• Applied Microscopy
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.186-193
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• 2012

The ultrastructure of the secretory granules of the submandibular gland was examined in the Korean spider shrew, Sorex caecutiens, lesser white-toothed shrew, Crocidura suaveolens and big white-toothed shrew, C. lasiura. The mucous and serous acinar granules of S. caecutiens with a border of the lucid corona differed from those of C. suaveolens and C. lasiurar with a dense lateral border. The mucous acinar granules of C. lasiura with several bands producing a variety of patterns in the matrix were similar to those of C. suaveolens. The serous acinar granules of C. lasiura had a homogenous pale center surrounded by minute dense specks or had an unusual substructure showing a geometric pattern according to the inclusions in the pale matrix of the granules. This is the first report of an unusual substructure showing a geometric pattern of the serous acinar granules of C. lasiura. The myelin-like body was observed in the granular duct cell of the three species of shrew. The myelin-like body of S. caecutiens with layers of unit membranes was different from that of C. suaveolens and C. lasiura with paired membranes. Therefore, the layers composing of the paired membranes of the myelin-like body might be one of the characteristics of Crocidura.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.595-602
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• 2007

This paper proposes a method that discriminates signal peptide and predicts the cleavage site of the secretory proteins cleaved by the signal peptidase I. The preprocessing stage uses hydrophobicity scales of amino acids in order to predict the presence of signal sequence and the cleavage site. The preprocessing enhances the performance of the prediction method by eliminating the non-secretory proteins in the early stage of prediction. for the effective use of support vector machine for the signal sequence prediction, the biologically relevant distance between the amino acid sequences is defined by using the hydrophobicity and substitution matrix; the hydrophobicity can be used to Predict the location of amino acid in a cell and the substitution matrix represents the evolutionary relationships of amino acids. The proposed method showed 98.9% discrimination rates from signal sequences and 88% correct rate of the cleavage site prediction on Swiss-Prot release 50 protein database using the 5-fold-cross-validation. In the comparison tests, the proposed method has performed significantly better than other prediction methods.

• ALGAE
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.207-217
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• 2021

An increase in seawater temperature owing to global warming is expected to substantially limit the growth of marine algae, including Pyropia yezoensis, a commercially valuable red alga. To improve our knowledge of the genes involved in the acquisition of heat tolerance in P. yezoensis, transcriptomes sequences were obtained from both the wild-type SG104 P. yezoensis and heat-tolerant mutant Gy500. We selected 1,251 differentially expressed genes that were up- or downregulated in response to the heat stress condition and in the heat-tolerant mutant Gy500, based on fragment per million reads expression values. Among them, PyHRG1 was downregulated under heat stress in SG104 and expressed at a low level in Gy500. PyHRG1 encodes a secretory protein of 26.5 kDa. PyHRG1 shows no significant sequence homology with any known genes deposited in public databases to date. However, PyHRG1 homologs were found in other red algae, including other Pyropia species. When PyHRG1 was introduced into the single-cell green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, transformed cells overexpressing PyHRG1 showed severely retarded growth. These results demonstrate that PyHRG1 encodes a novel red algae-specific protein and plays a role in heat tolerance in algae. The transcriptome sequences obtained in this study, which include PyHRG1, will facilitate future studies to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in heat tolerance in red algae.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.175-183
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• 2021

Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, comprises a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level over a prolonged period of time. Diabetes is classified into type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, and the incidence and prevalence of diabetes, mostly type 2, have increased remarkably in recent decades. A diagnosis of type 2 diabetes is greatly influenced by heredity, and it is important to prevent diabetes in people with a family history by improving lifestyle and environmental factors. Controlling overeating, obesity, lack of exercise, and stress is effective to prevent diabetes. The patient in this case report had impaired fasting glucose and mild hyperlipidemia. The patient experienced improvements in these sequelae after the administration of herbal medicine (Yangkyuksanwha-tang) for 12 weeks and the implementation of a plant-based diet. The complete blood count, XXXX, fasting blood sugar, HbA1c, insulin, and C-peptide levels were measured, and the Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) and HOMA-β were calculated according to the FBS and fasting insulin levels. Total cholesterol, triglyceride, FBS, and HbA1c levels all decreased after 12 weeks compared with baseline measures. There was no change in the insulin secretory ability; the C-peptide level did not change as a result of β-cell function; and the HOMA-β level reflected an improved insulin secretory ability.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.177-183
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• 2002

