• Anatomy and Cell Biology
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• 제57권3호
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• pp.408-418
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• 2024

Vitamin C is a well-known antioxidant with antiviral, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory properties based on its antioxidative function. Aptamin C, a complex of vitamin C with its specific aptamer, has been reported to maintain or even enhance the efficacy of vitamin C while increasing its stability. To investigate in vivo distribution of Aptamin C, Gulo knockout mice, which, like humans, cannot biosynthesize vitamin C, were administered Aptamin C orally for 2 and 4 weeks. The results showed higher vitamin C accumulation in all tissues when administered Aptamin C, especially in the spleen. Next, the activity of natural killer (NK) cells were conducted. CD69, a marker known for activating for NK cells, which had decreased due to vitamin C deficiency, did not recover with vitamin C treatment but showed an increasing with Aptamin C. Furthermore, the expression of CD107a, a cell surface marker that increases during the killing process of target cells, also did not recover with vitamin C but increased with Aptamin C. Based on these results, when cultured with tumor cells to measure the extent of tumor cell death, an increase in tumor cell death was observed. To investigate the signaling mechanisms and related molecules involved in the proliferation and activation of NK cells by Aptamin C showed that Aptamin C treatment led to an increase in intracellular STAT3 activation. In conclusion, Aptamin C has a higher capability to activate NK cells and induce tumor cell death compared to vitamin C and it is mediated through the activation of STAT3.

• 한국식품영양과학회지
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• 제44권3호
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• pp.307-313
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• 2015

본 연구에서는 국내에서 재배되는 울금의 면역조절 효과에 대해 평가하고자 20% 주정 추출물을 이용하여 자연살해세포와 T 세포에 미치는 영향을 관찰하였다. 마우스의 비장세포에서 분리한 자연살해세포를 종양세포 YAC-1 세포와 함께 배양시켜 울금 20% 주정 추출물의 처리에 따른 변화를 관찰하였다. 그 결과 울금 20% 주정 추출물의 처리는 자연 살해세포의 CD69 발현과 IFN-${\gamma}$의 발현을 증가시켰고 결과적으로 활성이 증가되어 YAC-1 세포의 제거를 증가시켰음을 확인하였다. 또한 마우스의 비장세포에서 울금 20% 주정 추출물의 처리에 따른 T 세포의 변화를 관찰한 결과에서는 CD4+ T 세포보다는 CD8+ T 세포를 증가시켰음을 확인하여 감염된 세포나 종양세포 제거를 효과적으로 할 수 있을 것이라고 예상할 수 있었다. 결론적으로 울금 20% 주정 추출물은 내재면역과 적응면역에 영향을 미쳐 면역조절에 긍정적인 변화를 보였음을 확인하였다.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제47권3호
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• pp.100007.1-100007.11
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• 2024

Recent evidence establishes a pivotal role for obesity-induced inflammation in precipitating insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes. Central to this process is the proinflammatory M1 adipose-tissue macrophages (ATMs) in epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT). Notably, natural killer (NK) cells are a crucial regulator of ATMs since their cytokines induce ATM recruitment and M1 polarization. The importance of NK cells is shown by the strong increase in NK-cell numbers in eWAT, and by studies showing that removing and expanding NK cells respectively improve and worsen obesity-induced insulin resistance. It has been suggested that NK cells are activated by unknown ligands on obesity-stressed adipocytes that bind to NKp46 (encoded by Ncr1), which is an activating NK-cell receptor. This was supported by a study showing that NKp46-knockout mice have improved obesity-induced inflammation/insulin resistance. We therefore planned to use the NKp46-knockout mice to further elucidate the molecular mechanism by which NKp46 mediates eWAT NK-cell activation in obesity. We confirmed that obesity increased eWAT NKp46⁺ NK-cell numbers and NKp46 expression in wild-type mice and that NKp46-knockout ablated these responses. Unexpectedly, however, NKp46-knockout mice demonstrated insulin resistance similar to wild-type mice, as shown by fasting blood glucose/insulin levels and glucose/insulin tolerance tests. Obesityinduced increases in eWAT ATM numbers and proinflammatory gene expression were also similar. Thus, contrary to previously published results, NKp46 does not regulate obesity-induced insulin resistance. It is therefore unclear whether NKp46 participates in the development of obesity-induced inflammation and insulin resistance. This should be considered when elucidating the obesity-mediated molecular mechanisms that activate NK cells.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.171-181
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• 2014

