• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.273-286
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• 2021

Background: Prostate carcinoma is the second most common cancer among men worldwide. Developing new therapeutic approaches and diagnostic biomarkers for prostate cancer (PC) is a significant need. The Chinese herbal medicine Panax quinquefolius saponins (PQS) have been reported to show anti-tumor effects. We hypothesized that PQS exhibits anti-cancer activity in human PC cells and we aimed to search for novel biomarkers allowing early diagnosis of PC. Methods: We used the human PC cell line DU145 and the prostate epithelial cell line PNT2 to perform cell viability assays, flow cytometric analysis of the cell cycle, and FACS-based apoptosis assays. Microarray-based gene expression analysis was used to display specific gene expression patterns and to search for novel biomarkers. Western blot and quantitative real-time PCR were performed to demonstrate the expression levels of multiple cancer-related genes. Results: Our data showed that PQS inhibited the viability of DU145 cells and induced cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase. A significant decrease in DU145 cell invasion and migration were observed after 24 h treatment by PQS. PQS up-regulated the expression levels of p21, p53, TMEM79, ACOXL, ETV5, and SPINT1 while it down-regulated the expression levels of bcl2, STAT3, FANCD2, DRD2, and TMPRSS2. Conclusion: PQS promoted cells apoptosis and inhibited the proliferation of DU145 cells, which suggests that PQS may be effective for treating PC. TMEM79 and ACOXL were expressed significantly higher in PNT2 than in DU145 cells and could be novel biomarker candidates for PC diagnosis.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.284-290
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• 1999

Glucose fed-batch culture was studied to improve cellulose productivity by Acetobacter xylinum BRC5. When initial glucose concentrations in batch cultures were less than 20 g/L, yield coefficients of cellulose (Yp/s) remained a constant value of 0.21 g cellulose/g glucose. But a low yield coefficient, Yp/s=0.13 was obtained from an initial glucose concentration of 40 g/L. Since initial high glucose concentrations in batch culture resulted in low yields of cellulose, constant fed-batch cultures were carried out. The optimal feed rate for fed-batch culture was 2.22 g glucose/L.h. In constant fed-batch culture without DO control, 10 g/L of cellulose was obtained from 40 g/L of glucose with this feed rate, which was approximately two fold higher than that of the batch culture with the same initial glucose concentration. In DO stat plus fed-batch culture, the highest cellulose productivity could be obtained when dissolved oxygen level was controlled at 10% of air saturation, and cellulose productivity increased about 1.5 times compared with that of the culture without DO control.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.397-405
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• 2023

Although glutathione (GSH) has been shown to play an important role in the prevention of oxidative damage as an antioxidant, studies on immune regulation by it have not been properly conducted. In this study, we investigated whether luthione^®, a reduced GSH, has an immune enhancing effect in murine macrophage RAW 264.7 cells. The results of flow cytometry and immunofluorescence experiments indicated that luthione increased phagocytic activity, a representative function of macrophages, compared to the control cells. According to the results of the cytokine array, the expression of interleukin (IL)-5, IL-1β, and IL-27 was significantly increased in the luthione-treated cells. Luthione also enhanced the production of tumor necrosis factor-α and IL-1β through increased expression of their proteins, and increased release of the immune mediators such as nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E₂ was associated with increased expression of inducible NO synthase and cyclooxygenase-2. In addition, the expression of cluster of differentiation 86, an M1 macrophage marker, was dramatically enhanced in RAW 264.7 cells treated with luthione. Furthermore, as a result of heat map analysis, we found that cytokine signaling 1/3-mediated signal transducer and activator of transcription/Janus tyrosine kinase signaling pathway was involved in the immunomodulatory effect by luthione. In conclusion, our data suggested that luthione could act as a molecular regulator in M1 macrophage polarization and enhance immune capacity by promoting macrophage phagocytic function.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2008

