• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.111-115
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• 2019

Vitamin D dependent rickets type 1A (VDDR1A) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in CYP27B1. Clinical findings are growth retardation, hypotonia, muscle weakness, hypocalcemic seizures, and radiological features of rickets. We aimed to present the VDDR1A case with a genetic study of CYP27B1. The 14-month-old boy was admitted to the hospital due to a seizure. Serum calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, parathyroid hormone (PTH), 25(OH) vitamin D, and 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D values were 5.1 mg/dL, 3.7 mg/dL, 705 IU/L, 429 pg/mL, 24.9 ng/mL, and 8.8 pg/mL, respectively. Radiological study showed cupping and fraying of the distal ulna and radius. The molecular genetic study revealed that the patient had a compound heterozygous mutation, $Phe443Profs^*24$ and c.589+1G>A, in CYP27B1. Genetic analysis of the family members presented that the mother was heterozygous for the mutation c.589+1G>A, and that the father was heterozygous for $Phe443Profs^*24$. The patient was treated with calcium lactate and calcitriol. Until now, six Korean patients with VDDR1A have been studied. Including this case, Korean patients with VDDR1A were found to have only three different mutations in 14 alleles, indicating that the mutation in the CYP27B1 gene is homogeneous in the Korean population.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.81-89
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• 2019

The major problem encountered during the storage of pig slurry (PS) is the release of huge amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which are dominated by methane ($CH_4$). To reduce this, concentrated sulfuric acid has been used as an additive to control the pH of pig slurry to 5.0-6.0. However, other low-risk substitutes have been developed due to some limitations to its use, such as corrosiveness, and hazards to animal and human health. In this study, sugar addition was proposed as an eco-friendly approach for limiting $CH_4$ emission from PS during storage. The pH of PS has been reduced from $7.1{\pm}0.1$ (control) to $5.8{\pm}0.1$, $4.6{\pm}0.1$, $4.4{\pm}0.1$, $4.1{\pm}0.1$, and $4.0{\pm}0.1$, by the addition of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 g sugar/L, respectively. Lactate, acetate, and propionate were detected as the dominant organic acids and at sugar concentration above 20 g/L, lactate concentration represented 42-72% (COD basis) of total organic acids. For 40 d of storage, $20.6{\pm}2.3kg\;CO_2\;eq./ton\;PS$ was emitted in the control. Such emission, however, was found to be reduced to $8.7{\pm}0.4$ and $0.4{\pm}0.1kg\;CO_2\;eq./ton\;PS$ at 10 and 20 g/L, respectively. Small amount of $CH_4$ from PS at 10 g/L was emitted until 30 d of storage, while for rest of storage period, it has increased to $8.7{\pm}0.4kg\;CO_2\;eq./ton\;PS$ ( 40% of the control) when methanogens have recovered by increasing pH to 7.0. By the end of storage, VS and COD removal in the control reached 24% and 27%, while their ranges reached 15-4% and 12-17% in the sugar added experiments, respectively. It was found that more than 90% of COD removal was done by aerobic biological process.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 1999

Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) have recently emerged in Korean hospitals, as well as in those of other countries. VRE have been partially attributed to the overuse and misuse of vancomycin. The mecbanisms of VRE resistance are related to VanA, VanB, and VanC. Both VanA and VanB produce abnormal ligase enzymes to form D-ala-D-lactate termini in E. faecium and E. faecalis, instead of D-ala-D-ala termini. Meanwhile, Van C produces D-ser-D-ala termini in E. gallinarum and E. casseliflavus. These abnormal termini have a low affinity to vancomycin. As a result, VRE avoid the activity of vancomycin by these mechanisms. Unfortunately, there is no approved therapy for the treatment of VRE. Thus, available but uncommonly prescribed antibiotics (due to their toxicity or unproven efficacy) may become possible options. They include chloramphenicol, novobiocin, fosfomycin, and bacitracin. The combination therapy of available agents may also be the other options. They include high doses of a penicillin- or ampicillin-aminoglycoside combination, high doses of an ampicillin/sulbactam and aminoglyoosidcs combination, an ampicillin and vancomycin combination, and a ciprofloxacin, aminoglycosides, and rifampin combination. With respect to the near future, many types of investigational agents will most likely expand their treatment options for VRE. Teicoplanin, a glycopeptide, can be used for VanB- and VanC-related VRE. LY333328, a new generation of glycopeptide, is effective in treating VanA as well as VanB and VanC. RP59500 (quinupristin/dalfopristin), a streptogramin, is effective in treating vancomycin-resistant E. faecium. New generation quinolones (especially clinatloxacin) are potential options for the treatment of VRE, even though they cannot work as effectively against VRE as they can against Staphylococci. Both glycylcyclines (a new generation of tetracyclines) and ketolides (a new generation of macrolides) show good activity against Enterococci, regardless of vancomycin susceptibility. Oxazolidinones (i. e. eperezolid and 1inezolid) and everninomicins (i. e. SCH27899) are new groups of antibiotics, which also demonstrate good activity against VRE. It is imperative that clinical pharmacists take the responsibility of investigating new treatment options for VRE in order to combat this growing problem throughout the world.

