• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.220-227
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• 2019

Stevia rebaudiana (Asteraceae), a perennial plant, has been used as a low-calorie sweetener and is being developed as a therapeutic agent for diabetes, hypertension, myocardial diseases, and microbial infections. Despite the common use of its leaves and stem, the bioavailability of the components present in S. rebaudiana flowers, when used as ingredients of cosmetics, has not been well investigated. Herein, we investigated the antioxidative and antimelanogenic effects of an aqueous extract of S. rebaudiana flowers (Stevia-F). Total flavonoid and phenolic content in Stevia-F were determined to be $8.64{\pm}0.23mg$ of quercetin equivalents/100 g and $631.5{\pm}2.01mg$ of gallic acid equivalents/100 g, respectively. The $IC_{50}$ values of Stevia-F for reducing power, and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate radical, hydrogen peroxide, and nitric oxide scavenging activities were 5541.96, 131.39, 466.34, and $10.44{\mu}g/mL$, respectively. Stevia-F showed inhibitory effects on the tyrosinase ($IC_{50}=134.74{\mu}g/mL$) and ${\alpha}$-glucosidase ($IC_{50}=114.81{\mu}g/mL$) activities. No significant cytotoxicity of Stevia-F was observed in B16F10 cells, treated with up to $100{\mu}g/mL$ of the extract for 24 and 48 h (p > 0.05). Stevia-F ($1-100{\mu}g/mL$) suppressed ${\alpha}$-melanocyte stimulating hormone-induced melanin production in B16F10 cells (p < 0.05) and also inhibited the cellular tyrosinase activity (p < 0.05). Overall, our results show that Stevia-F possesses potential for inhibiting tyrosinase and ${\alpha}$-glucosidase activities and has significant antioxidant capacity. The antimelanogenic potential of Stevia-F should extend the usage of S. rebaudiana flowers in the development of skin-whitening products.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.501-514
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• 2022

This study aimed to investigate the effects and potential mechanisms of Chikusetsusaponin V (CsV) on endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and vascular endothelial cell functions. Different concentrations of CsV were added to animal models, bovine aorta endothelial cells (BAECs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) cultured in vitro. qPCR, Western blotting (WB), and B ultrasound were performed to explore the effects of CsV on mouse endothelial cell functions, vascular stiffness and cellular eNOS mRNA, protein expression and NO release. Bioinformatics analysis, network pharmacology, molecular docking and protein mass spectrometry analysis were conducted to jointly predict the upstream transcription factors of eNOS. Furthermore, pulldown and ChIP and dual luciferase assays were employed for subsequent verification. At the presence or absence of CsV stimulation, either overexpression or knockdown of purine rich element binding protein A (PURA) was conducted, and PCR assay was employed to detect PURA and eNOS mRNA expressions, Western blot was used to detect PURA and eNOS protein expressions, cell NO release and serum NO levels. Tube formation experiment was conducted to detect the tube forming capability of HUVECs cells. The animal vasodilation function test detected the vasodilation functions. Ultrasonic detection was performed to determine the mouse aortic arch pulse wave velocity to identify aortic stiffness. CsV stimulus on bovine aortic cells revealed that CsV could upregulate eNOS protein levels in vascular endothelial cells in a concentration and time dependent manner. The expression levels of eNOS mRNA and phosphorylation sites Ser1177, Ser633 and Thr495 increased significantly after CsV stimulation. Meanwhile, CsV could also enhance the tube forming capability of HUVECs cells. Following the mice were gavaged using CsV, the eNOS protein level of mouse aortic endothelial cells was upregulated in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, and serum NO release and vasodilation ability were simultaneously elevated whereas arterial stiffness was alleviated. The pulldown, ChIP and dual luciferase assays demonstrated that PURA could bind to the eNOS promoter and facilitate the transcription of eNOS. Under the conditions of presence or absence of CsV stimulation, overexpression or knockdown of PURA indicated that the effect of CsV on vascular endothelial function and eNOS was weakened following PURA gene silence, whereas overexpression of PURA gene could enhance the effect of CsV upregulating eNOS expression. CsV could promote NO release from endothelial cells by upregulating the expression of PURA/eNOS pathway, improve endothelial cell functions, enhance vasodilation capability, and alleviate vessel stiffness. The present study plays a role in offering a theoretical basis for the development and application of CsV in vascular function improvement, and it also provides a more comprehensive understanding of the pharmacodynamics of CsV.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.447-454
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical effects of blood flow regulation exercise for improving patients' health care and its usefulness as a rehabilitation model for various diseases by analyzing and examining the existing literature. A literature review of Korean academic journals published over a 10-year period, from 2010 to 2019, was conducted using words such as "blood flow regulation," "blood flow restriction," "low-intensity exercise," and "Kaatsu." Kaatsu is a blood flow regulation exercise developed in 1966 by Dr. Yoshiaki Sato of Japan. It is an efficient and effective exercise method that uses blood flow regulation bands that increase the secretion of growth hormones to develop muscles within a short time, improves blood circulation and metabolism to prevent and improve adult diseases, shortens the rehabilitation period, and improves cardiovascular function. The study participants consisted of 10 patients, of whom four were elderly, four had obesity, one was a stroke patient, and one was a trauma patient. The results of this study show that the blood flow regulation exercise, which is a low-intensity exercise, has the same effect as high-intensity exercise, which supports the evidence that it is a highly efficient exercise method for muscle development and rehabilitation of the elderly, adolescents, and patients with injuries who have difficulty in general exercising. For future studies, further reviews are necessary to verify the effectiveness of the exercise method according to blood flow regulation site and type of disease.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.703-712
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• 2023

