• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2015

Background: Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death, and inflammatory bowel disease is a risk factor for this malignancy. We previously reported colon cancer chemoprevention potential using American ginseng (AG) in a xenograft mice model. However, the nude mouse model is not a gut-specific colon carcinogenesis animal model. Methods: In this study, an experimental colitis and colitis-associated colorectal carcinogenesis mouse model, chemically induced by azoxymethane/dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) was established and the effects of oral AG were evaluated. The contents of representative ginseng saponins in the extract were determined. Results: AG significantly reduced experimental colitis measured by the disease activity index scores. This suppression of the experimental colitis was not only evident during DSS treatment, but also very obvious after the cessation of DSS, suggesting that the ginseng significantly promoted recovery from the colitis. Consistent with the anti-inflammation data, we showed that ginseng very significantly attenuated azoxymethane/DSS-induced colon carcinogenesis by reducing the colon tumor number and tumor load. The ginseng also effectively suppressed DSS-induced proinflammatory cytokines activation using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay array, in which 12 proinflammatory cytokine levels were assessed, and this effect was supported subsequently by real-time polymerase chain reaction data. Conclusion: AG, as a candidate of botanical-based colon cancer chemoprevention, should be further investigated for its potential clinical utility.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.174-180
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• 2009

Chemical modification of titanium/titanium oxide (Ti/$TiO_2$) substrates has recently gained a great deal of attention because of the applications of Ti/$TiO_2$-based materials to biomedical areas. The reported modification methods generally involve passive coating of Ti/$TiO_2$ substrates with protein-resistant materials, and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) has proven advantageous for bestowing a nonbiofouling property on the surface of Ti/$TiO_2$. However, the wider applications of Ti/$TiO_2$ based materials to biomedical areas will require the introduction of biologically active moieties onto Ti/$TiO_2$, in addition to nonbiofouling property. In this work, we therefore utilized surface-initiated polymerization to coat the Ti/$TiO_2$ substrates with polymers presenting the nonbiofouling PEG moiety and subsequently conjugated biologically active compounds to the PEG-presenting, polymeric films. Specifically, a Ti/$TiO_2$ surface was chemically modified to present an initiator for atom transfer radical polymerization, and poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate (pEGMA) was polymerized from the surface. After activation of hydroxyl groups of poly(pEGMA) (pPEGMA) with N,N'-disuccinimidyl carbonate, biotin, a model compound, was conjugated to the pPEGMA films. The reactions were confirmed by infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, contact angle goniometry, and ellipsometry. The biospecific binding of target proteins was also utilized to generate micropatterns of proteins on the Ti/$TiO_2$ surface.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.189-195
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• 2019

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Although aged black garlic has various biological activities such as anti-allergy, anti-inflammation and neuroprotection, effect of aged black garlic on chemically contact dermatitis is unclarified. MATERIALS/METHODS: To evaluate anti-dermatitic activity of aged black garlic extract, we investigated effects of a fraction of aged black garlic extract (BG10) on both in vivo and in vitro. RESULTS: BG10 almost inhibited formation of nitric monoxide and interleukin-6 (IL-6; $IC_{50}$, $7.07{\mu}g/mL$) at $25{\mu}g/mL$, and dose-dependently reduced production of tumor necrosis $factor-{\alpha}$ ($TNF-{\alpha}$; $IC_{50}$, $52.07{\mu}g/mL$) and prostaglandin $E_2$ ($IC_{50}$, $38.46{\mu}g/mL$) in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. In addition, BG10 significantly inhibited the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase, cyclooxygenase-2 and nuclear $NF-{\kappa}B$, and improved that of cytosolic levels of $NF-{\kappa}B$ and $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ in the cells. Consistent with in vitro studies, BG10 (0.5 mg/mL) not only reduced ear edema but also suppressed the formation of IL-6 and $TNF-{\alpha}$ induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate in ear tissues of mice. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest BG10 has anti-dermatitic activity through inhibiting activation of macrophages. Therefore, such effects of BG10 may provide information for the application of aged black garlic for prevention and therapy of contact dermatitis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.254-260
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• 2007

