• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.1783-1793
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• 2014

Capsaicin is a major constituent of hot chili peppers that influences lipid metabolism in animals. In this study, we explored the effects of capsaicin on adipogenic differentiation of bovine bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The BMSCs were treated with various concentrations of capsaicin (0, 0.1, 1, 5, and $10{\mu}M$) for 2, 4, and 6 days. Capsaicin suppressed fat deposition significantly during adipogenic differentiation. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, cytosine-cytosine-adenosine-adenosine-thymidine/enhancer binding protein alpha, fatty acid binding protein 4, and stearoyl-CoA desaturase expression decreased after capsaicin treatment. We showed that the number of apoptotic cells increased in dose- and time-dependent manners. Furthermore, we found that capsaicin increased the expression levels of apoptotic genes, such as B-cell lymphoma 2-associated X protein and caspase 3. Overall, capsaicin inhibits fat deposition by triggering apoptosis.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.80-82
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• 2007

We have isolated numerous cold deep-sea adapted microorganisms (piezophilic, formerly referred to as "barophilic" bacteria) using deep-sea research submersibles. Many of the isolates are novel psychrophilic bacteria, and we have identified several new piezophilic species, i.e., Photobacterium profundum, Shewanella violacea, Moritella japonica, Moritella yayanosii, Psychromonas kaikoi, and Colwellia piezophila. These piezophiles are involving to five genera in gamma-Proteobacteria subgroup and produce significant amounts of unsaturated fatty acids in their cell membrane fractions to maintain the membrane fluidity in cold and high-pressure environments. Piezophilic microorganisms have been identified in many deep-sea bottoms of many of the world oceans. Therefore, these microbes are well distributed on our planet. One of the isolated deep-sea piezophiles, Shewanella violacea strain DSS12 is a psychrophilic, moderately piezophilic bacterium from a sediment sample collected at the Ryukyu Trench (depth: 5,110 m), which grows optimally at 30 MPa and $8^{\circ}C$ but also grows at atmospheric pressure (0.1 MPa) and $8^{\circ}C$. We have examined this strain to elucidate the molecular basis for gene regulation at different pressure conditions because this strain is useful as a model bacterium for comparing the various features of bacterial physiology under pressure conditions. In addition, we completed the sequencing of the entire genome of this piezophilic bacterium and we expect that many biotechnologically useful genes will be identified from the genome information.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.249-256
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• 2010

Gender differences in the trace elements of monkey sino-atrial (SA) node were investigated in a process of age-dependent alterations. Sixty hearts from Japanese and rhesus monkeys (30 male and 30 female) used were aged ranging from 1-day- to 30-year-old. The elements were analyzed using an inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES). Advancing age decreased all the trace elements. Ca, P, S and Mg significantly decreased. The correlation coefficients of Ca and P were $-0.178{\pm}0.081$ (p<0.05) and $-0.088{\pm}0.022$ (p<0.05) in male (n=30), and $-0.095{\pm}0.026$ (p<0.05) and $-0.069{\pm}0.017$ (p<0.05) in female (n=30), respectively. The age-dependent coefficients for Fe/Ca, Zn/Ca, Fe/P, Fe/S, Zn/S, Fe/Mg and Zn/Mg were exhibited markedly in male, but all was less in female. In gender-related differences, only a ratio of P/Ca (p<0.05) was significantly observed with ageing. The trace elements such as Cu, Se and Sn were less detected in the SA nodes. These results indicate that the age-dependent changes in the ratios of elements are appeared more rapidly in male monkey SA node, and the gender difference is observed in ratio of P/Ca. The different attenuations may be involved with the age- and gender-related SA nodal functions.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.425-430
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• 2011

This study evaluated the effect of extraction conditions of yam (Dioscorea aimadoimo) on antioxidant, moisturizing, collagenase activity, proliferation, and migration. Yam has been recognized as a healthy food due to its various biological activities, such as anti-obesity, anti-constipation, anti-mutagenic activities, as well as its ability to decrease blood glucose and cholesterol levels. Electron donating ability of high temperature ethanol extract of Dioscorea aimadoimo (HDA) had shown 70.6% at 400 mg/ml, and low temperature ethanol extract of Dioscorea aimadoimo (LDA) had shown 40% at 400 mg/ml. SOD-like activities of LDA and HDA were 23% and 34% at 400 mg/ml respectively. LDA significantly reduced the activity of collagenase in a dose-dependent manner, which was higher than HDA. The water contents in LDA-treated skin and HDA-treated skin were increased by 45.63% and 38.65% than the placebo cream respectively. The cellular proliferation of human dermal fibroblast neonatal (HDFn) was evaluated by MTT and cell migration assay. Compared to control, the cell proliferation was elevated to 109.7% and 114% by the treatment of LDA and HDA respectively at the concentration of 200 mg/ml. In addition, LDA and HDA were induced cell migration in HDFn. Our study suggests that LDA and HDA should be a very useful cosmetic ingredient, as anti-aging and skin moisturizer.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.205-209
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• 2017

Transmembrane Protein 39A (TMEM39A) is a member of TMEM family. The understanding about this protein is still limited. The earlier studies indicated that TMEM39A was a key mediator of autoimmune disease. TMEM39A seems to be involved in systemic lupus erythematosus and multiple sclerosis in numerous of populations. All of these works stop at insufficient information by using gene functioning methods such as: Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) and/or follow-up study. It is the fact that the less understood of TMEM39A actually is the attraction to the scientist in near future. In this review the current knowledge about TMEM39A and its possible roles in cell biology, physiology and pathology will be described.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.484-489
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• 2010

