• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.48 no.1
• /
• pp.9-18
• /
• 2015

Purpose: Poncirus trifoliata has been reported to have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immune activities. However, its anti-obesity activity and the mechanism by which the water extract of dried, immature fruit of Poncirus trifoliata (PF-W) acts are not clear. This study suggests a potential mechanism associated with the anti-obesity activity of PF-W. Methods: We measured the effect of PF-W on lipoprotein lipase (LPL) regulation using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and an activity assay. The LPL regulation mechanism was examined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to measure the mRNA expression of biomarkers related to protein transport and by western blot for analysis of the protein expression of the transcription factor CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein ($C/EBP{\beta}$). Results: The total polyphenol and flavonoid content of PF-W was $52.15{\pm}4.02$ and $6.56{\pm}0.47mg/g$, respectively. PF-W treatment decreased LPL content in media to $58{\pm}5%$ of that in control adipocyte media, and increased LPL content to $117{\pm}3.5%$ of that in control adipocytes, but did not affect the mRNA expression of LPL. PF-W also increased the mRNA expression of sortilin-related receptor (SorLA), a receptor that induces endocytosis and intracellular trafficking of LPL, in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Finally, cell fractionation revealed that PF-W treatment induced the expression of $C/EBP{\beta}$, a SorLA transcription factor, in the nuclei of 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Conclusion: The LPL secretion and activity assay showed PF-W to be an LPL secretion inhibitor, and these results suggest the potential mechanism of PF-W involving inhibition of LPL secretion through $C/EBP{\beta}$-mediated induction of SorLA expression.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.333-343
• /
• 2004

Impression cytology refers to application of cellulose acetate filter material to the ocular surface to remove the superficial layers of the conjunctival epithelium. The technique is non-invasive, is easy to perform, causes minimal discomfort to the patient, and can be used to follow changes in the conjunctival ocular surface over time. With this method, the morphology of the conjunctival ocular surface can be studied and the degree of squmaous metaplasia assessed. This study was performed to evaluate the conjunctival surface by impression cytology in dry eye patients. A total of 70 students with no contact lens wearing history were recruited. Subjects were required to fill in a McMonnies dry eye symptom questionnaire. The non-invasive tear thinning time(TIT) test of each subject was measured, followed by Schirmer tear test(STI), tear film break-up time(TBUT) tests and Rose-bengal staining were performed as a baseline. Conjunctival epithelial cells from the inferior bulbar conjunctiva were harvested by the impression cytology technique. The specimens collected were labelled and stained with PAS(Periodic Acid Schift)-haematoxylin. The goblet cells and conjunctival epithelial cells were observed under a light microscope of 400x magnification. The specimens were classified according to the Nelson Grading scale which was based on the degree of squamous metaplasia such as changes of goblet cells density, size/form, N:C(nucleus : cytoplasm) ratio. Dry eye patients were observed morphological changes of the epithelial cells, different nuclear alterations, decrease of the goblet cells density. The degree of cytological changes was related to severity of dry eye conditions. When the epithelial cell morphology was graded according to the system described by Nelson, specimens from the control group revealed 91.43% of the eyes to be grade 0 and 8.57% to be grade 1, whereas of the dry eye patients, 20% were grade 0, 42.86% grade 1, 34.29% grade 2 and 2,86% grade 3. Impression cytology represents a non- or minimally invasive biopsy of the ocular surface epithelium with no side effects or contraindications. It has demonstrated to be a useful diagnostic aid for a wide variety of processes involving the ocular surface. This technique is a safe, simple method and may help increase understanding of various ocular surface alterations in dry eye patients.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.305-319
• /
• 2000