This study was examined closely physiological activation and intended to present the possibility of developing food low-fat food. Developing carbohydrate fat replacer as materials for low-fat food made of Korean potato starch, it is expected that the new demand of fat replacer will be created. Potato starch was modified by chemical modification. The calorie of starch of GPS was measured to be 3.0 kcal/g, those of chemically modified starch, HPR showed 2.5 kcal/g respectively, suggesting that calorie is decreased by modified treatment. The appropriateness of processing food was experimented by substituting the existing oil and fat containing food with gel of starch and modified starch in constant rate through utilization of modified starch. When producing mayonnaise by substituting edible oil with gel of modified starch in 10-50%, calorie was reduced by 44${\sim}$45% when substituted by 50%, suggesting the potential of low-fat food. Measuring viscosity of mayonnaise by Brookfield viscometer, the mayonnaise with HPR showed high viscosity and the chemical modified starch group of EZ also showed high viscosity. Generally, the material property of mayonnaise tended to reduce in all measured items when oil and fat are substituted by starch substituting materials and the substituting materials increase. When it comes to the emulsification stability of mayonnaise with starch substituting materials, emulsification stability of all mayonnaise with starch substituting materials is lower than that of compared group. While the group with NL as commercial fat replacer showed emulsification stability which was slightly higher than group with modified starch and the substitution group of HPR showed higher emulsification stability. Sensory evaluation for low-fat mayonnaise by substituting oil the products substituted by modified starch was more preferred than general starch substituting products such as GPS. While NL as commercially fat replacer showed the hight preference, products with H40, EZ were also highly preferred.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.63-78
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• 2024

The continuous increasing of the global demand of copper and nickel metals raises the interest in developing alternative technologies to produce them from copper sulfide ore. Also, in line with Egypt's vision 2030 for achieving the sustainable socioeconomic development which aims at developing alternative and eco-friendly technologies for processing the Egyptian ores to produce these strategic products instead of its importing. These metals enhance the advanced electrical and electronic industries. The current work aims at investigating the recovery of copper and nickel from Abu Swayeil copper ore using pug leaching technique by sulfuric acid. The factors affecting the pug leaching process including the sulfuric acid concentration, leaching time and temperature have been investigated. The copper ore sample was characterized chemically using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and scanning electron microscope (SEM-EDX). A response surface methodology develops a quadratic model that expects the nickel and copper leaching effectiveness as a function of three controlling factors involved in the procedure of leaching was also investigated. The obtained results showed that the maximum dissolution efficiency of Ni and Cu are 99.06 % and 95.30%, respectively which was obtained at the following conditions: 15 % H₂SO₄ acid concentration for 6 hr. at 250 ℃. The dissolution kinetics of nickel and copper that were examined according to heterogeneous model, indicated that the dissolution rates were controlled by surface chemical process during the pug leaching. The activation energy of copper and nickel dissolution were 26.79 kJ.mol^-1 and 38.078 kJ.mol^-1 respectively; and the surface chemical was proposed as the leaching rate-controlling step.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.139-147
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• 2018

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a useful biotechnological tool for animal cloning. Until now, SCNT has been inefficient, especially in dog. It is believed that an embryo developmental block in SCNT embryos is cause of low production efficiency. However, no studies have been performed on canines for embryo developmental block. In this study, we attempted to evaluate the beneficial role of EDTA in canine parthenogenic (PA) embryos development to overcome embryo developmental block. The PA embryos were divided into 0.01 mM EDTA treated and non-treated groups. Embryo developmental efficiency was measured by activating chemically parthenote. After EDTA induction, PA embryos were evaluated for embryonic development, Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) activity, mitochondrial integrity, ATP production and genomic activation. The EDTA treated PA embryos showed significantly higher survival rate and improved cavity formation compared to non-treated. Furthermore, cytoplasmic ROS level was mitigated and mitochondrial membrane potential was found significantly higher in EDTA treated group followed by higher ATP production. Moreover, major embryonic genomic activation specific markers/factors were also elevated in EDTA treated group. Conclusively, we elucidated that EDTA showed substantially positive effect to overcome embryo developmental block in canine.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.255-260
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• 1998

Metal hydrides, $LaNi_5$ and $LaNi_{4.5}Al_{0.5}$, were prepared using chemical synthetic method, and their physical properties were examined using various analytic techniques such as TGA, XRD, SEM and EDX. The activation of the chemically prepared $LaNi_5$ and $LaNi_{4.5}Al_{0.5}$ was achieved by two hydriding/dehydriding cycles only. The miasurements of P-C-T curves revealed that 6 and 5.5 hydrogen atoms were stored in LaNi5and $LaNi_{4.5}Al_{0.5}$, respectively. The hydriding reaction rated for $LaNi_{4.5}Al_{0.5}$ were measured by the method of initial rates. It was found that the shrinking unreacted core model could be applied for the analysis of hydriding kinetics of $LaNi_5$. The rate controlling step of this reaction was the dissociative chemisorption of hydrogen molecules on the surface of $LaNi_5$. The activation energy was $9.506kcal/mol-H_2$. The rates measured in the temperature range from 273 to 343K and in pressure difference ($P_o-P_{eq}$) range form 0.25 to 0.66atm could be expressed as the following equation ; $\frac{dX}{dt}=4.636(P_o-P_{eq})$ exp($\frac{-9506}{RT}$).

