• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.9
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• pp.561-567
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• 2009

Although many plant-derived phenolic compounds display antioxidant effects in biological systems, their mechanism of action remains controversial. In this study, the mechanism by which p-coumaric acid (p-CA) performs its antioxidant action was investigated in bovine aortic endothelial cells under oxidative stress due to high levels of glucose (HG) and arachidonic acid (AA), a free fatty acid. p-CA prevented lipid peroxidation and cell death due to HG+AA without affecting the production of reactive oxygen species. The antioxidant effect of p-CA was not decreased by buthionine-(S,R)-sulfoximine, an inhibitor of cellular GSH synthesis. In contrast, pretreatment with p-CA caused the induction of peroxidases that decomposed t-butyl hydroperoxide in a p-CA-dependent manner. Furthermore, the antioxidant effect of p-CA was significantly mitigated by methimazole, which was shown to inhibit the catalytic activity of 'p-CA peroxidases' in vitro. Therefore, it is suggested that the induction of these previously unidentified 'p-CA peroxidases' is responsible for the antioxidant effect of p-CA.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.618-625
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• 2009

The objective of this work was to study the direct effects of daidzein on steroidogenesis in cultured mouse Leydig cells. Adult mouse Leydig cells were purified by Percoll gradient centrifugation, and the cell purity was determined using a $3{\beta}$-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase ($3{\beta}$-HSD) staining method. The purified Leydig cells were exposed to different concentrations ($10^{-7}$ M to $10^{-4}$ M) of daidzein for 24 h under basal and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)-stimulated conditions. The cell viability and testosterone production were determined, and the related mechanisms of daidzein action were also evaluated using the estrogen receptor antagonist ICI 182,780 and measuring the mRNA levels of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR), cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme (P450scc), and $3{\beta}$-HSD-1 involved in testosterone biosynthesis. The results revealed that daidzein did not influence cell viability. Daidzein increased both basal and hCG-stimulated testosterone production in a dose-dependent manner, and this effect was statistically significant at concentrations of $10^{-5}$ M and $10^{-4}$ M daidzein (p<0.05). ICI 182,780 had no influence on daidzein action. RTPCR results revealed that $10^{-5}$ M and $10^{-4}$ M daidzein did not exert any obvious influence on the mRNA level of P450scc in Leydig cells. However, in the presence of hCG, these concentrations of daidzein significantly increased the StAR and $3{\beta}$-HSD-1 mRNA levels (p<0.05), but in the absence of hCG, only $10^{-5}$ M and $10^{-4}$ M daidzein up-regulated the StAR and $3{\beta}$-HSD-1 mRNA expression (p<0.05), respectively. These results suggest that daidzein has direct effect on Leydig cells. Daidzein-induced increase of testosterone production is probably not mediated by the estrogen receptor but correlates with the increased mRNA levels of StAR and $3{\beta}$-HSD-1.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.652-658
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• 2013

A huge number of greenhouse soils in Korea have accumulated mineral elements which induce many nutritional and pathological problems. The present study was performed to the effects of the reduced fertilization on plant growth, and uptake and partitioning of minerals (N, P, K) and soluble carbohydrates using highly minerals-accumulated farmer's greenhouse soil. On the basis of the recommended application for tomato crop, the application rates of N, P and K were 110(50%)-5.2(5%)-41.5(35%)kg $ha^{-1}$, respectively, using Hoagland's nutrient solution. Tomato growth rates during the whole experiment were not significant between treatments, but it was found that a decrease in daily growth represented after 60 days of treatment (DAT). The reduced application led to a drastic decrease in the concentration of N, P and K in fruits, and, thus, this resulted in lower uptake after 40 DAT. The lower phloem export and utilization of soluble carbohydrates caused an accumulation of extra-carbohydrates in leaves, stems and fruits in the reduced application. The reduced fertilization induced the capture of N, P and K in leaves and of soluble carbohydrates in stems compared to the conventional application. In this study, we suggest that it is possible to delay the first fertigation time in minerals-accumulated soils without an adverse impact on crop growth, but it is necessary to regularly monitor mineral status in soil to ensure a balanced uptake, synthesis and partitioning of minerals and carbohydrates.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.679-691
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• 2012

