• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 2002

Background:Since serotonin neurotrasnmission plays an important role in the pathophysiology of depression, the drug that acts on serotonin transporter can be an effective antidepressant. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between serotonin transporter polymorphisms(5-HTTLPR) and the long-term effect of the antidepressant treatment. Method:The 175 depressive patients, who met DSM-IV criteria for major depressive disorder or dysthymic disorder were enrolled into three year study. The genotypes of the patients were investigated by polymerase chain reaction of genomic DNA with promoter regions of the serotonin transporter gene. The patients were assessed by the Clinical Global Impression Scale, at the 1st visit, 8th week, 16th week, 1st year, 2nd and 3rd year after the antidepressant treatment. Result:The genotypes of 138 patients were investigated and 128 of them finished this 1st year study and 107 remained in the study after 2-year treatment, and, 97 completed this 3-year study. The therapeutic response of each subset was not different at 8th, 16th week, but the subset with homozygote(l/l) of long variant showed a better antidepressant therapeutic response than heterozygote(l/s). The heterozygote(l/s) showed a better response than the subset with homozygote(s/s) of short variant at 1st, 2nd and 3rd year after the antidepressant treatment in CGI-global improvement score. Conclusion:This result shows that the serotonin transporter polymorphism may be related to the long-term effect of antidepressant treatment and there may be also ethnic difference.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.168-174
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• 1999

Escherichia coli O157 is an important pathogenic organism which causes diarrhea, haemorrhagic colitis, and haemolytic ureamic syndrome (HUS) in human. E. coli O157 KNIH317 was isolated form patients suffering with HUS in Korea. We designed a primer set for cloning shiga-like toxin (slt) gene. The amplified PCR product was used to Southern and colony hybridization as a probe. As a result, we cloned 4.5-kb KpnI fragment containing the slt gene encoding shiga-like toxin from chromosomal DNA of E. coli O157 KNIH317. This recombinant plasmid was named pOVT45. E. coli XL1-Blue harboring pOVT45 showed cytotoxicity in Vero cells. We sequenced the slt gene of this strain. The A-subunit gene of the slt was composed of 960 base pairs with ATG initiation codon and TAA terminationcodon. The B-subunit was composed of 270 base paris with ATG initiation codon and TGA termination codon. Nucleotide sequence comparison of the slt gene exhibited 100%, 98.4%, 93.7%, and 93.7% identity with that of shiga-like toxin type II (sltII) of E. coli bacteriophage 933W, variant slt of E. coli, slt of E. coli, and variant sltII of E. coli, respectively. From these results, it was concluded that the cloned slt gene belongs to SltII family and that the strain used in this study may be a lysogeny of E. coli bcteriphage 933W.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.169-175
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• 2014

Human organic cation/carnitine transporter 1 (OCTN1) plays an important role in the transport of drugs and endogenous substances. It is known that a missense variant of OCTN1 is significantly associated with Crohn's disease susceptibility. This study was performed to identify genetic variants of the OCTN1 promoter in Korean individuals and to determine their functional effects. First, the promoter region of OCTN1 was directly sequenced using genomic DNA samples from 48 healthy Koreans. OCTN1 promoter activity was then measured using a luciferase reporter assay in HCT-116 cells. Seven variants of the OCTN1 promoter were identified, two of which were novel. There were also four major OCTN1 promoter haplotypes. Three haplotypes (H1, H3, and H4) showed decreased transcriptional activity, which was reduced by 22.9%, 23.0%, and 44.6%, respectively (p<0.001), compared with the reference haplotype (H2). Transcription factor binding site analyses and gel shift assays revealed that NF-Y could bind to the region containing g.-1875T>A, a variant present in H3, and that the binding affinity of NF-Y was higher for the g.-1875T allele than for the g.-1875A allele. NF-Y could also repress OCTN1 transcription. These data suggest that three OCTN1 promoter haplotypes could regulate OCTN1 transcription. To our knowledge, this is the first study to identify functional variants of the OCTN1 promoter.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.11
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• pp.783-793
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• 2019