A total of 50 diatom species and 1 subspecies belonging to 31 genera except Chaetoceros resting spores were identified in the 45 sediments subsampled from a gravity core GH98-1223 collected from the western Hokkaido Island located in the northeastern East Sea (Sea of Japan). The most dominant species is Thalassionema nitzschioides (Grunow) Hustedt, ranging 29 to 59% of the total assemblages, and most species including Denticulopsis seminae (Simonsen and Kanaya) Simonsen and Pseudoeunotia doliolus (Wallich) Grunow were less than 5% in average. Frequencies of cold-water species are generally higher than those of warm-water species and the vertical distribution of cold-water species was largely opposite to that of warm-water species in spite of ecological habitat difference. Frequency of cold-water species, D. seminae is reverse to that of P. doliolus, an indicator of the Tsushima Warm Current, which is consistent with diatom temperature value (T$_{d}$ value). The variation of T$_{d}$ values shows that the upper part of core with greater-than-average T$_{d}$ values represents postglacial warming trend. These T$_{d}$ values clearly demonstrate that the study area located in the northern part of the East Sea is gradually influenced by Tsushima Warm Current. In addition, the zig-zag variation in the lower part reflects the unstable seawater for diatom habitat. Chaetoceros resting spores indicating productivity and upwelling was 5.3 to 40%, with maximum peak at 80 cm. Chaetoceros resting spores/Chaetoceros vegetative cells, an indicator of relative amounts of biogenic material in the sediments was high at the upper 80 cm level, corresponding to the change of T$_{d}$ values. On the basis of diatom assemblages, the northeastern part of East Sea has experienced the effects of Tsushima Warm Current during the postglacial period of Holocene, which is similar to the modem climatic environment. However, the variation of P. doliolus reflects that the intensity of Tsushima Warm Current has been oscillated in the East Sea.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.996-1002
• /
• 2010

Flow cytometry (FCM) was used to measure the ploidy level of three different sports from 'Campbell Early' ($Vitis$ $labruscana$) grape. Results of the study showed different ploidy levels. FCM analysis for 'Campbell Early' grape which contains 2C DNA diploid cells showed single peak around 35-40 while 'Kyoho' grape with 4C DNA tetraploid cells had a different level of 70-80. However, analysis of the sports displayed a histogram with 2 peaks containing both 2C and 4C nuclei. There was no difference in histograms of 2C DNA flesh and pericarp; on the other hand, 4C DNA flesh type of sports had a different histogram from that of the 2C DNA pericarp. Chromosome numbers of diploid ('Campbell Early'), tetraploid ('Kyoho'), and three sports were counted under the microscope. 'Campbell Early' and 'Kyoho' have 38 and 76 chromosomes, respectively. Three different sports are mixoploids with mixtures of diploid and tetraploid cells. Microscopic observations of shoot apical meristems in sports from 'Campbell Early' grape were carried out to determine the type of plant chimera. 'Campbell Early' grape (diploid) and 'Kyoho' grape (tetraploid) showed that both had 2 tunica layers covering corpus cells, while the three different sports had tunica layers showing mostly oblique division. Most cells from 'Kyoho' grape were larger than 'Campbell Early' grape. Cells from L-2 and L-3 layers of the three sports were similar to 'Kyoho' grape in size, although all cells in L-1 surface layer were uniform in size like 'Campbell Early' grape. Results of FCM analysis indicated that both normal and polyploid cells could be intermixed in sports and could become mixoploidy consisting of diploid and tetraploid. All sports used in the tests were periclinal chimera plants with two distinct L-1 and L-2 cell layers. The result of this study suggests that all three sports which originated from 'Campbell Early' grape might be 2-4-4 type chimera formation.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.206-213
• /
• 2009

Background: Previous series have suggested that younger patients with primary lung cancer exhibit a more aggressive disease course with a worse prognosis, as compared to older patients, although this issue is still debatable. Material and Method: We reviewed the medical records of 79 patients (32 patients 50 years and younger (Group I) and 47 patients 70 years and older (Group II)) who underwent curative resection for primary lung cancer between July 2000 and June 2008. Result: The median age of the patients was 46.5 years in Group I and this was 73 years in Group II. The older patients were more likely to have major comorbidities (44% versus 77%, respectively; p=0.003). Histological examinations identified that the minor histological types (excluding non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)) were predominantly found in the Group I patients (16% versus 2%, respectively; p=0.037). For the TNM staging of the NSCLC, with excluding the minor histologic types, a higher proportion of patients had stage III disease in Group I (33% versus 13%, respectively; p=0.038). There was no significant difference in major morbidity (16% versus 30%, respectively; p=0.148) and operative mortality (0% versus 4.3%; p=0.512) between the groups. The mean follow-up interval was 33 months (range: $1{\sim}98$ months) for patients in both groups. For the patients with NSCLC, the five-year overall survival rate was 52.3% for Group I and 53.7% for Group II (p=0.955). The rate of freedom from recurrence at five years was significantly lower for the Group I patients than for the Group II patients (39.4% versus 70.4%, respectively; p=0.027), and only being a member of Group I impacted recurrence, based on the Cox proportional hazard analysis (p=0.034). Of the patients who had recurrence, four patients in Group I underwent aggressive surgical treatment. All of these patients exhibited long-term survival (range: $46{\sim}87$ months). Conclusion: In our study, the early outcome and long-term survival were similar for the younger and older patients after curative resection of primary lung cancer. However, we think that younger patients require meticulous follow-up as they had a tendency to proceed to surgery with advanced stage disease, a higher recurrence rate than did the older patients and the survival rates were improved, even for the recurred cases, with early aggressive treatment.

