• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.27-33
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• 2014

Objectives : The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of extract of Thuja orientalis leaves (TOFE) against 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced neurotoxicity by inhibition of inflammation in in vitro and in vivo models of Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods : We evaluated the effect of TOFE against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium ($MPP^+$) toxicity using nitric oxide (NO) assay, inducible NO synthase and cyclooxygenase 2 western blot, tyrosine hydroxylase and microglia activation immunohistochemistry (IHC) in BV2 cell, primary rat mesencephalic neurons, or C57BL/6 mice. We also evaluated the effect of TOFE in mice PD model induced by MPTP. C57BL/6 mice were treated with TOFE 50 mg/kg for 5 days and were injected intraperitoneally with four administrations of MPTP on the last day. We conducted behavioral tests and IHC analysis to see how TOFE affect MPTP-induced neuronal loss of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and striatum (ST) of mice. To assess the anti-inflammation effects, we carried out glial fibrillary acidic protein and macrophage-1 antigen integrin alpha M in IHC in SNpc and ST of mice. Results : In an in vitro system, TOFE decreasesd NO generations in BV2 cells. TOFE protected dopaminergic cells against LPS or $MPP^+$-induced toxicity in primary mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons. In vivo system, TOFE at 50 mg/kg treated group showed improved motor deteriorations than the MPTP only treated group and TOFE significantly protected striatal dopaminergic damage from MPTP-induced neurotoxicity in mice. Moreover, TOFE inhibited activation of astrocyte and microglia in SNpc and ST of the mice. Conclusions : We concluded that TOFE showed anti-parkinsonian effect by protection of dopaminergic neurons against MPTP toxicity through anti-inflammatory actions.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.123-139
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• 2023

Purpose: This study was conducted to establish whether an ethanol extract of Lycium barbarum leaves (LLE) and an ethanol extract of Lycium barbarum leaves from which chlorophyll has been removed, denoted as LLE(Ch^-), have a protective effect against hepatic fat accumulation. Methods: The inhibitory effects of LLE and LLE(Ch^-) on liver fat accumulation were examined in C57BL/6 mice with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) induced by an methionine and choline deficient diet and in HepG2 cells with palmitic acid-induced fat accumulation. Results: The plasma triglyceride, aspartate aminotransferase, and alanine aminotransferase levels were lower in the LLE(Ch^-) group, whereas the plasma ALT activity decreased significantly in the LLE group. In both the LLE and the LLE(Ch^-) groups, the triglyceride and cholesterol contents in the hepatic tissue were significantly reduced. A greater inhibitory effect on tissue fat accumulation was observed in the LLE(Ch^-) group than in the LLE group. In HepG2 cells, LLE and LLE(Ch^-) were non-toxic up to a concentration of 1,000 ㎍/mL. Compared to the control group, intracellular fat accumulation in the LLE and LLE(Ch^-) groups were significantly reduced at concentrations of 200 ㎍/mL and 500 ㎍/mL, respectively. The expression of phosphorylated adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase and phosphorylated acetyl-CoA carboxylase in both LLE groups increased at the concentrations of 100 ㎍/mL and 500 ㎍/mL. The fatty acid synthase expression was suppressed in a concentration-dependent manner at 10 ㎍/mL. Conclusion: The examined two ethanol extracts of LLE inhibit hepatic fat accumulation in NAFLD. This effect was more pronounced in the LLE(Ch^-) group. Therefore, these 2 extracts have an anti-steatosis effect and can be used for NAFLD treatment.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2024

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the main global health problems. Chronic exposure to hyperglycemia can lead to cellular dysfunction that may become irreversible over time, a process that is termed glucose toxicity. Our perspective about glucose toxicity as it pertains to the pancreatic β-cell is that the characteristic decreases in insulin secretion are caused by regulated apoptotic gene expression. In this study, we examined whether ferulic acid protects INS-1 pancreatic cells against high glucose-induced apoptosis. High glucose concentration (30 mM) induced glucotoxicity and death of INS-1 pancreatic β cells. However, treatment with 1, 5, 10, or 20 μM ferulic acid increased the cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner. Treatment with ferulic acid dose-dependently decreased the intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, and nitric oxide in INS-1 pancreatic β cells pretreated with high glucose. These effects influence the apoptotic pathway, increasing the expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and reducing the levels of pro-apoptotic proteins, including Bax, cytochrome C, and caspase 9. Annexin V/propidium iodide staining indicated that ferulic acid significantly reduced high glucose-induced apoptosis. These results demonstrate that ferulic acid is a potential therapeutic agent to protect INS-1 pancreatic β cells against high glucose-induced apoptosis.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.494-503
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• 2024