When endoplasmic reticulum (ER) functions are perturbed, the ER induces several signaling pathways called unfolded protein response to reestablish ER homeostasis through three ER transmembrane proteins: inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1), PKR-like ER kinase (PERK), and activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6). Although it is important to measure the activity of ATF6 that can indicate the status of the ER, no specific cell-based reporter assay is currently available. Here, we report a new cell-based method for monitoring ER stress based on the cleavage of $ATF6{\alpha}$ by sequential actions of proteases at the Golgi apparatus during ER stress. A new expressing vector was constructed by using fusion gene of GAL4 DNA binding domain (GAL4DBD) and activation domain derived from herpes simplex virus VP16 protein (VP16AD) followed by a human $ATF6{\alpha}$ N-terminal deletion variant. During ER stress, the GAL4DBD-VP16AD(GV)-$hATF6{\alpha}$ deletion variant was cleaved to liberate active transcription activator encompassing GV-$hATF6{\alpha}$ fragment which could translocate into the nucleus. The translocated GV-$hATF6{\alpha}$ fragment strongly induced the expression of firefly luciferase in HeLa Luciferase Reporter cell line containing a stably integrated 5X GAL4 site-luciferase gene. The established double stable reporter cell line HLR-GV-$hATF6{\alpha}$(333) represents an innovative tool to investigate regulated intramembrane proteolysis of $ATF6{\alpha}$. It can substitute active pATF6(N) binding motif-based reporter cell lines.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.190-195
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• 2019

We aimed to identify genomic variations as well as the marker genes related with chronic mitral valve disease (CMVD) in Canis lupus familiaris using whole genome resequencing, which provides valuable resources for further study. Two ten-year old female Canis lupus familiaris English cocker spaniels were used for this study, one control and one who had been diagnosed as CMVD. For the whole genome resequencing, muscles from the left ventricular wall were collected from each dog. With the HiSeq DNA Shotgun library and $HiSeq^{TM}$ 2000 platform, whole genome resequencing was performed. From the results, we identified 5 million and 6 million variants in gene expression in the control and CMVD-diagnosed subject, respectively. We then selected the top 1,000 genes from the SNP, INS, and DEL mutation and 675 genes among them were overlapped for every mutation between the control and CMVD-diagnosed patient. Interestingly, in both groups, the intron variant (91.16 and 91.18%) and upstream variant (3.10 and 3.08%) are most highly related. Among the overlapped 675 genes, gene ontology for intracellular signal transduction is highly counted in INS, and DEL, and SNPs (35, 33, 31, respectively). In this study, we found that the COL and CDH gene families could be key molecules in identifying the difference in gene expression between control and CMVD-diagnosed dogs. We believe further studies will prove the importance of variants in key molecule expression and that these data will serve as a valuable foundation stone the study of canine CMVD.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.56-61
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• 2009

Purpose: Preeclampsia is a multifactorial disorder with genetic and environmental components. Recently, the STOX1 gene, identified as a candidate gene for preeclampsia in Dutch women, has been shown to be placentally expressed and subject to imprinting with preferential transmission of the maternal allele. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is an association between the STOX1 Y153H variation and preeclampsia in Korean pregnant women. Materials and Methods: This study involved 202 preeclamptic and 204 healthy pregnant women who were genotyped for the Y153H variant of the STOX1 gene using a commercially available SNapShot assay kit and an ABI Prism 3730 DNA Analyzer. Results: There were no significant differences in genotype frequencies of the Y153H variant of the STOX1 gene between preeclamptic patients and normal controls (P>0.05). The H allele frequency of the STOX1 Y153H variation was similar in patients with preeclampsia (87.1%) and in normal controls (86.5%). In addition, multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the YH, HH, and YH/HH genotypes were not associated with an increased risk of preeclampsia when compared to the YY genotype. Conclusion: This is the first study to characterize the Y153H variant of the STOX1 gene in Korean patients with preeclampsia. We found no differences in the genotype and allele frequencies between preeclamptic and normal pregnancies. Although limited by a relatively small sample size, our study suggests that the STOX1 Y153H variation is not associated with the development of preeclampsia in Korean pregnant women.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.215-222
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• 2002

Objective : Previous studies have suggested that hyperhomocysteinemia and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR C677T) mutations are associated with increased risk of recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA). Recently, a second site polymorphism in MTHFR, 1298A-->C, which changes a glutamic acid into an alanine residue, was shown to be associated with a decreased enzyme activity. We tested whether the variant alleles of MTHFR C677T and A1298C are risk factor (biomarker) for RSA. Materials and Methods: We analyzed DNA from a case-control study in the Korean DNA was extracted from blood samples of 118 patients with RSA and 123 healthy fertile patients as the controls. MTHFR variant alleles were determined by a PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism assay. Results: We found no evidence for an association between 677TT genotype and risk of RSA (OR=1.95, 95% CI=$0.84{\sim}4.50$, p=0.12). However, the MTHFR 1298AC (OR=0.36, 95% CI=$0.20{\sim}0.63$, p=0.0004) and 1298AC+CC (OR=0.35, 95% CI=$0.20{\sim}0.61$, p=0.0002) genotypes were lower among 118 RSA cases compared with 123 controls, conferring a 2.8-fold decrease in risk of RSA, respectively. Moreover, the combined genotypes of MTHFR 677CC/1298AC (OR=0.30, 95% CI=$0.10{\sim}0.88$, p=0.029) and 677CT/1298AC (OR=0.77, 95% CI=$0.60{\sim}0.99$, p=0.043) also showed significantly lower risk than those with MTHFR 677CC/1298AA type. Conclusion: MTHFR 1298AC, MTHFR 677CC/1298AC and 677CT/1298AC genotypes may represent genetic markers for the protection of RSA at least in Korean women.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.245-256
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• 2016

