• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.175-181
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• 1999

The prevalence of alcoholism among elderly population is reported to be high in rural areas in Korea. Chronic abuse of alcohol can lead to the development of vitamin B deficiency through inadequate intake, altered absorption and metabolism, and increased excretion. The present study was conducted to assess vitamin B1 and B2 status in seventeen alcohol dependent subjects who do not exhibit any clinical neurological symptoms. Vitamin B1 and B2 nutritional states were determined enzymatically by measurement of transketolase and glutathione reductase activities in erythrocytes, respectively. And dietary intakes of nutrients were determined by a 24-hr recall method. The mean percent activation of erythrocyte transketolase was significantly higher in alcoholics than in alcoholics than in control (p<0.05). The proportion of subjects with a low and borderline status of vitamin B1, was significantly higher in alcoholics than in control (p<0.05). The mean percent activation of erythrocyte glutathione reductase was not different between alcoholics and control. And the proportion of subjects with low and borderline status of Vitamin B2, was higher in alcoholics than in control (p<0.1). Vitamin B1 and B2 status were significantly decreased in alcoholics who were smoking cigarettes compared to non-smoking and non-alcoholic subjects(p<0.05). Whether vitamin supplementation improves the vitamin status of alcohol dependent subjects remains to be researched.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.507-515
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• 2001

The elevation of plasma total homocysteine(tHcy) is now established as a risk factro for cardiovascular disease. It is also well known that plasma levels of folate and vitamin $B_{12}$ influences homocysteine metabolism as cofactors. Recently, the effects of health-related lifestyle factors, such as smoking, alcohol drinking coffee consumption, regular exercise, and etc, on plasma tHcy have been determined. The Hordalane Homocysteine Study revealed that smoking and coffee consumption are major deter minants of plasma tHcy as well as folate levels; however, the influence of alcohol intake is still controversial. In Koreans, the effects of lifestyle factors of plasma tHcy have not yet been determined. Thus, we investigated the relationships of various lifestyle determinants with plasma tHcy, folate, and vitamin $B_{12}$ levels and the erythrocyte folate concentrations in Korean adults (99 males and 96 fermales). Plasma tHcy levels were significantly hight in male subjects. On the contrary, plasma levels of folate and vitamin $B_{12}$ and erythrocyte folate concentration of the females were significantly higher than those of the males. Among the five lifestyle factors determined in the study, regular exercise significantly affects plasma tHcy levels only in the females, Contrary to the expectation, there were on significant differences in plasma tHcy levels between alcohol drinkers and non-alcohol drinkers as well as smokers and non-smokers. And also, plasma tHcy leverls were not different between coffee consumers and non-coffee consumer and between green tea consumers and non-green tea consumers. Although alcohol intake did not influence plasma tHcy levels, the duration, frequency, and amount of alcohol drinking showed significant negative relationships with plasma folate levers. These results indicate the regular exercise and alcohol intake might influence plasma levels of tHcy and folate in Koreans, although the results were not reveled in both sexes.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.432-441
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• 1987

This study was undertaken to investigate effects of alcohol and fat content in a balanced diet on growth, hepatic function and some biochemical indices of blood in growing rats. Fourty eight male rats of Sprague-Dawley strain weighing about 160g were divided into 4 groups ; high fat diet group, alcohol-adminstered high fat diet group, low fat diet group and alcohol-administered low fat diet group. High and low fat diet supplied 30% and 12%, respectively, of total calorie intake from fat and alcohol-treated groups received water containing 10% ethanol. Diets contained adequate amounts of all nutrients required for rats, including lipotropic agents(choline and methionine) to minimize effects of factors other than alcohol on liver function. Growth rate was lowest in alcohol-administered low-fat diet group, despite that their energy intake was equivalent to the others. For a 3-week study period, 21.86% and 23.61% of total calorie intake were derived from alcohol in alcohol-adminitered high fat diet group and low fat diet group, respectively. There was no influenced on vitamin B$_1$ status by alcohol consumption. Concentration of triglyceride in plasma increased with alcohol comsumption, and the effect was greater after 6 weeks than after 3 weeks of alcohol consumption . Difference of dietary fat content did not affect the level of triglyceride . The levels of total cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol in plasma were not influenced by alcohol consumption. Serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase activity and hepatic mitochondrial respiration rate did not differ between groups. The results indicate that neither moderate alcohol drinking for 6 weeks nor fat content with a balanced diet caused any dramatic change of metabolism and liver function in rats. However they suggest that even moderate alcohol consumption can affect growth of animals dramatically and the effect may be lessened with relatively high fat content in diet.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.469-474
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• 2014