Asthma is a common pulmonary disease with several different forms. The most studied form of asthma is the allergic form, which is mainly related to the function of Th2 cells and their production of cytokines (IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13) in association with allergen sensitization and adaptive immunity. Recently, there have been many advances in understanding non-allergic asthma, which seems to be related to environmental factors such as air pollution, infection, or even obesity. Cells of the innate immune system, including macrophages, neutrophils, and natural killer T cells as well as the newly described innate lymphoid cells, are effective producers of a variety of cytokines and seem to play important roles in the development of non-allergic asthma. In this review, we focus on recent findings regarding innate lymphoid cells and their roles in asthma.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제16권5호
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• pp.786-790
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• 2006

Cellular components of Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis (heat-killed whole cells, cytoplasm, and cell walls) were tested for their in vivo immunopotentiating activity. Peritoneal macrophages from mice orally administered with heat-killed whole cells exhibited significantly greater phagocytic activity than the groups administered with cell-wall fraction or cytoplasm fraction. The cytotoxicity of natural-killer cells was the highest in the group administered with whole cells, and the production of cytokines ($IFN-\gamma$, IL-2, and IL-12) in spleen cells was significantly higher, when cellular components were injected, and it tended to be higher in the cell-wall and cytoplasm groups than in the whole-cell group. Interestingly, the cytokine production of Peyer's patch cells was high, when cytoplasm fractions were administered. These results demonstrate that whole cells and cytoplasm and cell-wall fractions of L. lactis ssp. lactis have immunopotentiating activities, which are related to the stimulation of Peyer's patches.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.202-206
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• 2003

To determine the effect of immunopotentiating activity of cellular components of Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis, the immune function was analyzed in vitro using mice cells. When stimulated with mitogens, productions of $IFN-{\gamma}$, IL-12, $TNF-{\alpha}$, and IL-6 were enhanced in spleen cells treated with cellular components, with IL-4 production being the highest in spleen cells treated with cytoplasm fraction. Without mitogen stimulation, the productions of $IFN-{\gamma}$ and IL-12 were the highest in spleen cells treated with heat-killed whole cell. $TNF-{\alpha}$ and IL-6 productions were also high in spleen cells treated with all cellular components. Only heat-killed whole cell showed significant enhancement in natural killer cell activity. In peritoneal exudates cells, $TNF-{\alpha}$ production was enhanced significantly by all cellular components of Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis These results indicate that the cellular components of Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis are capable of stimulating immune cells to produce cytokines, and that both their cell walls and cytoplasm fraction contribute to these capacities.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제20권6호
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• pp.506-512
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• 2012

Although pruritus is the critical symptom of atopic dermatitis that profoundly affect the patients' quality of life, controlling and management of prurirtus still remains as unmet needs mainly due to the distinctive multifactorial pathogenesis of pruritus in atopic dermatitis. Based on the distinct feature of atopic dermatitis that psychological state of patients substantially influence on the intensity of pruritus, various psychotropic drugs have been used in clinic to relieve pruritus of atopic dermatitis patients. Only several psychotropic drugs were reported to show real antipruritic effects in atopic dermatitis patients including naltrexone, doxepin, trimipramine, bupropion, tandospirone, paroxetine and fluvoxamine. However, the precise mechanisms of antipruritic effect of these psychotropic drugs are still unclear. In human skin, serotonin receptors and serotonin transporter protein are expressed on skin cells such as keratinocytes, melanocytes, dermal fibroblasts, mast cells, T cells, natural killer cells, langerhans cells, and sensory nerve endings. It is noteworthy that serotonergic drugs, as well as serotonin itself, showed immune-modulating effect. Fenfluramine, fluoxetine and 2, 5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine significantly decreased lymphocyte proliferation. It is still questionable whether these serotonergic drugs exert the immunosuppressive effects via serotonin receptor or serotonin transporter. All these clinical and experimental reports suggest the possibility that antipruritic effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in atopic dermatitis patients might be at least partly due to their suppressive effect on T cells. Further studies should be conducted to elucidate the precise mechanism of neuroimmunological interaction in pruritus of atopic dermatitis.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.493-499
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• 2002

