• Journal of Food and Nutrition Research
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.32-40
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• 2022

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease with a high prevalence worldwide. Beet (Beta vulgaris) is a plant that is widely used in many countries and has various biological activities. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the antidiabetic effect of a B. vulgaris mixture (BM). In the in vitro evaluation, we measured the inhibitory activities of α-amylase and α-glucosidase, performed the oral starch tolerance test (OATT) and oral sucrose tolerance test (OSTT) in Sprague Dawley (SD) rats, and evaluated the clinical symptoms, oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), number of blood cells, and insulin resistance in db/db mice. BM showed an inhibitory effect against α-amylase and α-glucosidase activity and decreased the blood glucose increased in the OATT and OSTT. In the diabetes mouse model, BM alleviated the general symptoms of diabetes and OGTT results showed a decrease in the increased blood sugar level. Regarding diabetes-related tissue weight, BM decreased the reduced pancreatic weight and showed an effect on diabetes-related factors of blood. Histological analysis indicated that BM decreased insulin concentration, insulin resistance, and insulin secretion ability in serum, and increased insulin concentration in the islets of Langerhans. These results demonstrate that BM has an antidiabetic effect through the regulation of glycolytic enzymes and β cell activity in the pancreas.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2020

Bacteria of the genus Enterococcus are of importance in food fermentations as well as their use as probiotics in humans and livestock. However, they are also important nosocomial pathogens that cause infections. Some strains are resistant to multiple antibiotics and possess virulence factors. The role of Enterococcus species in disease has raised issues on their safety for use in foods or as probiotics. First, this review summarized the positive and negative traits of Enterococcus spp. to illustrate the controversial nature of this bacterial genus and discussed the current genomic approaches can eliminate pathogenic strains. Then, this review examined the current status of starter development for traditional food fermentations and the regulation on the approval of novel food microorganisms in Korea to point out problems in the regulation. Based on the conclusions from the studies on Enterococcus spp., we suggested the direction of safety assessment of novel food microorganisms in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.128-136
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to assess the needs of education program and to analyze importance of education courses for school food service cooks. The questionnaires were developed by reviewing literatures on education programs for cooks and by interviewing with cooks who are working in school food service. A total of 150 questionnaires were surveyed at Kyonggi University and 90 of them were analyzed. The cooks in school food service wanted to take continuing education program about cooking skills and school food service operation skills. They wanted to take a culinary courses for 10 days and they wanted to take a food service operation courses for a week. The school food service cooks emphasized on courses of job analysis, laws and regulation, food sanitation, standard recipe, safety, equipment, and facility and layout. And they thought not only Korean food but also western food, Chinese food and Japanese food are important.

• Nutritional Sciences
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 2005

The present study examined the effects of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor celecoxib or soy-isoflavones in the presence of estrogen on apoptosis related gene expression, COX-2 and mapkinase in 48-week old female rats. Expressions of bel-2 and bax proteins, which are known to be involved in the regulation of apoptosis, were investigated in mammary glands and heart tissues. The elevated expression of bel-2 expression was observed in mammary glands of celecoxib supplemented rats as well as soy-isoflavones. The mammary glands bel-2/bax ratio was found to be higher in celecoxib or soy-isoflavones supplemented rats. However, in heart tissues, expression of bel-2 and bax was in the order of control, celecoxib and soy-isoflavones. The up-regulation of COX-2 was observed in celecoxib or soy-isoflavones in mammary glands. 'The similar trend was not displayed with the mapkinase expression. In heart tissues, the down-regulation of COX-2 as well as mapkinase was observed in celecoxib or soy-isoflavones supplemented rats. Soy-isoflavones and celecoxib both had a similar regulatory pattern of bel-2, bax and COX-2 in mammary glands, and in heart tissues, only COX-2 exhibited a similar down-regulatory properly. These findings revealed that in estrogen sufficient state, celecoxib and soy-isoflavones might not exhibit proapoptotic potential or COX-2 inhibition in normal mammary glands.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1079-1085
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• 2008

The chemopreventive activity of sulforaphane (SFN) occurs through its inhibition of carcinogen-activating enzymes and its induction of detoxification enzymes. However, the exact mechanisms by which SFN exerts its anti-carcinogenic effects are not fully understood. Therefore, the mechanisms underlying the cytoprotective effects of SFN were examined in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Exposure of cells to SFN (10 ${\mu}M$) induced a transcriptional change in the AKR1C3 gene, which is one of aldo-keto reductases (AKRs) family that is associated with detoxification and antioxidant response. Further analysis revealed that SFN elicited a dose- and time-dependent increase in the expression of both the NRF2 and AKR1C3 proteins. Moreover, this up-regulation of AKR1C3 was inhibited by pretreatment with antioxidant, N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), which suggests that the up-regulation of AKR1C3 expression induced by SFN involves reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling. Furthermore, pretreatment of cells with LY294002, a pharmacologic inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), suppressed the SFN-augmented Nrf2 activation and AKR1C3 expression; however, inhibition of PKC or MEK1/2 signaling with $G\ddot{o}6976$ or PD98059, respectively, did not alter SFN-induced AKR1C3 expression. Collectively, these data suggest that SFN can modulate the expression of the AKR1C3 in MCF-7 cells by activation of PI3K via the generation of ROS.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.224-227
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• 1998