DWP208 is a sodium succinate form of ZYM-201 which is a triterpenoid glycoside isolated from Sanguisorba officinalis, a medicinal plant prescribed for various diseases, such as duodenal ulcers and bleeding in East Asian counties. We demonstrated that this compound is able to normalize the altered lipid metabolism induced by hyperglycemia and a high fat diet. In this study, we determined whether hyperlipidemic conditions induced with chronically treated alcohol can also be restored by DWP208. Similar to our previous results, orally administered DWP208 (1 to 10 mg/kg) also ameliorated the hyperlipidemia that was induced by alcohol. This compound reversed the alcohol-induced hyperlipidemia including (i) up-regulated hyperlipidemic parameters such as low-density lipoprotein (LDL), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), atherosclerotic index (AI), triglyceride, and total cholesterol, and (ii) down-regulated hyperlipidemic parameters such as absolute body weight, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in serum and liver. According to our data, the ameliorative activity of DWP208 is due to its indirect anti-oxidative activity as a result of which lipid peroxide and hydroxyl radical levels were reduced and the activity of SOD was enhanced. Therefore, our data strongly suggest that DWP208 can be used as a remedy against alcohol-induced hyperlipidemia.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1193-1200
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• 2018

This study investigated the physiochemical properties, antioxidative, nitrite-scavenging, and alcohol metabolism enzyme activities of nectarine vinegar prepared by a traditional fermentation method. The pH of nectarine vinegar was 3.70, the sugar content was $8.87^{\circ}Brix$, and the total acidity was 6.29%. Among organic acids detected, acetic acid was highest at 32.42 mg/ml, followed by lactic acid, malic acid, and succinic acid. Total phenol content of the nectarine vinegar was $121.84{\mu}g$ tannic acid equivalents (TAE)/100 ml. The antioxidative effects of muskmelon vinegar were measured using 1,1-Diphenyl2-picrylhydrazy (DPPH) radical-scavenging activity and superoxide dismutase (SOD) assay. DPPH of nectarine vinegar was increased in a dose-dependent manner, which was 84.47% at 40% concentration. SOD activity was increased in a dose-dependent manner, which was 89.06% at 60% concentration. Nitric scavenging activities of nectarine vinegar were 94.17%, 76.91%, and 20.21% at pH values 1.2, 3.0, and 6.0 at 100% concentration, respectively. The effects of nectarine vinegar on alcohol-metabolism were determined by measuring the generation of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH). ADH and ALDH activities of nectarine vinegar were increased in a dose-dependent manner, which were 153.61% and 178.20 % at 60% concentration, respectively. These results suggest that nectarine vinegar has great potential as a resource for high quality functional health beverages.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.290-297
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• 2022

This study was performed to investigate the organic acids, alcohol metabolism enzyme, and antioxidative, nitrite-scavenging, and hepatoprotective effects of Dendropanax morbifera vinegar prepared by a traditional fermentation method. Among the organic acids detected, acetic acid was the highest found, at 91.72 mg/ml, followed by lactic acid (7.31 mg/ml), malic acid (1.36 mg/ml), and succinic acid (1.20 mg/ml). The total polyphenol content of the D. morbifera vinegar was 13.73 ㎍ tannic acid equivalent (TAE)/ml. The 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazy (DPPH) radical scavenging activity of D. morbifera vinegar was 76.04% at a 60% concentration. The superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity of D. morbifera vinegar was increased in a dose-dependent manner, which was 95.14% at a 60% concentration, while the α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of D. morbifera vinegar was 98.94% at a 10% concentration. The effects of D. morbifera vinegar on alcohol metabolism were determined by measuring the generation of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH). The ADH and ALDH activities of D. morbifera vinegar were increased in a dose-dependent manner, 43.62% and 60.39% at a 60% concentration, respectively. The D. morbifera vinegar showed significant protective effects against tacrine-induced cytotoxicity in HepG2 cells at the 0.6% concentration. These results suggest that D. morbifera vinegar has great potential as a resource for high quality functional health beverages.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1883-1895
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• 2018

Alcohol dependence is a global public health problem, yet the mechanisms of alcohol dependence are incompletely understood. The traditional view has been that ethanol alters various neurotransmitters and their receptors in the brain and causes the addiction. However, an increasing amount of experimental evidence suggests that gut microbiota also influence brain functions via gut-to-brain interactions, and may therefore induce the development of alcohol use disorders. In this study, a rat model of alcohol dependence and withdrawal was employed, the gut microbiota composition was analyzed by high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and the metagenome function was predicted by PICRUSt software. The results suggested that chronic alcohol consumption did not significantly alter the diversity and richness of gut microbiota in the jejunum and colon, but rather markedly changed the microbiota composition structure in the colon. The phyla Bacteroidetes and eight genera including Bacteroidales S24-7, Ruminococcaceae, Parabacteroides, Butyricimonas, et al were drastically increased, however the genus Lactobacillus and gauvreauii in the colon were significantly decreased in the alcohol dependence group compared with the withdrawal and control groups. The microbial functional prediction analysis revealed that the proportions of amino acid metabolism, polyketide sugar unit biosynthesis and peroxisome were significantly increased in the AD group. This study demonstrated that chronic alcohol consumption has a dramatic effect on the microbiota composition structure in the colon but few effects on the jejunum. Inducement of colonic microbiota dysbiosis due to alcohol abuse seems to be a factor of alcohol dependence, which suggests that modulating colonic microbiota composition might be a potentially new target for treating alcohol addiction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.828-834
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• 2006