We investigated the antitumor activity of oregonin, a diarylheptanoid derivative purified from Alnus hirsuta Turcz, Betulaceae. Oregonin is a potential novel immunomodulator, which augments the activation of natural killer (NK) cells, and thereby leads to a powerful antitumor activity. To evaluate the cytotoxicity of oregonin against tumor cells, we examined the effectiveness of NK cells and determined that oregonin could increase NK cell cytotoxicity. This was confirmed by MTT assay. In addition, the survival time of C57BL/6 mice were measured by inoculating 816-F10 melanoma cells to mice via intra muscular (i.m.) injection. Oregonin treatment after 10 hours of inoculation at 10 mg/kg dosage showed a significant extension of survival time by up to 51.32%, when compared to the control group. Moreover, oregonin significantly reduced the incidence of pulmonary metastasis, which may be developed from 816-F10 melanoma cells. These findings suggest that oregon in may be classified as a new and novel immunomodulator due to its potential antitumor activity.

• 한국식품영양과학회지
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.405-411
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• 1993

본 연구는 녹황색채소류에서 추출되어 항암효과를 나타내는 활성 물질로 보고되어 있는 phytol과 들미나리 추출물을 sarcoma 180마우스에 주사한 후 적출한 비장세포내 T임프구와 T subset, 그리고 asialo GM1$^{＋}$세포를 정량하여 다음과 같은 결과를 얻었다. 1) 종양 마우스에 phytol 을 투여하였을 때 비장세포내의 T cell과 T-subset은 종양세포이식에 의해서 상승된 치를 더욱 증가시켰다. 그러나 들미나리추출물의 경우는 대동소이하였다. 2) Asialo GM1$^{＋}$세포는 종양마우스에 phytol이나 들미나리추출물을 주사하였을 때 모두 상승하였으며 정상마우스에 phytol 을 투여하였을 때도 대조군에 비하여 상승했지만 들미나리추출물을 작용시켰을 때는 저하되었다. 3) L3T4$^{＋}$/Lyt-2$^{＋}$세포비는 종양마우스에 phytol을 주사하였을 때 감소를 보였지만 정상 마우스에 투여하였을 때는 더욱 크게 낮아졌다. 그러나 들미나리추출물을 정상마우스에 투여 하였을때는 크게 감소하던 것이 종양마우스에 적요 시켰을 때는 증가현상을 보였다. 이상의 결과로 미루어 볼 때 phytol이나 들미나리추출물은 종양마우스에서 작용자 세포인 자연살해세포(natural killer cell)의 활성 인자로서 작용할 가능성이 높을 것으로 사료된다.

• 한국식품영양과학회지
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• 제26권6호
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• pp.1194-1199
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• 1997

The effect of hot taste preference on selected immune responses was investigated in human peripheral immunocompetent cells. Human lymphocytes and natural killer(NK) cells were prepared at a concentration of 2$\times$$10^{6}$ cells/ml in RPMI-1640 containing 10% fetal bovine serum. Lymphocytes proliferation was determined with the [$^{3}H$]-thymidine pulse for 18hrs after concanavalin A, phytohemagglutinin, Salmonella typhimurium mitogen, or media alone. NK cell activity was measured by cytolysis of $^51Cr$-labeled target cells K562. Serum antibodies levels such as IgM, IgG, IgA were also measured by ELISA method. There was no difference of serum IgM level among the groups, but IgG and IgA levels were greater in the group with hot taste preference than those of the group without hot taste preference. In lymphocytes of the group with hot taste preference there was a greater mitogen-induced lymphocyte proliferative responses compared to the group without hot taste preference. In addition, NK cell activity in group with hot taste preference was lower than that of the group without hot taste preference. These results suggest that the eating habit of spicy food containing hot components may affect immune status by modulating selective immunocompetent cells function.