• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.538-544
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• 2012

Ethanol is known as being carcinogenic to humans. In addition, the anti-proliferative effects of ethanol have been described for a variety of tissues and cells. In this study, we investigated the anti-proliferative effects of ethanol on various cancer cells, particularly on oncogenic $ras$-transformed or-injected cells. Ethanol treatment inhibited the cell proliferation of normal control cells, but did not suppress the proliferation of various cancer cells and oncogenic $ras$-transformed cells. Furthermore, ethanol treatment did not interfere with DNA synthesis, which was induced by microinjecting the oncogenic $H-Ras^{V12}$ protein. The anti-proliferative effect of ethanol was rescued by antioxidants, such as $N$-acetylcysteine and 4-methlpyrazole. These results suggest that ethanol cytotoxicity is exerted through free radical formation, and that the anti-proliferative action site of ethanol cytotoxicity either lies upstream, or is independent of Ras.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.367-372
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• 2015

Background: Human adiponectin (ApN), a 30 kDa glycoprotein of 244-amino acids which is predominantly produced by adipocytes, exerts its effects via two receptors, namely adiponectin receptor-1 (adipo-R1) and adiponectin receptor-2 (adipo-R2) with differential binding affinity to globular adiponectin. Adiponectin receptor expression has been studied in several cancer tissues. However, there are no studies of colorectal adenomas which are considered to be precursors for colorectal carcinoma (CRC). Objectives: In the present study, the expression of adipo-R1 and adipo-R2 was investigated immunohistochemically in colorectal adenomas and colorectal carcinoma tissues in an attempt to determine associations with these tumors. Materials and Methods: The study enrolled 50 CRC patients with tumor resection and 82 patients who were diagnosed with adenomatous polyps, classified as negative for neoplasia, low-grade dysplasia (L-GD) or high- grade dysplasia (H-GD). Results: Expression of both adipo-R1 and adipo-R2 was found to be significantly lower in the CRCs than in colorectal adenomas (tubular and tubulovillous, p=0.009 and p<0.001, respectively). Adipo-R1 and adipo-R2 expression was also significantly lower in the CRC group when compared with the groups of patients with low grade dysplasia, high-grade dysplasia or no neoplasia (p=0.012 and p<0.001, respectively). In addition, it was observed that adipo-R2 expression was generally positive in the non-neoplastic group irrespective of the adipo-R2 expression. In the L-GD, H-GD and CRC groups, the adipo-R2 result was positive whenever adipo-R1 result was positive but some patients with negative adipo-R1 had positive adipo-R2 (p<0.001, p=0.004, p<0.001, respectively). Conclusions: This study indicated that ApN may play a role in the progression of colorectal adenomatous polyps to carcinoma through actions on adipo-R1 and adipo-R2 receptors.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.367-372
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• 2007

Cervical dysplasia induces morphologic changes in the cervical epithelium which involve changes in the nuclear/cytoplasmic (N/C) ratio. Since the nucleus is one of the significant scattering sources, the N/C ratio change reflects the degree of circular polarization (DOCP) with the depth of signals. Therefore, we used the polarization-sensitive OCT (PS-OCT) technique to measure the polarization changes caused by scattering. Cervical tissues were obtained from a high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (H-SIL) of one woman and from low normal women. We obtained the mean of the DOCP as a function of depth in the cervix and quantified the change ratio of the DOCP using slopes that were determined by linear fits in the epithelium layer. We found that DOCP of H-SIL decayed faster than that of normal tissue because of the higher scattering in H-SIL as expected. This result indicates that the PS-OCT system might be useful in measurements of change ratio of DOCP with depth for screening of cervical dysplasia.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.339-343
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• 2011

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are well known environmental carcinogens. PAH metabolites, especially BaP-7,8- dihydrodiol, 9,10 epoxide, initiate carcinogenesis via high specificity binding to DNA to form DNA adducts. The Korean red ginseng (KRG) from Panax ginseng has been suggested to protect against damages due to PAH exposure but the mechanism is unknown. Therefore, we investigated effects of KRG on PAH exposure using toxicokinetic methods and changes of PAH-induced oxidative damage during a 2 week-clinical trial (n=21 healthy young female, $23.71{\pm}2.43$ years). To analyze antioxidative effects of KRG, we measured changes in the levels of urinary malondialdehyde (MDA) before and after KRG treatment. We observed a significant positive association between levels of urinary MDA and 1-hydroxypyrene, a biomarker of PAH exposures (slope=1.47, p=0.03) and confirmed oxidative stress induced by PAH exposures. A reverse significant correlation between KRG treatment and level of urinary MDA was observed (p=0.03). In summary, results of our clinical trial study suggest that KRG plays a significant role in antioxidative as well as toxicokinetic pathways against PAHs exposure.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.40-44
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• 1999

Glutathione S-transferase (GST) is a multifunctional protein that catalyzes the catalyzes the conjugation of glutathione with electrophilic compounds. It exists in a variety of isoenzy-matic froms with a wide range of substrate specificity and plays a pivotal role in detoxification of various drugs. In order to elucidate the GST-${\pi}$'s involvement of multidrug resistance (MDR) in drug-resistant tumor cell lines, we determined GST-${\pi}$ content by "1 step sandwich method". Consequently, adriamycin resistant cells of MCF-7 (MCF-7/ADM) have 7-fold increase of GST-${\pi}$ content than that of MCF-7 cells, while its {TEX}$IC_{50}${/TEX} was 116-fold greater than parent cell line. By northrn blotting, we compared whether MCF-7/ADM cells express GST-${\pi}$ mRNA. The GST-${\pi}$ mRNA expression in these cells was not inducible, but constitutive when treated for 24 h with a concentration of 0, 20, 200, and 2000 nM of adriamycin, respectively. Taken together, these results suggest that GST-${\pi}$ may not be directly associated with multidrug resistance in these human cancer cell lines.ell lines.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7261-7264
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• 2013