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.35-39
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• 2011

In this work, mesoporous carbons (CMK-3) were prepared by a conventional templating method using mesoporous silica (SBA-15) for using catalyst supports in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The CMK-3 were chemically activated to obtain high surface area and small pore diameter with different potassium hydroxide (KOH) amounts, i.e., 0, 1, 3, and 4 g as an activating agent. And then Pt-Ru was deposited onto activated CMK-3 (K-CMK-3) by a chemical reduction method. The characteristics of Pt-Ru catalysts deposited onto K-CMK-3 were determined by surface area and pore size analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and inductive coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The electrochemical properties of Pt-Ru/K-CMK-3 catalysts were also analyzed by cyclic voltammetry (CV). From the results, the K3g-CMK-3 carbon supports activated with 3 g KOH showed the highest specific surface areas. In addition, the K3g-CMK-3 led to uniform dispersion of Pt-Ru onto K-CMK-3, resulted in the enhancement of elelctro-catalystic activity of Pt-Ru catalysts.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.83-91
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• 2018

Advances in bacterial and fungal genome mining uncover a plethora of cryptic secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters. Guided by the genome information, targeted transcriptional derepression could be employed to determine the product of a cryptic gene cluster and to explore its biological role. Monascus spp. are food grade filamentous fungi popular in eastern Asia and several genome data belong to them are now available. We achieved transcription activation of a cryptic fungal polyketide synthase-nonribosomal peptide synthase gene Mpfus1 in Monascus purpureus ${\Delta}MpPKS5$ by inserting Aspergillus gpdA promoter at the upstream of Mpfus1 through double crossover gene replacement. The gene cluster with Mpfus1 show a high similarity to those for the biosynthesis of conjugated polyene derivatives with 2-pyrrolidone ring and the mycotoxin fusarin is the representative member of this group. The ${\Delta}MpPKS5$ is incapable of producing azaphilone pigment, providing an excellent background to identify chromogenic and UV-absorbing compounds. Activation of Mpfus1 resulted in a yellow hue on mycelia and its methanol extract exhibit a maximum absorption at 365 nm. HPLC analysis of the organic extracts indicated the presence of a variety of yellow compounds in the extract. This implies that the product of MpFus1 is metabolically or chemically unstable. LC-MS analysis guided us to predict the MpFus1 product and to propose that the Mpfus1-containing gene cluster encode the biosynthesis of a desmethyl analogue of fusarin. This study showcases the genome mining in Monascus and the possibility to unveil new biological activities embedded in it.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.94-98
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• 2003

Quercetin and naringenin are representative flavonoids that not only exert anti estrogenic, cholesterol-lowering and antioxidant activities but also can modulate the metabolism of many xenobiotics. The activity of the specific form(s) of CYP450 is likely to be a major determinant of susceptibility to chemically induced carcinogenesis between which varies among between individuals due to different dietary habits as well as genetic characteristics. People consume cooked meat or fish together with various vegetables containing substantial amounts of quercetin and naringenin that can modify the enzyme activity of CYP1A2 to stimulate or to inhibit the mutagenic activities of HCAs. Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) produced by cooking meat products at high temperatures are promutagens that are activated by cytochrome P450 (CYP) lA2. Using a newly developed Salmonella typhimurium TA1538/1A2bc-b5 strain, we tested the effect of quercetin and naringenin on the mutagenicity of 2-amino-3,4-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (MeIQ). TA1538/1A2bc-b5 bears two plasmids, one expressing human CYP1A2 and NADPH-P450 reductase (NPR), and the other plasmid which expresses human cytochrome b5 (cyp b5). TA1538/1A2bc-b5 cells showed high activities of 7-ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase (EROD) and methoxyresorufin O-demethylase (MROD) associated with CYP1A2 and are very sensitive to mutagenesis induced by several HCAs. MeIQ was found to be the strongest mutagen among the HCAs tested in this system. Mutagenicity of MeIQ was enhanced 50 and 42% by quercetin at 0.1 and 1 mM, respectively, but suppressed 82% and 96% at 50 mM and 100 mM. Naringenin also increased the MeIQ-induced mutation about 37% and 22% at 0.1 and 1 mM, but suppressed it 32% and 63% at 50 mM and 100 mM concentrations, respectively, in TA 1538/1A2bc-b5 cells. Thus, they stimulated the MeIQ induced mutation at low concentrations, but strongly suppressed it at high concentrations. This biphasic effect of flavonoids was due to the stimulation or the inhibition of CYP1A2 activity in a dose-dependent manner judging by the activities of EROD or MROD in the Salmonella cells. Collectively, it is likely that the biphasic effects of quercetin and naringenin on the MeIQ-induced mutagenesis in S. typhimurium TA1538/CYP1A2bc-b5 were due to their differential modification of the CYP1A2 activity in these cells.