Nanog is a newly identified member of the homeobox family of DNA binding transcription factors that functions to maintain the undifferentiated state of stem cells. However, molecular mechanisms underlying the function of Nanog remain largely unknown. To elucidate the regulatory roles of Nanog involved in maintenance of P19 embryonal carcinoma (EC) stem cells, we transfected three small interfering RNA (siRNA) duplexes targeted against different regions of the Nanog gene into P19 cells. The Nanog siRNA-100 duplexes effectively decreased the expression of Nanog up to 30.7% compared to other two Nanog siRNAs, the Nanog siRNA-400 (67.9 %) and -793 (53.0%). When examined by RT-PCR and real-time PCR, the expression of markers for pluripotency such as Fgf4, Oct3/4, Rex1, Sox1 and Yes was downregulated at 48 h after transfection with Nanog siRNA-100. Furthermore, expression of the ectodermal markers, Fgf5 and Isl1 was reduced by Nanog knockdown. By contrast, the expression of other markers for pluripotency such as Cripto, Sox2 and Zfp57 was not affected by Nanog knockdown at this time. On the other hand, the expression of Lif/Stat3 pathway molecules and of the endoderm markers including Dab2, Gata4, Gata6 and the germ cell nuclear factor was not changed by Nanog knockdown. The results of this study demonstrated that the knockdown of Nanog expression by RNA interference in P19 cells was sufficient to modulate the expression of pluripotent markers involved in the self-renewal of EC stem cells. These results provide the valuable information on potential downstream targets of Nanog and add to our understanding of the function of Nanog in P19 EC stem cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.273-278
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• 2002

Two-step fed-batch fermentations were carried out to overproduce Bacillus licheniformis maltogenic amylase (BLMA) in recombinant Escherichia coli. The first step was to increase the cell mass by controlling the feeding of a glucose solution, while the second step was designed to improve the amylase expression efficiency by supplementing organic nitrogen sources. The linear gradient feeding method was successfully adopted to maintain the glucose concentration below 0.2 g/l during the fed-batch mode, as effectively minimizing acetic acid formation. When the dissolved oxygen (DO) level became limiting, an accumulation of acetic acid and drastic decrease in specific BLMA productivity were observed. Glucose and organic nitrogen sources consisting of yeast extract and casein hydrolysate were simultaneously supplied in the pH-stat mode to further increase the specific BLMA expression efficiency. An organic nitrogen source consisting of 200 g/1 yeast extract and 100 g/1 casein hydrolysate was found to be the best among the various combinations tested. The feeding of an organic nitrogen source in the second-step fed-batch period was highly beneficial in enhancing the BLMA production. The optimized two-step fed-batch culture resulted in 78 g/l maximum dry cell mass and 443 U/ml maximum BLMA activity, corresponding to 1.5-fold increase in the dry cell mass and 3.7-fold enhancement in BLMA production, compared with the simple fed-batch fermentation.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.107-114
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• 2010

Understanding of reflectance of solar concentrators is important for assessing concentration performance. However inaccurate data about refractive indices of constituent materials and dust accumulation on the surface often prevent figuring out reflectance variations. The current study proposes an approach calculating concentrator reflectance based on the refractive index of glass obtained from reflectance and transmittance measurements. This approach improved accuracy of solar-averaged reflectance from 2.9% to 0.4% compared to the use of existing reference data. Reflectance variations with incidence angles are negligible up to $60^{\circ}C$ at various glass thicknesses. When concentrators are contaminated with dust during 2 months specular reflectance loss of vertically exposed concentrators is less than 7%. However for horizontally exposed concentrators the loss significantly increases up to 40% while dependence of reflectance on incidence angles becomes strong. Measurements of hemispherical reflectance indicate that 80 percentage of the loss comes from scattering rather than absorption by dust. Data of refractive index and reflectance provided in the current study will help estimate or model the concentrated solar flux.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.319-323
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• 2006

Heritabilities and genetic correlations of economic traits were estimated with a multiple-trait animal model on 5 different strains of Korea Native Chickens (KNC): Red Brown (RB), Yellow Brown (YB), Gray Brown (GB), Black (B) and White (W). The data used for this study were collected from the Daejeon branch of the National Livestock Research Institute and included 11,233 performance records and 12,729 individual animals. DFREML and SAS BASE/STAT packages were used to estimate genetic parameters and descriptive statistics. The estimated heritabilities for strain RB, YB, GB, B and W, respectively, for age at 1st egg were 0.24, 0.27, 0.12, 0.32 and 0.18; for body weight at first egg were 0.39, 0.43, 0.38, 0.52 and 0.57; for body weight at age of 270 days were 0.43, 0.51, 0.30, 0.52 and 0.67; for egg weight at first egg were 0.08, 0.13, 0.07, 0.06 and 0.07; for egg weight at age of 270 days were 0.37, 0.43, 0.22, 0.34 and 0.41; and for number of eggs laid by age of 270 days were 0.24, 0.25, 0.37, 0.36 and 0.30. The genetic and phenotypic correlations were also estimated.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.265-277
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• 1996

