• Development and Reproduction
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2012

Previously, we found that $Zap70$ (Zeta-chain-associated protein kinase) expressed in the mouse oocytes and played significant role in completion of meiosis specifically at MI-MII (metaphase I-II) transition. Microinjection of $Zap70$ dsRNA into the cytoplasm of germinal vesicle oocyte resulted in MI arrest, and exhibited abnormalities in their spindles and chromosome configurations. The purpose of this study was to determine the mechanisms of action of $Zap70$ in oocyte maturation by evaluating downstream signal networking after $Zap70$ RNAi (RNA interference). The probe hybridization and data analysis were used by Affymetrix Gene Chip Mouse Genome 430 2.0 array and GenPlex 3.0 (ISTECH, Korea) software, respectively. Total 1,152 genes were up (n=366) and down (n=786) regulated after $Zap70$ RNAi. Among those genes changed, we confirmed the expressional changes of the genes involved in the regulation of actin cytoskeleton and MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) signaling pathway, since the phenotypes of $Zap70$ RNAi in oocytes were found in the changes in the chromosome separation and spindle structures. We confirmed the changes in gene expression in the actin skeletal system as well as in the MAPK signaling pathway, and concluded that these changes are main cause of the aberrant chromosome arrangement and abnormal spindles after $Zap70$ RNAi.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1085-1091
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of selenate on adipocyte differentiation and to identify genes involved in the modulation of adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells. To test the effect of selenate on adipocyte differentiation, adipogenesis was induced in cells using various concentrations ($0-100{\mu}M$) of selenate. Various phases of adipogenesis were induced: postconfluent (PC), early phase (EP, d0-d2), postmitotic growth arrest (PM, d2-d4), and all period (AP). The PC cells exposed to selenate for 24 h displayed dose-dependent inhibition of intracellular lipid droplet accumulation on day 6 of adipogenesis. Two days of selenate treatment at EP or AP inhibited adipogenesis, with an approximately 20-80% reduction in lipid accumulation compared to that of a control (p<0.05). When preadipocytes were exposed to selenate during the PM period, the antiadipogenic effect of selenate was attenuated. Two types of selenoprotein genes (Seps1 and Sepp1) were up-regulated by the selenate treatment during mitotic clonal expansion, whereas these genes were down-regulated during PM growth arrest (p<0.05). The findings demonstrate the antiadipogenic function of selenate and the possible involvement of Sepp1 and Seps1 genes in selenate-inhibited adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.323-335
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• 2002

Object: The present study was accomplished to obtain a gene expression profile of the luminal epithelium during embryo apposition in comparison of implantation (1M) and interimplantation (INTER) sites. Material and Method: The mouse uterine luminal epithelium from IM and INTER sites were sampled on day 4.5 (Day of vaginal plug = day 0.5) by Laser Captured Microdissection (LCM). RNA was extracted from LCM captured epithelium, amplified, labeled and hybridized to microarrays. Results from microarray hybridization were analyzed by Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM) method. Differential expression of some genes was confirmed by LCM followed by RT-PCR. Results: Comparison of IM and INTER sites by SAM identified 73 genes most highly ranked at IM, while 13 genes at the INTER sites, within the estimated false discovery rate (FDR) of 0.163. Among 73 genes at IM, 20 were EST/unknown function, and the remain 53 were categorized to the structural, cell cycle, gene/protein expression, immune reaction, invasion, metabolism, oxidative stress, and signal transduction. Of the 24 structural genes, 14 were related especially to extracellular matrix and tissue remodeling. Meanwhile, among 13 genes up-regulated at INTER, 8 genes were EST/unknown function, and the rest 5 were related to metabolism, signal transduction, and gene/protein expression. Among these 58 (53+5) genes with known functions, 13 genes (22.4%) were related with $Ca^{2+}$ for their function. Conclusions: Results of the present study suggest that 1) active tissue remodeling is occurring at the IM sites during embryo apposition, 2) the INTER sites are relatively quiescent than IM sites, and 3) the $Ca^{2+}$ may be a crucial for apposition. Search for human homologue of those genes expressed in the mouse luminal epithelium during apposition will help to understand the implantation process and/or implantation failure in humans.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.3219-3226
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• 2014

