• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2011

Wild ginseng has been used as a traditional medicine for thousands of years and for increase physical strength in Korea, China and Japan. This study reports that cultivated wild ginseng (CWG) inhibits adipocyte differentiation of 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes in a concentration-dependent manner. Inhibition of adipocyte differentiation is one possible anti-obesity strategy. CWG inhibits the expression of the adipocyte differentiation regulator peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor (PPAR)${\gamma}$ and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein ${\alpha}$mRNA. It also inhibited the expression of PPAR${\gamma}$ and adiponectin at the protein level during the differentiation of pre-adipocytes into adipocytes. Additionally, CWG blocked the cell cycle at the sub-$G_1$ phase transition, causing cells to remain in the pre-adipocyte state. These results indicate that CWG inhibits adipocyte differentiation and adipogenesis through pre-adipocyte cell cycle arrest in cultured 3T3-L1 cells.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.49-52
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• 2007

Prodigiosin (1) is the parent member of a class of polypyrrole natural products that exhibit promising anticancer activities. They can facilitate copper-promoted oxidative DNA damage by binding to copper ions, and this activity is thought to represent their mechanism of cytotoxicity in the dark. They also possess photoinduced cytotoxicity, although 1 is too toxic in the dark to be used effectively for the treatment of cancer by photodynamic therapies. To circumvent dark toxicity by prodigiosins, the semi-synthetic analogue 2, in which the N-pyrrolic atoms of 1 are methylated to block copper coordination, and the synthetic phenyl analogues 3 and 4, which lack the copper-coordinating A-pyrrole ring of 1, were tested for their ability to inhibit colony formation of HL-60 cancer cells in the absence and presence of visible light (λ > 495 nm). Our results show that 2-4 lack cytotoxicity in the dark, but are able to inhibit colony formation of HL-60 cells following irradiation for 30 min. The synthetic derivative 4 exhibits photo-induced cytotoxicity similar to that of the natural product 1, demonstrating the potential use of prodigiosin-based compounds for treatment of cancers following irradiation with visible light.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.21-25
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• 2017

The shape of the reflection spectrum is complex and appears to overlap with several signals, because the surface state is uneven due to the natural oxide film, so that the spectrum becomes a complicated signal shape divided into regions 1 and 2 due to diffuse reflection. On the other hand, it is seen that the reflection spectrum after PEO surface treatment is overlapped with several signals. In addition, the reflectance of the energy band varies from 1.32 to 1.46 eV. Usually, the MgO-type oxide film was observed at an energy band of ~4.2 eV. The thickness of the oxide film was increased as the DC voltage was increased by the thin film thickness meter (QuaNix; 7500M) after Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (; PEO) surface treatment. This is because the higher the DC voltage, the easier the binding of the $OH^-$ ions in the solution solution and the $Mg^+$ ions of the magnesium alloy. An important part of the bonding of ordinary ions is the energy source (plasma) which can promote bonding. However, when a certain threshold voltage or more is applied, the material is adversely affected. The oxide film of the surface may be destroyed without increasing the thickness of the oxide film, that is, whitening of the material may occur.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.399-405
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• 2011

Background: Endogenous uveitis is a chronic inflammatory eye disease of human, which frequently leads to blindness. Experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU) is an animal disease model of human endogenous uveitis and can be induced in susceptible animals by immunization with retinal antigens. EAU resembles the key immunological characteristics of human disease in that both are $CD4^+$ T-cell mediated diseases. Dendritic cells (DCs) are specialized antigen-presenting cells that are uniquely capable of activating naive T cells. Regulation of immune responses through modulation of DCs has thus been tried extensively. Recently our group reported that donor strain-derived immature DC pretreatment successfully controlled the adverse immune response during allogeneic transplantation. Methods: EAU was induced by immunization with human interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) $peptide_{1-20}$. Dendritic cells were differentiated from bone marrow in the presence of recombinant GM-CSF. Results: In this study, we used paraformaldehyde-fixed bone marrow-derived DCs to maintain them in an immature state. Pretreatment with fixed immature DCs, but not fixed mature DCs, ameliorated the disease progression of EAU by inhibiting uveitogenic $CD4^+$ T cell activation and differentiation. Conclusion: Application of iBMDC prepared according to the protocol of this study would provide an important treatment modality for the autoimmune diseases and transplantation rejection.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.589-590
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• 2006

Based on the comparison of structures and properties of the HS6-5-2 high speed steels made with the powder injection moulding method, pressureless forming, compacting and sintering, and commercial steels made with the ASEA-STORA method, fine carbides spread evenly in the steel matrix were found in the structure of all tested high-speed steels in the sintered state. The steels made with the pressureless forming method are characteristic of the lowest sintering temperature and the highest density, resulting from the high carbon concentration coming from the binding agent degradation.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.347-354
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• 2003

