• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.43-50
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• 2005

We evaluated the nutritional composition of the siphon of the surf clam Tresus keenae in regard to the presence of nitrogenous [amino acids, nucleotides and their related compounds, total creatinine, betaine, trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), and trimethylamine (TMA)] and non­nitrogenous compounds (sugars and organic acids), lipid fatty-acid composition, and occurrence of minerals. The content of total free amino acids was 660.27 $\pm$ 7.94 mg/100 g, and the predominant amino acids were arginine, alanine, sarcosine, glycine, and glutamic acid. These amino acids accounted for $71\;\%$ of the total free amino acids. Among the nucleotides and their related compounds, inosine was the major component and comprised 40.38 $\pm$ 0.02 mg/100 g. Free amino acids were the largest contributor to total extracted nitrogen, comprising $49.94\%$, followed by total creatinine, betaine, nucleotides, and ammonia; the contribution of TMAO and TMA was small. For the non-nitrogenous compounds, malic acid, propionic acid, and succinic acid comprised the major portion of the ten kinds of organic acids detected, and the sugars found were glucose, maltose, and arabinose, which were estimated to be $147.0\pm7.15,\;34.45\pm1.09,\;and\;1.21\pm0.02\;mg/100\;g,$ respectively. The predominant minerals were Na and K, which comprised $11.43\pm1.06\;and\;9.46\pm1.02\;mg/100\;g,$ respectively. The major fatty acids were C22:6, C20:5, C23:0, C18:3, and C16:0 in the lipid fractions. The 23:0 level of glycolipid (GL) was the highest of any other lipid fraction. The amount of total polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the lipid fractions was higher, ranging from $58.22\%\;in\;GL\;to\;77.1\%$ in phospholipid (PL), compared to the saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. Of the n-3 fatty acids, C20:5 and C22:6 contributed $35.30-64.44\%$ of PUFA in the lipid fractions. The ratios of n-3 to n-6 PUFA in total lipid (TL), neutral lipid (NL), PL, and GL were 4.35, 4.26, 6.69, and 2.04, respectively.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1080-1088
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• 2013

Our previous results showed that kisspeptin-10 (Kp-10) injections via intraperitoneal (i.p.) once daily for three weeks notably promoted the egg laying rate in quails. In order to investigate the mechanism behind the effects of Kp-10 on enhancing the egg laying rate in birds, this study focused on the alternations of lipids synthesis in liver after Kp-10 injections. 75 female quails (22 d of age) were allocated to three groups randomly, and subjected to 0 (control, Con), 10 nmol (low dosage, L) and 100 nmol (high dosage, H) Kp-10 injections via i.p. once daily for three weeks, respectively. At d 52, quails were sacrificed and sampled for further analyses. Serum $E_2$ concentration was increased by Kp-10 injections, and reached statistical significance in H group. Serum triglyceride (TG) concentrations were increased by 46.7% in L group and 36.8% in H group, respectively, but did not reach statistical significance, and TG contents in liver were significantly elevated by Kp-10 injections in a dose-dependent manner. Serum total cholesterol (Tch) concentrations significantly decreased in H group, while in H group the hepatic Tch content was markedly increased. The level of non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA), apolipoprotein A1 and B (apoA1 and apoB) were not altered by Kp-10 injections. The genes expression of sterol regulatory element binding protein-1 (SREBP-1), fatty acid synthetase (FAS), apolipoprotein VLDL-II (apoVLDL-II), cholesterol $7{\alpha}$-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) and vitellogenin II (VTG-II) were significantly up-regulated by high but not low dosage of Kp-10 injection compared to the control group. However, the expression of SREBP-2, acetyl-CoA carboxylase ($ACC_{\alpha}$), malic enzyme (ME), stearoyl-CoA (${\Delta}9$) desaturase 1 (SCD1), apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1), fatty acid binding protein 2 (FABP2), 3-hydroxyl-3-methyl glutaryl-coenzyme A reductases (HMGCR), estrogen receptor ${\alpha}$, ${\beta}$($ER{\alpha}$ and ${\beta}$) mRNA were not affected by Kp-10 treatment. In line with hepatic mRNA abundance, hepatic SREBP1 protein content was significantly higher in H group. Although the mRNA expression was not altered, the content of $ER{\alpha}$ protein in liver was also significantly increased in H group. However, SREBP-2 protein content in liver was not changed by Kp-10 treatment. In conclusion, exogenous Kp-10 consecutive injections during juvenile stage significantly advanced the tempo of egg laying in quails, which was associated with the significant elevation in hepatic lipids synthesis and transport.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.293-301
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• 2011

