• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.1481-1489
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• 2021

Early and accurate detection of pathogens is important to improve clinical outcomes of bloodstream infections (BSI), especially in the case of drug-resistant pathogens. In this study, we aimed to develop a culture-independent digital PCR (dPCR) system for multiplex detection of major sepsis-causing gram-negative pathogens and antimicrobial resistance genes using plasma DNA from BSI patients. Our duplex dPCR system successfully detected nine targets (five bacteria-specific targets and four antimicrobial resistance genes) through five reactions within 3 hours. The minimum detection limit was 50 ag of bacterial DNA, suggesting that 1 CFU/ml of bacteria in the blood can be detected. To validate the clinical applicability, cell-free DNA samples from febrile patients were tested with our system and confirmed high consistency with conventional blood culture. This system can support early identification of some drug-resistant gram-negative pathogens, which can help improving treatment outcomes of BSI.

• Food Quality and Culture
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.40-44
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• 2009

To evaluate the hypolipidemic effects of Cheonggukjang (CGJ), which is frequently used in Korea similar to Natto in Japan and Douchi in China like a dairy product, boiled soybeans were fermented with two Bacillus strains, B. subtilis and B. licheniforms, isolated from rice straw and their antihyperlipidemic effects of their products were investigated. Treatment with the CGJs significantly reduced blood triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) levels and increased HDL cholesterol levels in Triton WR-1339-induced hyperlipidemic mice. The treatment of non-fermented soybeans alone also reduced blood TG and TC levels, but not significantly. Feeding the CGJs significantly lowered high blood TG and TC levels as well as body and epididymal mass weights in hyperlipidemic mice induced by the long-term feeding of a high-fat diet that increased blood HDL cholesterol levels. The B. subtilis-fermented CGJ products more potently reduced TG and TC levels, although the differences between the starters were not significant. These finding suggest that CGJ products may be effective as hypolipidemic foods by the synergistic interaction of soy and Bacillus strains.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.130-135
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• 2021

Because of the COVID-19 epidemic, many countries have made the obligation to wear masks normal. Wearing masks in public places has become a must. At present, wearing a mask to participate in sports makes it very common. People seek to gain health through exercise but ignore the potential respirato-ry health threat. That is, wearing a mask will cause a decrease in oxygen content in the body. This neg-ative impact becomes more prominent as the wear-ing time and oxygen consumption increase. To pro-tect people from viruses and enjoy a healthy life. This paper proposes a breathing pattern that im-proves blood oxygen saturation while wearing a jogging mask and walking. Namely, shouting breathing pattern. Use a pulse oximeter to measure the blood oxygen saturation of running at different speeds and compare the normal breathing pattern and the shouting breathing pattern. The results show that the shouting breathing pattern has a sig-nificant improvement in the blood oxygen satura-tion of low-speed walking and medium-speed jog-ging.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 1999

The aim of this study is to determine the phagocytosis-promoting factor(s) for feline peripheral blood polymorphonuclear cells (PMN) by culture supernatant from mono-nuclear cells (MNC) treated with egg white derivatives (EWD). The phagocytic activity of PMN was analyzed by a flow cytometry system. The EWD did not show direct effect on the phagocytic response of PMN. The phagocytic activity of PMN was enhanced by culture supernatant from MNC but not PMN treated with EWD. Therefore, it was suggested that the enhanced phagocytic activity of feline PMN could be mediated by humoral factor(s) released from MNC treated with EWD. Thus, the phagocytosis-promoting factor(s) in supernatant fraction from MNC culture treated with EWD were isolated by reverse phase high pressure liquid chromatography. The resulting supernatant fraction on 29.02 minutes of retention time showed high phagocytic activity of PMN. The molecular weight of this supernatant fraction was 16 to 18 kDa when analyzed by capillary electrophoresis. The isoelectric point was pH 5.76 when assessed by ion-exchange chromatography. These results suggest that EWD stimulates feline MNC to elaborate a phagocytosis-promoting factor, 16 to 18 kDa of molecular weight, which could be an important mediator for the enhancement of phagocytic activity of feline peripheral blood phagocytes. Further study will be needed to elucidate this phagocytic factor.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 1974

