• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.284-288
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• 2009

The innate immune system is important for the first line of host defence against infectious agents, which have penetrated the mechanical barriers. Mannose-binding lectin (MBL or mannan-binding protein, MBP) is a serum protein that is synthesized in the liver as a part of the acute phase response. MBL binds to carbohydrate structures presented by a wide range of pathogenic bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. MBL is synthesized as a monomer that has a carboxy-terminal carbohydrate recognition domain, a neck region and a collagen region. Low MBL level was reported to be the most frequent immuno-deficiency syndrome. Although extensive studies have yielded detailed information on the structure of MBL, functions of the MBL complex are not fully understood yet. We, here, present cloning process of MBL cDNA from the rat liver and production of truncated recombinant MBL protein using a bacterial expression system in order to produce anti-MBL polyclonal antibody. Anti-MBL polyclonal antibody was raised in a New Zealand rabbit and its affinity was tested against recombinant protein using western blot technique. MBL cDNA, recombinant protein and anti-MBL antibody could be used as great arsenals to dissect cellular biochemistry of MBL.

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.323-331
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• 1995

Monocyte/macrophage infiltration is the well known initial features associated with the development of glomerular disease including non-immune mediated nephropathy. Tumor necrosis factor ${\alpha}(TNF{\alpha})$, a cytokine produced primarily by monocyte/macrophage, exhibits similar effects as observed at the initial stages and during the progression of glomerular injury. Because the mesangial cells are target cells for glomerular injury, the present study examined the effect of $TNF{\alpha}$ on glomerular mesangial cell membrane lipid peroxidation as an index of cytotoxicity attributing to $TNF{\alpha}$. Primary culture of rat mesangial cell was established by incubation of glomeruli isolated from male Sprague-Dawley rat kidneys utilizing a standard sieving method. The levels of lipid peroxides in the mesangial cells were quantitated by malondialdehyde- thiobarbituric acid adduct formation. During an 8 hour incubation at $37^{\circ}C$, $TNF{\alpha}$ at 10 to 10,000 units/ml increased the levels of lipid peroxides dose dependently. Western blot analysis demonstrated that a short thermal stress induced heat shock response and the synthesis of heat shock protein 70(hsp70) in this mesangial cells. Further, this induction of hsp 70 prevented increase of lipid peroxides in the mesangial cells exposed to $TNF{\alpha}$. These data suggest that $TNF{\alpha}-induced$ lipid peroxidation in the mesangial cells may have pathophysiological relevance to glomerular injury and prior induction of heat shock response may play a role in the cellular resistance against $TNF{\alpha}-induced$ glomerular injury.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.32-43
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• 2009

Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose is known to cause severe hepatotoxicity mainly through the depletion of glutathione. In this study, we compared the cytotoxic effects of APAP on both a normal murine hepatic cell line, BNL CL.2, and its SV40-transformed cell line, BNL SV A.8. Gene expression profiles for APAP-treated cells were also obtained using microarray and analyzed to identify differences in genes or profiles that may explain the differences of susceptibility to APAP in these cell lines. These two cell lines exhibited different susceptibilities to APAP (0-$5,000{\mu}M$); BNL SV A.8 cells were more susceptible to APAP treatment compared to BNL CL.2 cells. A dose of $625{\mu}M$ APAP, which produced significant differences in cytotoxicity in these cell lines, was tested. Microarray analysis was performed to identify significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs) irrespective of APAP treatment. Genes up-regulated in BNL SV A.8 cells were associated with immune response, defense response, and apoptosis, while down-regulated genes were associated with catalytic activity, cell adhesion and the cytochrome P450 family. Consistent with the cytotoxicity data, no significant DEGs were found in BNL CL.2 cells after treatment with $625{\mu}M$ APAP, while cell cycle arrest and apoptosis-related genes were up-regulated in BNL SV A.8 cells. Based on the significant fold-changes in their expression, a genes were selected and their expressions were confirmed by quantitative real-time RT-PCR; there was a high correlation between them. These results suggest that gene expression profiles may provide a useful method for evaluating drug sensitivity of cell lines and eliciting the underlying molecular mechanism. We further compared the genes identified from our current in vitro studies to the genes previously identified in our lab as regulated by APAP in both C57BL/6 and ICR mice in vivo. We found that a few genes are regulated in a similar pattern both in vivo and in vitro. These genes might be useful to develop as in vitro biomarkers for predicting in vivo hepatotoxicity. Based on our results, we suggest that gene expression profiles may provide useful information for elucidating the underlying molecular mechanisms of drug susceptibility and for evaluating drug sensitivity in vitro for extrapolation to in vivo.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.640-645
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• 2016