Purpose: We have previously reported that tetra-cell adhesion molecule (T-CAM) markedly enhanced the differentiation of osteoblast-like cells grown on anorganic bone mineral (ABM). T-CAM comprises recombinant peptides containing the Arg- Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence in the tenth type III domain, Pro-His-Ser-Arg-Asn (PHSRN) sequence in the ninth type III domain of fibronectin (FN), and the Glu-Pro-Asp-Ilu-Met (EPDIM) and Tyr-His (YH) sequence in the fourth fas-1 domain of ${\beta}$ig-h3. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the cellular activity of osteoblast-like cells and the new bone formation on ABM coated with T-CAM, while comparing the results with those of synthetic cell binding peptide (PepGen P-15). Methods: To analyze the cell viability, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay was performed, andto analyze gene expression, northernblot was performed. Mineral nodule formations were evaluated using alizarin red stain. The new bone formations of each group were evaluated using histologic observation and histomorphometrc analysis. Results: Expression of alkaline phosphatase mRNA was similar in all groups on days 10 and 20. The highest expression of osteopontin mRNA was observed in the group cultured with ABM/P-15, followed by those with ABM/T-CAM and ABM on days 20 and 30. Little difference was seen in the level of expression of collagen type I mRNA on the ABM, ABM/T-CAM, and ABM/P-15 cultured on day 20. There were similar growth and proliferation patterns for the ABM/T-CAM and ABM/P-15. The halo of red stain consistent with $Ca^{2+}$ deposition was wider and denser around ABM/T-CAM and ABM/P-15 particles than around the ABM particles. The ABM/T-CAM group seemed to have bone forming bioactivity similar to that of ABM/P-15. A complete bony bridge was seen in two thirds of the defects in the ABM/T-CAM and ABM/P-15 groups. Conclusions: ABM/T-CAM, which seemed to have bone forming bioactivity similar to ABM/P-15, was considered to serve as effective tissue-engineered bone graft material.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.635-647
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• 2014

Unfertilized oocytes age inevitably after ovulation, which limits their fertilizable life span and embryonic development. Rapamycin affects mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) expression and cytoskeleton reorganization during oocyte meiotic maturation. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of rapamycin treatment on aged porcine oocytes and their in vitro development. Rapamycin treatment of aged oocytes for 24 h (68 h in vitro maturation [IVM]; $44h+10{\mu}M$ rapamycin/24 h, $47.52{\pm}5.68$) or control oocytes (44 h IVM; $42.14{\pm}4.40$) significantly increased the development rate and total cell number compared with untreated aged oocytes (68 h IVM, $22.04{\pm}5.68$) (p<0.05). Rapamycin treatment of aged IVM oocytes for 24 h also rescued aberrant spindle organization and chromosomal misalignment, blocked the decrease in the level of phosphorylated-p44/42 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and increased the mRNA expression of cytoplasmic maturation factor genes (MOS, BMP15, GDF9, and CCNB1) compared with untreated, 24 h-aged IVM oocytes (p<0.05). Furthermore, rapamycin treatment of aged oocytes decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS) activity and DNA fragmentation (p<0.05), and downregulated the mRNA expression of mTOR compared with control or untreated aged oocytes. By contrast, rapamycin treatment of aged oocytes increased mitochondrial localization (p<0.05) and upregulated the mRNA expression of autophagy (BECN1, ATG7, MAP1LC3B, ATG12, GABARAP, and GABARAPL1), anti-apoptosis (BCL2L1 and BIRC5; p<0.05), and development (NANOG and SOX2; p<0.05) genes, but it did not affect the mRNA expression of pro-apoptosis genes (FAS and CASP3) compared with the control. This study demonstrates that rapamycin treatment can rescue the poor developmental capacity of aged porcine oocytes.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.12
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• pp.137-160
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• 2003