The expression of ferritin involved in iron metabolism is regulated at the translational level by the interaction of iron regulatory protein with iron-responsive element(IRE) in the 5'-untranslated region of ferritin transcript. To identify the role of structural element utilized for translational regulation of ferritin, we studied the effects of mutations in the ferritin IRE by measuring IRP binding activity and translational activity. Our data suggest that the cytosine at bulged position of IRE within ferritin is important for the formation of RNA secondary structure involved in translational regulation.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.93-104
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• 2020

In today's affluent food environment, investigating factors that facilitate resistance in the face of barriers to health goals may be vital for achieving successful promotion and regulation of health. This study was implemented to investigate the effect of self-compassion on the evaluation and choice of healthy vs. unhealthy food. In Study 1, participants (N = 101) primed with self-compassion evaluated unhealthy food more negatively than those primed with self-esteem. As predicted, however, there was no difference in attitude toward healthy food between the two priming conditions. In Study 2, participants (N = 54) were asked to choose between healthy and unhealthy food and then their self-compassion was measured. Results show that participants with high self-compassion chose healthy food more often than unhealthy food, while those with low self-compassion chose unhealthy food more than healthy food. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of health campaign strategies and further research into the relation between self-compassion and health behaviors.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.106-113
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• 2008

The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory protective effects of $\beta$-glucan from barley on RAW 264.7 murine macrophage cells induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were examined. The RAW 264.7 murine macrophages were preincubated with various concentrations ($0-200\;{\mu}g/mL$) of $\beta$-glucan and stimulated with LPS to induce oxidative stress and inflammation. The $\beta$-glucan treatments were found to reduce thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance (TBARS) accumulation, and enhance glutathione levels and the activities of antioxidative enzymes, including superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, glutathione reductase, and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-px) in the LPS-stimulated macrophages as compared to the LPS-only treated cells. Nitric oxide (NO) production was significantly suppressed in a dose-dependent manner (p<0.05) with an $IC_{50}$ of $104\;{\mu}g/mL$. Further treatment with $\beta$-glucan at $200\;{\mu}g/mL$ suppressed NO production to 2% of the LPS-control, and suppressed the levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) protein and mRNA in a dose-dependent manner. The specific DNA binding activity of nuclear factor ${\kappa}B\;(NF{\kappa}B)$ was significantly suppressed by $\beta$-glucan treatment with an $IC_{50}$ of $220\;{\mu}g/mL$ in a dose-dependent manner. Finally, barley $\beta$-glucan ameliorates NO production and iNOS expression through the down-regulation of $NF{\kappa}B$ activity, which may be mediated by attenuated oxidative stress in RAW 264.7 macrophages.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.975-979
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• 2006

The extracts of Oenanthe javanica were evaluated for their effects on the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), which is mediated by the translocation of the p65 subunit into the nucleus. Fractions of ethyl acetate and chloroform from 80% ethanol extracts of O. javanica exhibited inhibitory effects on the secretion of tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF-${\alpha}$) from lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated peritoneal macrophages; however, the aqueous- and hexane-fractions showed no significant effect. The ethyl acetate- and chloroform-fractions also reduced the COX-2 enzyme levels after 24-hr treatment. RT-PCR showed that the mRNA levels of COX-2 decreased following treatment with these fractions, suggesting that COX-2 expression is transcriptionally regulated by these extracts. We examined the effects of the chloroform- and ethyl acetate-fractions on the cytosolic activation of nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ ($NF-{\kappa}B$, p65 subunit) and on the degradation of inhibitor-${\kappa}B{\alpha}$ ($I-{\kappa}B{\alpha}$) in order to determine the mechanism of COX-2 regulation. The LPS-stimulated activation of the p65 subunit was significantly blocked upon the addition of $50\;{\mu}g/mL$ of these fractions, and the cytosolic $I-{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ degradation process was simultaneously inhibited. These findings suggest that the inhibition of COX-2 expression by the ethyl acetate-and chloroform-fractions may result from the inhibition of p65 translocation by blocking the degradation of $I-{\kappa}B{\alpha}$; this may be the mechanistic basis for the anti-inflammatory effects of O. javanica.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.103-120
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• 2005

During the 1970s, concern arose that cured meats contained high levels of residual nitrite and preformed nitrosamines. Therefore, the search for alternatives and alternative approaches to the use of nitrite have been still continued, however no complete alternative for nitrite has yet been identified. Recently, it was publicized in Korea that nitrite-containing meat products would be detrimental to health, about which consumers have been seriously concerned. Therefore, this study was carried out to inform the consumer of the safety status of nitrite and thereby to lead proper consumption of meat products. For assessing the safety of nitrite, data regarding the regulation for use, metabolism in human body, and dietary intake amounts of nitrite were collected and analyzed. The mean intake level of nitrite for Korean per capita was recently reported to be not more than 1% of ADI set by JECFA. On the contrary, a calculation indicated that the daily nitrite intake per capita from saliva by ingestion of vegetables in Korea would be about 300-fold higher than that from cured meats. In consideration of the low consumption amount of meat products per capita of Korean, that is, at least one fifth, compared to European and American, there is no particular reason to concern about the impairment of health by nitrite intake from meat products for Korean. However, any effort for the reduction of residual nitrite content in cured meats should be given with an idea to minimize the intake of nitrite even from the minor source.