• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2022

Sparassis crispa is an edible mushroom that has been widely utilized in Japan and Korea. It has various biological activities, such as anti-hypertensive, anti-allergic, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic, and anti-cancer effects. In this study, we investigated the anticancer activity and underlying molecular mechanism of chloroform fraction of methanol extract of S. crispa (CESP) against cervical cancer stem cells (CSCs), which contribute to tumor initiation, recurrence, and resistance to therapy of human cervical cancer. CESP effectively inhibited the proliferation, tumorsphere formation, and migration of HeLa-derived cervical CSCs by promoting apoptosis. In addition, CESP significantly downregulated the expression of key cancer stemness markers, including integrin α6, CD133, CD44, ALDH1A1, Nanog, Oct-4, and Sox-2, in HeLa-derived cervical CSCs. Furthermore, CESP remarkably suppressed in vivo tumor growth of HeLa-derived cervical CSCs in a chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model. Therefore, our findings suggest that CESP has potential as a natural medicine for the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer by targeting CSCs.

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1969

The author has studied the quantitative distribution of mast cells in the skin and proventriculus of the developing chicks and changes of their cytoplasmic granules after administration of a single dose of hyaluronidase 400$\mu$/kg into the yolk sac of 10 day-old chick embryos and obtained the following conclusions. 1. The administration of hyaluronidase considerably retarded the appearance of mast cells in the skin and proventriculus of the developing chicks. 2. In 6 to 7 days after treatment of hyaluronidase the number of mast cells showed only one half of those in the control and then began to show gradual resumption and returned to an almost normal status in 7 day chicks. 3. By treatment of hyaluronidase any degranulation of the mast cells could scarcely be observed but marked decrease of their stainability by resolution of the metachromatic granules. According to this experiment it is fairly clear that hyaluronic acid may play a role in the formation of cytoplasmic granules of mast cells.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2012

Yellow bitterns (Ixobrychus sinensis) are a small wetland bird common to Asian countries including South Korea, Japan, and China. The aim of this study is to describe diet of yellow bitterns during the breeding season in artificial wetland of northeastern South Korea between May to August 1999-2001. For the purposes of this paper, we observe the frequency of nest visiting by parents during the chick rearing period. A total of 98 boluses regurgitated by 52 chicks aged 1 day to 11 days after hatching form the sample and are shown to contain 323 food items. A bolus contained mean 3.8 items and weighs 0.2 g to 7.7 g. The most regularly occurring food items recorded are fish (63%) and insets (33%). In terms of fish, top mouth minnows (Pseudorasbora parva) and crucian carps (Carassius auratus) are frequently observed. In terms of insects, there are mosquitoes (Diptera), instars of dragonfly (Libelluidae), damselflies (Coenagrinonidae) and water bugs (Diplonychus japonicus). Yellow bitterns were also shown to feed on bull frogs (Rana catesbeiana), shrimp (Palaemonidae), and spiders (Araneae). The size of fish in a bolus ranged from 15.56 mm to 93.73 mm (mean, 37.08 mm). The amount of food can be observed to increase with the age of chicks (r = 0.279, P = 0.025, N = 64) but parents did not provide larger fish as chicks grew. Parent birds visited nests more frequently when they have a larger brood ($F_{1,21}$ = 14.529, P = 0.001). Our results suggest that fish is the most important prey during the breeding season and that age of chicks is related to amount of diet in yellow bitterns.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.178-184
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• 1997

Purified diets containing five graded levels of lysine were fed to a total of 125 growing chicks (25 chicks per treatment) to evaluate lysine requirements for growth and maintenance. A model was developed to separate lysine requirement for maintenance from requirement for growth. Based on weight gain response, the daily lysine requirement for growth was 12.06 mg/g gain and the daily lysine requirement for maintenance was 0.332 times metabolic body size ($W^{0.75}$). Similarly, the lysine requirement for growth was 0.457 mg/mg nitrogen gain and the daily lysine requirement for maintenance was 0.344 times metabolic body size. The plateau of plasma lysine concentration was reached at 354.75 mg intake/day. The total lysine requirement was 414.27 mg/day or 1.0% of the diet, 420.11 mg/day or 1.01% of the diet based on weight gain response and N gain response, respectively. Previous lysine requirements for growing chicks of 1-28 days old were in close agreement with these estimates. As a percentage of protein, lysine requirement was calculated to be 7.3% and the reported lysine content of chick muscle crude protein of 7.46% was closely related.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.872-878
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• 2016