Microglial cells are immediately activated in the central nervous system in response to a variety of neuronal environmental changes, such as injuries or inflammation. In addition to the modulation of the intrinsic immune response, a key role of microglial cells is the phagocytosis of dying cells and cellular debris. In this study, the inhibitory effects of epigallocatechine-3-gallate (EGCG), a most abundant and active polyphenol component of green tea, on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced microglial activation are determined. EGCG dose dependently suppressed LPS-induced nitric oxide production and the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in BV-2 microglial cells. EGCG are potent LPS-induced inhibitors of several pro-inflammatory cytokine expressions, such as TNF-α and IL-1β, in microglial cells. Furthermore, EGCG generally inhibits the induction of LPS-mediated microglial activation and potently inhibits the phagocytosis of LPS-stimulated BV2 microglia. Although the conditioned media from LPS-stimulated BV-2 cells caused the SN4741 cell death, that from the conditioned media of EGCG pretreated BV-2 cells did not diminish the viability of SN4741 cells. These results suggest EGCG, a green tea polyphenol, could be a promising available molecule for the modulation of harmful microglial activation.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.283-291
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• 2023

Long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) are vital in cellular compartments, primarily regulating lipid metabolism. Fatty Acid-Binding Proteins (FABPs) facilitate LCFA transport, lipid synthesis, storage, and act as signaling molecules influencing various pathways, including inflammation. FABP4, in particular, is linked to vascular and cardio-related diseases, and it plays a role in macrophage-mediated inflammatory responses. Previous studies have identified FABP4 as not only a representative biomarker for lipogenesis but also as having correlations with immune responses. This study aims to investigate the regulation of the chicken FABP4 (chFABP4) gene by toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) activation and determine the signaling pathways that are involved in chFABP4 transcriptional regulation. We analyzed the transcriptional regulation of chFABP4 in TLR3-stimulated DF-1 cells. The results showed that chFABP4 was up-regulated upon stimulation with polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (PIC), a TLR3 ligand. Notably, chFABP4 transcription was independently regulated in the NF-κB signaling pathway. It was up-regulated in p38 inhibition, demonstrating that the p38 signaling pathway might suppress the transcription of chFABP4 within TLR3-activated DF-1 cells. In contrast, chFABP4 expression was down-regulated in JNK signaling pathway inhibition, suggesting the positive regulation of JNK signaling pathway for chFABP4 transcription in DF-1 cells in response to TLR3 activation, consistent with findings in macrophages. MEK pathway inhibition resulted in a similar regulation to NF-κB signaling. These results suggest that each MAPK contributes differentially to the transcriptional regulation of chFABP4 by in DF-1 cells in response to TLR3 activation.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.191-201
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• 2023

Background and Objectives: O-cyclic phytosphingosine-1-phosphate (cP1P) is a synthetic chemical and has a structure like sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P). S1P is known to promote cell migration, invasion, proliferation, and anti-apoptosis through hippocampal signals. However, S1P mediated cellular-, molecular mechanism is still remained in the lung. Acute lung injury (ALI) and its severe form acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are characterized by excessive immune response, increased vascular permeability, alveolar-peritoneal barrier collapse, and edema. In this study, we determined whether cP1P primed human dermal derived mesenchymal stem cells (hdMSCs) ameliorate lung injury and its therapeutic pathway in ALI mice. Methods and Results: cP1P treatment significantly stimulated MSC migration and invasion ability. In cytokine array, secretion of vascular-related factors was increased in cP1P primed hdMSCs (hdMSC^cP1P), and cP1P treatment induced inhibition of Lats while increased phosphorylation of Yap. We next determined whether hdMSC^cP1P reduce inflammatory response in LPS exposed mice. hdMSC^cP1P further decreased infiltration of macrophage and neutrophil, and release of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were reduced rather than naïve hdMSC treatment. In addition, phosphorylation of STAT1 and expression of iNOS were significantly decreased in the lungs of MSC^cP1P treated mice. Conclusions: Taken together, these data suggest that cP1P treatment enhances hdMSC migration in regulation of Hippo signaling and MSC^cP1P provide a therapeutic potential for ALI/ARDS treatment.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.133-144
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• 1986