• Development and Reproduction
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.297-306
• /
• 2010

Tributyltin (TBT), an endocrine disrupting chemical, has been reported to decrease testicular function by causing apoptosis in the testis, but this mechanism is not fully understood. Thus, in this study we examined whether TBT induces adipogenesis of the Leydig cells to find out the correlation between adipogenesis and apoptosis in the testis. Three week old SD male rats were orally administrated with sesame oil, 1 mg/kg of TBT, or 10 mg/kg of TBT daily for 1 week and weighed after administration. The testes obtained on day 8 were weighed and stained with BODIPY and TUNEL kit. Using total RNA extracted from the isolated Leydig cells, adipogenesis and apoptosis-related genes were analyzed by real-time PCR. The testicular weights of the rats treated with 10 mg/kg TBT were significantly decreased compared to those in the control rats treated with sesame oil. As a result of BODIPY staining, the number of Leydig cells stained with BODIPY was increased in the rats treated with 10 mg/kg TBT compared with the control rats. Similar to BODIPY staining results, the TUNEL assay showed that the apoptosis of Leydig cells was increased in TBT treated rats. The results of the gene expression analysis in the Leydig cells showed that the expression of adipogenesis-related genes (PPAR${\gamma}$, aP2, Perilipin, CD36) and apoptosis-related genes (TNFRSF1A, TNFSF10) was increased after TBT administration. The present study demonstrates that TBT induces the expression of adipogenesis-related and apoptosis-related genes in the Leydig cells leading to adipogenesis and apoptosis in the testes. These results suggest that the dysfunction of Leydig cells by TBT exposure may cause a loss in testicular function.

• Development and Reproduction
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.281-286
• /
• 2010

Recent evidence has revealed that the intratesticular injection of hypertonic saline(20%) resulted in a chemically castrated state such as nadir testosterone levels in rats. To confirm the efficacy of this simple saline-injection method further, we investigated the changes in the gross and microscopic anatomy of testis. Our study comprised three groups; intact(control) group, orchidectomy group and saline-injection (experimental) group. Single dose of hypertonic saline (sterilized, $750{\mu}{\ell}/testis$) were directly administered into both testis of adult rats (about 300 g BW). Bilateral orchidectomy was performed at the same day of saline injection. Following 30 days post-injection, reproductive tissues were surgically removed, weighed and fixed for histological examination. The body weights were not changed in both orchidectomy group and saline-injection group when compared to those in intact group. The wet weights of testis were significantly decreased in saline-injection group when compared to those in intact group. The wet weights of epididymis and seminal vesicle and prostate were significantly decreased in orchidectomy group and saline-injection group when compared to those in intact group. Macroscopically, the testes exerted slight atrophy and the tunica albuginea seemed to be intact in saline injection group. Histologically, however, larger parts of testicular tissue underwent necrosis and were barely recognizable after hematoxylin-eosin staining. In the same section, only the opposite part of the injection site was stained showing abnormal state of cell layers mostly fibrosis and infiltrated leukocytes. Sloughing of immature germ cells from the basement membrane along with shedding cells in the intraluminal space was notable in most seminiferous tubules from the saline injected testis. The present study confirmed that the direct injection of hypertonic saline into testis can induce a castration-like, testosterone-depriving effects on accessory sex organs. Our findings suggest that the efficacy of this less expensive and minimally invasive method seems to be almost even with that of conventional orchidectomy and chemical castration, though more in-depth evaluation should be supported.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.77-84
• /
• 2005

