilgi is potentially beneficial for improving immune and liver functions and may enhance both the convenience and effectiveness of health functional foods taken by healthy people and patients with minor illness. In addition, the results of our study may be applicable for the development of health functional foods that could lower the risk of diseases such as the common cold and cancer.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.398-405
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• 1998

We investigated the effects of triterpene acids (TAs), ursolic acid (UA) and oleanolic acid (OA), on the induction of proliferation and differentiation of normal rat mammary epithelial cells (RMEC) or organoids cultured in Matrigel or primary culture system. To elucidate the effects, we tested their differentiation inducing activities with intercellular communication ability, cell cycle patterns, induction of apoptosis, and morphological differentiation in the three dimensional extracellular culture system. To study the changes of RMEC subpopulation in culture, the cultured cells were isolated, immunostained with peanut lectin (PNA) and anti-Thy-1.1 antibody and then analyzed with flow cytometry. Four different subpopulations, such as PNA and Thy-1.1 negative cells (B-), PNA positive cells (PNA+), Thy-1.1 positive cells (Thy-1.1+), PNA and Thy-1.1 positive cells (B+), were obtained and the size of each subpopulation was changed in culture with time in the presence of TAs. Intercellular communication was observed in culture for 7 days in TAs-treated cells, but not in culture for 4 days with scrape-loading dye transfer technique. $G_2$/M phase cells and the number of apoptotic population were increased in TAs-treated groups in cell cycle analyses. S phase fractions were reduced and the change of $G_1$ phase cells was not observed. The colonies with distinct multicelfular structures, such as stellate, ductal, webbed, squamous, lobulo-ductal colonies, were observed in Matrigel culture and the frequencies of each colony were changed in the presence of TAs. These results suggest that UA and OA have differentiation inducing effects on rat mammary epithelial cells in primary or in Matrigel culture.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1354-1360
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• 2007

Theaflavins (TF) and thearubigins (TR) are constituents of tea pigments which are polyphenols derived from Korean fermentation tea. After TF, TR and [(-) epigallocatechin-3-gallate](EGCG) have been applied to macrophage cell line (RAW264.7) nitric oxide (NO) synthesis and cytokines production were estimated. Cytokines production by enzyme linked immune-sorbent assay (ELISA) determined. NO production was increased by about 1.5-folds at the dose of $80\;{\mu}g/ml$ compared to control and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation when TF, TR and EGCG were applied to a RAW264.7 cell. Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumor necrosis factor ($TNF-{\alpha}$) and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) increased depended on concentrations of TF, TR and EGCG. The production of tumor necrosis $factor-{\alpha}$ increased highly in TR, TF and EGCG group with LPS. These results suggest that TF, TR and EGCG have immune-enhancement effect through the cytokine production. TF, TR and EGCG inhibited cancer cell viability, the anticancer effect of these polyphenols may explain the anti-tumor promotion action and antioxidant activity of these tea constituents.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.250-254
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• 2005

The contents of flavonol glycosides, $kaempferol-3-O-{\beta}-D-glucoside$(1), $kaempferol-3-O-{\beta}-D-glactoside$ (2), $kaempferol-3-O-{\beta}-D-rhamnoside$ (3), $quercetin-3-O-{\beta}-D-glucoside$ (4) and $quercetin-3-O-{\alpha}-D-rhamnoside$ (5) in the houseleeks controlled by night-break, day-length control, and temperature during overwintering were determined to be compared with those in wild one. The contents of the flavonol glycosides 1-5 in the houseleeks were decreased roughly with warming during overwintering, and increased with longer light duration under the day-length control experiments. While warming functioned negatively on the production of the flavonol glycosides in the houseleek, longer light irradiation did positively during overwintering.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.907-915
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• 2007

