• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.73-83
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• 1993

In order to examine the effect of ${\beta}-estradiol$ on the cell growth, using a primary rabbit kidney poximal tubule cell culture system. We investigated the effect of ${\beta}-estradiol$ on alpha 1 (IV) collagen and ${\beta}-actin$ mRNA levels from primary rabbit kidney cell cultures, and also the effects of 3 growth factors and ${\beta}-estradiol$ supplementation on the growth of primary rabbit kidney proximal tubule cells in the serum-free medium. 1 nM of ${\beta}-estradiol$ showed a sizable potentiation effect on the growth of the proximal tubule cell in serum-free medium, but higher concentration (> 10 nM) of estradiol indeed inhibited the growth. In the absence of hydrocortisone as a growth supplement in serum-free medium, ${\beta}-estradiol$ caused to potentiate the growth of the cell. In the presence of hydrocortisone, ${\beta}-estradiol$ also potentiated the growth of the proximal tubule cells. According to the Northern analysis, ${\beta}-estradiol$ increased the level of ${\beta}-actin$ mRNA, although mRNA level of the alpha I(IV) collagen was not changed significantly.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.451-463
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• 2001

목적 - Inflammatory cytokine으로 알려진 interleukin 1$\beta$, tumor necrosis factor $\alpha$는 치수 및 치근단질환에서 주요한 역할을 하며, 골흡수를 자극하고 골형성을 방해하는 것으로 알려져 왔다. 이들 cytokine은 주로 단핵세포/대식세포가 형성하는 것으로 알려져 왔으나 최근 연구에 의하면, PMN도 또한 이 런 cytokine들을 형성할 수 있다는 것이 보고되었다. 오랫동안 염증반응이나 면역반응에서 PMN의 역할이 주로 포식작용 을 통해 병원균을 제거하는 것이라고만 생각되어져 왔던 것을 생각하면, 새로운 발견이라 할 수 있다. 또, PMN은 IL-1ra도 생성하는 것으로 보고되었는데, IL-1ra란 IL-1의 생물학적 작용을 방해하는 인자이므로, IL-1과 밀접한 관련을 가지는 질환의 발전에 있어서 IL-1과 IL-1ra의 balance가 매우 중요한 역할을 할 것으로 생각된다 즉, IL-1ra는 IL-1$\beta$의 proinflammatory effect를 제한할 수 있는 negative feedback mechanism이라고 할 수 있다. 이 연구의 목적은 치수 및 치근단 조직의 감염에 있어서 주요 원인균인 Porphyromonas endodontalis의 LPS가 PMN의 IL-1$\beta$, TNF-$\alpha$, IL-1ra생성에 미치는 영향을 단백질과 mRNA 수준에서 관찰하는 것이다. 잘 알려진 non-oral bacterium인 E. coli의 LPS를 positive control로 사용하였으며, IL-1ra가 IL-1$\beta$의 생물학적 작용을 방해하는 작용을 관찰하기 위해, IL-1의 biological assay도 시행하였다. 방법 - P. endodontalis ATCC 35406을 혐기성 조건에서 배양하고, hot phenol-water extraction의 방법으로 LPS를 추출(crude LPS)한 후, 제조회사로부터 구입한 E. coli의 crude LPS와 함께 정제하였다. 건강한 자원자들을 대상으로 말초혈액을 채취한 후 dextran sedimentaion을 거쳐 Lymphoprep을 이용하여 PMN층을 분리하였다. 얻어진 세포들은 RPMI 1640 (supplemented with fetal bovine serum antibiotics)에 5$\times$$10^{6}$cells/ml이 되도록 resuspend시킨 후 각기 다른 농도 (0, 0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10$\mu$g/ml)의 LPS를 처리하여, 각기 다른 시간(Northern blot : 1, 2, 4시간 ELISA : 2, 6, 12, 18시간)동안 37$^{\circ}C$ in 5% $CO_2$ 의 조건으로 배양하였다. 상층액은 -7$0^{\circ}C$에 보관하였다가 추후에 ELISA를 이용한 단백질 농도 측정과 IL-1 biological assay에 사용되어졌으며, 배양된 세포로부터 RNA를 추출하여 Northern hybridization을 통해 mRNA expression을 관찰하였다. (중략)

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.308-319
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• 2003