Angiogenesis, the formation of blood vessels from pre-existing vessels, is a multistep process regulated by modulators of angiogenesis. It is essential for various physiological processes, such as embryonic development, chronic inflammation, and wound repair. Dysregulation of angiogenesis causes many diseases, such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and delayed wound healing. However, the number of effective anti-angiogenic drugs is limited. Recent research has focused on identifying potential drug candidates from natural sources. For example, marine natural products have been shown to have anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and wound-healing effects. Thus, this study aimed to describe the angiogenesis inhibitory effect of Hizikia fusiforms (brown algae) extract. The hexane extract of H. fusiformis has shown inhibitory effects on in vitro angiogenesis assays, such as cell migration, invasion, and tube formation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). The hexane extract of H. fusiformis (HFH) inhibited in vivo angiogenesis in a mouse Matrigel gel plug assay. In addition, the protein expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular signal kinase, and AKT serine/threonine kinase 1 decreased following treatment with H. fusiformis extracts. Our results demonstrated that the hexane extract of H. fusiformis (HFH) inhibits angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo.

• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.105-114
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• 2018

The aim of this study was to evaluate the change of phenolic compounds after phosphite treatment on Cheorwon onion. Onion is a perennial plant belonging to the lily family. It is native to Persia of Southwest Asia. It is widely cultivated in the temperate regions of the world. Onion is a good name for the 'Okchong' to drop blood cholesterol and cardiovascular blood flow to increase the prevention of adult diseases. Cheorwon area is inland, but it has high continental climate due to its high altitude. Therefore it is said that the onion cultivated in this region has higher sugar content and higher taste than onion grown in the southern region. Phosphorus components are particularly important ingredients for promoting muscle development. However, if the phosphoric acid content of the soil part is maintained to a large extent until the harvest, the competition of the nutrients tends to cause decay of the root part. Therefore, it is important to improve the quality and shelf life of onion by inducing nutrient balance by applying foliar fertilization method on the reducing phosphorus at harvest time. In this study, acidity was controlled by diluting phosphorous acid(H₃PO₃) and potassium hydroxide(KOH), followed by leaf surface treatment with phosphite on onion. In this study, the concentration of phosphite was diluted to 500, 1,000, 1,500ppm and sprayed three times over the onion leaves in May 2018 using an atomizer and harvested at the end of June, and the phenolic compounds were analyzed by HPLC. As a result, the content of quercetin, one of the important substances in onion, was phosphite 500ppm(179.70㎍/g), 1,000(150.27), 1,500(105.95). The contents of caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, rutin, kaempferol, and sugar content were higher in the treatments than in the control. Therefore, the phosphite does not have a great influence on the growth, but it may play a role as a method of achieving balance with nitrogen in the rainy season by supplying the role of the material catalyst and the water soluble phosphoric acid and the potassium in the influence of the material change.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.735-742
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• 2023

