• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.323-333
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• 2000

Objectives : Chronic HBsAg carriers are the principal source of infection for other susceptible people, and are themselves at high risk of developing serious liver diseases. In Korea, it has been estimated that 65-75% of the HBsAg positives remained as persistent carriers. Additionally, familial clustering of MBV infection has frequently been observed among carriers. Some would become progressive, chronic hepatitis patients, and others would not. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between various factors, such as the duration of infection, type of virus, mutation of precore/core region in HBV, major histocompatibility class-I, and developing chronic liver diseases among familial HBV carriers. Methods : Chronic carrier status was identified by repeated serological tests for HBsAg at intervals of six months or more. A familial chronic carrier was defined when the disease was observed in a family member over two generations. Two families were recruited, among which a total of 20 chronic HBsAg carriers(11 carriers in No.1, and 9 in No.2 family) were identified. Data on the general characteristics and liver disease status were collected. Identification of the HBV-DNA was successful only for 13 subjects among the 20 carriers. Analysis of viral DNA in terms of subtype, pre-core and core region mutations was carried out. The type of major histocompatibility class-1 for the 13 subjects was also analysed. Results & Conclusions : Seven of 10 chronic HBV carriers of the 1st generation and one of 10 of the 2nd generation were clinical patients with chronic hepatitis, the others, three of the 1 st and nine of the 2nd generation, were asymptomatic carriers. This data indicates that the duration of HBV carriage is one of the major factors for disease severity. The subtype of HBsAg analysed using MBV-DNA identified in 13 carriers were adr, and the pattern of precore nonsense mutation in HBV-DNA was identical among family members, which meads that the same virus strains were transmitted between the family members. The association between the precore or core mutations in HBV-DNA and the disease severity was not observed. While it was suggested that a specific type of MHC class-I may be related to disease progression.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.164-164
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• 2008

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.4167-4175
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• 2013

A najor current challenge and constraint in cervical cancer research is the development of vaccines against human papilloma virus (HPV) epitopes. Although many studies are done on epitope identification on HPVs, no computational work has been carried out for high risk forms which are considered to cause cervical cancer. Of all the high risk HPVs, HPV 16, HPV 18 and HPV 45 are responsible for 94% of cervical cancers in women worldwide. In this work, we computationally predicted the promiscuous epitopes among the E6 proteins of high risk HPVs. We identified the conserved residues, HLA class I, HLA class II and B-cell epitopes along with their corresponding secondary structure conformations. We used extremely precise bioinformatics tools like ClustalW2, MAPPP, NetMHC, Epi,Jen, EpiTop 1.0, ABCpred, BCpred and PSIPred for achieving this task. Our study identified specific regions 'FAFR(K)DL' followed by 'KLPD(Q)LCTEL' fragments which proved to be promiscuous epitopes present in both human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I, class II molecules and B cells as well. These fragments also follow every suitable character to be considered as promiscuous epitopes with supporting evidences of previously reported experimental results. Thus, we conclude that these regions should be considered as the important for design of specific therapeutic vaccines for cervical cancer.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.1145-1151
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• 2010

The objective of this work was to analyze the relationship between ovine major histocompatibility complex (MHC) DRB1 gene polymorphism and genetic resistance to hydatidosis in Kazakh sheep. The Ovar (ovine MHC) class II DRB1 second exon was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from DNA samples of 702 Kazakh sheep, including 302 sheep with hydatidosis and 400 health controls. PCR products were characterized by the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) technique using five restriction enzymes, i.e., MvaI, HaeIII, SacI, SacII and Hin1I, yielding 14 alleles and 28 genotypes. Comparing the frequency of genotypes in hydatidosis sheep with the control group, it was found that the genotype frequencies of MvaIbc, Hin1Iab, SacIIab, HaeIIIde, HaeIIIdf and HaeIIIdd in control sheep were significantly (p<0.01) higher than in hydatidosis sheep, indicating that a significant correlation existed between these genotypes and resistance to hydatidosis. Genotype frequencies of MvaIbb, SacIIaa, Hin1Ibb and HaeIIIef in sheep with hydatidosis were extremely significantly (p<0.01) higher than in the control group, and the genotype frequency of HaeIIIab was significantly higher (p<0.05), indicating that a marked correlation existed between these genotypes and susceptibility to hydatidosis. By way of analyzing haplotype with these resistant genotypes, the hydatidosis resistant haplotype MvaIbc-SacIIab-Hin1Iab of Kazakh sheep was screened out, and then verified through artificial hydatid infection in sheep. The results indicated that the infection rate of sheep with the resistant haplotype of hydatidosis was significantly lower (p<0.01) than without this resistant haplotype. It showed that the genic haplotype MvaIbc-SacIIab-Hin1Iab of Ovar-DRB1 exon 2 was the resistant haplotype of hydatidosis in Kazakh sheep.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.135-142
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• 2001