The association between accounting earnings and the stock price of an entity is the subject that has been most heavily researched during the past 25 years in accounting literature. Researcher's common finding is that there are positive relationships between accounting earnings and stock prices. However, the explanatory power of accounting earnings which was measured by $R^2$ of regression functions used was rather low. To be connected with these low results, The prior studies propose that there will be additional information, errors in variables. This study investigates empirically determinants of earnings response coefficients(ERCs), which measure the correlation between earnings and stock prices, using earnings level / change, as the dependent variable in the return/earnings regression. Specifically, the thesis tests whether the factors such as earnings persistence, growth, systematic risk, image, information asymmetry and firm size. specially, the determinable variables of ERC are explained in detail. The image / information asymmetry variables are selected to be connected with additional information stand point, The debt / growth variables are selected to be connected with errors in variables. In this study, The sample of firms, listed in Korean Stock Exchange was drawn from the KIS-DATA and was required to meet the following criteria: (1) Annual accounting earnings were available over the 1986-1999 period on the KIS-FAS to allow computation of variables parameter; (2) sufficient return data for estimation of market model parameters were available on the KIS-SMAT month returns: (3) each firm had a fiscal year ending in December throughout the study period. Implementation of these criteria yielded a sample of 1,141 firm-year observation over the 10-year(1990-1999) period. A conventional regression specification would use stock returns(abnormal returns) as a dependent variable and accounting earnings(unexpected earnings) changes interacted with other factors as independent variables. In this study, I examined the relation between other factors and the RRC by using reverse regression. For an empirical test, eight hypotheses(including six lower-hypotheses) were tested. The results of the performed empirical analysis can be summarized as follows; The first, The relationship between persistence of earnings and ERC have significance of each by itself, this result accord with one of the prior studies. The second, The relationship between growth and ERC have not significance. The third, The relationship between image and ERC have significance of each by itself, but a forecast code doesn't present. This fact shows that image cost does not effect on market management share, is used to prevent market occupancy decrease. The fourth, The relationship between information asymmetry variable and ERC have significance of each by. The fifth, The relationship between systematic risk$(\beta)$ and ERC have not significance. The sixth, The relationship between debt ratio and ERC have significance of each by itself, but a forecast code doesn't present. This fact is judged that it is due to the effect of financial leverage effect and a tendency of interest.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.431-438
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• 2016

The tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is considered a promising anticancer agent due to its unique ability to induce cancer cell death having only negligible effects on normal cells. However, many cancer cells tend to be resistant to TRAIL. In this study, we investigated the effects and molecular mechanisms of sodium butyrate (SB), a histone deacetylase inhibitor, in sensitizing TRAIL-induced apoptosis in 5637 human bladder cancer cells. Our results indicated that co-treatment with SB and TRAIL significantly increased the apoptosis induction, compared with treatment with either agent alone. Co-treatment with SB and TRAIL effectively increased the cell-surface expression of death receptor (DR) 5, but not DR4, which was associated with the inhibition of cellular Fas-associated death domain (FADD)-like interleukin-1β-converting enzyme (FLICE) inhibitory protein (c-FLIP). Furthermore, the activation of caspases (caspase-3, -8 and -9) and degradation of poly(ADP-ribose) were markedly increased in 5637 cells co-treated with SB and TRAIL; however, the synergistic effect was perfectly attenuated by caspase inhibitors. We also found that combined treatment with SB and TRAIL effectively induced the expression of pro-apoptotic Bax, cytosolic cytochrome c and cleave Bid to truncated Bid (tBid), along with down-regulation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-xL expression. These results collectively suggest that a combined regimen of SB plus TRAIL may offer an effective therapeutic strategy for safely and selectively treating TRAIL-resistant bladder cancer cells.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.1016-1021
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• 2018

Clostridium difficile toxin A causes pseudomembranous colitis. The pathogenesis of toxin A-induced colonic inflammation includes toxin A-dependent epithelial cell apoptosis, resulting in the loss of barrier function provided by epithelial cells against luminal pathogens. Toxin A-dependent epithelial cell apoptosis has been linked to toxin A-induced production of reaction oxygen species and subsequent p38MAPK activation; $p21^{CIP1/WAF1}$ upregulation-dependent cell cycle arrest; cytoskeletal disaggregation; and/or the induction of Fas ligand on epithelial cells. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying toxin A-induced apoptosis remain poorly understood. This study tested whether toxin A could block the Wnt signaling pathway, which is involved in gut epithelial cell proliferation, differentiation and antiapoptotic progression. Toxin A treatment of nontransformed human colonocytes (NCM460) rapidly reduced ${\beta}$-catenin protein, an essential component of the Wnt signaling pathway. Exposure of mouse ileum to toxin A also significantly reduced ${\beta}$-catenin protein levels. MG132 inhibition of proteasome-dependent protein degradation resulted in the recovery of toxin A-mediated reduction of ${\beta}$-catenin, indicating that toxin A may activate intracellular processes, such as $GSK3{\beta}$, to promote degradation of ${\beta}$-catenin. Immunoblot analysis showed that toxin A increased active phosphorylation of $GSK3{\beta}$. Because the Wnt signaling pathway is essential for gut epithelial cell proliferation and anti-apoptotic processes, our results suggest that toxin A-mediated inhibition of the Wnt signaling pathway may be required for maximal toxin A-induced apoptosis of gut epithelial cells.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.249-255
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• 2015