This study was undertaken to assess the effect of ginseng administration on T lymphocyte induced local xenogenic graft-versus-host(GVM) reactions which were induced with thymocyte, spleen cell and lymph node cell of ICR mice. Mice received daily 10mg of 70% alcohol ginseng extract oral1y for 100days and control mice remained untreated for the same period of time. The cells from donor mice were injected intradermally into the closely shaven abdominal skin of Sprague-Dawley rats for GVH tests. The thymocyte from control(ginseng-untreated) mice showed a negative local GVH reaction, whereas thymocyte from experimental(ginseng-treated) mice showed a positive reaction with the rate of 17.4%. When spleen cells were injected, the incidence of positive local GVH reaction was 66.7% among ginseng-treated mice, as opposed to incidence of 45.5% of positive local GVH reaction among control mice. The incidence of positive local GVH reaction of the lymph node cells when injected into a recipient was 71.4% among ginseng-treated mice as compared with that of 18.9% among control mice. The relationship between spleen cell inoculum and intensity of the local GVH reaction was assessed in ginseng-untreated mice. The intensity of GVH reaction clearly appears to be dose related. In ginseng-treated mice, a minimum of $1{\times}10^7$ spleen cell was required for production of positive local GVH reaction with almost linear relationship up to an inoculum of $5{\times}10^8$ cells. In control mice, however, a minimum of $1{\times}10^8$ spleen cells was required for positive GVH reaction. These results strongly suggest that the ginseng administration augments significantly the local xenogenic GVH reaction which was used to assess T lymphocyte function and immunocompetence of mice and in addition to this, these results appear to support previous suggestions that the local GVH reaction consitutes a qualitative test of the functional activity of T lymphocytes. These results may be the first to induce local GVH reaction, employing rats as recipient and mice as donor. This study was also desingned to investigate some of the effects of ginseng extract on lymphocyte-macrophage interactions. This was accomplished by in vitro quantification of 1) migratory inhibitory factor(MIF) synthetic capacity of splenic lymphocytes in mice previously primed with ginseng 2) MIF responsiveness of mouse peritoneal macrophages or chicken peripheral leucocytes under the presence of ginseng extract 3) migration ability of chicken peripheral leucocytes by direct stimulation of ginseng extract or ginseng saponin and 4) immunosuppressive effects of immunosuppressants such as cyclophosphamide, cyclosporin A or dexamethasone. Mice divided equally into the ginseng and the saline groups, which received intraperitoneally daily 0.2ml of ginseng absolute alcohol-extract(5mg/ml) and same amount of saline for 15 days, respectively. The cellular immune responsiveness of these mice was assayed 15 days after ginseng pretreatment. Splenic lymphocytes of mice treated with ginseng, when stimulated with sensitized specific-antigen such as sheep red blood cells or toxoplasmin, or with polyclonal activator concanavalin A, produced significantly more MIF than those of control saline group. MIF responsiveness of normal mouse macrophages was significantly augmented when assayed under the presence of ginseng extract (1mg/ml). The migratory ability of normal chicken leucocytes in the absence of MIF was significantly decreased by the stimulation of ginseng extract alone. MIF response was significantly decreased by immunosuppressants and this impaired response was not restored by ginseng pretreatment. This study was additionally performed to evaluate the effect of ginseng on the expulsion of adult Trichinella spiralis in mice. ICR mice were infected experimentally by esophageal incubation of 300 T. spiralis infective muscle larvae prepared by acid-pepsin digestion of infected mice. and received oral administration of 70% alcohol ginseng extract(10mg/mouse/day) for the indicated days plus 4 days before infection. At various times after infection, the number of adult T. spiralis worms in small intestines was determined. Interestingly, ginseng-treatment was accompanied by accelerated expulson of T. spiralis. These results led to the conclusion that Panax ginseng caused some enhancing effect on GVH reaction, macrophage migration inhibition reaction and expulsion of T. spiralis. In addition these results suggested that the mechanisms responsible for this enhancement of ginseng may be chiefly or partially due to nonspecific stimulation of cell-mediated immune response.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.905-911
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• 2020