Background: A large number of diseases occur in association with specific HLA-B or-C alleles. Recently a new gene, termed maj or histocompatibility complex class I chain-related gene A (MICA), has been identified in close proximity to HLA-B. The function of this gene is still unknown. However, it is structurally similar to HLA class I genes. MICA gene is polymorphic and is potentially associated with several diseases. Methods: To evaluate the association of MICA gene in Korean patients with human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) infections, Polymerase chain reaction-Sequence specific primer (PCR-SSP) was done for MICA alleles in the extracellular exons, and a microsatellite analysis for GCT repeat polymorphisms in the TM exon was also completed. Results: In 199 Korean healthy controls, 7 alleles were observed and the frequencies for each allele were MICA008 (44.7%), MICA0 10 (34.2%), MICA002 (31.7%), MICA004 (23.6%), MICA0 12 (2 1.6%), MICA009 (19.6%), and MICA007 (6.5%). When 65 HIV seropositive patients were analyzed, MICA007 allele frequency was significantly higher than in controls (15.4% vs 6.5 %, RR=2.6, p<0.04). In contrast, the frequencies of other MICA alleles and microsatellite alleles in the transmembrane region of MICA gene were not significantly different between HIV seropositive patients and controls. The tight linkage between MICA alleles in the extracellular exons and GCT repeat polymorphisms in the TM exon was observed as follows; MICA002/A9, MICA004/A6, MICA007/A4, MICA008/A5.1, MICA0 10/A5, and MICA0 12/A4 in both groups. No significant difference between patients and controls was observed in the haplotype frequencies of MICA alleles in the extracellular exons and GCT repeat polymorphisms in the TM exon. Conclusion: The data suggest that immune functions related with MICA gene may affect a HIV infections.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.511-516
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• 2018

Macrophages play a crucial role in the host immune defense system. The current study investigated immunomodulatory activities induced by polysaccharides extracted from Cudrania tricuspidata (CTPS) fruits in murine macrophages and their role in signaling pathways. In macrophages, CTPS predominantly induced nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor-a, and interleukin-6 production. In addition, CTPS significantly up-regulated expression of the macrophage surface marker (CD80/86 and MHC class I/II). These results indicate that polysaccharides extracted from CTPS may potentially play an immunomodulatory role in macrophages via mitogen-activated protein kinases and nuclear factor-B signaling. These findings may be useful in the development of immune enhancing adjuvant materials obtained from natural sources.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.1955-1964
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• 2007

A recent report showed that analysis of CD154 expression in the presence of the secretion inhibitor Brefeldin A (Bref A) could be used to assess the entire repertoire of antigen-specific $CD4^+\;T$ helper cells. However, the capacity of intracellular CD154 expression to identify antigen-specific $CD8^+\;T$ cells has yet to be investigated. In this study, we compared the ability of intracellular CD154 expression to assess antigen-specific $CD8^+\;T$ cells with that of accepted standard assays, namely intracellular cytokine IFN-${\gamma}$ staining (ICS) and MHC class I tetramer staining. The detection of intracellular CD154 molecules in the presence of Bref A reflected the kinetic trend of antigen-specific $CD8^+\;T$ cell number, but unfortunately showed less sensitivity than ICS and tetramer staining. However, ICS levels peaked and saturated 8 h after antigenic stimulation in the presence of Bref A and then declined, whereas intracellular CD154 expression peaked by 8 h and maintained the saturated level up to 24 h post-stimulation. Moreover, intracellular CD154 expression in antigen-specific $CD8^+\;T$ cells developed in the absence of $CD4^+\;T$ cells changed little, whereas the number of IFN-${\gamma}$-producing $CD8^+\;T$ cells decreased abruptly. These results suggest that intracellular CD154 could aid the assessment of antigen-specific $CD8^+\;T$ cells, but does not have as much ability to identify heterogeneous $CD4^+\;T$ helper cells. Therefore, the combined analytical techniques of ICS and tetramer staining together with intracellular CD154 assays may be able to provide useful information on the accurate phenotype and functionality of antigen-specific $CD8^+\;T$ cells.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1147-1153
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• 2006