New series of metal complexes of Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Pd(II) and Pt(II) with 4-(p-chlorophenyl)-1-(pyridin-2-yl)thiosemicarbazide (HCPTS) have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, magnetic moment, spectra (IR, UV-Vis, $^1H$ NMR, mass and ESR) and thermal studies. The IR data suggest different coordination modes for HCPTS which behaves as a monobasic bidentate with all metal ions except Cu(II) and Zn(II) which acts as a monobasic tridentate. Based on the electronic and magnetic studies, Co(II), Cu(II), Pd(II) and Pt(II) complexes have square - planner, Ni(II) has mixed stereochemistry (tetrahedral + square planar), while Zn(II) is tetrahedral. Molar conductance in DMF solution indicates the non-ionic nature of the complexes. The ESR spectra of solid copper(II) complex show $g_{\parallel}$ (2.2221) > $g_{\perp}$ (2.0899) > 2.0023 indicating square-planar structure and the presence of the unpaired electron in the $d_x2_{-y}2$ orbital with significant covalent bond character. The thermal stability and degradation kinetics of the ligand and its metal complexes were studied by TGA and DTA and the kinetic parameters were calculated using Coats-Redfern and Horowitz-Metzger methods. The complexes have more antibacterial activity against some bacteria than the free ligand. However, the ligand has high anticancer activities against HCT116 (human colon carcinoma cell line) and HEPG2 (human liver hepatocellular carcinoma cell line) compared with its complexes.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.131-142
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• 2004

In recent years, adjuvants have received much attention because of the development of purified subunit and synthetic vaccines which are poor immunogens and require adjuvants to evoke the immune response. Therefore, immunologic adjuvants have been developed and testing for most of this century. During the last years much progress has been made on development, isolation and chemical synthesis of alternative adjuvants such as derivatives of muramyl dipeptide, monophosphoryl lipid A, liposomes, QS-21, MF-59 and immunostimulating complexes (ISCOMS). Biodegradable polymer microspheres are being evaluated for targeting antigens on mucosal surfaces and for controlled release of vaccines with an aim to reduce the number of doses required for primary immunization. The most common adjuvants for human use today are aluminum hydroxide and aluminum phosphate. Calcium phosphate and oil emulsions have been also used in human vaccination. The biggest issue with the use of adjuvants for human vaccines is the toxicity and adverse side effects of most of the adjuvant formulations. Other problems with the development of adjuvants include restricted adjuvanticity of certain formulations to a few antigens, use of aluminum adjuvants as reference adjuvant preparations under suboptimal conditions, non-availability of reliable animal models, use of non-standard assays and biological differences between animal models and humans leading to the failure of promising formulations to show adjuvanticity in clinical trials. The availability of hundreds of different adjuvants has prompted a need for identifying rational standards for selection of adjuvant formulations based on safety and sound immunological principles for human vaccines. The aim of the present review is to put the recent findings into a broader perspective to facilitate the application of these adjuvants in general and experimental vaccinology.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.351-358
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• 2013

A suitable supply of mineral elements into shoot via a root system from growth media makes plants favorable growth and yield. The shortage or surplus of minerals directly affects overall physiological reactions to plants and, especially, strongly influences carbohydrate metabolism as a primary response. We have studied mineral uptake and synthesis and translocation of soluble carbohydrates in N, P or K-deficient tomato plants, and examined the interaction between soluble carbohydrates and mineral elements. Four-weeks-old tomato plants were grown in a hydroponic growth container adjusted with suboptimal N ($0.5mmol\;L^{-1}\;Ca(NO_3)2{\cdot}4H_2O$ and $0.5mmol\;L^{-1}\;KNO_3$), P ($0.05mmol\;L^{-1}\;KH_2PO_4$), and K ($0.5mmol\;L^{-1}\;KNO_3$) for 30 days. The deficiency of specific mineral element led to a significant decrease in its concentration and affected the concentration of other elements with increasing treatment period. The appearance of the reduction, however, differed slightly between elements. The ratios of N uptake of each treatment to that in NPK sufficient tomato shoots were 4 (N deficient), 50 (P deficient), and 50% (K deficient). The P uptake ratios were 21 (N deficient), 19 (P deficient), and 28% (K deficient) and K uptake ratios were 11 (N deficient), 46 (P deficient), and 7% (K deficient). The deficiency of mineral elements also influenced on carbohydrate metabolism; soluble sugar and starch was substantially enhanced, especially in N or K deficiency. In conclusion, mineral deficiency leads to an adverse carbohydrate metabolism such as immoderate accumulation and restricted translocation as well as reduced mineral uptake and thus results in the reduced plant growth.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2018

