• KSBB Journal
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 2009

Ceramide is important not only for the maintenance of the barrier function of the skin but also for the water-binding capacity of the stratum corneum. Though the effectiveness of ceramide is not understood fully, ceramide has become a widely used ingredient in cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. However, ceramide production from Saccharomyces cerevisiae has not been widely studied and the quantity are very low. Gene deletion in the cell is used frequently to investigate the function of gene and verification research of drug target. Specially, deletion mutant library is useful for a large amount functional analysis of gene. In this study, deletion mutants of genes on the metabolic pathway of ceramide synthesis in S. cerevisiae were grown in a batch culture and the cellular content of ceramide was measured. The ceramide content was highest in ${\triangle}$ydc1 mutant and 6 mg ceramide/g cell was obtained.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.49-63
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• 2000

Aflatoxin $B_1(AFB_1)$ is a potent hepatotoxic and hepatocarcinogenic mycotoxin in human beings. It is accumulated in animal tissues and injured cell through variable metabolic pathway. This study was conducted to determine the effect of antioxidant vitamins on liver function enzymes and hepatic damage of $AFB_1$ treated mice. The 6 weeks old male ICR mice were randomly separated 6 groups, vehicle solvent or vitamin C(10 mg/kg/day) and vitamin E(63.8 mg/kg/day) were administered by intraperitoneal(i.p.) injection and 1 hr later, vehicle solution(DMSO) or $AFB_1$(0.4 mg/kg) were injected. The results obtained as follow ; The levels of liver function enzymes such as GOT, GPT, LDH, and alkaline phosphatase, in sera of mice were remarkably elevated by treatment with $AFB_1$ only. However, those enzymes were significantly alleviated by co-treatment with antioxidant vitamins(p<0.01). Especially the levels of LDH and ALK phosphatase were similar to those of control groups(p<0.01). The transmission electron microscopy(TEM) image of intracellular microrganelles on the liver cell of mice was also degenerated extremely by treatment with $AFB_1$, but vitamin C and vitamin E gave good effects on cellular deformation. The intracellular microrganelles such as mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, nucleus and nucleic membrane were nearly disappeared the cellular deformation by antioxidant vitamins co-administration. With above results, we could estimated that antioxidant vitamins blocked AFB1 induced hepatic cell damage.

• BMB Reports
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.142-147
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• 2020

Lipid accumulation in white adipose tissue is the key contributor to the obesity and orchestrates numerous metabolic health problems such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and cancer. Nonetheless, the prevention and treatment of obesity are still inadequate. Recently, scientists found that brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adult humans has functions that are diametrically opposite to those of white adipose tissue and that BAT holds promise for a new strategy to counteract obesity. In this study, we evaluated the potential of sinapic acid (SA) to promote the thermogenic program and lipolysis in BAT. SA treatment of brown adipocytes induced the expression of brown-adipocyte activation-related genes such as Ucp1, Pgc-1α, and Prdm16. Furthermore, structural analysis and western blot revealed that SA upregulates protein kinase A (PKA) phosphorylation with competitive inhibition by a pan-PKA inhibitor, H89. SA binds to the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) site on the PKA catalytic subunit where H89 binds specifically. PKA-cat-α1 gene-silencing experiments confirmed that SA activates the thermogenic program via a mechanism involving PKA and cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB) signaling. Moreover, SA treatment promoted lipolysis via a PKA/p38-mediated pathway. Our findings may allow us to open a new avenue of strategies against obesity and need further investigation.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.205-213
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• 1995

This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of organic solvents on xenobiotic metabollzing enzyme system in vivo by meaas of experimental conditions i.e. (1) single group which was treated by benzene (B), toluene (T) and xylene (X), respectively, (2) combination group which was treated by mixture of benzene+toluene (BT), benzene+xylene (BX), and toluene+xylene (TX), respectively, (3) mixture group which was treated by benzene+ toluene+xylene mixture (M), and to interpreat the interaction between the organic solvents metabolizing enzymes. 1. The contents of cytochrome P-450 in liver microsomes were increased (p < 0.01) in organic solvents treated groups, and the contents of cytochrome P-450 were increased by following order of B < T < M < BT=BX < X < TX. 2. The activity of cytochrome P-450 dependent AHHase was significantly higher in organic solvents treated groups than in control group (p < 0.01), and the activity of AHHase was increased by following order of B < T < BT=BX=TX=xylene < M. 3. The activity of NADPH P-450 reductase was significantly higher in organic solvents treated groups than in control group (p < 0.01), and the order of M < combinated group < X < T

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.165-175
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• 2013

The fear that schistosomes will become resistant to praziquantel (PZQ) motivates the search for alternatives to treat schistosomiasis. The antimalarials quinine (QN) and halofantrine (HF) possess moderate antischistosomal properties. The major metabolic pathway of QN and HF is through cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4. Accordingly, this study investigates the effects of CYP3A4 inhibitor, ketoconazole (KTZ), on the antischistosomal potential of these quinolines against Schistosoma mansoni infection by evaluating parasitological, histopathological, and biochemical parameters. Mice were classified into 7 groups: uninfected untreated (I), infected untreated (II), infected treated orally with PZQ (1,000 mg/kg) (III), QN (400 mg/kg) (IV), KTZ (10 mg/kg)+QN as group IV (V), HF (400 mg/kg) (VI), and KTZ (as group V)+HF (as group VI) (VII). KTZ plus QN or HF produced more inhibition (P<0.05) in hepatic CYP450 (85.7% and 83.8%) and CYT b5 (75.5% and 73.5%) activities, respectively, than in groups treated with QN or HF alone. This was accompanied with more reduction in female (89.0% and 79.3%), total worms (81.4% and 70.3%), and eggs burden (hepatic; 83.8%, 66.0% and intestinal; 68%, 64.5%), respectively, and encountering the granulomatous reaction to parasite eggs trapped in the liver. QN and HF significantly (P<0.05) elevated malondialdehyde levels when used alone or with KTZ. Meanwhile, KTZ plus QN or HF restored serum levels of ALT, albumin, and reduced hepatic glutathione (KTZ+HF) to their control values. KTZ enhanced the therapeutic antischistosomal potential of QN and HF over each drug alone. Moreover, the effect of KTZ+QN was more evident than KTZ+HF.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2013