Mizoribine (MZR) has been shown to possess immunosuppressive activity that selectively inhibits the proliferation of lymphocytes by interfering with inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase. The efficacy of MZR is not only in patients who have had renal transplantation, but also in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), lupus nephritis, and primary nephritic syndrome. Because the exact mechanism of its immunosuppressive action is not clear, the object of this study was to examine the ability of MZR to regulate the antigen presenting cells (APCs), dendritic cells (DCs). In this work, we tested whether MZR ($1{\sim}10\;{\mu}g/mL$) could inhibit the cross-presentation of DCs. DC2.4 cells ($H-2K^{b}$) or bone marrow-derived DCs (BM-DCs) generated from BM cells of C57BL/6 mouse ($H-2K^{b}$) were cultured in the presence of MZR with OVA-microspheres, and the amount of OVA peptide-class I MHC complexes was measured by a T cell hybridoma, B3Z, that recognizes OVA (257-264 : SIINFEKL)-$H-2K^{b}$ complex and expresses-galactosidase. MZR profoundly inhibited the expression of SIINFEKL-$H-2K^{b}$ complexes. This inhibitory activity of MZR appeared to affect the phagocytic activity of DCs. MZR also decreased IL-2 production when we examined the effects of MZR on $CD4^{+}$ T cells. These results provide an understanding of the mechanism of immunosuppressive activity of MZR on the inhibition of MHC-restricted antigen presentation and phagocytic activity in relation to their actions on APCs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.773-780
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• 2017

Objective: "Hatchability" is an important economic trait in domestic poultry. Studies on poultry hatchability focus mainly on the genetic background, egg quality, and incubation conditions, whereas the molecular mechanisms behind the phenomenon that some ducklings failed to break their eggshells are poorly understood. Methods: In this study, the transcriptional differences between the livers of normally hatched and assisted ducklings were systematically analyzed. Results: The results showed that the clean reads were de novo assembled into 161,804 and 159,083 unigenes (${\geq}200-bp$ long) by using Trinity, with an average length of 1,206 bp and 882 bp, respectively. The defined criteria of the absolute value of log2 fold-change ${\geq}1$ and false discovery rate${\leq}0.05$ were differentially expressed and were significant. As a result, 1,629 unigenes were identified, the assisted ducklings showed 510 significantly upregulated and 1,119 significantly down-regulated unigenes. In general, the metabolic rate in the livers of the assisted ducklings was lower than that in the normal ducklings; however, compared to normal ducklings, glucose-6-phosphatase and ATP synthase subunit alpha 1 associated with energy metabolism were significantly upregulated in the assisted group. The genes involved in immune defense such as major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I antigen alpha chain and MHC class II beta chain 1 were downregulated in the assisted ducklings. Conclusion: These data provide abundant sequence resources for studying the functional genome of the livers in ducks and other poultry. In addition, our study provided insight into the molecular mechanism by which the phenomenon of weak embryos is regulated.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.583-589
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• 2008

In the present study, we investigated whether rosmarinic acid, which has been suggested to exhibit anti-inflammatory properties, can suppress the expressions of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and macrophage inflammatory protein-$1{\alpha}$ ($MIP-1{\alpha}$) via the MAPK pathway in LPS-stimulated bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) in the presence of GM-CSF and IL-4 in media. The effects of rosmarinic acid were investigated in BMDCs with respect to the following; cytotoxicity, surface molecule expression, dextran-FITC uptake, cell migration, chemokine gene expression, and the MAPK signaling pathway. Rosmarinic acid was found to significantly inhibit the expressions of CD80, CD86, MHC class I, and MHC class II in LPS-stimulated mature BMDCs, and rosmarinic acid-treated BMDCs were found to be highly efficient with regards to antigen capture via mannose receptor-mediated endocytosis. In addition, rosmarinic acid reduced cell migration by inducing the expression of a specific chemokine receptor on LPS-induced mature BMDCs. Rosmarinic acid also significantly reduced the expressions of MCP-1 and $MIP-1{\alpha}$ induced by LPS in BMDCs and inhibited LPS-induced activation of MAPK and the nuclear translocation of $NF-{\kappa}B$. These findings broaden current perspectives concerning our understanding of the immunopharmacological functions of rosmarinic acid, and have ramifications that concern the development of therapeutic drugs for the treatment of DC-related acute and chronic diseases.