Chemotherapy continues to be a mainstay of cancer treatment, although drug resistance is a major obstacle. Lipid metabolism plays a critical role in cancer pathology, with elevated ether lipid levels. Recently, alkylglyceronephosphate synthase (AGPS), an enzyme that catalyzes the critical step in ether lipid synthesis, was shown to be up-regulated in multiple types of cancer cells and primary tumors. Here, we demonstrated that silencing of AGPS in chemotherapy resistance glioma U87MG/DDP and hepatic carcinoma HepG2/ADM cell lines resulted in reduced cell proliferation, increased drug sensitivity, cell cycle arrest and cell apoptosis through reducing the intracellular concentration of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), lysophosphatidic acid-ether (LPAe) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), resulting in reduction of LPA receptor and EP receptors mediated PI3K/AKT signaling pathways and the expression of several multi-drug resistance genes, like MDR1, MRP1 and ABCG2. ${\beta}$-catenin, caspase-3/8, Bcl-2 and survivin were also found to be involved. In summary, our studies indicate that AGPS plays a role in cancer chemotherapy resistance by mediating signaling lipid metabolism in cancer cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.943-949
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• 2002

It has been proposed that chitin synthase 3 (CHS3)-nediated chitin synthesis during the vegetative cell cycle is regulated by chitin synthase 4 (CHS4) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To investigate direct protein-protein interaction between the coding products of these two genes, a domain of Chs3p that is responsible for interaction with Chs4p was identified, using the yeast two-hybrid system. This domain of 54 amino acids, termed MIRC3-4 (Maximum Interacting Region of Chs3p with Chs4p), is well conserved among CHS3 homologs of various fungi. Some mutations in MIRC3-4 resulted in a decrease in the enzymatic activity and chitin contents. Chs3p carrying those mutations exhibited weak interactions with Chs4p, when assayed by the yeast two-hybrid system. Surprisingly, all the mutants were sensitive to Calcofluor regardless of changes in enzymatic activities or chitin contents. This report deals with a core region in MIRC3-4 that affects the interaction with Chs4p.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.200-209
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• 2007

We generated gene expression data from the tissues of 50 gastric cancer patients, and applied meta-analysis and gene set analysis to this data and three other stomach cancer gene expression data sets to define the gene expression changes in gastric tumors. By meta-analysis we identified genes consistently changed in gastric carcinomas, while gene set analysis revealed consistently changed biological themes. Genes and gene sets involved in digestion, fatty acid metabolism, and ion transport were consistently down-regulated in gastric carcinomas, while those involved in cellular proliferation, cell cycle, and DNA replication were consistently up-regulated. We also found significant differences between the genes and gene sets expressed in diffuse and intestinal type gastric carcinoma. By gene set analysis of cytogenetic bands, we identified many chromosomal regions with possible gross chromosomal changes (amplifications or deletions). Similar analysis of transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs), revealed transcription factors that may have caused the observed gene expression changes in gastric carcinomas, and we confirmed the overexpression of one of these, E2F1, in many gastric carcinomas by tissue array and immunohistochemistry. We have incorporated the results of our meta- and gene set analyses into a web accessible database (http://human-genome.kribb.re.kr/stomach/).

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.809-816
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• 2019

The ubiquitous plant metabolite p-coumaric acid (p-CA) has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, but its anti-cancer activity has not been established in gastric cancer cell lines. In this study, we investigated the effects of p-CA on the proliferation and transcriptome profile of SNU16 gastric cancer cells. Treatment with p-CA induced apoptosis of the SNU-16 cells by regulating the expression of pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic proteins, such as Bcl-2, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), Bax, procaspase-3, and cleaved-caspase-3. The genes differentially expressed in response to p-CA treatment of the SNU-16 cells were identified by RNA sequencing analysis. Genes regulated by p-CA were involved mainly in the inflammatory response, apoptotic processes, cell cycle, and immune response. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis indicated that the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase-Akt and cancer signaling pathways were altered by p-CA. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis also revealed that p-CA treatment was correlated with differential expression of genes associated with the inflammatory response and cancer. Collectively, these results suggest that p-CA has potential utility in gastric cancer prevention.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.131-136
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• 2001