Potato is the 4th important crop along with rice, wheat and maize. It contains high quality of starch with relatively high content of vitamin C and protein. However, there is a nutritionally limiting factor due to a low level of sulphur-containing essential amino acid including methionine and cysteine. Recently, recombinant DNA technology and metabolic engineering with genes involved in the bio-synthetic pathway have been applied to enhance the level of these essential amino acids. In this report, it has been discussed about the current status and bottleneck on the development of transgenic potato containing high level of sulphur-containing essential amino acids.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.274-281
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• 2019

Pistacia chinensis Bunge has not only been used as a medicinal plant to treat various illnesses but its young shoots and leaves have also been used as vegetables. In addition, P. chinensis is used as a rootstock for Pistacia vera (pistachio). Here, the transcriptome of P. chinensis was sequenced to enrich genetic resources and identify secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathways using Illumina RNA-seq methods. De novo assembly resulted in 18,524 unigenes with an average length of 873 bp from 19 million RNA-seq reads. A Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) annotation tool assigned KO (KEGG orthology) numbers to 6,553 (36.2%) unigenes, among which 4,061 unigenes were mapped into 391 different metabolic pathways. For terpenoid backbone and carotenoid biosynthesis pathways, 44 and 22 unigenes encode enzymes corresponding to 30 and 16 entries, respectively. Twenty-two unigenes encode proteins for 16 entries of the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway. As for the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways, 63 and 24 unigenes were homologous to 17 and 14 entry proteins, respectively. Mining of simple sequence repeat identified 2,599 simple sequence repeats from P. chinensis unigenes. The results of the present study provide a valuable resource for in-depth studies on comparative and functional genomics to unravel the underlying mechanisms of the medicinal properties of Pistacia L.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5797-5804
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• 2013

In order to enhance the bioavailability of curcumin its conjugates with piperic acid and glycine were synthesized by esterifying the 4 and 4' phenolic hydroxyls, the sites of metabolic conjugation. Antiproliferative and apoptotic efficacy of synthesized conjugates was investigated in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines. $IC_{50}$ values of di-O-glycinoyl (CDG) and di-O-piperoyl (CDP) esters of curcumin were found to be comparable with that of curcumin. Both conjugates induced chromatin condensation fragmentation and apoptotic body formation. CDP exposure to MCF-7 cells induced apoptosis initiating loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (${\Delta}{\Psi}m$) followed by inhibition of translocation of transcription factor NF-${\kappa}B$ and release of Cytochrome-C. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was evaluated by fluorescent activated cell sorter. Change in ratio of Bcl2/Bclxl was observed, suggesting permeablization of mitochondrial membrane leading to the release of AIF, Smac and other apoptogenic molecules. DNA fragmentation as a hallmark for apoptosis was monitored by TUNEL as well as agrose gel electrophoresis. Thus, it was proven that conjugation does not affect the therapeutic potential of parent molecule in vitro, while these could work in vivo as prodrugs with enhanced pharmacokinetic profile. Pharmacokinetics of these molecules under in vivo conditions is a further scope of this study.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.1060-1068
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• 2011

The LDH isozymes are key catalysts in the glycolytic pathway of energy metabolism. It is well known that the distribution of the LDH isozymes vary in accordance with the metabolic requirements of different tissues. The substrates required for energy production change noticeably at successive stages of testes development suggesting a significant flexibility in the expression of glycolytic enzymes. Therefore, expression of LHDA and LDHB mRNAs was examined in adult and prepubertal quail testis. The mRNA of both LDHA and LDHB were expressed and no significant difference was observed in prepubertal testes. The mRNA levels of LDHB significantly increased during testicular development. In the adult testis, LDHA mRNA was not expressed. Expression studies revealed the presence of different LDH isozymes during testicular development. In contrast, electrophoresis of both testicular samples revealed only single band at a position indicative of an extreme type of LDH isozyme in quail testes. Furthermore, nucleotide and amino acid sequence analysis revealed significant similarity to chicken, duck and rock pigeon. These sequence results confirmed the similarity of LDHA and LDHB subunit protein in different avian species.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.167-178
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• 1970

Elucidation of the metabolic pathway due to 50% dietary restriction carried out in this study. Seventy male and female wealning rats, weighed $43{\pm}2g$ were divided into seven groups, 10 rats each. Twenty rats, ten males and ten females were sacrificed every three weeks after 50% dietary restriction for whole length of the experiment, nine weeks. Pair-feeding was employed in this study. According to the increment of the dietary restricted period, the body and organ weights were decreased. Especially liver and spleen were mostly shrinked in their weights, and brain was the most stable organ in account of dietary restricted effect. In comparison nitrogen retention between restricted and unrestricted groups, the former showed lower than the later but tubulated into the rate of Nitrogen retention per gram of body weight, reverse was true in this respect. In regardness of the experimental organs, spleen revealed the most fast change and the brain the most slow change their content of RNA and DNA in account of the 30% dietary restriction. Hematological investigation did not show any anemic conditions in both restricted and unrestricted groups. Also serum albumin contents A/G ratio, did not effect due to 50% dietary restrictions.