• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.370-376
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• 2014

Although the grasshopper Oxya chinensis sinuosa has long been used as food in Korea, there is little data on its functional effects. In this study, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effect of O. c. sinuosa ethanol extract (OCE) in RAW 264.7 mouse macrophage cells treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for induction of inflammation. First, we determined that there is no cytotoxicity at $2,000{\mu}g/ml$ or less of OCE in RAW 264.7 cells. To evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects of OCE, we investigated expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-${\alpha}$ and interleukin (IL)-6, and pro-inflammatory enzymes such as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2) in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells. In addition, we examined whether OCE could inhibit translocation of NF-${\kappa}B$ p65 into the nucleus in LPS induced RAW 264.7 cells. As a result, we found that the mRNA and protein levels of TNF-${\alpha}$ and IL-6 decreased in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells after treatment with OCE in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, we confirmed a $2,000{\mu}g/ml$ concentration of OCE inhibited translocation of NF-${\kappa}B$ p65 by immunnostaining and Western blot analysis, and a decrease in the protein expression levels of iNOS and COX-2. Accordingly, we suppose that OCE has an anti-inflammatory effect through down-regulation of TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-6, iNOS, and COX-2 related to ${\kappa}B$ p65 inflammatory signaling pathways.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.1383-1391
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• 2016

Anti-estrogen drugs such as tamoxifen have been used for treating patients with ER-positive, early breast cancer. However, resistance to anti-estrogen treatment is inevitable in most patients. Breast cancer anti-estrogen resistance-3 (BCAR3) has been identified as the protein responsible for the induction of tamoxifen resistance in estrogen-dependent human breast cancer. We have previously reported that BCAR3 regulates the cell cycle progression and the signaling pathway of EGF and insulin leading to DNA synthesis. In this study, we investigated the functional role of BCAR3 in regulating c-Jun transcription in non-tumorigenic human breast epithelial MCF-12A cells. A transient transfection of BCAR3 increased both the mRNA and protein of c-Jun expression, and stable expression of BCAR3 increased c-Jun protein expression. The overexpression of BCAR3 directly activated the promoter of c-jun, AP-1, and SRE but not that of $NF-{\kappa}B$. Furthermore, single-cell microinjection of BCAR3 expression plasmid in the cell cycle-arrested MCF-12A cells induced c-Jun protein expression, and co-injection of dominant negative mutants of Ras, Rac, and Rho suppressed the transcriptional activity of c-Jun in the presence of BCAR3. Furthermore, stable expression of BCAR3 increased the proliferation of MCF-12A cells. The microinjection of inhibitory materials such as anti-BCAR3 antibody and siRNA BCAR3 inhibited EGF-induced c-Jun expression but did not affect IGF-1 induced upregulation of c-Jun. Taken together, we propose that BCAR3 plays a crucial role in c-Jun protein expression and cell proliferation and that small GTPases (e.g., Ras, Rac, and Rho) are required for the BCAR3-mediated activation of c-Jun expression.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.251-259
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• 1987

Humic acids extracted from decomposing plant residues were characterized by infrared(IR) spectra. The IR spectra were further interpreted by chemical analyses for oxygen-containing functional groups such as carboxyl, phenolic, alcoholic, carbonyl, and quinionic groups. 1. The IR spectra obtained in this study were divied into three categories: spectra of humic acids from grain crop straws of rice, barley, wheat and rye produced Type I, while that from wild grass hay yielded Type II, and those from forest tree litter of the deciduous and conifers were led to give Type III. 2. There were no significant changes in the absorption bands observed among humic acids extracted at various stages of decomposition of a given Plant material. 3. The absorption band at about $3,430cm^{-1}$ represents the presence of hydrogen-bonded hydroxyl groups, phenolic-OH groups being the major component. 4. A close relationship was found between the total acidity and the content of phenolic-OH groups of humic acids. The content of carboxyl groups maintains a direct relationship with the content of total hydroxyl groups, and such a close relationship also exists between the content of alcoholic hydroxyls and that of total hydroxyl groups. 5. Overlapping of the absorption bands of carbonyl groups and quinones renders it difficult to make differentiation between the two. 6. A variety of non-armoatic cyclic hydrocarbons appears to be a structural component as evidenced by a sharp absorption peak near $995-1000cm^{-1}$.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 2014