Mechanical forces are known to have an effect on bone formation, maintenance and remodeling, and there is evidence that the development of the mandibular condyle in the rat or mouse is influenced by altered functional force. However, studies are lacking in molecular-biologic mechanism such as the identification of differentiation factor induced from functional force. Here a mouse model was used to investigate the functional stress-responsive gene or factors which is related to the altered force by comparing the expression genes of functional state and hypo-functional state of the mouse mandible. ICR mice were provisioned with either a soft, mushy diet (soft-diet group) or hard rat pellets (hard-diet group) beginning at weaning for the alteration of functional force and subsequently sacrificed at 89 days of age. Incisor of mice in group 1 were trimmed twice a week to reduce occlusal forces. After killing the animals, mandibular bone including condyle were collected for RNA extraction, subtractive hybridization, northern blot analysis and mRNA in-situ hybridization. The results as follows; 1. A total of 39 clones were sequenced, and 11 individual sequence types were subsequently identified by subtractive hybridization, as 28 clones were represented twice in the analyzed sets. 2. Consequently four candidate clones, FS-s (functional stress-specific)2, -5, -18, and -22 were identified and characterized by homolgy search and northern analysis. Four of these clones, FS-s2, -5, -18, and -22, were shown to be expressed differentially in the hard-diet group. 3. Histologic sections showed that osteoblastic activity along the bone trabeculae and active bone remodeling were significantly lower in soft than in hard diet animals. A soft diet seems to enable a longer period of endochondral ossification in the mandibular condyle. 4. Although the mRNAs of FS-s2, -5, -18, and -22 were expressed rarely by cells of the soft-diet group, highest expression was detected in the cells of the hard-diet group. Together with the above results, it is suggested that FS-s2, -5, -18, and -22 could act as an important factors controlling the tissue changes in response to functional stress. The exact functional significance of these findings remains to be established.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.319-329
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• 1999

Onset of female puberty follows a series of prepubertal cellular and molecular events including changes of synaptic plasticity, synthetic and releasing activity and gene expression. Dramatic increase of gonadal steroid level is one of the most prominent changes before the onset of puberty. Based on the importance of steroid feedback upon the hypothalamus, we adopted an estrogen sterilized rat (ESR) model where 100 ng of 17$\eta$-estradiol were administered into neonatal pubs for 7 days after birth. To identify genes involved in the onset of female puberty, we applied PCR differential display using RNA samples derived from ESR and control rat hypothalami. About 100 out of more than 1000 RNA species examined displayed differential expression patterns between a 60-day old control rat and ESR. Sequence analysis of differentially amplified PCR products showed homology with genes such as mouse kinesin superfamily-associated protein 3 (KAP3) and several cDNAs previously described by others in mouse and human tissues. Several gene products such as 2-1 and 8-1 corresponded to novel DNA sequences. We analyzed mRNA levels of KAP3, 2-1 and 8-1 genes in the hypothalami derived from neonatal, 6-, 28-, 31-, and 40-day old rats. Northern blot analysis showed that mRNAs of KAP3, 2-1 and 8-1 genes were markedly increased before the initiation of puberty. Neonatal treatment of estrogen clearly inhibited prepubertal increases in KAP3, 2-1 and 8-1 mRNA levels. Therefore, these genes may play important roles in the initiation of hypothalamic puberty. In addition, intracerebroventricular (icv) injection of antisense KAP3 oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) clearly delayed puberty initiation determined by vaginal opening, which further confirmed that KAP3 plays an important role in the regulation of puberty initiation.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2001

The ecdysteroid UDP-glucosyltransferase (egt) gene isolated from Bombyx mori nuclear polyhedrosis virus (BmNPV) K1 strain was compared to its homologue from Autographa californica NPV (AcNPV) and Bm NPV T3. The egt gene of BmNPV-K1 encoded 506 amino acid open reading frame, and was 99.6% identical at the amino acid level and 99.2% identical at the nucleotide level to BmNPV T3. The BmNPV-K1 egt gene showed highly identity to AcNPV and BmNPV T3 strain. The BmNPV-K1 egt gene was different from amino acid sequence at 2 positions, 19 and 72, in BmNPV T3. The genomic location of egt gene in the BmNPV-K1 was confirmed by Southern blot analysis and its expression patterns at the transcriptional level in the infected cells were confirmed by Northern hybridization analysis. Transcripts of the egt of Bm NPV-K1 peaked around 12 hrs postinfection (p.i.) and reduced at 24 hrs p.i.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.117-122
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• 2002

Cotton Glutathione S-Transferase(GST: EC 2.5.1.18) was cloned and Gh-5 cDNA was overexpressed in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants. The transformation of cotton GST in tobacco plant was confirmed by northern blot analysis. Type I and Type II transcript patterns were identified in Gh-5 transgenic tobacco plants. Type I transcripts was only discussed in this paper. Glutathione and 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB) were used as the substrates, and the activity of GST in the type I transgenic plants was about 2.5-fold higher than the non-expressers and wild type tobacco plants. The expression of cotton GST in tobacco plants proved that Gh-5 could be translated into functional protein. Type I transgenic plants produced functional GST in the cells. Type I showed higher GST specific activity than Type II in the transgenic plants. Control and transgenic seedlings were grown in the growth chamber and under the light at 15$^{\circ}C$, and the effects of cotton GST in the seedlings was evaluated. The growth rate of Gh-5 overexpressors was better than the control and non-transgenic tobacco plants. Salinity tolerance was also analyzed on the seeds of transgenic plants. Seeds of Gh-5 overexpressors and the wild type tobacco seedlings were germinated and grown at 0, 50, 100, 150, and 200 mM NaCl solution. Gh-5 transgenic seedlings showed higher growth rate over control seedlings at both 50 and 100 mM NaCl solution. But at 0, 150, and 200 mM NaCl concentration, the difference in growth rate was not detected.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.404-409
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• 2008