Blood is one of the most important clinical specimens for the isolation of bacteria. A rapid isolation and a high isolation rate of bacteria are very important in blood culture because bacteremic patients are mostly in grave condition. Various blood culture media which support growth of most fastidious bacteria are available commercially. However, growth of bacteria are frequently delayed because of antibacterial activity of blood. Sodium polyanethol sulfonate(Liquoid) has been reported to inactivate the antibacterial substance and disrupt phagocytic cells. The beneficial effect of SPS is well recognized in the isolation of gram-positive bacteria. However, the effect does not seem to be prominent for gram-negative bacilli isolation mainly due to the rapidity of their growth. It has been experienced with Sal. typhi that the growth is much slower than that of other gram-negative bacilli. For the rapid growth of the organism, use of bile broth has been recommended. Although Sal. typhi is the most frequently isolated organism at present, about one half of total isolates are other organisms and, in case bile broth is used, other media which support growth of these organisms should be used together. Fluid thioglycollate medium(FTM) which is always used in blood culture to isolate anaerobes is inferior to brain heart infusion(BHI) for the isolation of aerobes. This study was done to determine the effect of SPS on the isolation of Sal. typhi from blood. During the Sep. 1973 to Sep. 1974 study period, 2460 blood cultures were made from the Severance hospital patients: BHI and FTM sets 1431 specimens, BHI with SPS(0.05%) and FTM sets 396 specimens, BHI and FTM with SPS sets 359 specimens, BHI and BHI with SPS sets 274 specimens. Mean incubation time required for the macroscopic detection of growth of Sal. typhi were 3.5 days on BHI and 2.7 days on BHI with SPS. The 0.8 day difference was statistically significant. On FTM the mean incubation time was 3.8 days while it was 2.9 days on FTM with SPS. The 0.9 day difference was statistically significant. The result on BHI with and without SPS sets showed faster growth on BRI with SPS in 7 specimens and slower growth in one specimen and the remaining 12 showed growth at the same time. These specimens had mean incubation time of 3.2 days on BHI and 2.3 days on BHI with SPS. The 0.9 day difference was statistically significant. This study indicates beneficial effect of SPS for the rapid isolation of Sal. typhi from clinical blood specimens.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.140-148
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• 2007

Diabetic nephropathy has been increasing, although blood glucose and blood pressure can be controlled by angiotensin converting enzyme(ACE) or advanced glycosylation end products(AGE) inhibitors in the diabetic patients. We investigated the effect of dietary supplementation of sea tangle on the blood glucose, and pathological scoring of diabetic kidneys in the streptozotocin(STZ) induced diabetic rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into normal rats fed control diet and diabetic rats fed control diet or control diet supplemented with powder or oater extract of sea tangle. Diabetes was induced by a single injection of STZ(60mg/kg, ip) in citrate buffer. The animals were fed the experimental diet and water for 13 weeks. Dietary supplementation of sea tangle decreased blood glucose in the diabetic rats. However, dietary supplementation of sea tangle did not affect the antioxidant enzyme activities, MDA content and pathology of diabetic kidneys. These results indicate that decreased blood glucose by sea tangle could not delay the progression of diabetic kidney disease.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2001

Optimal conditions for utilizing the slaughtered porcine blood and liver for yeast culture and the effects of the yeast cultures on the growth of broiler chicks were investigated. The quantity of yeast cultured for 24hours in the BSG medium containing blood extracts containing 5% glucose and in the LSG medium containing liver extracts containing 5% glucose were higher by 4% and 10%, respectively, than that in the YEPD medium containing 1% yeast extracts, 2% bacto pepton and 2% glucose. Optimal concentrations of ammonium sulfate supplementation to the BSG medium to increase the quantity of yeast cultured for 24 and 48 hours were 100 mM(1.3%) and 50 mM(0.65%), respectively. The optimal pH for yeast culture in BSG medium ranged from 6 to 7. One percent supplementation of either ammonium sulfate or taurine to LSG medium increased the quantity of yeast by 18% and 9%, respectively, compared to no supplementation. The body weight of chicks fed with 2% and 4% yeast culture supplementations cultivated increased at the 4th week by 10%, with relative to no supplementation. The results from this study suggest that the slaughtered porcine blood and liver can be utilized for yeast culture which is used in animal diets.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.127-130
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• 2006