Astaxanthin (ASX) is a xanthophyll pigment isolated from crustaceans and salmonids. Owing to its powerful antioxidant activity, ASX has been reported to have the potential to protect against gastric ulcers and a variety of other illnesses. Histamine (His) is a dietary factor that causes gastric erosion and ulceration in young chicks. In this study, we examined whether ASX had protective effects on dietary histamine-induced lesions in the gizzard and proventriculus of broiler chickens. Four experimental treatment groups were planned: basal diet (BD), BD+His, BD+ASX, and BD+ASX+His, with four chicks (5 days old) in each group and three replications (i.e., a total of 12 chicks per group). The BD was supplemented with either 0.4% His or 100 ppm ASX. The birds were fed ad libitum for 3 weeks, and diets contained no antimicrobial compounds. Supplementing the diet with His significantly decreased body weight gain, but increased the weights of the gizzard and proventriculus of the chicks as compared with those of chicks in the BD group (p<0.05). ASX did not affect His-dependent changes in chick body weight or weights of the gizzard and proventriculus. The loss of gastric glands in the proventriculus, which was observed in His-treated chicks, was not prevented by ASX administration. The frequency of proventricular ulceration, however, was lowered by treatment with ASX, without significant differences between the two supplementation levels. In conclusion, our data showed that ASX might be helpful for alleviating structural damage to the digestive system in poultry under certain stressful conditions.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.302-307
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• 2010

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of maternal factors on body weight at hatching (day-old) and at six weeks of age in a commercial broiler line. A total of 6,765 records on body weight at day-old (BWTDO) and 115,421 records on body weight at six weeks of age (BWT6W), originated from a commercial broiler line during 14 generations, were used to estimate genetic parameters related to the effects of maternal traits on body weight of chicks immediately after hatch or six weeks thereafter. The data were analyzed using restricted maximum likelihood procedure (REML) and an animal model with DFREML software. Direct heritability ($h^{2}{_a}$), maternal heritability ($h^{2}{_m}$), and maternal environmental variance as the proportions of phenotypic variance ($c^{2}$) for body weight at day-old were estimated to be 0.050, 0.351, and 0.173, respectively. The respective estimated values for body weight at six weeks of age were 0.340, 0.022, and 0.030. The correlation coefficient between direct and maternal genetic effects for six-week-old body weight was found to be -0.335. Covariance components and genetic correlations were estimated using a bivariate analysis based on the best model determined by a univariate analysis. Between weights at hatching and at six week-old, the values of -0.07, 0.53 and 0.47 were found for the direct additive genetic variance, maternal additive genetic variance and permanent maternal environmental variance, respectively. The estimated correlation between direct additive genetic effect influencing weight at hatch and direct additive maternal effect affecting weight at six weeks of age was -0.21, whereas the correlation value of 0.15 was estimated between direct additive maternal effect influencing weight at hatch and direct additive genetic effect affecting weight at six-week-old. From the present findings, it can be concluded that the maternal additive genetic effect observed for weight at six weeks of age might be a factor transferred from genes influencing weight at hatch to weight at six-week-old.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1300-1308
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• 2012

The 5'-adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a key part of a kinase-signaling cascade that acts to maintain energy homeostasis. The objective of this experiment was to investigate the possible effects of fasting and refeeding on the gene expression of hypothalamic AMPK, some appetitive regulating peptides and lipid metabolism related enzymes. Seven-day-old male broiler (Arbor Acres) chicks were allocated into three equal treatments: fed ad libitum (control); fasted for 24 h; fasted for 24 h and then refed for 24 h. Compared with the control, the hypothalamic gene expression of $AMPK{\alpha}2$, $AMPK{\beta}1$, $AMPK{\beta}2$, $AMPK{\gamma}1$, Ste20-related adaptor protein ${\beta}$ ($STRAD{\beta}$), mouse protein $25{\alpha}$ ($MO25{\alpha}$) and agouti-related peptide (AgRP) were increased after fasting for 24 h. No significant difference among treatments was observed in mRNA levels of $AMPK{\alpha}1$, $AMPK{\gamma}2$, LKB1 and neuropeptide Y (NPY). However, the expression of $MO25{\beta}$, pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), ghrelin, fatty acid synthase (FAS), acetyl-CoA carboxylase ${\alpha}$ ($ACC{\alpha}$), carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT-1) and sterol regulatory element binding protein-1 (SREBP-1) were significantly decreased. The present results indicated that 24 h fasting altered gene expression of AMPK subunits, appetite regulation peptides and lipometabolism related factors in chick's hypothalamus; the hypothalamic FAS signaling pathway might be involved in the AMPK regulated energy homeostasis and/or appetite regulation in poultry.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.396-403
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• 2016