We investigated whether two-kinds of mixture (NHDT-1 and NHDT-2) mainly composed of Hovenia dulcis Thunb had beneficial actions for alcohol and acetaldehyde degradation in acute alcohol treatment and liver protection from fatty liver induced by chronic alcohol administration. In acute alcohol degradation experiment, serum alcohol and acetaldehyde concentrations exhibited lower 1, 3 and 5 hours after taking 3 g ethanol per kg body weight in NHDT-1 treated rats, but not NHDT-2 including ginseng. On the contrast to the acute effect on alcohol degradation, the long-term alcohol administration revealed that NHDT-2, not NHDT-1, protected the increase in serum concentration of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotrasferase and ${\gamma}-triglyceride$ metabolism similar to the rats not consuming alcohol, leading to decreased triglyceride accumulation in blood and liver. In liver morphological study, NHDT-1 preserved the regular hepatocyte morphology, decreased fat accumulation and reduced sinusoidal leukocyte infiltration in hepatocytes. In conclusion, NHDT-1 plays an important role in alcohol and acetaldehyde degradation without protecting liver damage while NHDT-2 works as hepatocyte protector from alcohol mediated damage.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.317-322
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• 2015

Alcohol-induced fatty liver (steatosis) results from excessive generation of reducing equivalents by ethanol metabolism. Generally, chronic ethanol treatment causes hepatosteatosis by regulating sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c (SREBP-1c), which increases the synthesis of hepatic lipids. The effect of ethanol on SREBP-1c is mediated through mammalian sirtuin-1 (SIRT-1), a NAD⁺-dependent protein deacetylase that regulates hepatic lipid metabolism. Ginseng is a widely used herbal medicine that is used in Asia for its anti-diabetes and anti-obesity effects. The pharmacological and therapeutic effects of ginseng are primarily produced by bioactive constituents known as ginsenosides. Here, we examined the regulatory effects of Korean red ginseng (KRG) extracts on SREBP-1c and SIRT-1 on lipid homeostasis in AML-12 mouse hepatocytes. AML-12 cells were treated with ethanol and/or KRG extracts (0 - 1,000 μg/ml). Lipid droplets were assayed using Oil red O staining, and western blotting was used to measure SIRT-1 and SREBP-1 expression. Treatment with KRG extracts restored SIRT-1 expression and reduced SREBP-1c expression in ethanol-treated cells. We also showed that KRG extract and ginsenosides Rb₂ and Rd significantly decreased SREBP-1 acetylation in ethanol-treated cells. These results show that treatment with KRG extract and its active ginsenoside constituents Rb₂ and Rd protected against alcohol-related hepatosteatosis via regulation of SIRT-1 and downstream acetylation of SREBP-1c, which altered hepatic lipid metabolism.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.111-116
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• 2001

To investigate an effect of aging on the xylene metabolism in liver damaged animals, a study was conducted. 50% carbon tetrachloride ($CCl_4$) in olive oil (0.1 ml/100 g body weight) was intraperitoneally given to 5-week and 12-week rats 12 times every other day and then one dose of 50% xylene in olive oil (0.25 ml/100 g body weight) was intraperitoneally given to the rats, and after 24 hr, the animals were sacrificed. On the basis of the functional findings in rat liver, ie, serum levels of alanine aminotransferase activity, liver protein and malonedialdehyde contents, 5-week rats showed less liver damage than 12-week rats. The increasing rate of urinary methylhippuric acid concentration to the control was significantly higher in 5-week rats than 12-week rats in case of xylene treatment after induction of liver damage. On the other hand, liver damaged 5-week rats showed significant rise of hepatic cytochrome P45O content compared with the liver damaged 12-week rats by the xylene treatment. And increasing rate of hepatic alcohol or aldehyde dehydrogenase activities to each liver damaged animals was higher tendency in 5-week rats than 12-week rats by the xylene treatment. In conclusion, 5-week rat showed greater metabolic rate of xylene than 10-week rats in case of liver injury because 5-week rats led to a slight liver damaged compared with 12-week rats.