• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 2012

Differential capacity of the parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells (PESCs) is still under controversy and the mechanisms of its neural induction are yet poorly understood. Here we demonstrated neural lineage induction of PESCs by addition of insulin-like growth factor-2 (Igf2), which is an important factor for embryo organ development and a paternally expressed imprinting gene. Murine PESCs were aggregated to embryoid bodies (EBs) by suspension culture under the leukemia inhibitory factor-free condition for 4 days. To test the effect of exogenous Igf2, 30 ng/ml of Igf2 was supplemented to EBs induction medium. Then neural induction was carried out with serum-free medium containing insulin, transferrin, selenium, and fibronectin complex (ITSFn) for 12 days. Normal murine embryonic stem cells derived from fertilized embryos (ESCs) were used as the control group. Neural potential of differentiated PESCs and ESCs were analyzed by immunofluorescent labeling and real-time PCR assay (Nestin, neural progenitor marker; Tuj1, neuronal cell marker; GFAP, glial cell marker). The differentiated cells from both ESC and PESC showed heterogeneous population of Nestin, Tuj1, and GFAP positive cells. In terms of the level of gene expression, PESC showed 4 times higher level of GFAP expression than ESCs. After exposure to Igf2, the expression level of GFAP decreased both in derivatives of PESCs and ESCs. Interestingly, the expression level of $Tuj1$ increased only in ESCs, not in PESCs. The results show that IGF2 is a positive effector for suppressing over-expressed glial differentiation during neural induction of PESCs and for promoting neuronal differentiation of ESCs, while exogenous Igf2 could not accelerate the neuronal differentiation of PESCs. Although exogenous Igf2 promotes neuronal differentiation of normal ESCs, expression of endogenous $Igf2$ may be critical for initiating neuronal differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. The findings may contribute to understanding of the relationship between imprinting mechanism and neural differentiation and its application to neural tissue repair in the future.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2012

This study was conducted to investigate effects of different levels of seleniferous whole crop barley (WCB) supplementation on performance, and blood characteristics as physiological responses in growing pigs. A total of 20 cross-bred pigs ((Landrace ${\times}$ Yorkshire) ${\times}$ Duroc) were divided into 4 treatments of 5 pigs each and experimental period lasted for 6 weeks. They were fed diets containing 0.1 (non-seleniferous WCB as controls), 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 mg/kg levels of selenium (Se) by supplementing seleniferous WCB, and non-seleniferous or seleniferous WCB was formulated to 5% level in total ration. The diets were isonitrogenous (18% crude protein) and isocaloric (3,500 kcal/kg digestible energy) across treatments. Increasing levels of seleniferous WCB supplements did not affect feed intake and BW gain, and blood total protein concentration was (p<0.05) significantly higher for 0.2 mg/kg Se treatments than for controls. On d 14, blood albumin concentration was higher (p<0.05) for seleniferous WCB supplemented groups than for control group. Contrarily, blood glucose concentration was tended to be higher for controls than for seleniferous WCB groups. Blood total lipid concentration was significantly (p<0.05) lowered with increasing levels of seleniferous WCB. Serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase did not have any difference among treatments. It was tended that blood total cholesterol and triglyceride were lowered with increasing levels of seleniferous WCB. Blood Se concentration was significantly (p<0.05) increased with increasing levels of seleniferous WCB. The results indicate that Se present in seleniferous WCB had favorable effects on blood characteristics and blood Se increased by supplementing seleniferous WCB implies not only a good intestinal absorption of Se present in WCB but also the possibility of Se transfer into tissues.