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is an independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and kidney disease, and the clinical importance of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has recently been increasing. In this study, we aim to extract feature values by applying GLCM, a texture analysis method, to ultrasound images of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. By applying an artificial neural network model using extracted feature values, we would like to classify the degree of fat deposition in non-alcoholic fatty liver into normal liver, mild fatty liver, moderate fatty liver, and severe fatty liver. As a result of applying the GLCM algorithm, the parameters Autocorrelation, Sum of squares, Sum average, and sum variance showed a tendency for the average value of the feature values to increase as it progressed from mild fatty liver to moderate fatty liver to severe fatty liver. The four parameters of Autocorrelation, Sum of squares, Sum average, and sum variance extracted by applying the GLCM algorithm to ultrasound images of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease were applied as inputs to the artificial neural network model. The classification accuracy was evaluated by applying the GLCM algorithm to the ultrasound images of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and applying the extracted images to an artificial neural network, showing a high accuracy of 92.5%. Through these results, we would like to present the results of this study as basic data when conducting a texture analysis GLCM study on ultrasound images of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.399-407
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• 2024

Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels form from existing blood vessels. This phenomenon occurs during growth, healing, and menstrual cycle changes. Angiogenesis is a complex and multifaceted process that is important for the continued growth of primary tumors, metastasis promotion, the support of metastatic tumors, and cancer progression. Impaired angiogenesis can lead to cancer, autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and delayed wound healing. Currently, there are only a handful of effective antiangiogenic drugs. Recent studies have shown that natural marine products exhibit antiangiogenic effects. In a previous study, we reported that the hexane extract of H. fusiformis (HFH) could inhibit the development of new blood vessels both in vitro and in vivo. The aim of this study was to describe the inhibitory effect of chloroform extracts of H. fusiformis on angiogenesis. To investigate how chloroform extract prevents blood vessel growth, we examined its effects on HUVEC, including cell migration, invasion, and tube formation. In a mouse Matrigel plug assay, H. fusiformis chloroform extract (HFC) also inhibited angiogenesis in vivo. Certain proteins associated with blood vessel growth were reduced after HFC treatment. These proteins include vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular signal transduction kinase, and serine/threonine kinase 1 (AKT). These studies have shown that the chloroform extract of H. fusiformis can inhibit blood vessel growth both in vitro and in vivo.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.83 no.1
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• pp.54-69
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• 2022

Early detection of potential asymptomatic coronary artery disease is very important, as patients with sudden cardiac death often do not show symptoms such as chest pain or motor dyspnea. Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) has long been unjustified as a screening tool for asymptomatic patients because of the risks posed by radiation exposure. However, there are still various opinions regarding the usefulness of CCTA for screening for coronary artery disease (CAD) in asymptomatic healthy individuals or patients. This review investigated the usefulness of coronary artery calcium score and CCTA as screening tests for CAD in asymptomatic healthy individuals or patients through various literature reviews. With the development of CT technology, recent studies have been conducted in asymptomatic CAD patients with a reduced radiation dose of less than 1 mSv. A total of 2.6% of asymptomatic subjects on CCTA found significant CAD over 70%, and it was concluded that screening CCTA for CAD showed prognostic power in predicting the future occurrence of CAD in asymptomatic people. However, after the completion of the current NIH SCOT-HEART 2 study, it may be possible to determine whether CCTA is appropriate as a screening tool for CAD in asymptomatic healthy individuals.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.838-848
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• 2023