The adjuvant effect of PAMAM dendrimer G4 (PAMAM) on the induction of humoral and cellular immune responses against keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) was examined. Mice were immunized subcutaneously twice at two-week intervals with KLH, with or without PAMAM dendrimer (100 ㎍/mouse), and the mice immunized with KLH+PAMAM showed significantly higher antibody titers against KLH than those immunized with KLH alone. The assay for determining the isotypes of the antibodies showed that PAMAM augmented the KLH-specific antibody titers of IgG1, IgG2a, IgG2b, IgG3, and IgM. In addition, mice immunized twice with KLH+PAMAM followed by a subcutaneous injection of KLH (20 ㎍/site) 7 weeks after the primary immunization exhibited a higher delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reaction than those treated with KLH alone. In an in vitro analysis of T lymphocyte proliferation in response to KLH in week 8, the splenocytes of mice treated with KLH+PAMAM showed significantly higher proliferating activity than those treated with KLH alone, and the culture supernatants of cell cultures from mice immunized with added PAMAM dendrimer showed higher levels of KLH-specific cytokine (IL-4 and IFN-r) production. These results suggest that PAMAM dendrimer G4 possesses a potent immune-adjuvant activity for enhancing both humoral and cell-mediated immunity specific to foreign antigens.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.39-66
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• 2015

Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Sesamum indicum extracted (SEI) on atopic dermatitis in an in-vitro and in-vivo experiment using a MC/9 murine mast cells and a NC/Nga mouse. Methods In-vitro experiment, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-13, TNF-${\alpha}$ and GM-CSF mRNA expression were evaluated by Real-time PCR, IL-13, MIP-$1{\alpha}$ production by ELISA and manifestations of NFAT-1, NFAT-2, c-jun, c-fos, NF-${\kappa}B$ p65 transcription factors by western blotting. In-vivo experiment, we measured WBC, Eosinophil, Neutrophil, and serum IL-5, IL-13 in NC/Nga atopic dermatitis mouse, IL-5, IL-13, IFN-${\gamma}$, IL-4 in the spleenocyte culture supernatant by ELISA, the absolute cell numbers of CD4+, CD8+, +Gr-1+CD11b, B220+CD23+ in the axillary lymph node (ALN), peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and dorsal skin tissue, IL-5, IL-13 by Real-time PCR, the distribution of tissue inflammation and cellular infiltration by H&E and toluidine blue. Results SEI decreased IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-13, GM-CSF, TNF-${\alpha}$ mRNA expression, IL-13, MIP-$1{\alpha}$ production and the expression of transcription factors including NFAT-1, c-jun, NF-${\kappa}B$ p65 in MC/9 murine mast cells. SEI orally administration decreased cell number of WBC, Eosinophil, the level of serum IgE, total cell number of ALN and dorsal skin tissue, absolute cell number of CD4+, CD8+, B220+CD23+ in the ALN. SEI orally administration also increased absolute cell number of CD8+/CD3+ and decreased Gr-1+/CD11b+ in PBMCs, decreased CD4+ in dorsal skin tissue, inhibited IL-5, IL-13 mRNA expression. Infiltration levels of inflammatory immune cells, mast cells and thickness of epidermis decreased in dorsal skin tissue. Conclusions SEI can regulate allergic inflammatory response suppressed the gene expression and production of cytokines that mediate allergic reactions, and will be able to be effectively utilized in the treatment of atopic dermatitis future.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.275-287
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• 2010

Deep caries may induce pulpitis and the pulpal tissue interacts with microbial invasion. The immune response to protect the pulpal tissue can be mediated by cellular signal molecules produced by the pulpal cells. The understanding of these processes is important to find future therapeutic method for the diseased pulp. The pulp tissue from sound teeth was set as control group (n=30) and the pulp tissue from decayed teeth was set as test group (n=30). Total RNA was extracted from the pulp of each group and it was used for cDNA microarray and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR). The expression of TGF-${\beta}1$ was studied by immunohistochemistry. The results were as follows: 1. cDNA microarray analysis identified 520 genes with 6-fold or greater difference in expression level with 143 genes more abundant in health and 377 genes more abundant in disease. 2. The RT-PCR analysis was done for randomly selected 14 genes and the results supported the result of cDNA microarray assay. 3. TGF-${\beta}1$ was highly expressed in the carious pulp and it was found in odontoblast by immunohistochemistry. In conclusion, many cytokines were found to be significantly changed their expression in the diseased pulp(/M/>1.6).