• BMB Reports
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.673-678
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• 2014

During Xenopus early development, FGF signaling is involved in mesoderm formation and neurogenesis by modulating various signaling cascades. FGF-MAPK signaling induces Xbra expression, which maintains mesodermal fate through an autocatalytic-loop. Interestingly, previous reports have demonstrated that basic FGF (bFGF) treatment alone does not induce neurogenesis in ectodermal explants, even though FGF signaling inhibits BMP signaling via phosphorylation in Smad1 linker region. In addition, the overexpression of dominantnegative Xbra induces neurogenesis in ectodermal explants. However, the detailed mechanism underlying these phenomena has not yet been clarified. In this work, we showed that bFGF-Xbra signaling increased the PV.1 expression. DN-Xbra was found to decrease PV.1 expression, and the co-injection of PV.1 with DN-Xbra reduced neurogenesis in ectodermal explants. Furthermore, the knockdown of PV.1 induced neurogenesis in bFGF-treated ectodermal explants. Taken together, our results demonstrate that FGF-Xbra signaling induces PV.1 expression and that PV.1 functions as a neural repressor in the FGF-treated ectoderm.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.406-411
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• 2014

The initial step of atrioventricular (AV) valve development involves the deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) components of the endocardial cushion and the endocardialmesenchymal transition. While the appropriately regulated expression of the major ECM components, Versican and Hyaluronan, that form the endocardial cushion is important for heart valve development, the underlying mechanism that regulates ECM gene expression remains unclear. We found that zebrafish crip2 expression is restricted to a subset of cells in the AV canal (AVC) endocardium at 55 hours post-fertilization (hpf). Knockdown of crip2 induced a heart-looping defect in zebrafish embryos, although the development of cardiac chambers appeared to be normal. In the AVC of Crip2-deficient embryos, the expression of both versican a and hyaluronan synthase 2 (has2) was highly upregulated, but the expression of bone morphogenetic protein 4 (bmp4) and T-box 2b (tbx2b) in the myocardium and of notch1b in the endocardium in the AVC did not change. Taken together, these results indicate that crip2 plays an important role in AV valve development by downregulating the expression of ECM components in the endocardial cushion.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.3B
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• pp.3-13
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• 1999

The diffusion characteristics of the high temperature and salinity water discharged in Chinhae Bay under BMP(Barge-Mounted Plants) desalination processes were simulated to access environmental impact. The 3-D baroclinic flow model is formulated by integrating the basic equations with respect to each control volume and by transforming them into a finite difference form using the space-staggered grid system. With a 3-D baroclinic flow model, the tide-induced and density-induced current was computed and confirmed by comparing with observed data. From the results of numerical experiment, it is expected that the maximum diffusion lengths of the high temperature and salinity which increase $0.6^{circ}C$ and 0.2 after discharging are 1 km and 3.5km, respectively. It may be expected that the discharge has an effect on surrounding area of discharge, but not an effect on whole area of Chinhae Bay.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2004

As entering the information age of the 21st century, Korea is actively processing many digitalizing businesses related to information source of the Korean academic science at the government level based on the Korean advanced digital technologies, which makes them more evolved through the internet networks in Korea. The definition of 'Newly found ideographs(新出漢字)' are made by researching and extracting from the old Chinese documents through the digitalizing process and they are not registered yet among the block of Unicode & extended Chinese characters those are existent international standard. Presently Korea is in the middle of brisk developing computerized old documents in the huge scale. Meanwhile, the international standard of Chinese characters in mostly Asian countries where using them is processing and developing by IRG. Therefore, Korean processing works is very important which are included extracting precisely 'Newly found ideographs' founded from building its database, organizing as an international standard code, submitting the International organization and finally registering as the best standard code.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.417-420
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• 2014

Bone grafts are essential for promoting bone healing in some orthopedic cases, and synthetic bone materials have been widely used for bone defects. In addition, osteoinductive proteins such as bone morphogenetic protein and fibroblast growth factor promote osteoblast differentiation and proliferation. The combination of these factors is very useful clinically for promoting bone healing. In this study, we report the use of synthetic bone materials and osteoinductive proteins to repair bone defects in two dogs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.1695-1704
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• 2014