Background: With the prevalence of dietary supplements, the use of combinations of herbs and drugs is gradually increasing, together with the risk of drug interactions. In our clinical work, we unexpectedly found that the combination of Panax notoginseng and warfarin, which are herbs that activate blood circulation and remove blood stasis, showed antagonistic effects instead. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the drug interaction between Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) and warfarin, the main active ingredient of Panax notoginseng, and to explore the interaction mechanism. Methods: The effects and mechanisms of PNS on the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of warfarin were explored mainly in Sprague-Dawley rats and HepG2 cells. Elisa was used to detect the concentrations of coagulation factors, HPLC-MS to detect the blood concentrations of warfarin in rats, immunoblotting was employed to examine protein levels, qRT-PCR to detect mRNA levels, cellular immunofluorescence to detect the localization of NR1I3, and dual luciferase to verify the binding of miR-214-3p and NR1I3. Results: PNS significantly accelerated warfarin metabolism and reduced its efficacy, accompanied by increased expression of NR1I3 and CYP2C9. Interference with NR1I3 rescued the accelerated metabolism of warfarin induce by PNS co-administration. In addition, we demonstrated that PNS significantly reduced miR-214-3p expression, whereas miR-214-3p overexpression reduced NR1I3 and CYP2C9 expression, resulting in a weakened antagonistic effect of PNS on warfarin. Additionally, we found that miR-214-3p bound directly to NR1I3 3'-UTR and significantly downregulated NR1I3 expression. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that PNS accelerates warfarin metabolism and reduces its pharmacodynamics by downregulating miR-214-3p, leading to increased expression of its target gene NR1I3, these findings provide new insights for clinical drug applications to avoid adverse effects.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.74-81
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• 2011