Glucosinolates are one of the important plant secondary metabolites that are produced mainly in Brassicaceae plants. The compounds are primarily involved in defense responses to biotic and abiotic resistance in plants and play important biological roles during plant growth and development. In this study, the glucosinolate profiles in leaves of two different Brassica oleracea populations were compared using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The nine major glucosinolates compounds in cabbage leaves were identified as belonging to the aliphatic and indolic groups. Among them, sinigrin, which belongs to the aliphatic group, was recorded to be 41% whereas glucobrassicin and 4-methoxyglucobrassicin, which belong to the indolic group, were recorded to be 53.8%. In addition, we performed a genetic analysis to identify regions of the genome regulating glucosinolates biosynthesis in the $F_3$ population of Brassica oleracea. A total of 9 glucosinolates were used for the quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis. Out of 9, a total of 3 QTLs were identified and they were associated with sinigrin, glucobrassicin, and 4-methoxyglucobrassicin synthesis located in Chromosome 1 and Chromosome 8, respectively. The results of this study will provide valuable information for the breeding of cabbage containing high glucosinolate content, and our next target is to develop component-specific and tightly linked markers for various glucosinolates.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.189-189
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• 2016

Recently, many researchers have shown an increased interest in colloidal quantum dots (QDs) due to their unique physical and optical properties of size control for energy band gap, narrow emission with small full width at half maxima (FWHM), broad spectral photo response from ultraviolet to infrared, and flexible solution processing. QDs can be widely used in the field of optoelectronic and biological applications and, in particular, colloidal QDs based light emitting diodes (QDLEDs) have attracted considerable attention as an emerging technology for next generation displays and solid state lighting. A few methods have been proposed to fabricate white color QDLEDs. However, the fabrication of white color QDLEDs using single QD is very challenging. Recently, hybrid nanocomposites consisting of CdTe/ZnO heterostructures were reported by Zhimin Yuan et al.[1] Here, we demonstrate a novel but facile technique for the synthesis of CdTe/ZnO/G.O(graphene oxide) quasi-core-shell-shell quantum dots that are applied in the white color LED devices. Our best device achieves a maximum luminance of 484.2 cd/m2 and CIE coordinates (0.35, 0.28).

• KSBB Journal
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.363-367
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• 2004

Leuconostoc mesenteroides NRRL B-1149 produces various glucoseyltransferases for the synthesis of dextran, levan and glucose-1-phosphate using sucrose as a substrate. A sucrose phosphorylase (1149SPase) was purified from L. mesenteroides NRRL B-1149 culture by using hollow fiber filtration (30 kDa cut off), Toyopearl DEAE 650 M column chromatography and following two times of DEAE-Sepharose column chromatographies. The specific activity of the purified 1149SPase was 25.7 (U/mg) with $16\%$ yield. The 1149SPase showed a molecular size of 56 kDa on denatured $10\%$ SDS-PAGE. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the enzyme was MEIQNKAM. The optimum pH and temperature of this enzyme were 6.2~6.5 and 37^{circ}C, respectively. It had an apparent K_{m} of 6.0 mM and K_{cat} of 1.62/s for sucrose. 1149SPase crystal was formed by hanging drop diffusion technique using 20 mM calcium chloride dihydrate, 100 mM sodium acetate trihydrate pH 4.6 and $30\%$ 2-methyl-2,4-pentanediol as vaporizing and reservation solution. The 1149SPase catalyzes transferring of glucose from isomaltose or sucrose to salicin and salicyl alcohol by disproportionation reaction or acceptor reaction and synthesized two acceptor products, respectively.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.265-270
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• 2010

Simvastatins are widely used to reduce endogenous cholesterol synthesis and improve hypercholesterolemia. Also, simvastatin have been shown to induce both angiogenic and angiostatic responses. In this study, It was attempted to resolve this controversy by studying the effects of simvastatin on the cell migration and invasion with the proteinases secretion and expression pattern. U-373-MG cells treated with low dose of simvastatin ($0.001{\sim}0.5\;{\mu}M$) showed the induction of migration and invasion compared with the addition of a control buffer. On the contrary, high dose of simvastatin ($1{\sim}20\;{\mu}M$) showed the reduction of migration and invasion compared with the addition of a control buffer. It was also showed that simvastatin-regulated migrative and invasive phenotypes were consistent with the secretion and expression pattern of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), MMP-9 and plasmin.