The study was designed to investigate the aspects of the goblet cell of the oviduct in laying Korean ring-necked pheasants by histochemical methods (PAS, alcian blue-PAS, alcian blue pH 2.5, alcian blue pH 1.0, and aldehyde fuchsin-alcian blue stain). Twelve laying Korean ring-necked pheasants were used. The results were summarized as follows. The goblet cell of the oviduct of the Korean ring-necked pheasant contained sulfated acid mucosubstances and neutral mucosubstances in the infundibulum. The compounds of sulfated acid mucosubstances, nonsulfated acid mucosubstances, and neutral mucosubstances are present in goblet cells of the magnum, vagina and openings of the tubular gland of the uterus of the oviduct in the Korean ring-necked pheasant. The goblet cell of the isthmus and uterus of the oviduct of the Korean ring-necked pheasant contained neutral mucosubstances except openings of the tubular gland of the uterus. The histochemical characteristics of secretory granules of goblet cells in oviduct of the Korean ring-necked pheasant were not related to the position of eggs in oviduct.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.431-438
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• 2015

In Trichinella spiralis infection, type 2 helper T (Th2) cell-related and regulatory T ($T_{reg}$) cell-related immune responses are the most important immune events. In order to clarify which Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are closely associated with these responses, we analyzed the expression of mouse TLR genes in the small intestine and muscle tissue during T. spiralis infection. In addition, the expression of several chemokine- and cytokine-encoding genes, which are related to Th2 and $T_{reg}$ cell mediated immune responses, were analyzed in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) isolated from myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88)/TIR-associated proteins (TIRAP) and Toll receptor-associated activator of interferons (TRIF) adapter protein deficient and wild type (WT) mice. The results showed significantly increased TLR4 and TLR9 gene expression in the small intestine after 2 weeks of T. spiralis infection. In the muscle, TLR1, TLR2, TLR5, and TLR9 gene expression significantly increased after 4 weeks of infection. Only the expression of the TLR4 and TLR9 genes was significantly elevated in WT MEF cells after treatment with excretory-secretory (ES) proteins. Gene expression for Th2 chemokine genes were highly enhanced by ES proteins in WT MEF cells, while this elevation was slightly reduced in MyD88/$TIRAP^{-/-}$ MEF cells, and quite substantially decreased in $TRIF^{-/-}$ MEF cells. In contrast, IL-10 and $TGF-{\beta}$ expression levels were not elevated in MyD88/$TIRAP^{-/-}$ MEF cells. In conclusion, we suggest that TLR4 and TLR9 might be closely linked to Th2 cell and $T_{reg}$ cell mediated immune responses, although additional data are needed to convincingly prove this observation.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.866-875
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• 2015

COPI vesicles are essential to the retrograde transport of proteins in the early secretory pathway. The COPI coatomer complex consists of seven subunits, termed ${\alpha}-$, ${\beta}-$, ${\beta}^{\prime}-$, ${\gamma}-$, ${\delta}-$, ${\varepsilon}-$, and ${\zeta}$-COP, in yeast and mammals. Plant genomes have homologs of these subunits, but the essentiality of their cellular functions has hampered the functional characterization of the subunit genes in plants. Here we have employed virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) and dexamethasone (DEX)-inducible RNAi of the COPI subunit genes to study the in vivo functions of the COPI coatomer complex in plants. The ${\beta}^{\prime}-$, ${\gamma}-$, and ${\delta}$-COP subunits localized to the Golgi as GFP-fusion proteins and interacted with each other in the Golgi. Silencing of ${\beta}^{\prime}-$, ${\gamma}-$, and ${\delta}$-COP by VIGS resulted in growth arrest and acute plant death in Nicotiana benthamiana, with the affected leaf cells exhibiting morphological markers of programmed cell death. Depletion of the COPI subunits resulted in disruption of the Golgi structure and accumulation of autolysosome-like structures in earlier stages of gene silencing. In tobacco BY-2 cells, DEX-inducible RNAi of ${\beta}^{\prime}$-COP caused aberrant cell plate formation during cytokinesis. Collectively, these results suggest that COPI vesicles are essential to plant growth and survival by maintaining the Golgi apparatus and modulating cell plate formation.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.211-217
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• 2018

