• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.253-263
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• 2023

The biogenesis and biological roles of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in the progression of liver diseases have attracted considerable attention in recent years. EVs are membrane-bound nanosized vesicles found in different types of body fluids and contain various bioactive materials, including proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and mitochondrial DNA. Based on their origin and biogenesis, EVs can be classified as apoptotic bodies, microvesicles, and exosomes. Among these, exosomes are the smallest EVs (30-150 nm in diameter), which play a significant role in cell-to-cell communication and epigenetic regulation. Moreover, exosomal content analysis can reveal the functional state of the parental cell. Therefore, exosomes can be applied to various purposes, including disease diagnosis and treatment, drug delivery, cell-free vaccines, and regenerative medicine. However, exosome-related research faces two major limitations: isolation of exosomes with high yield and purity and distinction of exosomes from other EVs (especially microvesicles). No standardized exosome isolation method has been established to date; however, various exosome isolation strategies have been proposed to investigate their biological roles. Exosome-mediated intercellular communications are known to be involved in alcoholic liver disease and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease development. Damaged hepatocytes or nonparenchymal cells release large numbers of exosomes that promote the progression of inflammation and fibrogenesis through interactions with neighboring cells. Exosomes are expected to provide insight on the progression of liver disease. Here, we review the biogenesis of exosomes, exosome isolation techniques, and biological roles of exosomes in alcoholic liver disease and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

• Journal of the Korean Orthopaedic Association
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.478-489
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• 2019

Osteoarthritis is a disease characterized by the progression of articular cartilage erosion, that increases pain during joint motion and reduces the ability to withstand mechanical stress, which in turn limits joint mobility and function. Damage to articular cartilage due to trauma or degenerative injury is considered a major cause of arthritis. Numerous studies and attempts have been made to regenerate articular cartilage. In the case of partial degenerative cartilage changes, microfracture and autologous chondrocyte implantation have been proposed as surgical treatment methods, but they have disadvantages such as insufficient mutual binding to the host cells, inaccurate cell delivery, and deterioration of healthy cartilage. Stem cell-based therapies have been developed to compensate for this. This review summarizes the drawbacks and consequences of various cartilage regeneration methods and describes the various attempts to treat cartilage damage. In addition, this review will discuss cartilage regeneration, particularly mesenchymal stem cell engineering-based therapies, and explore how to treat future cartilage regeneration using mesenchymal stem cells.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.199-209
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• 1984

Pregnant rats were fed a pyridoxine deficient diet during the gestation and lactation. DEF I group received the deficient diet from delivery ; DEF II group, from the 15 th day of gestation. Body and brain weights, brain protein, DNA, RNA, plasma GOT and GPT, and catecholamines were measured. Effect of MAO inhibiting drug, pargyline, was determined. Brain protein, DNA, and RNA of offsprings of deficient groups were significantly lower than the control group, but RNA/ DNA, brain weight/DNA, and protein/DNA show that cell number were more affected than cell size by the pyridoxine deficiency during the 3rd week of gestation and lactation. Plasma GOT activities were more significantly different than plasma GPT between the control and deficient group. Brain norepinephrine of offsprings of deficient group were significantly lower than the control, but brain dopamine content was not significantly different from the control. At 2nd and 3rd week, norepinephrine was significantly depressed in deficient groups. Pargyline treatment affected a 1.2 fold increase in catecholamines in 3hr while the control had a 1.5 fold increase. Thus norepinephrine and dopamine synthesis was depressed in the deficient groups. Dopaminergic neurons may be less dependent on pyridoxine level than neurons from norepinephrine. Pyridoxine deficiency in maternal diet is not so critical to brain catecholamines of offspring except to the neonatal rats.

• Biomaterials and Biomechanics in Bioengineering
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.141-155
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• 2016

Two-dimensional (2D) cell culture and in vivo cancer model systems have been used to understand cancer biology and develop drug delivery systems for cancer therapy. Although cell culture and in vivo model studies have provided critical contribution about disease mechanism, these models present important problems. 2D tissue culture models lack of three dimensional (3D) structure, while animal models are expensive, time consuming, and inadequate to reflect human tumor biology. Up to the present, scaffolds and 3D matrices have been used for many different clinical applications in regenerative medicine such as heart valves, corneal implants and artificial cartilage. While tissue engineering has focused on clinical applications in regenerative medicine, scaffolds can be used in in vitro tumor models to better understand tumor relapse and metastasis. Because 3D in vitro models can partially mimic the tumor microenvironment as follows. This review focuses on different scaffold production techniques and polymer types for tumor model applications in cancer tissue engineering and reports recent studies about in vitro 3D polymeric tumor models including breast, ewing sarcoma, pancreas, oral, prostate and brain cancers.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.4739-4743
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• 2014

Nanotechnology is an emerging field with many promising applications in drug delivery systems. Because of outstanding developments in this field, rapidly increasing research is directed to the development of nanocarriers that may enhance the availability of drugs to the target sites. Substantial fraction of information has been added into the existing scientific literature focusing on the fact that nanoparticles usually generate reactive oxygen species to a greater extent than micro-sized particles. It is worth mentioning that oxidative stress regulates an array of cell signaling cascades that resulted in cancer cell damage. Accumulating experimental evidence over the years has shown that wide-ranging biological mechanisms are triggered by these NPs in cultured cells due to the unique properties of engineered nanoparticles. In this review, we have attempted to provide an overview of the signaling cascades that are activated by oxidative stress in cancer cells in response to different kinds of nanomaterials, including quantum dots, metallic and polymeric nanoparticles.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.2265-2271
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• 2010