The brown-rot basidiomycete Fomitopsis palustris is known to degrade crystalline cellulose (Avicel) and produce three major cellulases, exoglucanases, endoglucanases, and ${\beta}$-glucosidases. A gene encoding endoglucanase, designated as cel12, was cloned from total RNA prepared from F. palustris grown at the expense of Avicel. The gene encoding Cel12 has an open reading frame of 732 bp, encoding a putative protein of 244 amino acid residues with a putative signal peptide residing at the first 18 amino acid residues of the N-terminus of the protein. Sequence analysis of Cel12 identified three consensus regions, which are highly conserved among fungal cellulases belonging to GH family 12. However, a cellulose-binding domain was not found in Cel12, like other GH family 12 fungal cellulases. Northern blot analysis showed a dramatic increase of cel12 mRNA levels in F. palustris cells cultivated on Avicel from the early to late stages of growth and the maintenance of a high level of expression in the late stage, suggesting that Cel12 takes a significant part in endoglucanase activity throughout the growth of F. palustris. Adventitious expression of cel12 in the yeast Pichia pastoris successfully produced the recombinant protein that exhibited endoglucanase activity with carboxymethyl cellulose, but not with crystalline cellulose, suggesting that the enzyme is not a processive endoglucanase unlike two other endoglucanases previously identified in F. palustris.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.138-146
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• 2009

Background: The MHC region of the chromosome contains a lot of genes involved in immune responses. Here we have investigated the mouse NG29/Cd320 gene in the centrometrically extended MHC region of chromosome 17. Methods: We cloned the NG29 gene by RT-PCR and confirmed the tissue distribution of its gene expression by northern blot hybridization. We generated the NG29 gene expression constructs and polyclonal antibody against the NG29 protein to perform the immunofluorescence, immunoprecipitation and flow cytometric analysis. Results: The murine NG29 gene and its human homologue, the CD320/8D6 gene, were similar in the gene structure and tissue expression patterns. We cloned the NG29 gene and confirmed its expression in plasma membrane and intracellular compartments by transfecting its expresssion constructs into HEK 293T cells. The immunoprecipitation studies with rabbit polyclonal antibody raised against the NG29-NusA fusion protein indicated that NG29 protein was a glycoprotein of about 45 kDa size. A flow cytometric analysis also showed the NG29 expression on the surface of Raw 264.7 macrophage cell line. Conclusion: These findings suggested that NG29 gene in mouse extended MHC class II region was the orthologue of human CD320 gene even though human CD320/8D6 gene was located in non-MHC region, chromosome 19p13.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1708-1714
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• 2005

Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) functions in epithelial growth and differentiation in many tissues and organs. KGF is expressed in the uterine endometrial epithelial cells during the estrous cycle and pregnancy in pigs, and receptors for KGF (KGFR) are expressed by conceptus trophectoderm and endometrial epithelia. KGF has been shown to stimulate the proliferation and differentiation of conceptus trophectoderm. However, the role of KGF on the endometrial epithelial cells has not been determined. Therefore, this study determined the effect of KGF on proliferation and differentiation of endometrial epithelial cells in vitro and in vivo using an immortalized porcine luminal epithelial (pLE) cell line and KGF infusion into the uterine lumen of pigs between Days 9 and 12 of estrous cycle. Results showed that KGF did not stimulate proliferation of uterine endometrial epithelial cells in vitro and in vivo determined by the $^3$H]thymidine incorporation assay and the proliferating cell nuclear antigen staining, respectively. Effects of KGF on expression of several markers for epithelial cell differentiation, including integrin receptor subunits $\alpha$4, $\alpha$5 and $\beta$1, plasmin/trypsin inhibitor, uteroferrin and retinol-binding protein were determined by RT-PCR, Northern and slot blot analyses, and immunohistochemisty, and KGF did not affect epithelial cell differentiation in vitro and in vivo. These results show that KGF does not induce epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation, suggesting that KGF produced by endometrial epithelial cells acts on conceptus trophectoderm in a paracrine manner rather than on endometrial epithelial cells in an autocrine manner.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.95-99
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• 2004

Synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) containing unmethylated CpG dinucleotides in particular base contexts are known to induce immunity in vertebrate cells. In insect, however, it was recent to find out that ODNs induces insect immunity as other immune inducer such as lipopolysaccharide. However, the finding was solely based on one lepidopteran insect, Bombyx mori, and the expression of insect immunity was neither dependent on numbers of CpG repeats nor methylation of CpG repeats within ODNs. Instead, foreignness of DNA has been suggested to be a key factor governing induction of antibacterial peptide. In this study, we expanded our previous understanding to the potentiality of ODNs as an immune inducer for antifungal peptide in Galleria mellonella and B. mori. To do this, a defensin-type antifungal peptide gene, reported from G. mellonella was cloned and partially sequenced from G. mellonella and B. mori successfully and utilized as a probe in the Northern blot analysis. We found out that ODNs also work as an immune inducer for antifungal peptide in the fat body and midgut of G. mellonella and B. mori larvae. Also, induction pattern of antifungal peptide was irrelevant to the numbers of CpG repeats within ODNs as previously reported on the induction pattern of antibacterial peptides.