Purpose: As PET-MRI which has excellent soft tissue contrast is developed as integration system, many researches about clinical application are being conducted by comparing with existing display equipments. Because PET-MRI is actively used for head and neck cancer diagnosis in our hospital, lymph node metastasis before the patient's surgery was diagnosed and clinical usefulness of head and neck cancer PET-MRI scan was evaluated using pathological opinions and idiopathy surrounding tissue metastasis evaluation method. Materials and Methods: Targeting 100 head and neck cancer patients in SNUH from January to August in 2013. $^{18}F-FDG$ (5.18 MBq/kg) was intravenous injected and after 60 min of rest, torso (body TIM coil, Vibe-Dixon) and dedication (head-neck TIM coil, UTE, Dotarem injection) scans were conducted using $Bio-graph^{TM}$ mMR 3T (SIEMENS, Munich). Data were reorganized using iterative reconstruction and lymph node metastasis was read with Syngo.Via workstation. Subsequently, pathological observations and diagnosis before-and-after surgery were examined with integrated medical information system (EMR, best-care) in SNUH. Patient's diagnostic information was entered in each category of $2{\times}2$ decision matrix and was classified into true positive (TP), true negative (TN), false positive (FP) and false negative (FN). Based on these classified test results, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, false negative and false positive rate were calculated. Results: In PET-MRI scan results of head and neck cancer patients, positive and negative cases of lymph node metastasis were 49 and 51 cases respectively and positive and negative lymph node metastasis through before-and-after surgery pathological results were 46 and 54 cases respectively. In both tests, TP which received positive lymph node metastasis were analyzed as 34 cases, FP which received positive lymph node metastasis in PET-MRI scan but received negative lymph node metastasis in pathological test were 4 cases, FN which received negative lymph node metastasis but received positive lymph node metastasis in pathological test was 1 case, and TN which received negative lymph node metastasis in both two tests were 50 cases. Based on these data, sensitivity in PET-MRI scan of head and neck cancer patient was identified to be 97.8%, specificity was 92.5%, accuracy was 95%, FN rate was 2.1% and FP rate was 7.00% respectively. Conclusion: PET-MRI which can apply the acquired functional information using high tissue contrast and various sequences was considered to be useful in determining the weapons before-and-after surgery in head and neck cancer diagnosis or in the evaluation of recurrence and remote detection of metastasis and uncertain idiopathy cervical lymph node metastasis. Additionally, clinical usefulness of PET-MRI through pathological test and integrated diagnosis and follow-up scan was considered to be sufficient as a standard diagnosis scan of head and neck cancer, and additional researches about the development of optimum MR sequence and clinical application are required.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.214-221
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• 2008

Purpose: We make a qualitative analysis of whether Fusion SPECT/CT can find lesion's anatomical sites better than existing SPECT or not, and we want to show the usefulness of SPECT/CT through finding out effects of CT attenuation correction on SPECT images. Materials and Method: 1. The evaluation of fusion images: This study comprised patients who was tested $^{131}I$-MIBG, Bone, $^{111}In$-Octreotide, Meckel's diverticulum, Parathyroid MIBI with Precedence 16 or Symbia T2 from 2008 Jan to Aug. We compared SPECT/CT image with non fusion image and make a qualitative analysis. 2. The evaluation of attenuation correction: We classified 38 patients who was tested 201Tl myocardial exam with Symbia T2 into 5 sections by using Cedars Sinai' QPS program - Ant, Inf, Lat, Septum, Apex. And we showed each section's perfusion states by percentage. We compared the each section's perfusion-states differences between CT AC and Non AC by average${\pm}$standard deviation. Results: 1. The evaluation of fusion images : In high energy $^{131}I$ cases, it was hard to grasp exact anatomical lesions due to difference between regions and surrounding lesions' uptake level. After combining with CT, we could grabs anatomical lesion more exactly. And in meckel's diverticulum case or to find lesions around bowels or organs with $^{111}In$ cases, it demonstrates its superiority. Bone SPECT/CT images help to distinguish between disk spaces certainly and give correct results. 2. The evaluation of attenuation correction: There is no significant difference statistically in Ant and Lat (p>0.05), but there is a meaningful difference in Inferior, Apex and Septum (p<0.05). AC perfusion at inferior wall in the 5 sections of myocardium: The perfusion difference between Non AC perfusion image ($68.58{\pm}7.55$) and CT corrected perfusion image ($76.84{\pm}6.52$) was the largest by $8.26{\pm}4.95$ (p<0.01, t=10.29). Conclusion: Nuclear medicine physicians can identify not only molecular image which shows functional activity of lesions but also anatomical location information of lesions with more accuracy using the combination of SPECT and CT systems. Of course this combination helps nuclear medicine physician find out the abnormal parts. Moreover combined data sets help separate between normal group and abnormal group in complicated body part. So clinicians can carry out diagnosis and treatment planning at the same time with a single test image. In addition, when we examine a myocardium in thorax where attenuation can occur easily, we can trust perfusion more in a certain region in SPECT test because CT provides the capability for accurate attenuation correction. In these reasons, we think we can prove the justice after treatment fusion image.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 2015