The developmental profiles of rpr, grim, dcp-1, diapl, diap2 transcripts, which were involved in programmed cell death, were analyzed using competitive RT-PCR in whole animals during Drosophila development. The fluctuation patterns of transcript levels of the apoptotic initiators(rpr and grim) were similar to those of the ecdysone titer in Drosophila life cycle. The transcript of dcp-1, which is considered as effector caspase, was expressed strong1y at early embryo and female adult stages. However, the transcript levels of anti-apoptotic factors diap1 and diap2, showed the reverse pattern comparing with those of apoptotic factors(rpr and grim). Also, the transcript levels of rpr, diap2 and dcp-1 were quantified in the salivary glands and wing discs dissected from the wandering late third instar larva. The transcript levels of rpr and diap2 were changed reversely each other in both tissues from wandering stage to puparium formation. These results suggest that the expressions of cell death related genes are regulated by the ecdysone signals during normal development.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.21-33
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• 2009

In this study, we investigated the effect of Rhei Rhizoma (RR; 大黃) water extract on gene expression in a hypoxia model of cultured rat hippocampal neurons. RR water extract $(2.5{\mu}g/ml)$ was added to the culture media on day 10 in vitro (DIV10), and a hypoxic shock (2% $O_2$/5% $CO_2$, $37^{\circ}C$, 3 h) was given on DIV13. After maintaining the cultures in normoxia for 24 hr, total RNA was isolated and used for microarray analysis. The MA-plot indicated that most genes were up- or downregulated within 2-fold. There were more downregulated genes (725 ea) than upregulated ones (472 ea) when larger than Global M value 0.2 (i.e., >15% increase) or smaller than Global M value -0.2 (i.e., >15% decrease) were considered. Antiapoptosis genes such as Tegt (2.4-fold), Nfkb1 (2.4-fold) Veg (1.8-fold), Ngfr (1.6-fold) were upregulated, while pro-apoptosis genes such as Bad (-64%), Cstb (-66%) were downregulated. Genes for combating environmental stress (stress response genes) such as Defb3 (2.7-fold), Cygb (2.2-fold), Ahsg (2.18-fold), Alox5 (2-fold) were upregulated. Genes for cell proliferation (cell cycle-related genes) such as Erbb2 (1.84-fold), Mapk12 gene (1.8-fold) was upregulated. Therefore, RR water extracts upregulate many pro-survival genes while downregulating many pro-death genes. It is interpreted that these genes, in combination with other regulated genes, can promote neuronal survival in a stress such as hypoxia.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.354-360
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• 2020

The hair cycle (anagen, catagen, and telogen) is regulated by the interaction between mesenchymal cells and epithelial cells in the hair follicles. The proliferation of dermal papilla cells (DPCs), mesenchymal-derived fibroblasts, has emerged as a target for the regulation of the hair cycle. Here, we show that vanillic acid, a phenolic acid from wheat bran, promotes the proliferation of DPCs via a PI3K/Akt/Wnt/β-catenin dependent mechanism. Vanillic acid promoted the proliferation of DPCs, accompanied by increased levels of cell-cycle proteins cyclin D1, CDK6, and Cdc2 p34. Vanillic acid also increased the levels of phospho(ser473)-Akt, phospho(ser780)-pRB, and phospho(thr37/46)-4EBP1 in a time-dependent manner. Wortmannin, an inhibitor of the PI3K/Akt pathway, attenuated the vanillic acid-mediated proliferation of DPCs. Vanillic acid-induced progression of the cell-cycle was also suppressed by wortmannin. Moreover, vanillic acid increased the levels of Wnt/β-catenin proteins, such as phospho(ser9)-glycogen synthase kinase-3β, phospho(ser552)-β-catenin, and phospho(ser675)-β-catenin. We found that vanillic acid increased the levels of cyclin D1 and Cox-2, which are target genes of β-catenin, and these changes were inhibited by wortmannin. To investigate whether vanillic acid affects the downregulation of β-catenin by dihydrotestosterone (DHT), implicated in the development of androgenetic alopecia, DPCs were stimulated with DHT in the presence and absence of vanillic acid for 24 h. Western blotting and confocal microscopy analyses showed that the decreased level of β-catenin after the incubation with DHT was reversed by vanillic acid. These results suggest that vanillic acid could stimulate anagen and alleviate hair loss by activating the PI3K/Akt and Wnt/β-catenin pathways in DPCs.