An 8 week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate whether methionine and cysteine would effectively spare taurine supplementation on growth performance in juvenile rock bream Oplegnathus fasciatus. Triplicate groups of 25 fish averaging $2.74{\pm}0.04g$ ($mean{\pm}SD$) were fed one of the experimental diets. Five experimental diets including a fish meal based control diet were prepared by adding sulfur amino acid at fixed level of 1.0% and taurine at graded levels of 0%, 0.25%, 0.5% and 1.0% ($S+Tau_0$, $S+Tau_{0.25}$, $S+Tau_{0.5}$ and $S+Tau_{1.0}$, respectively). After the feeding trial, growth performance of fish fed the $S+Tau_{0.25}$, $S+Tau_{0.5}$ and $S+Tau_{1.0}$ diets were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those of fish fed the Control diet. ANOVA test suggested that when sulfur amino acid were supplemented to the diets, the optimum taurine supplementation level could be 0.25% in the diet, and broken line analysis of weight gain indicated a level of 0.33%, for positive effects on growth and feed utilization. Fish whole-body protein content and taurine concentration steadily increased with the increase of dietary level in the presence of sulfur amino acid in the diets. On the other hand, whole-body lipid content significantly decreased with the incremental levels of dietary taurine. In conclusion, the results of the present study clearly indicated that dietary supplementation of methionine and cysteine at a level of 1% could spare 0.25 to 0.33% of taurine in juvenile O. fasciatus diets.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.474-483
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• 2016

Enzymatically modified isoquercitrin (EMIQ) is a mixture of quercetin glycodsides consisting of isoquercitrin and its ${\alpha}-glucosylated$ derivatives containing one to seven additional linear glucose moieties. The aim of this study was to assess whether or not EMIQ attenuates high-fat diet (HFD)-induced body weight gain and changes in plasma indices of obesity in mice. Male C57BL/6N mice were fed chow diet, HFD, and HFD containing 1.2% EMIQ for 10 weeks. EMIQ significantly (P<0.05) reduced body weight gain (-21%), total visceral fat-pad weights (-31%), and plasma levels of triglycerides (-17%), total cholesterol (-19%), and free fatty acids (-26%) in HFD-fed mice. EMIQ significantly increased protein kinase A (PKA) expression in the epididymal adipose tissue of HFD-fed mice. Expression of adipogenesis-related genes significantly decreased, whereas expression of fatty acid oxidation-related and thermogenesis-related genes increased in epididymal adipose tissue of EMIQ-fed mice compared with HFD-fed mice. These results suggest that the protective effects of EMIQ against HFD-induced adiposity in mice appear to be associated with PKA-mediated signaling cascades involved in adipogenesis, fatty acid oxidation, and thermogenesis in adipose tissue.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.249-255
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• 2009

Esculetin, a coumarin compound, has been known to inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis in several types of human cancer cells. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in esculetin-induced apoptosis are still uncharacterized in human leukemia cells. In this study, we have investigated whether esculetin exerts anti-proliferative and apoptotic effects on human leukemia U937 cells. It was found that esculetin could inhibit cell viability in a time-dependent manner, which was associated with the induction of apoptotic cell death such as increased populations of apoptotic- sub G1 phase. Apoptosis of U937 cells by esculetin was associated with an inhibition of Bcl-2/Bax binding activity, formation of tBid, down-regulation of X-linked inhibitor of apoptotic protein (XIAP) expression, and up-regulation of death receptor 4 (DR4) and FasL expression. Esculetin treatment also induced the degradation of ${\beta}$-catenin and DNA fragmentation factor 45/inhibitor of caspase-activated DNase (DFF45/ICAD). Furthermore, a caspase-3 specific inhibitor, z-DEVD-fmk, significantly inhibited sub-G1 phase DNA content, morphological changes and degradation of ${\beta}$-catenin and DEE45/ICAD. These results indicated that a key regulator in esculetin-induced apoptosis was caspase-3 in human leukemia U937 cells.