• IMMUNE NETWORK
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.63-69
• /
• 2013

IL-12 is a secretory heterodimeric cytokine composed of p35 and p40 subunits. IL-12 p35 and p40 subunits are sometimes produced as monomers or homodimers. IL-12 is also produced as a membrane-bound form in some cases. In this study, we hypothesized that the membrane-bound form of IL-12 subunits may function as a costimulatory signal for selective activation of TAA-specific CTL through direct priming without involving antigen presenting cells and helper T cells. MethA fibrosarcoma cells were transfected with expression vectors of membrane-bound form of IL-12p35 (mbIL-12p35) or IL-12p40 subunit (mbIL-12p40) and were selected under G418-containing medium. The tumor cell clones were analyzed for the expression of mbIL-12p35 or p40 subunit and for their stimulatory effects on macrophages. The responsible T-cell subpopulation for antitumor activity of mbIL-12p35 expressing tumor clone was also analyzed in T cell subset-depleted mice. Expression of transfected membranebound form of IL-12 subunits was stable during more than 3 months of in vitro culture, and the chimeric molecules were not released into culture supernatants. Neither the mbIL-12p35-expressing tumor clones nor mbIL-12p40-expressing tumor clones activated macrophages to secrete TNF-${\alpha}$. Growth of mbIL-12p35-expressing tumor clones was more accelerated in the $CD8^+$ T cell-depleted mice than in $CD4^+$ T cell-depleted or normal mice. These results suggest that $CD8^+$ T cells could be responsible for the rejection of mbIL-12p35-expressing tumor clone, which may bypass activation of antigen presenting cells and $CD4^+$ helper T cells.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.54-65
• /
• 2017

Although cancer/testis antigen DDX53 confers anti-cancer drug-resistance, the effect of DDX53 on cancer stem cell-like properties and autophagy remains unknown. MDA-MB-231 ($CD133^+$) cells showed higher expression of DDX53, SOX-2, NANOG and MDR1 than MDA-MB-231 ($CD133^-$). DDX53 increased in vitro self-renewal activity of MCF-7 while decreasing expression of DDX53 by siRNA lowered in vitro self-renewal activity of MDA-MB-231. DDX53 showed an interaction with EGFR and binding to the promoter sequences of EGFR. DDX53 induced resistance to anti-cancer drugs in MCF-7 cells while decreased expression of DDX53 by siRNA increased the sensitivity of MDA-MB-231 to anti-cancer drugs. Negative regulators of DDX53, such as miR-200b and miR-217, increased the sensitivity of MDA-MB-231 to anti-cancer drugs. MDA-MB-231 showed higher expression of autophagy marker proteins such as ATG-5, $pBeclin1^{Ser15}$ and LC-3I/II compared with MCF-7. DDX53 regulated the expression of marker proteins of autophagy in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. miR-200b and miR-217 negatively regulated the expression of autophagy marker proteins. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays showed the direct regulation of ATG-5. The decreased expression of ATG-5 by siRNA increased the sensitivity to anti-cancer drugs in MDA-MB-231 cells. In conclusion, DDX53 promotes stem cell-like properties, autophagy, and confers resistance to anti-cancer drugs in breast cancer cells.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.165-169
• /
• 2006

A Citrobacter sp. MB 2, azo dyes decolorizing bacterium, was isolated from the wastewater and soil and identified as Citrobacter sp.. It was examined that optimum conditions for culture media were 0.5% of sucrose, 1.0% of yeast extract, 0.1% of $K_2HPO_4$, 0.1% of $NaHCO_3$ per distilled water. The best efficient condition of culture was obtained at pH 7.0, $30^{\circ}C$ and aerobic shaking culture. The number of Citrobacter sp. MB2 in optimum medium was increased more than 7 fold compared to basal medium and 50 fold compared to nutrient broth. This strain was exhibited strong resistance against metal salts and antibiotics (ampicillin and penicillin G).

• Development and Reproduction
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.199-211
• /
• 2019

The sterilization effects of methylene blue (MB), formalin, and iodine on the egg of marine medaka, Oryzias dancena, were investigated for disinfecting naididae worm, Chaetogaster diastrophus through sterilization. To determine harmfulness of MB, formalin, and iodine, lethal concentrations 50 ($LC_{50}$) of three chemicals were analyzed in the eggs of marine medaka. The sterilized periods of each chemical were set at 1 hr. Sterilized rates of naididae worm in each chemical were significantly affected and increased drastically as the concentration of each chemical increased (p<0.05). Sterilization abilities of naididae worm were most effective for formalin, but survival rates of egg and hatched rates for formalin were lowest among each chemical. The $LC_{50}$ of MB over 96 hrs were 185.26, 103.84, and 127.15 ppm for adults, juveniles, and eggs respectively. The toxic effects of MB were clearly dose dependent for each life stage (p<0.05). The toxicity sensitivity of juveniles to MB was dramatically higher than that of other groups. In 48 hrs after sterilization, cortisol and glucose concentrations of the adult group with MB treatment were significantly higher than those of the adult group with no treatment (p<0.05). This research provides useful data on sterilization effect of MB, formalin, and iodine, acute toxicity in marine medaka egg and toxicity, sensitivity of life stage of MB in marine medaka.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.99-104
• /
• 2019