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of red wine on the color, hardness, springiness, chewiness, pH, volatile basic nitrogen (VBN) content, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) value, and total bacterial number of pork meat stored at $4^{\circ}C$ for 10 days. Pork meat was treated with 25% water (control), 20% water and 5% red wine (RW5), 15% water and 10% red wine (RW10), or 10% water and 15% red wine (RW15). The lightness ($L^*$), redness ($a^*$) and yellowness ($b^*$) values tended to decrease with longer storage period (p<0.05). The $L^*$ values of RW10 and RW15 were higher than those of control and RW5 on the first day of storage, whereas the control and RW5 had higher $L^*$ values compared to RW10 and RW15 after 10 days (p<0.05). Hardness of RW5 was the lowest after 10 days of storage (p<0.05). The pH levels were not significantly different among the samples. The VBN contents increased with longer storage period (p<0.05), and those of RW10 and RW15 were lower than those of the control and RW5 after 10 days of storage (p<0.05). The TBARS values increased with longer storage period (p<0.05), and those of the control, RW5, RW10, and RW15 were 0.61, 0.45, 0.35 and 0.33 mg MA/kg, respectively, after 10 days of the storage. The total bacterial numbers increased with longer storage period, and those of RW5, RW10 and RW15 were lower compared to the control (p<0.05). Taste, tenderness, juiciness, and palatability were not significantly different among the samples, but the flavor of RW5 had the highest value after 10 days of storage (p<0.05). These results suggest that red wine can inhibit protein degradation, lipid oxidation, and bacterial growth when used as an additive of seasoned pork meat.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.476-487
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the concentration of nutrients in transitional breast milk from Korean lactating mothers and to evaluate daily intakes of their infants based on the Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans 2010 (KDRIs 2010). Methods: Breast milk samples were collected at 5~15 days postpartum from 100 healthy lactating Korean mothers. Macro- and micro-nutrients, and immunoglobulin (Igs) concentrations in breast milk were analyzed. Results: The mean energy, protein, fat, and carbohydrate concentrations in breast milk were $59.99{\pm}8.01kcal/dL$, $1.47{\pm}0.27g/dL$, $2.88{\pm}0.89g/dL$, and $6.72{\pm}0.22g/dL$. The mean linoleic acid (LA), a-linolenic acid (ALA), arachidonic acid (AA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) concentrations were $181.44{\pm}96.41mg/dL$, $28.15{\pm}8.89mg/dL$, $5.67{\pm}1.86mg/dL$, and $5.74{\pm}2.57mg/dL$. The mean vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin $B_1$, vitamin $B_2$, vitamin $B_{12}$, and folate concentrations were $2.75{\pm}1.75{\mu}g/dL$, $2.31{\pm}1.12ng/dL$, $0.74{\pm}1.54mg/dL$, $3.02{\pm}1.84mg/dL$, $7.51{\pm}20.96{\mu}g/dL$, $61.78{\pm}26.78{\mu}g/dL$, $63.71{\pm}27.19ng/dL$, and $0.52{\pm}0.26{\mu}g/dL$. The mean concentrations of calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, zinc, and copper were $20.71{\pm}3.34mg/dL$, $0.59{\pm}0.86mg/dL$, $66.71{\pm}10.35mg/dL$, $27.72{\pm}10.16mg/dL$, $0.44{\pm}0.41mg/dL$, and $70.48{\pm}30.41{\mu}g/dL$. The mean IgA and total IgE concentrations were $61.85{\pm}31.97mg/dL$ and $235.00{\pm}93.00IU/dL$. The estimated daily intakes of infants for protein, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin $B_2$, vitamin $B_{12}$, iron, potassium, sodium, zinc, and copper were sufficient compared to KDRIs 2010 adjusted by transitory milk intakes. The estimated infants' intakes of energy, fat, carbohydrate, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin $B_1$, folate, and calcium did not meet KDRIs 2010 adjusted by transitory milk intakes. Conclusion: In general most estimated nutrient intakes of Korean breast-fed infants in transitory breast milk were sufficient, however some nutrient intakes were not sufficient based on KDRIs 2010. These results warrant conduct of future studies for investigation of important dietary factors associated with nutrients in breast milk to improve the quality of breast milk, which may contribute to understanding nutrition in early life and promoting growth and development of breast-fed infants.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.153-161
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• 2002

Sox4, a transcription factor, consists of three functional domains: an HMG-box domain as a DNA binding domain, serine rich region as a transactivation domain and glycine rich region (GRR), an unknown functional domain. Although Sox4 is known to be functionally involved in heart, B-cell and reproductive system development, its physiological function remains to be elucidated. We used pGEX expression system to develop a simple and rapid method for purifying Sox4 protein in suitable forms for biochemical studies of their functions. Unexpectedly, we observed that full-length Sox4 appears to be protease-sensitive during expression and purification in E. coli. To map the protease-sensitive site in Sox4, we generated various constructs with each of functional domains of Sox4 and purified as the GST-Sox4 fusion proteins using glutathione beads. We found that the specific cleavage site for the proteolytic enzyme, which exists in E. coli, is localized within the novel GRR of Sox4. Our study suggest that the GRR of Sox4 may a target for the cellular protease action and this cleavage in the GRR may be involved in regulating physiological function of Sox4. Additionally, our study may provide a useful method for investigating the proteolytic cleavage of the target molecule in E. coli.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.331-340
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• 2015