Objective: To quantitatively analyze the cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) characteristics of chemotherapy-related cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD) and explore their prognostic value for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). Materials and Methods: A total of 145 patients (male:female = 76:69, mean age = 63.0 years) with cancer and heart failure who underwent CMR between January 2015 and January 2021 were included. CMR was performed using a 3T scanner (Siemens). Biventricular functions, native T1 T2, extracellular volume fraction (ECV) values, and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) of the left ventricle (LV) were compared between those with and without CTRCD. These were compared between patients with mild-to-moderate CTRCD and those with severe CTRCD. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between the CMR parameters and MACE occurrence during follow-up in the CTRCD patients. Results: Among 145 patients, 61 had CTRCD and 84 did not have CTRCD. Native T1, ECV, and T2 were significantly higher in the CTRCD group (1336.9 ms, 32.5%, and 44.7 ms, respectively) than those in the non-CTRCD group (1303.4 ms, 30.5%, and 42.0 ms, respectively; P = 0.013, 0.010, and < 0.001, respectively). They were not significantly different between patients with mild-to-moderate and severe CTRCD. Indexed LV mass was significantly smaller in the CTRCD group (65.0 g/m² vs. 78.9 g/mm²; P < 0.001). According to the multivariable Cox regression analysis, T2 (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.14, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01-1.27; P = 0.028) and quantified LGE (HR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.01-1.13; P = 0.021) were independently associated with MACE in the CTRCD patients. Conclusion: Quantitative parameters from CMR have the potential to evaluate myocardial changes in CTRCD. Increased T2 with reduced LV mass was demonstrated in CTRCD patients even before the development of severe cardiac dysfunction. T2 and quantified LGE may be independent prognostic factors for MACE in patients with CTRCD.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.89-100
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• 2024

Purpose : The objective of this study was to determine the major factors influencing the onset of diabetes and prediabetes and for collection of the basic data required to reduce the prevalence of diabetes and plan for administration of an effective health care system. By classifying the level of blood sugar management according to three categories: normal, prediabetes, and diabetes diagnosis, and determining the causes of diabetes in consideration of various variables, we will conduct an analysis of the main factors to be addressed for effective management of blood sugar and for preparation of basic data for use in early management. Methods : In this study, an analysis of raw data from the 8th National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey collected over a period of three years from 2019 to 2021, including 8,110 subjects in 2019, 7,359 subjects in 2020, and 7,090 subjects in 2021 was performed. A total of 22,559 subjects were aged 19 years or older, and 15,821 subjects were classified as subjects for inclusion in the final analysis. In the analysis, categorical variables were tested for difference, analysis of continuous variables using regression was performed, and analysis of influencing factors was performed using multinomial logistic analysis. Result : Significant factors related to the onset of diabetes and prediabetes included age (p<.001), marital status (p<.001), occupation (p<.001), hypertension (p<.001), dyslipidemia (p<.001), cardiovascular disease (p=.008), alcohol (p=.030) smoking (p=.005), systolic blood pressure (p<.001), diastolic blood pressure (p<.001), body mass index (p<.001) and waist circumference (p=.037), blood triglycerides (p<.001), and blood cholesterol (p<.001). Conclusion : Diabetes, a complex disease affected by a variety of diseases, requires active management from the prediabetes stage, and providing an appropriate level of medical information and services to elderly individuals without family support is considered a long-term health care system requirement in Korean society where the demographic structure is changing. In particular, determining the causes of prediabetes and development of a preventive approach to administering the health care system will be important for efficient management of diabetic patients.