It is important to coordinated interaction among neurons, astrocytes and endothelial cells to maintain the function of brain. To study their regulatory mechanisms in vitro system, the co-culture system among the isolated cells from brain may be needed. However, the method for purifying brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMEC) far culture have not established yet. In this study, the proper culture methods of mice cells using two different strains, CD1 and C57BL6, to obtain the pure and plentiful endothelial cells were described. The flatted-round forms of CD1 endothelial cells grew on the collagen-IV coating plates, while the purified cells from C57 mice preferred type collagen-I dishes for their growth. Both cells displayed anti-PECAM-1 (CD31) and von Willebrand Factor immune-reactivity. These results indicated that different coating materials not only improve attachment of isolated cells but also promoting growth of cells, suggesting that this method of purifying murine Brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMEC) provides a suitable model to investigate blood-brain-barrier (BBB) properties within neurovascular unit in vitro.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.175-181
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• 2023

Fucoidan extracted from brown seaweed has a variety of biological activities. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) formation is an immune response for the invasion of pathogens. Neutrophils release granule protein and chromatin that form extracellular fibers that bind microbes. These NETs degrade virulence factors and kill bacteria. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of fucoidan on NET formation of porcine peripheral blood polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs). The NET formation was determined by fluorescence emission of propidium iodide (PI) in PMNs by a fluorescence microplate reader. The production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was measured by ELISA method. Fucoidan itself did not show any direct effect on NET formation. However, NET formation of PMNs was increased by the culture supernatant from PBMCs treated with fucoidan. The NET formation of PMNs were also enhanced by treatment with recombinant porcine (rp) TNF-α. The ability of culture supernatant from PBMCs treated with fucoidan to increase the NET formation of PMNs was inhibited by addition of goat anti-rp TNF-α polyclonal antibody (pAb) (IgG) prior to the culture. The increase of NET formation by rp TNF-α was also inhibited by goat anti-rp TNF-α pAb (IgG). The level of TNF-α in culture supernatant from PBMCs was increased by treatment with fucoidan. These results suggest that fucoidan increases porcine NET formation, which is mediated by TNF-α produced from PBMCs.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.9
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• pp.2516-2522
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• 2009

The data which analyze the results of blood cultures are crucial basic information of the empirical therapy for patients with infection since the patterns of the species of microorganism isolated from blood and the results of antibiotic susceptibility test vary depending upon patients general features. Especially, in case of ESBL-producing bacteria, there is a close relation with use of antibiotics. Therefore, we carried out the research with the results of blood culture and antibiotic. 1. Total 39,305 cases of blood culture samples were investigated and positive patients of 2,216 (20.0%) were found. Among those, there were 40 patients with ESBL positive, and blood culture positive samples were 4,798 (12.2%). ESBL positive bacteria were found in 86 samples (including double checked culture bacteria). 2. The majority of ESBL producing bacteria were E. coli, K. pneumoniae and K. oxitoca as ordering based on the number. 3. The research showed the results that there were more females than male with the bacterias, more E. coli in over 50 years old aged group than other bacterias, more K. pneumoniae and K.oxitoca in less 1 year old aged group than other bacterias and largest numbers of patients with 13 patients (32.5%) in Chungcheongnam-do province were found. 4. The most common ESBL producing bacteria were E. coli throughout 3 years, but K, pneumoniae and K. oxitoca were also fairly found. Interestingly, E. coli was highly found in over 50 years old patients.