Maternal malnutrition during pregnancy may give rise to female offspring with disrupted ovary functions in adult age. Neonatal ovary development predisposes adult ovary function, yet the effect of maternal nutrition on the neonatal ovary has not been described. Therefore, here we show the impact of maternal protein restriction on the expression of folliculogenic and steroidogenic genes, their regulatory microRNAs and promoter DNA methylation in the ovary of neonatal piglets. Sows were fed either standard-protein (SP, 15% crude protein) or low-protein (LP, 7.5% crude protein) diets throughout gestation. Female piglets born to LP sows showed significantly decreased ovary weight relative to body weight (p<0.05) at birth, which was accompanied with an increased serum estradiol level (p<0.05). The LP piglets demonstrated higher ratio of bcl-2 associated X protein/B cell lymphoma/leukemia-2 mRNA (p<0.01), which was associated with up-regulated mRNA expression of bone morphogenic protein 4 (BMP4) (p<0.05) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) (p<0.05). The steroidogenic gene, cytochrome P450 aromatase (CYP19A1) was significantly down-regulated (p<0.05) in LP piglets. The alterations in ovarian gene expression were associated with a significant down-regulation of follicle-stimulating hormone receptor mRNA expression (p<0.05) in LP piglets. Moreover, three microRNAs, including miR-423-5p targeting both CYP19A1 and PCNA, miR-378 targeting CYP19A1 and miR-210 targeting BMP4, were significantly down-regulated (p<0.05) in the ovary of LP piglets. These results suggest that microRNAs are involved in mediating the effect of maternal protein restriction on ovarian function through regulating the expression of folliculogenic and steroidogenic genes in newborn piglets.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.499-508
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• 2019

Cancer stem cells (CSCs), which are primarily responsible for metastasis and recurrence, have self-renewal, differentiation, therapeutic resistance, and tumor formation abilities. Numerous studies have demonstrated the signaling pathways essential for the acquisition and maintenance of CSC characteristics, such as WNT/${\beta}$-catenin, Hedgehog, Notch, B lymphoma Mo-MLV insertion region 1 homolog (BMI1), Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), and TGF-${\beta}$ signals. However, few therapeutic strategies have been developed that can selectively eliminate CSCs. Recently, neutralizing antibodies against Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) and Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), have shown promising outcomes in clinical trials of melanoma, lung cancer, and pancreatic cancer, as well as in hematologic malignancies. ICIs are considered to outperform conventional anticancer drugs by maintaining long-lasting anti-cancer effects, with less severe side effects. Several studies reported that ICIs successfully blocked CSC properties in head and neck squamous carcinomas, melanomas, and breast cancer. Together, these findings suggest that novel and effective anticancer therapeutic modalities using ICIs for selective elimination of CSCs may be developed in the near future. In this review, we highlight the origin and characteristics of CSCs, together with critical signaling pathways. We also describe progress in ICI-mediated anticancer treatment to date and present perspectives on the development of CSC-targeting ICIs.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.1010-1020
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• 2022