A voloxidizer for a hot cell demonstration, that handles spent fuels of a high radiation level in a limited space should be small and spent fuel powders should not be dispersed out of the equipment involved. In this study a density rate equation as well as the Stokes'equation has been proposed in order to obtain the theoretical terminal velocity of powders. The terminal velocity of U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ has been predicted by using the terminal velocity of SiO$_{2}$, and then determination has been the optimum air flow rate which is able to prevent powders from scattering. An equation which has shown a relationship between theoretical terminal velocities of U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ and SiO$_{2}$ has been derived with the help of the Stokes'equation, and then an experimental verification made for the theoretical Stokes' equation of SiO$_{2}$ by means of an experimental device made of acryl. The theoretical terminal velocity based on the proposed density rate equation has been verified by detecting U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ powders in a filter installed in the mock-up voloxidizer. As the results, the optimum air flow rates seem to be 20 LPM by the Stokes'equation while they are 14.5 L/min by the density rate equation. At the experiments with the mock-up voloxidizer, a trace amount of U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ seems to be detectable at the air flow rate of 14.5 L/min by the density rate equation, but U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ powders of 7$\mu$m diameter seem detectable at the air flow rate of 20 L/min by the Stokes'equation. It is revealed that 14.5 L/min is the optimum air flowe rate which is capable of preventing U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ powders from scattering in the UO$_{2}$ voloxidizer and the proposed density rate equation is proper to calculate the terminal velocity of U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ powders.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.61 no.1
• /
• pp.17-23
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study was to produce mulberry extract and silk protein (MS) added yogurt fermented with vegetable lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus plantarum and Bacillus acidiproducens) and to determine their physicochemical properties and preference. The physicochemical properties were examined total phenol and antocyanins contents, viscosity, visible cell counts, chromaticity and sensory evaluation. Yogurt made with LP (PL) and BA (BA) had similar pH and titrable acidity and mulberry and MS addition made lower pH and higher titrable acidity than the control (YF) (p <0.05). The MS added yogurt exhibited adaptable acidity in the market. As expected, MS added yogurt had higher redness, and lower lightness and yellowness than no added one regardless of bacteria kinds, in chromaticity (p <0.05). MS added yogurt showed higher value of total phenols and anthocyanins than no MS added one. MS added yogurt also increased the number of live bacteria in the ascending order of than LP, BA, YF, LP + MS, and BA + MS. In sensory evaluation, BA + MS had the higher overall acceptance than the others. In conclusion, yogurt fermented with Lactobacillus plantarum and Bacillus acidiproducens was acceptable as much as the commercial Lactobacillus. Moreover, MS added yogurt fermented with Bacillus acidiproducens was the most preferred, based on physicochemical properties and overall acceptability for sensory evaluation.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.61 no.2
• /
• pp.205-211
• /
• 2018

Rebaudioside A is a natural sweetener isolated from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, one of the glycosides based on steviol. Recent studies have shown that rebaudioside A inhibits the inflammatory response by inhibiting cytokines secretion such as interleukin-$1{\alpha}/1{\beta}$ in activated RAW264.7 mouse macrophage cells by LPS. However, the inhibitory mechanism of inflammation by rebaudioside A in the presence of LPS has not been fully elucidated. Therefore, in this study, we tried to investigate the anti-inflammatory activity of rebaudioside A at the protein level when RAW264.7 cells were stimulated by LPS. The inducible nitric oxide synthase protein expression level was reduced in the group treated with $250{\mu}M$ rebaudioside A compared to the LPS-treated group. In addition, the mRNA expression level of $NF-{\kappa}B$, which is a representative nuclear transcription factor by inflammatory signal, was also decreased as compared with that of LPS-treated group. In addition, $NF-{\kappa}B$ and inhibitor-${\kappa}B$ ($I-{\kappa}B$) complexes that are known to be dissociated by $I-{\kappa}B$ phosphorylation and ubiquitination were less phosphorylated than LPS treated group in the presence rebaudioside A. Finally, we could find that rebaudioside A was involved in the $NF-{\kappa}B$ pathway through reducing extracellular signal-regulated kinase1/2 phosphorylation in a concentration-dependent manner. These results suggest that rebaudioside A might suppress inflammatory reaction through MAPK and $NF-{\kappa}B$ regulation in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7.