Elytra of Harmonia axyridis exhibit varied color patterns. In the present study, we deciphered the genetic basis for intraspecific diversity of elytra color patterns in H. axyridis, using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Twenty-eight AFLP reactions were performed to generate a total of 2,741 bands. Of these, 20 bands were polymorphic for each color pattern. The polymorphic bands showed differences of genetic character among different color patterns of H. axyridis. Among them, ten candidate AFLP markers were color-linked. S1, S2, and S20 markers were detected in Succinea 1 and 2 variants of H. axyridis, whereas S3 and S5 were specifically detected in the Conspicua variant. S15, S18, and S19 were specific to the Succinea 2 variant. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products of these ten AFLP markers were sequenced. BLAST analysis of these sequences against the GenBank database revealed their homology to DNA fragments of unknown function. Based on the color-linked AFLP markers, sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers were designed for PCR amplification of genomic DNA. Of the ten AFLP markers, five were successfully converted into SCAR markers, which could discriminate elytra color polymorphism in H. axyridis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.6121-6128
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• 2012

Radiation-induced side effects on normal tissue are determined largely by the capacity of cells to repair radiation-induced DNA damage. X-ray repair cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1) plays an important role in the repair of DNA single-strand breaks. Studies have shown conflicting results regarding the association between XRCC1 gene polymorphisms (Arg399Gln, Arg194Trp, -77T>C and Arg280His) and radiation-induced side effects in patients undergoing whole breast radiotherapy. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to determine the predictive value of XRCC1 gene polymorphisms in this regard. Analysis of the 11 eligible studies comprising 2,199 cases showed that carriers of the XRCC1 399 Gln allele had a higher risk of radiation-induced toxicity than those with the 399 ArgArg genotype in studies based on high-quality genotyping methods [Gln vs. ArgArg: OR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.20-2.86] or in studies with mixed treatment regimens of radiotherapy alone and in combination with chemotherapy [Gln vs. ArgArg: OR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.09-2.23]. The XRCC1 Arg399Gln variant allele was associated with mixed acute and late adverse reactions when studies on late toxicity only were excluded [Gln allele vs. Arg allele: OR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.00-1.49]. In contrast, the XRCC1 Arg280His variant allele was protective against radiation-induced toxicity in studies including patients treated by radiotherapy alone [His allele vs. Arg allele: OR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.35-0.96]. Our results suggest that XRCC1 399Gln and XRCC1 280Arg may be independent predictors of radiation-induced toxicity in post-surgical breast cancer patients, and the selection of genotyping method is an important factor in determining risk factors. No evidence for any predictive value of XRCC1 Arg194Trp and XRCC1 -77T>C was found. So, larger and well-designed studies might be required to further evaluate the predictive value of XRCC1 gene variation on radiation-induced side effects in patients undergoing whole breast radiotherapy.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.246-255
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• 2007

Mutans streptococci have been implicated as cariogenic bacteria in dental caries because they can produce high levels of dental caries-causing lactic acid and extracellular polysaccharide. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize the mutans streptococci from the dental plaque obtained from Koreans. The dental plaque samples were collected from the anterior and molar teeth of both jaws in 155 subjects (aged 2 to 33.2 years, average age $13.7{\pm}4.7\;years$). The samples were diluted by 100-fold in $1{\times}\;PBS$ and plated on mitis-salivarius bacitracin (MSB) agar plates. The mutans streptococci grown on MSB plates were screened by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) targeting dextranase gene (dex). The mutans streptococci were identified at the species level using a 16S rDNA sequencing comparison method. The biochemical tests were carried out to biotype the mutans streptococci. Ninety-five strains of the mutans streptococci out of 358 colonies, which were derived from 141 subjects, were isolated. Of them, 77 strains and 18 strains were Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sobrinus, respectively. The biotyping data showed that 62, 1, 20, 10, and 2 strains were biotypes I, II, IV, V and variant, respectively. Of the two strains of variant biotype, one strains was similar to biotype IV except that it was positive to the arginine hydrolysis test. We considered this one strain a new biotype, and classified it as biotype VII. In conclusion, S. mutans and its biotype I was most frequently isolated in Korean dental plaque. The mutans streptococci strains isolated in this study might be useful for the study of the pathogenesis and the prevention of dental caries.