Mutations in Fused in Sarcoma (FUS) have been identified in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). Pathological FUS is mis-localized to cytosol and forms aggregates associated with stress granules (SG), while FUS is normally localized to nucleus. However, it is largely unknown how pathological FUS forms SG-aggregates and which domains are responsible for this process. In this study, we examined cellular localization and aggregation of ALS-linked FUS missense mutants (P525L, R521C, R521H, R521G), analyzed the domains responsible for cytosolic FUS aggregation in HEK293T cells, and confirmed this in cultured mouse neurons. To do this, we firstly generated missense mutants of FUS and then examined their cellular localization. We found that P525L was mostly mis-localized to cytosol and formed FUS-positive SG aggregates while R521C, R521H, or R521G was localized to both nucleus and cytosol. To further characterize the domains required for aggregate formation of cytosolic FUS, we generated different domain-deletion mutants using FUS-∆17 which has a deletion of nuclear localization signal. Interestingly, cytosolic FUS without SYGQ and RGG1 domain or cytosolic FUS without RGG2-ZnF-RGG3 domain did not form FUS-positive SG aggregates, while cytosolic FUS without RRM domain generated more aggregates compared to FUS-∆17. Taken together, these data suggest that SYGQ-RGG1 or RGG2-ZnF-RGG3 domain contributes to formation of cytosolic aggregate, while RRM domain might interfere with FUS aggregation. Therefore, our studies will provide important insight for understanding cellular pathogenesis of neurodegeneration associated with FUS aggregate as well as finding therapeutic targets for ALS or FTD.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.117-125
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• 1981

The changes in chemical compositions of chestnuts were tested during processing in order to elucidate the effects of heat treatments such as boiling, steaming and roasting on the flesh compositions. The results obtained were as follows. 1. The chemical compositions of raw chestnuts were: moisture, 59-61%; total sugar, 24-27%; crude fat, 0.3%; crude fiber, 0.6-0.9%; ash, 1.0%; amino nitrogen, 0.3%; vitamin C, 20-22 mg%; and tannin, 40-48%. 2. The moisture contents were increased to 63.8% by the boiling and to 70.27% by the peeling and boiling from 59.41% of raw ones respectively, whereas decreased to 54.11% by the roasting. 3. Contents of crude protein were decreased to 8.04% by the peeling and boiling procedure from 8.72% of raw ones, and those of amino nitrogen also revealed a decreasing tendency by the heat treatments. However, no significant change was observed in crude fat content. 4. Total sugar contents were decreased by the peeling and boiling procedure approximately 3.0%, whereas reducing sugars were increased 2 to 3 times in the all treatments. 5. Vitamin C contents were decreased 72.0 to 78.0 % by the boiling procedure, 64.2% by the steaming, 51. 6% by the roasting as compared with the raw ones. Tannin contents were increased 11.0% by the boiling, and 46.0% by the roasting respectively, whereas decreased 22.0% by the peeling and boiling procedure. 6. The color was changed to brown with different degree, during the boiling, steaming and roasting procedure. The 0.1% solution of alum appeared to be effective in reducing the browning reaction during the heat treatments.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.193-200
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• 2004

The preparation of low-fat chicken patties added 10% fat and 0.5% sodium alginate (SA treatment) arabia gum (AG treatment), xanthan gum (XG treatment), respectively and the control patty containing 20% fat was prepared. The moisture contents of raw, cooked and reheated patty of control were lower than low-fat patties containing gums, and were no significant difference among low-fat patties. The fat content of control patty was higher than that of the low-fat patties and the protein showed no significant difference among patties. In case of raw patty, the Hunter's $L^{*}$ value of control patty was higher than that of the low-fat patties, the Hunter's $a^{*}$ value was no significant difference among patties. But the Hunter's $L^{*}$, $a^{*}$ and $b^{*}$ values of cooked and reheated patties showed no significant difference among patties The yielding and fat retention of cooked control patty were lower than that of the low-fat patties. The yield and fat retention of reheated control patty were lower than those of the low-fat patties, and the final yield of low-fat patties was higher than that of the control patty The hardness of cooked patties showed no significant difference among patties but the springiness, cohesiveness and chewiness of low-fat patties were higher than those of the control patty. The water holding capacity of low-fat patties was higher than that of the control patty. In case of reheated patties, the hardness was no significant difference among patties, the springiness was highest in low-fat patty treated arabia gum and was lowest in control patty. The cohesiveness, chewiness and water holding capacity of reheated low-fat patties were higher than those of the control patty. Oleic, palmitic, linoleic and stearic acids were major fatty acids, and glutamic acid, aspartic acid, lysine, leucine, arginine and alanine were major amino acids in chicken patties. The aroma was not significantly different among patties, but the texture of low-fat patties was higher than that of the control patty and was not significantly different among low-fat patties.tties.ies.