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are useful candidates for tissue engineering and cell therapy. Physiological cell environment not only connects cells to each other, but also connects cells to the extracellular matrix that provide mechanical support, thus exposing the entire cell surface and activating signaling pathways. Hydrogel is a polymeric material that swells in water and maintains a distinct 3-dimensional (3D) network structure by cross linking. In this study, we investigated the optimized cellular function for canine adipose tissue-derived MSCs (cAD-MSCs) using hydrogel. We observed that the expression levels of Ki67 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen, which are involved in cell proliferation and stemness, were increased in transwell-hydrogel (3D-TN) compared to the transwell-normal (TN). Also, transforming growth factor-${\beta}1$ and SOX9, which are typical bone morphogenesis-inducing factors, were increased in 3D-TN compared to the TN. Collagen type II alpha 1, which is a chondrocyte-specific marker, was increased in 3D-TN compared to the TN. Osteocalcin, which is a osteocyte-specific marker, was increased in 3D-TN compared to the TN. Collectively, preconditioning cAD-MSCs via 3D culture systems can enhance inherent secretory properties that may improve the potency and efficacy of MSCs-based therapies for bone regeneration process.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 1997

The present study was undertaken to determine whether live T. uaginnlis degrades human secretory IgA, serum If and IgG molecules. Human immunoglobulins were exposed to live trophozoites, parasite Iysate, and excretory-secretory product (ESP) of T ucginnlis. To determine the fragmentation of immunoglobulins, the reaction sample was subjected to SDS-PAGE and EITB, and peroxidase conjugated antihuman IgA and IgG were used as probes. Live trophozoites degraded secretory IgA, serum IgA and IgG, and degradation were pressed forward by the prolongation of the incubation time and by increasing the number of trichomonads respectively. Also the Iysates and ESP of trichomonads degraded IgA and IgG. The cysteine and serine proteinase inhibitors such as I-64, antipain, iodoacetic acid, iodoacetamide, TLCK reduced the ability of cleaving immunoglobulins. The proteinase activity and cytotoxicity of T. uaginnlis to HeLa cells were decreased when live T. vusinalis was treated with metallo-proteinase inhibitor as well as cysteine and serine proteinase inhibitors. These results suggest that proteinase secreted from live T ucginclis may play a part role in host pathogenesis by T. uosinnlis, and the cleaving ability of host immunoglobulins by the proteinase may contribute as a one of immune evasion mechanism for parasite survival in the host.

• BMB Reports
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.277-282
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• 2015

We demonstrated previously that a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 15 (ADAM15) is released into the extracellular space as an exosomal component, and that ADAM15-rich exosomes have tumor suppressive functions. However, the suppressive mechanism of ADAM15-rich exosomes remains unclear. In this study, we show that the ADAM15 ectodomain is cleaved from released exosomes. This shedding process of the ADAM15 ectodomain was dramatically enhanced in conditioned ovarian cancer cell medium. Proteolytic cleavage was completely blocked by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, indicating that a serine protease is responsible for exosomal ADAM15 shedding. Experimental evidence indicates that the ADAM15 ectodomain itself has comparable functions with those of ADAM15-rich exosomes, which effectively inhibit vitronectininduced cancer cell migration and activation of the MEK/extracellular regulated kinase signaling pathway. We present a tumor suppressive mechanism for ADAM15 exosomes and provide insight into the functional significance of exosomes that generate tumor-inhibitory factors. [BMB Reports 2015; 48(5): 277-282]