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the biomass of cyanobacteria and the concentration of 2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB) in the lower Gongji stream. The investigation was done using a field study that was conducted from 2015 to 2017. The 2-MIB concentration in the lower Gongji stream ranged from 0 to 153 ng/L, while the upper stream had 0 2-MIB concentration. 3 genera (Oscillatoria, Phormidium, Pseudanabaena) of cyanobacteria were detected in the lower Gongji stream with 2-MIB concentration. Among these 3 genera, an increase in Phormidium, Pseudanabaena biomass was associated with an increase in 2-MIB concentration. Accordingly, Phormidium, Pseudanabaena were regarded as the biological source of 2-MIB in that area. In October 2017, although planktonic cyanobacteria occurred less frequently, many benthic cyanobacteria mats were observed on the surface of the water body. Therefore, the high 2-MIB concentration, which exceeded 110 ng/L, can likely be attributed to the benthic cyanobacteria. In a laboratory experiment, individual Oscillatoria filaments were aggregated to form a colony with a higher density. This colony tended to float on the water surface. Cyanobacteria mats after floating aggregated mats were distributed in a net shape on the bottom.

• Clinical Endoscopy
• /
• v.56 no.2
• /
• pp.203-213
• /
• 2023

Background/Aims: Intestinal metaplasia (IM) of the stomach is a precancerous condition that is often not visible during conventional endoscopy. Hence, we evaluated the utility of magnification endoscopy and methylene blue (MB) chromoendoscopy to detect IM. Methods: We estimated the percentage of gastric mucosa surface staining with MB, mucosal pit pattern, and vessel visibility and correlated it with the presence of IM and the percentage of metaplastic cells in histology, similar to the Operative Link on Gastric Intestinal Metaplasia (OLGIM) stage. Results: IM was found in 25 of 33 (75.8%) patients and in 61 of 135 biopsies (45.2%). IM correlated with positive MB staining (p<0.001) and other than dot pit patterns (p=0.015). MB staining indicated IM with better accuracy than the pit pattern or vessel evaluation (71.7% vs. 60.5% and 49.6%, respectively). At a cut-off point of 16.5% for the MB-stained gastric surface, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of chromoendoscopy in the detection of advanced OLGIM stages were 88.9%, 91.7%, and 90.9%, respectively. The percentage of metaplastic cells detected on histology was the strongest predictor of positive MB staining. Conclusions: MB chromoendoscopy can serve as a screening method for detecting advanced OLGIM stages. MB mainly stains IM areas with a high concentration of metaplastic cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 1995.06a
• /
• pp.61-62
• /
• 1995

Seiko Seiki develops and munufactures magnetic Bearing type Turbomolecular Pumps (MB-TMP), Seiko shipped 14,000 MB-TMPs and holds the world's largest share in the MB-TMP field. It developed a new 300 (l/s) class turbomolecular pump.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.25 no.4A
• /
• pp.539-545
• /
• 2000

A 40-Mb/s, 64-state, R= 1/2, 3 bit soft decision Viterbi decoder based on Radix-4 method has been designed and fabricated using a FLEX10K CPLD chip in this paper. In order to implement the high-speed Viterbi decoder, the architectures of adder-compare-select(ACS), branch metric calculation(BMC), trace back(TB) are present. In practical designed by ASIC, the speed is faster than that of CPLD by 6~7 times. Therefore, 40 Mb/s Viterbi decoder architecture can be used for high-speed wireless multimedia communications with 200 Mb/s.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.41-57
• /
• 2002

In this paper, I investigate the impact of quality management activities on the public sector within the framework of Malcolm Baldrige (MB) national qualify model. The Structural Equation Modeling approach has been employed to investigate the cross influences among the seven MB categories. This empirical study shows that a number of statistical hypotheses are significant. The leadership category is the most important driver among the quality management activities. This, in turn, implies that the main source in quality management is to foster a solid qualify oriented leadership system. Categories such as Information Analysis, Strategic Planning, Human Resource Development and Management, and Process Management are significantly related to the Customer Satisfaction category. In addition, leadership, Information Analysis, and Customer Satisfaction categories ere significantly influential to Management Performance.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.39 no.8
• /
• pp.756-761
• /
• 2006

Curcumin has been known for its anti-proliferative and apoptotic effects on several cancer cells. We examined the inhibitory effects of curcumin on cancer cell adhesion, motility, invasion and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) activity in MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells. MDA-MB-231 cells were cultured with 0, 5, 10 or $20{\mu}M$ of curcumin. Curcumin significantly inhibited the adhesion of cancer cells to the fibronectin at $20{\mu}M$ and suppressed the motility and invasion of cancer cells at all concentrations. Also, the MMP-9 activity was inhibited by curcumin, but MMP-9 protein amounts were not affected. Our data indicate that curcumin inhibits motility, invasion and MMP-9 activity of MDA-MB-231 cells. Therefore, curcumin may contribute to the potential beneficial food component to prevent the cancer metastasis in human breast cancer.