Allergic contact or wound induced dermatitis are common environmental health issue and seriously affect the patient's quality of life. In now, people are interested in the korean herbal bathing that get better the skin conditions. This study was performed to investigate the effect of korean herbal bathing candidates extract on allergic contact or wound induced dermatitis. ICR mice were divided into four groups: naive, control, experimental group A and B. Control and experimental groups induced allergic contact or wound induced dermatitis by DNFB and TMA. Since then, each experimental group was pasted with corresponding korean herbal bathing extract into the skin. All groups were observed after 5 days. When the korean herbal bathing extract was applied, arbitrary skin wound index and epidermal thickness were significantly decreased compared to that of control. These data suggest that these korean herbal bathing candidates may be an effective therapeutic supplements for the treatment of skin.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.518-522
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• 2007

The cortex and root of Acnthopanax sessiliflorus, a herbal medicine, have been used for several diseases including cancer in Oriental countries. In the previous study, we showed that the cortex of this plant have anti-cancer activity. But its therapeutic efficacy of CORTEX ACANTHOPANAX RADICIS (CAR) is not clarified. For these reasons, we investigated immuno-potentiating and anti-cancer properties of CAR compared with CA, in terms of body and tumor weights, proliferation of thymocytes and tumor cells, and nitric oxide production from macrophages through in vitro and in vivo studies. In our results, administration of CAR reduced tumor mass and increased body weights. CAR also inhibited proliferation of tumor cells in vivo and in vitro dose-dependently. Thymocyte proliferation was accelerated by treatment with CAR and NO production was also promoted by CAR in vivo and vitro. In conclusion, we demonstrated that CAR is useful to treat for cancer as complementary or alternative medicine to Western medication, its therapeutic efficacy is involved in direct inhibition of tumor growth and immuno-potentiating activity.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.375-382
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• 2006

From its initial colonization to causation of disease, Streptococcus pneumoniae has evolved strategies to cope with a number of stressful in vivo environmental conditions. In order to analyze a global view of this organism's response to heat shock, we established a 2-D electrophoresis proteome map of the S. pneumoniae D39 soluble proteins under in vitro culture conditions and performed the comparative proteome analysis to a 37 to $42^{\circ}C$ temperature up-shift in S. pneumoniae. When the temperature of an exponentially growing S. pneumoniae D39 culture was raised to $42^{\circ}C$, the expression level of 25 proteins showed changes when compared to the control. Among these 25 proteins, 12 were identified by MALDI-TOF and LC-coupled ESI MS/MS. The identified proteins were shown to be involved in the general stress response, energy metabolism, nucleotide biosynthesis pathways, and purine metabolism. These results provide clues for understanding the mechanism of adaptation to heat shock by S. pneumoniae and may facilitate the assessment of a possible role for these proteins in the physiology and pathogenesis of this pathogen.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.64-75
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• 2013

This study suggests basic data on optimum thermal insulation for spring wear through an investigation of subjective thermal sensation, self-health image and actual wearing conditions. A survey of university students using a self-administered questionnaire was conducted to collect data on subjective thermal sensation, self-health image, wearing conditions, demographics and physical characteristics. The variable of wearing conditions was measured as the response to the clothing they were wearing. Garment items (26 types for males and 41 types for females) were suggested and the items worn by the students were converted into the thermal insulation values for clothing. The main results are as follows. As for the body type perception, males perceived themselves as not fat while females perceived themselves as not thin. As for the health perception, males perceived themselves healthier than females. As for the climate adaptability perception, females were more sensitive to cold than males. The average thermal insulation of clothing was 0.97clo (0.34-1.95clo) with higher insulation for males than females. Students were more sensitive to the cold when their BMI was lower, their body surface area per body weight was larger, and the more they perceived themselves as not healthy. There was a significant correlation between the self-health image of sensitiveness to cold and the thermal insulation of clothing. The results were synthetically discussed in terms of environmental physiology.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.58 no.5
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• pp.81-90
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• 2016

Due to droughts and water shortages causing severe damage to crops and other vegetations, much attention has been given to efficient irrigation for upland farming. However, little information has been known to measure soil moisture levels in a field scale and apply their spatial variability for proper irrigation scheduling. This study aimed to characterize the spatial variability and temporal stability of soil water contents at depths of 10 cm, 20 cm and 30 cm on flat (loamy soil) and hill-slope fields (silt-loamy soil). Field monitoring of soil moisture contents was used for variogram analysis using GS+ software. Kriging produced from the structural parameters of variogram was applied for the means of spatial prediction. The overall results showed that the surface soil moisture presented a strong spatial dependence at the sampling time and space in the field scale. The coefficient variation (CV) of soil moisture was within 7.0~31.3 % in a flat field and 8.3~39.4 % in a hill-slope field, which was noticeable in the dry season rather than the rainy season. The drought assessment analysis showed that only one day (Dec. 21st) was determined as dry (20.4 % and 24.5 % for flat and hill-slope fields, respectively). In contrary to a hill-slope field where the full irrigation was necessary, the centralized irrigation scheme was appeared to be more effective for a flat field based on the spatial variability of soil moisture contents. The findings of this study clearly showed that the geostatistical analysis of soil moisture contents greatly contributes to proper irrigation scheduling for water-efficient irrigation with maximal crop productivity and environmental benefits.