Secondary metabolism in actinomycetes has been known to be controlled by a small molecule, ${\gamma}$-butyrolactone autoregulator, the binding of which to each corresponding receptor leads to the regulation of the transcriptional expression of the secondary metabolites. We expected that expression of an autoregulator receptor or a pleiotropic regulator in a non-host was to be gained insight of effective production of new metabolic materials. In order to study the function of the receptor protein (seaR), which is isolated from Saccharopolyspora erythraea, we introduced the seaR gene to Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) as host strains. An effective transformation procedure for S. coelicolor A3(2) was established based on transconjugation by Escherichia coli ET12567/pUZ8002 with a ${\varphi}C31$-derived integration vector, pSET152, which contained int, oriT, attP and $ermEp^*$ (erythromycin promotor). Therefore, the pEV615 was introduced into S. coelicolor A3(2) by conjugation and integrated at the attB locus in the chromosome of the recipients by the ${\varphi}C31$ integrase (int) function. Exconjugant of S. coelicolor A3(2) containing the seaR gene was confirmed by PCR and transcriptional expression of the seaR gene in the transformant was analyzed by RT-PCR. In case of S. coelicolor A3(2), a phenotype microarray was used to analyze the phenotype of transformant compared with wild type by seaR expression. After that, in order to confirm the accuracy of the results obtained from the phenotype microarray, an antimicrobial susceptibility test was carried out. This test indicated that sensitivity of the transformant was higher than wild type in tetracycline case. These results indicated that some biosynthesis genes or resistance genes for tetracycline biosynthesis in transformant might be repressed by seaR expression. Therefore, subsequent experiments, analysis of transcriptional pattern of genes for tetracycline production or resistance, are needed to confirm whether biosynthesis genes or resistance genes for tetracycline are repressed or not.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.212-218
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• 2011

This study was performed to determine the relative quality of mungbeans harvested in bulk after applying a labor-saving cultivation (LSC) method, compared to mungbeans harvested three different times under the conventional cultivation condition. There was no significant difference in starch, crude protein, and vitexin or isovitexin content of seed according to the cropping system or harvest time. The mungbeans grown under the LSC method had the highest crude fat content, followed by mungbeans from the third-, the second- and the first-harvest mungbeans under the conventional cultivation. No significant difference was found in the composite ratio of saturated fatty acids to unsaturated fatty acids according to cropping system or harvest time. The second-harvest mungbeans grown under the conventional cultivation condition had 17 different types of fatty acids, while the third-harvest mungbeans grown under the conventional cultivation and those grown under the LSC condition had the fewest types of fatty acids with 12. Of the major saturated fatty acids, palmitic acid and arachidonic acid had the highest composite ratio in the first conventional cultivation followed by the second, the third and the LSC. However, stearic acid showed the opposite tendency. Of the major unsaturated fatty acids, linoleic acid had the highest composite ratio in the first conventional cultivation, followed by the second and third conventional cultivation and the LSC. Amylogram characteristics of the mungbeans were significantly different according to cropping system and harvest times. The mungbeans harvested after the first conventional cultivation had significantly higher pasting temperature, peak viscosity, holding strength viscosity, final viscosity and breakdown, while mungbeans harvested after the third conventional cultivation had significantly higher setback viscosity. In contrast, the mungbeans harvested under the LSC methods had a significantly lower amylogram value. When harvest rate, color values and amino acid content of sprout were measured, mungbeans grown under the LSC conditions had a low harvest rate of sprout, but had Hunter's color values and amino acid content of sprout similar to those of mungbeans grown under the conventional cultivation condition.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 1986

