• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.734-738
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• 2011

Aging in humans is inexorable and inescapable. The progressive decrease of physiological capacity and the reduction of the ability to cope with environmental stresses lead to increased susceptibility and vulnerability to human disease. Recently, in the cosmetic industry, many researchers have paid considerable attention to delaying or improving the symptoms of skin aging. Since the early 1990`s, there have been various challenges in developing cosmeceutical products which have strong anti-aging effects, and this has been an important issue in the cosmetic industry. Meanwhile, development of anti-aging cosmetics supported by biochemical activities in the skin has been researched. Castanea crenata inner Shell solvent extracts were investigated for anti-wrinkle and whitening effects, in order to apply it as a functional ingredient for cosmetic products. For anti-wrinkle effect, elastase inhibition activity of Castanea crenata inner shell acetone extract (CA) was 51.0% at a concentration of 100 ug/ml. The collagenase inhibition activity of CA and Castanea crenata inner shell ethanol extract (CE) was 96.4%, 94.3% at a concentration of 50 ug/ml. The tyrosinase inhibitory effect, which is related to skin-whitening, was 47.2% and 45.8% in CA and CE at a concentration of 500 ug/ml. All these results suggest that Castanea crenata inner shell can be effectively used as a cosmeceutical ingredient for the prevention of wrinkles.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.1376-1382
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• 2016

Xylitol is widely used in the food and medical industry. It is produced by the reduction of xylose (lignocellulosic biomass) in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain, which is considered genetically safe. In this study, the expression system of the GRE3 (YHR104W) gene that encodes xylose reductase was constructed to efficiently produce xylitol in the S. cerevisiae strain, and the secretory production of xylose reductase was investigated. To select a suitable promoter for the expression of the GRE3 gene, pGMF-GRE3 and pAMF-GRE3 plasmid with GAL10 promoter and ADH1 promoter, respectively, were constructed. The mating factor ${\alpha}$ ($MF{\alpha}$) signal sequence was also connected to each promoter for secretory production. Each plasmid was transformed into S. cerevisiae $SEY2102{\Delta}trp1$, and $SEY2102{\Delta}trp1$/pGMF- GRE3 and $SEY2102{\Delta}trp1$/pAMF-GRE3 transformants were selected. In the $SEY2102{\Delta}trp1$/pGMF-GRE3 strain, the total activity of xylose reductase reached 0.34 unit/mg-protein when NADPH was used as a cofactor; this activity was 1.5 fold higher than that in $SEY2102{\Delta}trp1$/pAMF-GRE3 with ADH1 as the promoter. The secretion efficiency was 91% in both strains, indicating that most of the recombinant xylose reductase was efficiently secreted in the extracellular fraction. In a baffled flask culture of the $SEY2102{\Delta}trp1$/pGMF-GRE3 strain, 12.1 g/l of xylitol was produced from 20 g/l of xylose, and ~83% of the consumed xylose was reduced to xylitol.