The aim was to determine the relative bioavailability of phosphorus (P) in peas for 21-day old broiler chickens using slope-ratio assay. One hundred and sixty eight male Ross 308 broiler chicks were divided into 42 groups 4 balanced for body weight and fed 7 diets in a completely randomized design (6 groups/diet) from day 1 to 21 of age. The diets were a corn-soybean meal basal diet, and the corn-soybean meal basal diet to which monosodium phosphate, brown- or yellow-seeded pea was added at the expense of cornstarch to supply 0.5% or 1% total phosphorus. Monosodium phosphate was included as a reference, and hence the estimated bioavailability of P in pea cultivars was relative to that in the monosodium phosphate. Birds and feed were weighed weekly and on d 21 they were killed to obtain tibia. The brown-seeded pea contained 23.4% crude protein, 0.47% P, whereas the yellow-seeded pea contained 24.3% crude protein and 0.38% P. Increasing dietary P supply improved (p<0.05) chick body weight gain and tibia ash and bone density. The estimated relative bioavailability of p values for brown- and yellow-seeded peas obtained using final body weight, average daily gain, tibia ash, and bone mineral density were 31.5% and 36.2%, 35.6% and 37.3%, 23.0% and 5.60%, and 40.3% and 30.3%, respectively. The estimated relative bioavailability of p values for brown- and yellow-seeded peas did not differ within each of the response criteria measured in this study. In conclusion, the relative bioavailability of P in pea did not differ depending on the cultivar (brown- vs yellow-seed). However, the relative bioavailability of P in pea may vary depending on the response criterion used to measure the bioavailability.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.235-240
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• 1998

Matrix metalloproteinases(MMPs) are a group of zinc enzymes responsible for degradation of the matrix components such as collagen and proteoglycans in normal embryogenesis and remodeling and in many disease processes such as arthritis, cancer, periodontitis, and osteprocess. Genetically distince MMPs have been characterized and their genes have been cloned thus far from a variaty of species but not from fishes. In this stydy, a mmp cDNA was cloned by using RT-PCR(reverse transcriptase dependent polymerase chain reaction) from Scylliorhinus toraxzame(shark), agroup of cartilaginous fish, abundant in the coast of Pusan, Korea. It has 74% base homologue with membrane type matrix matalloproteinase-3 genes(mt3-mmps) from human, rat and chick, and also shows more than 90% residue homologue with them. In addition, it has cysteine switch domain, zinc binding domain(HExGH motif), propeptide cleavage site, and RRKR motif, which are present in MMPs. This result indicates that cDNA fragment cloned here may be mt3-mmp or its analogous gejne cDNA fragment of Scylliorhinus torzame.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.422-429
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• 2009

Invasion and metastasis is the main cause of cancer mortality. Angiogenesis is a prerequisite for the tumor growth and metastasis. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are the key enzymes playing in the invasive growth and metastasis of cancer as well as angiogenesis. Xanthohumol, a prenylated chalcone of the Hop plant (Humulus lupulus L), has been reported to suppress cancer invasion and angiogenesis. In the present study, we investigated the antiinvasive effects of xanthohumol (1) and its synthetic derivatives, 4'-O-methylxanthohumol SEM ether (2), xanthohumol C (3), and xanthohumol C MOM ether (4) in relation to MMP expression in HT-1080 human fibrosarcoma cells. The compound 1 and its derivative, 3 and 4, significantly inhibited serum-induced HT-1080 cell invasion, and 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-enhanced activity and expression level of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in a concentration-dependant manner. In addition, they inhibited TPA-enhanced expression of MT1-MMP with relatively weak inhibition in tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 and TIMP-2 level. The compound 1 significantly decreased the cell viability, whereas the derivatives, 2 and 3 showed no cytotoxicity, and compound 4 showed slight cytotoxicity in the cells. Furthermore, in a chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay, the derivatives 3 and 4 dose-dependently suppressed vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-induced angiogenesis, which is similar to that of compound 1. Taken together, the results indicate that compounds 3 and 4 may be valuable anti-angiogenic agents in the treatment of chronic diseases such as cancer and inflammation working through suppression of MMP-2 and MMP-9.