In this study the effect of water extract of Sophora tonkinensis Gapnep (RST) was investigated on the growth of human lung carcinoma A549 cells. Exposure of A549 cells to RST resulted in the growth inhibition in a dose-dependent manner as measured by MTT assay. The antiproliferative effect by RST treatment in A549 cells was associated with morphological changes such as membrane shrinking and cell rounding up. RST treatment did not induce the cell cycle arrest and the levels of tumor suppressor p53 as well as cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21(WAF1/CIP1). It was found that RST treatment decreased the levels of cyclooxygenase (COX) -2 mRNA and protein expression without significant changes in the expression of COX-1 and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), which was correlated with a decrease in prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) synthesis. RST treatment also slightly inhibited the levels of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) mRNA and protein expression, and the activity of telomerase. Taken together, these findings suggested that RST-induced inhibition of human lung carcinoma A549 cell growth was aoosciated with the inhibition of COX-2 expression and PGE2 production. These results provided important new insights into the possible molecular mechanisms of the anti-cancer activity of RST.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.289-293
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• 2003

Doxorubicin is an anthracycline-family polyketide compound with a very potent anti-cancer activity, typically produced by Streptomyces peucetius. In order to increase doxurubicin productivity, a semi-industrial doxorubicin-producing Streptomyces strain named BR-Dox was cultured in a R2YE liquid medium containing CaCO$_3$, and then converted to a cell wall-free protoplast using lysozyme treatment method, followed by PEG-mediated cell wall regeneration. Among several protoplast-regenerated Streptomyces BR-Dox strains, two independent isolates named BR-Dox4 and BR-Dox6 were visually selected using thin layer chromatography (TLC) based on the pigment overproducing phenotype. Comparing with Streptomyces BR-Dox parental strain, two protoplast-regenerated strains, BR-Dox4 and BR-Dox6 exhibited 25.2％ and 12.2％ higher doxorubicin productivity analyzed by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), respectively. This result suggests that a protoplast-regeneration of an antibiotics-producing Streptomyces strain should be a promising strain development approach for antibiotics overproduction in Streptomyces species.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.259-266
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• 2011

The aim of this study was to evaluate the preventive role of epigallocatechin-3 gallate (EGCG, a derivative of green tea) in ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury of isolated rat hearts. It has been suggested that EGCG has beneficial health effects, including prevention of cancer and heart disease, and it is also a potent antioxidant. Rat hearts were subjected to 20 min of normoxia, 20 min of zero-flow ischemia and then 50 min of reperfusion. EGCG was perfused 10 min before ischemia and during the whole reperfusion period. EGCG significantly increased left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP) and increased maximum positive and negative dP/dt (+/-dP/dtmax). EGCG also significantly increased the coronary flow (CF) at baseline before ischemia and at the onset of the reperfusion period. Moreover, EGCG decreased left ventricular end diastolic pressure (LVEDP). This study showed that lipid peroxydation was inhibited and Mn-SOD and catalase expressions were increased in the presence of EGCG. In addition, EGCG increased levels of Bcl-2, Mn-superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase expression and decreased levels of Bax and increased the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax in isolated rat hearts. Cleaved caspase-3 was decreased after EGCG treatment. EGCG markedly decreased the infarct size while attenuating the increase in lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels in the effluent. In summary, we suggest that EGCG has a protective effect on I/R-associated hemodynamic alteration and injury by acting as an antioxidant and anti-apoptotic agent in one.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.230-233
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• 2002

Superoxide is involved in causing inflammation, cancer, and arteriosclerosis in many cases. Taking antioxidant material can be helpful in preventing the diseases. Natural food such as barley, wormwood, sea tangle, and soybean contain antioxidant ingredients. Antioxidant activity increase was determined by fermenting them with microorganism. To determine the activity, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) solution was used. When barley, wormwood, sea tangle, and soybean were fermented with Bacillus lichenifomis Bl, antioxidant activities of each fermented product increased 2.6, 1.6, 2.7, and 1.7 folds, respectively. Also, absorbance of fermented soybean was higher than that of soybean at the range of 250~290nm, which might be involved in differences of antioxidant activity of the two. Paraquat suppressed Esherichia coli DH5$\alpha$ growth by making superoxide inside the strain. However, when ethanol extract from fermented soybean was added into the GM (glucose-mineral) media containing the strain, its growth was recovered, suggesting that ethanol extract can move across E. coli, and can function as anti-oxidant material in vivo. Thus, it will be possible to develope antioxidant material from fermented soybean which can be taken orally.