In this paper, a computational method of an action potential including the effect of extremely low frequency and mobile phone (external) electromagnetic fields is Proposed. The method is based on the Hodgkin and Huxley model, applies the effect of the electromagnetic fields on the action Potential in terms of a binding factor into the injection current of the model, and calculates the Strength-Duration curve from numerical experiments for a frequency range of electromagnetic fields. In the numerical experiments, the coupled ordinary differential equations of the action potential and the state variables are solved solf-consistently by using Runge-Kutta Fehlberg method. The range of the frequency considered is from 1Hz through 100Hz and of 900MHz, which is specific for a mobile Phone. The Strength-Duration curves resulted showed good agreements with the equation suggested by Hodgkin and Huxley.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.122-122
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• 2010

ZnO is a widely investigated material for the blue and ultraviolet solid-state emitters and detectors. It has been promoted due to a wide-band gap semiconductor which has large exciton binding energy of 60 meV, chemical stability and low radiation damage. However, there are many problems to be solved for the growth of p-type ZnO for practical device applications. Many researchers have made an efforts to achieve p-type conductivity using group-V element of N, P, As, and Sb. In this letter, we have studied the optical characteristics of the antimony-doped ZnO (ZnO:Sb) thin films by means of photoluminescence (PL), PL excitation, temperature-dependent PL, and time-resolved PL techniques. We observed donor-to-acceptor-pair transition at about 3.24 eV with its phonon replicas with a periodic spacing of about 72 meV in the PL spectra of antimony-doped ZnO (ZnO:Sb) thin films at 12 K. We also investigate thermal activation energy and carrier recombination lifetime for the samples. Our result reflects that the antimony doping can generate shallow acceptor states, leading to a good p-type conductivity in ZnO.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.243-250
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• 2004

Sediment microcosm experiments were conducted for 14 and 28 days using Zn spiked sediment to examine the changing distribution of bioavailab1e sediment-bound Zn at different SEM (simultaneously extracted metal)-Zn/ AVS (acid volatile sulfide) mole ratios as a function of time and amphipod density. In surficial sediments (0-1cm), AVS concentrations significantly decreased due to bioturbation and oxidation, while SEM-Zn concentrations remained unchanged. As a result, SEM-Zn/AVS ratios in the surface sediment were greater one although the ratios were designed as less than one initially. With increasing SEM-Zn/AVS ratios in surficial sediments, concentrations of potentially bioavailable $MgCl_2$extractable-Zn, NaOAc extractable-Zn and pore water-Zn significantly increased, while concentrations of SEM-Zn were not significantly varied. Results suggested that as AVS concentrations decreased, AVS bound Zn was partitioned to other sediment fractions (i.e. $MgCl_2$ and NaOAc extractable) and the pore water, resulting in changes in Zn bioavailability in surficial sediments. Concentrations of AVS, SEM-Zn and pore water-Zn remained unchanged in the deeper layers (>1 cm) of the sediment.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.1159-1168
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• 2021

Ovotransferrin (OTF), an egg protein known as transferrin family protein, possess strong antimicrobial and antioxidant activity. This is because OTF has two iron binding sites, so it has a strong metal chelating ability. The present study aimed to evaluate the improved immune-enhancing activities of OTF hydrolysates produced using bromelain, pancreatin, and papain. The effects of OTF hydrolysates on the production and secretion of pro-inflammatory mediators in RAW 264.7 macrophages were confirmed. The production of nitric oxide (NO) was evaluated using Griess reagent and the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) were evaluated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). And the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-α and interleukin [IL]-6) and the phagocytic activity of macrophages were evaluated using an ELISA assay and neutral red uptake assay, respectively. All OTF hydrolysates enhanced NO production by increasing iNOS mRNA expression. Treating RAW 264.7 macrophages with OTF hydrolysates increased the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the phagocytic activity. The production of NO and pro-inflammatory cytokines induced by OTF hydrolysates was inhibited by the addition of specific mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitors. In conclusion, results indicated that all OTF hydrolysates activated RAW 264.7 macrophages by activating MAPK signaling pathway.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.66
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• pp.128-137
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• 2023

Transcriptome analysis revealed that the sinR gene encoding a transition-state regulator of Bacillus pumilus, genetically close to B. subtilis, was expressed at high levels during growth. The sinR gene is the second gene of the sinIR operon consisting of three promoters and two structural genes in B. subtilis. This study used the sinIR promoter of B. subtilis DB104 to construct a recombinant protein expression system. First, the expression ability depending on the number of sinIR promoter was investigated using enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP). The expression level of eGFP was slightly higher when using two promoters (Psin2) than using original promoters. The Psin2 promoter was further engineered by modifying the repressor binding site and -35 and -10 regions. Shine-Dalgarno (SD) sequence of the sinI gene was modified to the consensus sequence. Finally, combining the engineered Psin2 promoter with the modified SD sequence increased the expression level of eGFP by about 13.4-fold over the original promoter. Our results suggest that the optimized sinIR promoter could be used as a novel tool for recombinant protein expression in B. subtilis.