To investigate the effects of paper sludge on the seasonal variations of soil humus, paper sludges were applied to the pots at the rates of 600㎏/10a which was either preadjusted C/N ratio to 30 : 1 or not adjusted. The effects were compared with those of control. 1) The contents of ether soluble materials, resins, water soluble polysaccharides, hemicellulose, cellulose, ligno-protein, humic acid and fulvic acid were higher in the sludge treated soil than in the control, furthermore, the content of ligno-protein had positive correlation with that of organic nitrogen in soil. 2) Optical density of UV and visible spectra of humic acid obtained from all the treated soil was decreased with increasing wavelength. In functional groups of humic acid, phenolic-OH/alcoholic-OH ratio was slightly higher in the sludge treated soil than in the control. The types of humic acid in all treated soil were P and Rp types. 3) The infrared spectra of humic acid extracted from the soil were characterized by main absorption bands in the regions of $3, 400cm^{-1}$(H-bonded OH), $2,900cm^{-1}$ (aliphatic C-H stretching), $1,630cm^{-1}$ (aromatic C=C and/or H-bonded C=O) and $1,050cm^{-1}$ (Si-O of silicate impurity).

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.84-93
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the repair integrity and clinical outcomes of delaminated tears following arthroscopic layered suture bridge rotator cuff repair in a prospective fashion. Materials and Methods: A consecutive series of 67 patients with delaminated rotator cuff tears who underwent surgery using the arthroscopic Layered Suture Bridge Technique were followed prospectively. Of 67 shoulders, 26 patients were male and 40 patients were female (one patient had bilateral tears); the mean age was 58.8(40~76) years. The clinical evaluation was performed according to ASES, UCLA, and KSS (Korea Shoulder Scoring System) scores with an average follow up period of 33 months. Repair integrity was estimated using MRI, which was performed six months postoperatively. Results: The average clinical outcome in ASES, UCLA, and KSS scores showed significant improvement at the time of the final follow-up compared to preoperatively, from 50.2 to 92.3, 15 to 31.3, and 54.4 to 90.7, respectively (p<0.001 for all scores). Follow up by MRI showed that 16 shoulders had a type-I; 14, a type-II; five, a type-III; two, a type-IV; one, a type-V re-tear. The overall rate of re-tear (types IV and V) was 7.9%. Conclusion: Use of the Arthroscopic Layered Suture Bridge Technique can result in improved functional and structural outcome in cases of delaminated rotator cuff tear.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.82-89
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• 2010

To obtain functional materials from a submerged culture of Hericium erinaceum, a suitable basal medium for flask culture was screened and the optimal culture conditions in a jar fermenter were investigated with the addition of ginseng extracts (GE) to the basal liquid medium. Of all tested basal liquid media, the mushroom complete medium (MCM) supplemented with 0.5% of GE produced the highest mycelial dry weight (MDW) of 5.91 g/L in the flask, which reached a plateau at $25^{\circ}C$, pH 5.5 after 10 days. The submerged culture conditions for the mass production of mycelia in a 50 L jar fermenter were also optimal at $25^{\circ}C$, pH 5.5, 120 rpm agitation speed and 0.4 vvm aeration rate. Under these conditions, the maximum MDW was produced, which reached a value of 4.28 g/L within 5 days. When we investigated the effects of the amount of GE in the MCM on the production of MDW in the jar fermenter, the addition of 5% GE (HE-GE-5) under the optimal culture conditions produced the maximum MDW (4.93 g/L). In addition, the crude polysaccharide of HE-GE-5 contained mainly neutral sugars (63.2%) with considerable amounts of uronic acid (19.3%) and a small amount of proteins (8.8%) and it had potent immunostimulation properties.