• Korea Journal of Cosmetic Science
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

The identification of compounds with anti-senescence activity in cell culture system is a first step in aging research. Given that pyruvate can be used energy source by conversion to acetyl-CoA in mitochondria, and protects cultured cell from various stress-induced cell damage and cell death, synthetic media (e.g., DMEM) often includes 1 mM pyruvate, which is very higher than the pyruvate concentration in human blood (approximately 30 ��M). However, the use of medium containing high concentration of pyruvate is not suitable for screening anti-senescence compounds, because pyruvate also protects against the cellular senescence of primary human dermal fibroblasts (NHDFs) through NAD+ generated during conversion to lactate. In this study, four extracts, i.e., Sprouted seed and fruit complex, Poncirus trifoliata fruit extract, Jaum balancing complex, and Prunus mume extract were used for evaluation of different anti-senescence effect in the absence or presence of 0.1 mM pyruvate, similar to the physiological pyruvate concentration. The senescence in NHDFs cultured with DMEM in the presence of 0.1 mM pyruvate (approximately the physiological concentration in human blood) is accelerated, as observed in pyruvate deprivation conditions. The cytotoxicity of the Poncirus trifoliata fruit extract was protected by pyruvate, and Jaum balancing complex and Prunus mume extract had anti-senescence activity in the presence of 0.1 mM pyruvate, but not in the absence of pyruvate. Given that pyruvate is a powerful protector against both cytotoxicity and cellular senescence, the screening of candidate agents for anti-senescence in high pyruvate conditions using an in vitro cell culture system is not valid. Therefore, we recommend the use of a low concentration of pyruvate to evaluate the anti-senescence effects of candidates, which is more similar to in vivo aging conditions than excessive stress-induced senescence models, to exclude the effect of excessive pyruvate in vitro.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.390-397
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• 2005

The inhibition of cell recovery might be proceeded via either the damage of the mechanism of the recovery itself or via the formation of irreversible damage which could not be repaired at all. Both these processes may take place at the same time. Any of these possibilities would result in a decrease in both the rate and extent of cell recovery. To distinguish them, a quantitative approach describing the process of recovery as a decrease in the effective radiation dose was applied to experimental data on the recovery from potentially lethal damage in Chinese hamster cells exposed to X-rays alone or combined with various chemicals (pyruvate, novobiocin, lactate, nalidixic acid, 3-aminobenzamide). For these particular cases, it is concluded that the recovery process itself is not damaged and the inhibition of the recovery is entirely due to the enhanced yield of the irreversibly damaged cells.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.355-362
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• 2009

I evaluated the protective effect of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)/glycine receptor antagonist, 7-chlorokinurenic acid (CKA) on cultured mouse astrocytes damaged by ischemia-like condition (ILC). The protective effect of CKA was assessed by cell viability, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like activity and lipid peroxidation. To examine the effect of CKA on the cell apoptosis, the expression and the activity of caspase 3 were assessed by Western blotting. CKA increased the cell viability decreased by ILC. CKA also decreased the LDH activity and antioxidative effects such as SOD-like activity and inhibitory activity of lipid peroxidation. In addition, CKA suppressed the expression of caspase 3 associated with apoptosis, and increased the cell viability by the decrease of caspase 3 activity as like the caspase 3 inhibitor, Av-DVED-MED. From these results, these results suggest that ILS induces cell cytotoxicity in cultured astrocytes and CKA, NMDA/glycine receptor antagonist, is effective on the prevention of the cytotoxicity due to ILS by the antioxidative effect and the inhibition of apoptosis.