In this study, wormorm-like polymeric micelles were construted from poly(L-lactic acid)-b-poly(ethyelen glycol) (PLLA-b-PEG) block copolymers via worm-like (or cylindrical) self- assembly that consisted of a relatively long PLLA block ($M_n$ 7K Daltons) at the core and a relatively short PEG block ($M_n$ 2K Daltons) as the shell. Several cancer-targeting moieties (such as folate, cobalamin, and cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic (RGD) peptide) were chemically coupled with the succinylated or maleimided PEG block of PLLA-b-PEG to act as a cancer cell-specific targeting ligand for breast cancer. The worm-like micelles with muplite cancer cell-specific ligands proved to be successful in recognizing different breast cancer cells at once. This has the potential to aid in cancer-specific drug delivery and to be used as an effective treatment for breast cancer.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.199-207
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• 2005

Hydrogen is getting more attention owing to the seriousness of air pollution and dependance on oil import, UNCCC(United Nations Convention on Climate Change) for reducing the emission of $CO_2$. This fact is not confined in a certain country but global recognition and several countries initiated R&D competition for commercializing the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Within 20${\sim}$30 years cost effective hydrogen production can be possible using fossil fuels because so much research is carried out up to now. But it is so far to produce the most of the hydrogen using renewable resources considering the present status of R&D and cost effectiveness. Several automobile companies planed for mass production of hydrogen vehicle by 2010 but changed or canceled the plan owing to the difficulty of R&D and the low status of infrastructure penetration. This paper surveyed the hydrogen energy policy, R&D program and commercialization strategy of advanced country, international agency, automobile and energy company to analyze the global status of R&D and policy. And the survey of R&D program is focused on the part of hydrogen production, storage, delivery and fuel cell.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.167-180
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• 2015

Arsenic is a toxic metalloid that exists ubiquitously in the environment, and affects global health problems due to its carcinogenicity. In most populations, the main source of arsenic exposure is the drinking water. In drinking water, chronic exposure to arsenic is associated with increased risks of various cancers including those of skin, lung, bladder, and liver, as well as numerous other non-cancer diseases including gastrointestinal and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and neurologic and cognitive problems. Recent emerging evidences suggest that arsenic exposure affects the reproductive and developmental toxicity. Prenatal exposure to inorganic arsenic causes adverse pregnancy outcomes and children's health problems. Some epidemiological studies have reported that arsenic exposure induces premature delivery, spontaneous abortion, and stillbirth. In animal studies, inorganic arsenic also causes fetal malformation, growth retardation, and fetal death. These toxic effects depend on dose, route and gestation periods of arsenic exposure. In males, inorganic arsenic causes reproductive dysfunctions including reductions of the testis weights, accessory sex organs weights, and epididymal sperm counts. In addition, inorganic arsenic exposure also induces alterations of spermatogenesis, reductions of testosterone and gonadotrophins, and disruptions of steroidogenesis. However, the reproductive and developmental problems following arsenic exposure are poorly understood, and the molecular mechanism of arsenic-induced reproductive toxicity remains unclear. Thus, we further investigated several possible mechanisms underlying arsenic-induced reproductive toxicity.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.880-885
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• 2003

Research in this paper focuses on the kinetic evaluation of swelling of the liquid crystalline phases of glyceryl monooleate (GMO). Swelling of the lamellar and cubic liquid crystalline phases of GMO was studied using two in vitro methods, a total immersion method and a Franz cell method. The swelling of the lamellar phase and GMO having 0 %w/w initial water content was temperature dependent. The swelling ratio was greater at $20^{\circ}^C than 37^{\circ}^C$ . The water uptake increased dramatically with decreasing initial water content of the liquid crystalline phases. The swelling rates obtained using the Franz cell method with a moist nylon membrane to mimic buccal drug delivery situation were slower than the total immersion method. The swelling was studied by employing first-order and second-order swelling kinetics. The swelling of the liquid crystalline phases of GMO could be described by second-order swelling kinetics. The initial stage of the swelling (t < 4 h) followed the square root of time relationship, indicating that this model is also suitable for describing the water uptake by the liquid crystalline matrices. These results obtained from the current study demonstrate that the swelling strongly depends on temperature, the initial water content of the liquid crystalline phases and the methodology employed for measuring the swelling of GMO.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.1711-1717
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• 2024

This study evaluates the efficacy of a decellularized intestine tissue-derived extracellular matrix (Intestine ECM) as a scaffold for culturing colorectal cancer (CRC) organoids and establishing cell-derived xenograft (CDX) models, comparing its performance to traditional Matrigel. Intestine ECM demonstrates comparable support for organoid formation and cellular function, highlighting its potential as a more physiologically relevant and reproducible platform. Our findings suggest that Intestine ECM enhances the mimetic environment for colon epithelium, supporting comparable growth and improved differentiation compared to Matrigel. Moreover, when used as a delivery carrier, Intestine ECM significantly increases the growth rate of CDX models using patient-derived primary colorectal cancer cells. This enhancement demonstrates Intestine ECM's role not only as a scaffold but also as a vital component of the tumor microenvironment, facilitating more robust tumorigenesis. These findings advocate for the broader application of Intestine ECM in cancer model systems, potentially leading to more accurate preclinical evaluations and the development of targeted cancer therapies.