The aim of this study was to investigate the electromyographic(EMG) activity of masticatory and cervical muscles according to chewing pattern in coronal plane during gum chewing. 70 patients with temporomandibular disorders and 30 dental students without any signs and symptoms of the disorders participated in this study. We measured the activity of masseter (MM), anterior temporalis(TA), sternocleidomastoideus(SCM) and trapezius muscle and recorded the chewing patterns using Biopak system synchronously. Chewing pattern was classified into S- or L-pattern by the midline opening path and short or long type by the lateral distance from midline. Obtained data were analyzed with SAS/STAT Program. The obtained results were as follows : 1. Generally, there was tended to be higher activity in the control group than in the patients group. 2. When comparing EMG activity according to preferred side, the muscle activity was tended to higher on the preferred chewing side than on the contralateral side. However, this difference is insignificant statistically 3. In unilateral affected patients, there was no difference in muscle activity between affected chewing side and unaffected chewing side except for the EMG of the temporalis anterior muscle. 4. Despite the varietal in each of the following variables, there mere no differences in EMG activity during gum chewing: chewing pattern in coronal plane and lateral distance of chewing. 5. The activity of SCM in chewing side was higher than that in contralateral side (p<0.001), but there was no difference in trapezius muscle. 6. In all of the control group, there was appeared L-chewing pattern than not involved the midline during preferred side chewing.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 1999

This study was performed to investigate the factors related to vibration of temporomandibular joint during mandibular opening movement. For this study, 144 patients with temporomandibular disorders were randomly selected. Angle's classification, lateral guidance pattern, range of maximal mouth opening, preferred chewing side, and affected side were investigated clinically. Mandibular torque rotational movement during opening was recorded with $BioEGN^{(R)}$ and vibration of temporomandibular joint during opening was recorded with $Sonopak^{(R)}$. After clinical diagnosis was made, visual analogue scale(VAS) was used for evaluation of clinical progress of the subject's chief complaints. The author calculated VAS treatment index(VAS Ti) from the record of VAS. The more VAS Ti was, the less remission of subjective symptom was, The data were analyzed with SAS/Stat program and the results of this study were as follows: 1. There were no significant difference in all the variables of joint vibration by age and sex. 2. Integral and peak amplitude in patients of Angle's class I were higher than those of class II or III patients. Integral in patients of group function was higher than that in patients of canine guidance or other types of lateral excursion. 3. As to Angle's classification or lateral guidance type, there were almost not significant difference between subgroup of same class or type and subgroup of different class or type on both sides. And there were also almost not difference between one side and the other side related to preferred chewing side or affected side. 4. Patients with disk displacement with reduction showed higher value of integral and peak amplitude than any other patients. 5. Joint vibration variables significantly correlated with VAS Ti of pain. with clinical range of mouth opening, and with ingredients of mandibular torque rotational movement.

• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.507-514
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• 2004

Gamma irradiation ($\gamma$-IR) is reported to have diverse effects on immune cell apoptosis, survival and differentiation. In the present study, the immunomodulatory effect of a low dose $\gamma$-IR (5~10 Gy) was investigated, focusing on the role of NF-${\kappa}B$ in the induction of the B cell differentiation molecule, CD23/FceRII. In the human B cell line Ramos, $\gamma$-IR not only induced CD23 expression, but also augmented the IL-4-induced surface CD23 levels. While $\gamma$-IR did not cause STAT6 activation in these cells, it did induce both DNA binding and the transcriptional activity of NF-${\kappa}B$ in the $I{\kappa}B$ degradation-dependent manner. It was subsequently found that different NF-${\kappa}B$ regulating signals modulated the $\gamma$-IR-or IL-4-induced CD23 expression. Inhibitors of NF-${\kappa}B$ activation, such as PDTC and MG132, suppressed the $\gamma$-IR-mediated CD23 expression. In contrast, Ras, which potentiates $\gamma$-IR-induced NF-${\kappa}B$ activity in these cells, further augmented the $\gamma$-IR- or IL-4-induced CD23 levels, The induction of NF-${\kappa}B$ activation and the subsequent up-regulation of CD23 expression by $\gamma$-IR were also observed in monocytic cells. These results suggest that $\gamma$-IR, at specific dosages, can modulate immune cell differentiation through the activation of NF-${\kappa}B$, and this potentially affects the immune inflammatory response that is mediated by cytokines.