• Ocean Science Journal
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 2006

Seventeen lactic acid bacterial strains (LAB) were isolated using MRS agar medium from Jeotgal, a Korean fermented food, purchased at the Jukdo market of Pohang. To identify the strains isolated, they were tested by examining their cell morphologies, gram-staining, catalase activity, arginine hydrolase activity, D-L lactate form and carbohydrate fermentation. According to the phenotypic characteristics, three strains were tentatively identified as Lactobacillus spp., ten were Enterococcus spp. (or Streptococcus spp., or Pediococcus spp.) and the rest were Leuconostoc spp. (or Weissella spp.). Five strains among 17 were chosen by preliminary bacteriocin activity test. Four bacterial strains which inhibited both indicator microorganisms were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing. The results are as follows; Leuconostoc mesenteroides (HK 4), Leuconostoc mesenteroides (HK 5), Leuconostoc mesenteroides(HK 11), Streptococcus salivarius(HK 8). In order to check LAB which are showing a high survival rate in gut, we investigated three strains inhibiting both indicator microorganisms in artificial gastric acid and bile juice -all except HK8. The three strains mentioned above grew in extreme low acid conditions.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 1997

The effects of ginseng total saponins (GTS) on hypoxic damage of primary cultures of astrocytes were studied. Hypoxia was created by placing cultures in an air tight chamber that was flushed with 95% $N_2/5%CO_2$ for 15 min before being sealed. Cultures showed evidence of significant cell injury after 24 h of hypoxia (increased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) content in the culture medium, cell swelling and decreased glutamate uptake and protein content). Addition of GTS (0.1, 0.3 mg/ml) to the cultures during the exposure to hypoxic conditions produced dose-dependent inhibition of the LDH efflux. GTS (0.1, 0.3 mg/ml) also produced significant inhibition of the increased cell volume of astrocytes measured by $[^3H]$ O-methyl-D-glucose uptake under the hypoxic conditions. Decreased glutamate uptake and protein content was inhibited by GTS. These data suggest that GTS prevents astrocytic cell injury induced by severe hypoxia in vitro.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.1346-1351
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• 2018

Oxidoreductases are effective biocatalysts, but their practical use is limited by the need for large quantities of NAD(P)H. In this study, a whole-cell biocatalyst for NAD(P)H cofactor regeneration was developed using the economical substrate glycerol. This cofactor regeneration system employs permeabilized Escherichia coli cells in which the glpD and gldA genes were deleted and the gpsA gene, which encodes $NAD(P)^+-dependent$ glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, was overexpressed. These manipulations were applied to block a side reaction (i.e., the conversion of glycerol to dihydroxyacetone) and to switch the glpD-encoding enzyme reaction to a gpsA-encoding enzyme reaction that generates both NADH and NADPH. We demonstrated the performance of the cofactor regeneration system using a lactate dehydrogenase reaction as a coupling reaction model. The developed biocatalyst involves an economical substrate, bifunctional regeneration of NAD(P)H, and simple reaction conditions as well as a stable environment for enzymes, and is thus applicable to a variety of oxidoreductase reactions requiring NAD(P)H regeneration.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.1467-1472
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• 2013

Metabolomics is a field that studies systematic dynamics and secretion of metabolites from cells to understand biological pathways based on metabolite changes. The metabolic profiling of intact human colorectal tissues was performed using high-resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) NMR spectroscopy, which was unnecessary to extract metabolites from tissues. We used two different groups of samples, which were defined as normal and cancer, from 9 patients with colorectal cancer and investigated the samples in NMR experiments with a water suppression pulse sequence. We applied target profiling and multivariative statistical analysis to the analyzed 1D NMR spectra to identify the metabolites and discriminate between normal and cancer tissues. Cancer tissue showed higher levels of arginine, betaine, glutamate, lysine, taurine and lower levels of glutamine, hypoxanthine, isoleucine, lactate, methionine, pyruvate, tyrosine relative to normal tissue. In the OPLS-DA (orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis), the score plot showed good separation between the normal and cancer groups. These results suggest that metabolic profiling of colorectal cancer could provide new biomarkers.