Objective: The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of maternal undernutrition during late pregnancy on the expressions of genes involved in growth and development in ovine fetal perirenal brown adipose tissue (BAT). Methods: Eighteen ewes with singleton fetuses were allocated to three groups at day 90 of pregnancy: restricted group 1 (RG1, 0.33 MJ metabolisable energy [ME]/kg body weight [BW]^0.75/d, n = 6), restricted group 2 (RG2, 0.18 MJ ME/kg BW^0.75/d, n = 6), and a control group (CG, ad libitum, 0.67 MJ ME/kg BW^0.75/d, n = 6). The fetuses were removed at day 140 of pregnancy. All data were analyzed by using the analysis of variance procedure. Results: The perirenal fat weight (p = 0.0077) and perirenal fat growth rate (p = 0.0074) were reduced in RG2 compared to CG. In fetal perirenal BAT, the protein level of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) (p = 0.0001) was lower in RG1 and RG2 compared with CG and UCP1 mRNA expression (p = 0.0265) was decreased in RG2. The protein level of myogenic factor 5 (Myf5) was also decreased in RG2 (p = 0.0001). In addition, mRNA expressions of CyclinA (p = 0.0109), CyclinB (p = 0.0019), CyclinD (p = 0.0015), cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) (p = 0.0001), E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1) (p = 0.0323), E2F4 (p = 0.0101), and E2F5 (p = 0.0018) were lower in RG1 and RG2. There were decreased protein expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) (p = 0.0043) and mRNA expression of CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-α (C/EBPα) (p = 0.0307) in RG2 and decreased PPARγ mRNA expression (p = 0.0008) and C/EBPα protein expression (p = 0.0015) in both RG2 and RG1. Furthermore, mRNA expression of bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) (p = 0.0083) and BMP7 (p = 0.0330) decreased in RG2 and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor co-activator-1α (PGC-1α) reduced in RG2 and RG1. Conclusion: Our observations support that repression of regulatory factors promoting differentiation and development results in the inhibition of BAT maturation in fetal perirenal fat during late pregnancy with maternal undernutrition.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.524-531
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• 2012

The objective of this study was to investigate the organic solubilization (SCOD) and improvement of methane production for pig slurry by thermal hydrolysis. A sludge cake was pretreated by thermal hydrolysis at different reaction temperatures (200, 220, 250, $270^{\circ}C$). Ultimate methane potential (Bu) was determined at several substrate and inoculum (S/I) ratios (1:9, 3:7, 5:5, 7:3 in volume ratio) by biochemical methane potential (BMP) assay for 73 days. Pig slurry SCOD were obtained with 98.4~98.9% at the reaction temperature of $200{\sim}270^{\circ}C$. Theoretical methane potentials ($B_{th}$) of thermal hydrolysates at the reaction temperature of $200^{\circ}C$, $220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, $270^{\circ}C$ were 0.631, 0.634, 0.705, $0.748Nm^3\;kg^{-1}-VS_{added}$, respectively. $B_u$ of $200^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysate were decreased from $0.197Nm^3\;kg^{-1}-VS_{added}$ to $0.111Nm^3\;kg^{-1}-VS_{added}$ with the changes of S/I ratio from 1:9 to 7:3, and also $B_u$ of different thermal hydrolysates ($220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, $270^{\circ}C$) showed same tendency to $B_u$ of $200^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysate according to the changes of S/I ratio. Anaerobic biodegradability ($B_u/B_{th}$) of $200^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysate at different S/I ratios was decreased from 32.2% for S/I ratio of 1:9 to 17.6% for S/I ratio of 7:3. $B_u/B_{th}$ of $220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, and $270^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysat were decreased from 36.4% to 9.6%, from 31.3% to 0.8%, and from 26.6% to 0.8%, respectively, with the S/I ratio change, respectively. In this study, the rise of thermal reaction temperature caused the decrease of anaerobic digestibility and methane production while organic materials of pig slurry were more solubilized.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 2011

Bone remodeling is a dynamic process involving a constant balance between osteoclast-induced bone resorption and osteoblast-induced bone formation. Osteoclasts play a crucial homeostatic role in skeletal modeling and remodeling, and destroy bone in many pathological conditions. Previously, we reported that the hexane soluble fraction of Ficus carica inhibited osteoclast differentiation. Poly unsaturated fatty acids, such as ethyl docosahexaenoate (E-DHA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), cis-11,14-eicosadienoic acid (EDA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), were identified from the hexane soluble fraction of Ficus carica. Among them, E-DHA most potently inhibited osteoclastogenesis in RAW264.7 cells. E-DHA reduced the activities of JNK and NF-$\kappa}B$. E-DHA suppressed the expression of c-Fos and nuclear factor of activated T cells c1 (NFATc1). Interestingly, DHA increased the activity of alkaline phosphatase and expression of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) more than E-DHA in MC3T3-E1 cells, suggesting that DHA may induce osteoblast differentiation. The data suggests that a combination of E-DHA and DHA has potential use in the treatment of diseases involving abnormal bone lysis, such as osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and periodontal bone erosion.