Recent genome wide sequencing has identified mutations in IDH1/IDH2 predominantly in grade II-III gliomas and secondary glioblastomas which are associated with favorable clinical outcome. These mutations have become molecular markers of significant diagnostic and prognostic relevance in the assessment of human gliomas. In the current study we evaluated IDH1 (R132) and IDH2 (R172) in 32 gliomas of various grades and tumor subtypes. Sequencing analysis revealed R132H mutations in 18.7% tumors, while none of the cases showed IDH2 (R172) mutations. The frequency of IDH1 mutations was higher in females (21.4%) than males (11.1%), and it was significantly higher in younger patients. Histological analyses demonstrated presence of necrosis and micro vascular proliferation in 69% and 75% respectively. Interestingly, IDH1 mutations were predominantly present in non-necrotic tumors as well as in cases showing microvascular proliferation. Of the six IDH1 positive cases, three were glioblastomas (IV), and one each were anaplastic oligoastrocytoma (III), anaplastic oligodendroglioma III (n=1) and diffuse astrocytoma. In conclusion, IDH1 mutations are quite frequent in Indian glioma patients while IDH2 mutations are not observed. Since IDH mutations are associated with good prognosis, their use in routine clinical practice will enable better risk stratification and management of glioma patients.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1265-1271
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• 2008

Adlay bran is a waste product previously thought to have no commercial value, Its methanolic extract was fractionated using n-hexane (ABM-Hex), ethyl acetate (ABM-EtOAc), 1-butanol (ABM-BuOH), and water (ABM-$H_2O$). The ABM-EtOAc fraction exhibited a strongest inhibition against growth of human lung cancer cell A549 and human colorectal carcinoma cells HT-29 and COLO 205. Inhibition of cell cycle progression at $G_0/G_1$ transition, increase of cells at the sub-$G_1$ phase, and DNA ladders were observed in cells treated with ABM-EtOAc. The ABM-BuOH fraction showed the strongest inhibition of proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-$\alpha$ and interlukin (IL)-$1{\beta}$ in stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. Further, ABM-EtOAc and ABM-BuOH inhibited cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 expression in A549 and HT-29 carcinoma cells, while COX-l expression was not affected. These results reveal that both ABM-EtOAc and ABM-BuOH may aid the prevention of cancers and the applications in cancer chemotherapy.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 2019

The protein kinase $CK2{\alpha}$ (formerly Casein Kinase II) is implicated in tumorigenesis and transformation. However, the mechanisms of $CK2{\alpha}$ activation in breast cancer have yet to be elucidated. This study investigated the mechanisms of $CK2{\alpha}$ activation in estrogen signaling. Estrogen increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, $CK2{\alpha}$ activity, and protein expression in estrogen receptor positive ($ER^+$) MCF-7 human breast cancer cells, which were inhibited by the antioxidant N-acetyl-L-cysteine. $H_2O_2$ enhanced $CK2{\alpha}$ activity and protein expression. Human epidermal growth factor (EGF) increased ROS production, $CK2{\alpha}$ activity and protein expression in EGF receptor 2 (HER2)-overexpressing MCF-7 (MCF-7 HER2) cells, but not in MCF-7 cells. Estrogen induced the phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). The p38 inhibitor, SB202190, blocked estrogen-induced increases in ROS production, $CK2{\alpha}$ activity and $CK2{\alpha}$ protein expression. The data suggest that ROS/p38 MAPK is the key inducer of $CK2{\alpha}$ activation in response to estrogen or EGF.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.197-203
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• 2001

A fusion protein, consisting of human epidermal growth factor as a recognition domain and human angiogenin as a toxin domain, can be used as a targeted therapeutic against breast cancer cells among others. The fusion protein was expressed as inclusion body in recombinant E. coli, and when the conventional, solution-phase refolding process was used the refolding yield was very low due to severe aggregation, probably due to the opposite surface charge due to vastly different pI values of each domain. Solid-phase refolding process exploiting ionic interactions between the solid matrix and the protein was tried, but the ionic binding yield was very low regardless of the resins and pH conditions used. To provide higher affinity toward the solid matrix, six lysine residues were tagged to the N -terminus of the hEGF domain When the cation exchange resins such as heparin- or CM-Sepharose were used as the matrix, the adsorption capacity increased 2.5-3 times and the subsequent refolding yield increased nearly IS times compared to the conventional process.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.331-338
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• 2005

Ionizing radiation and doxorubicin both produce oxidative damage and double-strand breaks in DNA. Double-strand breaks and oxidative damage are highly toxic and cause cell cycle arrest, provoking DNA repair and apoptosis in cancer cell lines. To investigate the response of normal human cells to agents causing oxidative damage, we monitored alterations in gene expression in F65 normal human fibroblasts. Treatment with ${\gamma}$-irradiation and doxorubicin altered the expression of 23 and 68 known genes, respectively, with no genes in common. Both agents altered the expression of genes involved in cell cycle arrest, and arrested the treated cells in $G_2M$ phase 12 h after treatment. 24 h after ${\gamma}$-irradiation, the percentage of $G_1$ cells increased, whereas after doxorubicin treatment the percentage of $G_2M$ cells remained constant for 24 h. Our results suggest that F65 cells respond differently to ${\gamma}$-irradiation- and doxorubicin-induced DNA damage, probably using entirely different biochemical pathways.