• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.629-633
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• 2004

NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR) transfers electrons from NADPH to cytochrome P450, and catalyzes the one-electron reduction of many drugs and foreign compounds. Various forms of spectrophotometric titration have been performed to investigate the electron-accepting properties of CPR, particularly, to examine its ability to reduce cytochrome c and ferricyanide. In this study, the reduction of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) by CPR was assessed as a means of monitoring CPR activity. The principle advantage of DPPH is that its reduction can be assayed directly in the reaction medium by a continuous spectrophotometry. Thus, electrons released from NADPH by CPR were transferred to DPPH, and DPPH reduction was then followed spectrophotometrically by measuring $A_{520}$ reduction. Optimal assay concentrations of DPPH, CPR, potassium phosphate buffer, and NADPH were first established. DPPH reduction activity was found to depend upon the strength of the buffer used, which was optimal at 100 mM potassium phosphate and pH 7.6. The extinction coefficient of DPPH was $4.09\;mM^{-1}\;cm^{-1}$. DPPH reduction followed classical Michaelis-Menten kinetics ($K_m\;=\;28\;{\mu}M$, $K_{cat}\;=\;1690\;min^{-1}$). This method uses readily available materials, and has the additional advantages of being rapid and inexpensive.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.168.1-168.1
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• 2000

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 2003

Effects of tributyltin chloride (TBTC) in vitro on mixed function oxygenase (MFO) system on liver microsome of eight marine fish species were investigated. To determine the effects on MFO system, cytochrome P45O (CYP) and cytochrome b5 con-tents, activities of two reductases (NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase and NADPH-cy-tochrome P450 reductase) and four dealkylation enzymes (EROD, PROD, MROD and ECOD) were measured in fish microsoms exposed to TBTC for 20 min. The WP content was reduced to 10% of the control group in 6 out of 8 species exposed to TBTC, whereas there was no significant change in the cytochrome bs content. the response of NAD(P)H dependant reductases depended on fish species. The dealkylation enzyme activities in microsome were also apparently inhibited by TBTC. The degree of inhibition was different among fish species and four enzymes. The EROD activities in eight species were decreased to the range of 1∼65% of control group.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.3433-3436
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• 2011

Some of metal nanoparticles have the potential for use as colorimetric assays for estimating solution properties, such as pH and temperature due to localized surface plasmon (LSP) phenomena. This report describes the use of silver nanoparticles (AgNP) conjugated with cytochrome c (Cyt c) for the colorimetric determination of solution pHs. When the pH of a solution decreases, the Cyt c immobilized on the AgNP undergoes a conformational change, leading to a decrease in the interparticle distance between Cyt c-AgNP probes and consequent red-shift in LSP. As a result, the color of the Cyt c-AgNP probe solution changes from yellow to red and finally to a grayish blue in the pH range from 11 to 3. This gradual color change can be used to determine the pH of a solution over a wide pH range, compared to other colorimetric methods that use gold nanoparticles.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.96-101
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• 2017

This study investigated the effect of centrifugation on tryptic digestion. This was done by applying different centrifugation speeds (6,000, 8,000, 10,000, 20,000, and $30,000{\times}g$) over various durations (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 min) to digest two model proteins - cytochrome c and myoglobin. The intact proteins and resulting peptides were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Centrifugation greatly improved the tryptic digestion efficiency of cytochrome c, where either an increase in centrifugation speed or in digestion duration significantly improved the digestion of cytochrome c. However, centrifugation did not noticeably improve the digestion of myoglobin; 16 h of centrifuge-assisted tryptic digestion at $30,000{\times}g$ barely removed the myoglobin protein peak. Similar results were also obtained when using conventional tryptic digestion with gentle mixing. When acetonitrile (ACN) was added to make 10% ACN buffer solutions, the myoglobin protein peak disappeared after 6 h of digestion using both centrifuge-assisted and conventional tryptic digestions.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.269-278
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• 2012

Gobiids are hyperdiverse compared with other teleost groups, with about 2,000 species occurring in marine, freshwater, and blackish habitats, and they show a remarkable variety of morphologies and ecology. Testing the effectiveness of DNA barcodes on species that have emerged as a result of radiation remains a major challenge in evolutionary biology. Here, we used the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) sequences from 144 species of gobies and related species to evaluate the performance of distance-based DNA barcoding and to conduct a phylogenetic analysis. The average intra-genus genetic distance was considerably higher than that obtained in previous studies. Additionally, the interspecific divergence at higher taxonomic levels was not significantly different from that at the intragenus level, suggesting that congeneric gobies possess substantial interspecific sequence divergence in their COI gene. However, levels of intragenus divergence varied greatly among genera, and we do not provide sufficient evidence for using COI for cryptic species delimitation. Significantly more nucleotide changes were observed at the third codon position than that at the first and the second codons, revealing that extensive variation in COI reflects synonymous changes and little protein level variation. Despite clear signatures in several genera, the COI sequences did resolve genealogical relationships in the phylogenetic analysis well. Our results support the validity of COI barcoding for gobiid species identification, but the utilization of more gene regions will assist to offer a more robust gobiid species phylogeny.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.863-868
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• 2015

Background: Artemisia species are important medicinal plants throughout the world. The present in vitro study, using a sesquiterpene lactone-bearing fraction prepared from Artemisia khorassanica (SLAK), sought to investigate anti-cancer properties of this plant and elucidate potential underlying mechanisms for the effects. Materials and Methods: Anti-cancer potential was evaluated by toxicity against human melanoma and fibroblast cell lines. To explore the involved pathways, pattern of any cell death was determined using annexin-V/PI staining and also the expression of Bax and cytochrome c was investigated by Western blotting. Results: The results showed that SLAK selectively caused a concentration-related inhibition of proliferation of melanoma cells that was associated with remarkable increase in early events and over-expression of both Bax and cytochrome c. Conclusions: The current experiment indicates that Artemisia may have anti-cancer activity. We anticipate that the ingredients may be employed as therapeutic candidates for melanoma.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.244-250
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• 2005

The effect of cytochrome $c_{550}$ encoded by cccA in Bacillus subtilis during the event of sporulation was investigated. The sporulation of cccA-overexpressing mutant was significantly accelerated, while disruptant strain showed delayed sporulation in spite of the same growth rate. Activity of sporulation stage-0-specific enzyme, extracellular $\alpha-amylase$ of mutant strains was similar to that of the control strain, but cccA-overexpressing mutant exhibited higher activity of stage-II-specific alkaline phosphatase and stage-III-specific glucose dehydrogenase when compared to deletion mutant and control strain. Northern blot analysis also revealed that cccA-overexpressing mutant showed high level of spo0A transcripts, while the disruptant rarely expressed spo0A. These results suggested that although cytochrome $c_{550}$ is dispensable for growth and sporulation, expression of cccA may play an important role for initiation of sporulation through regulation of spo0A expression.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.328-332
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to identify the protective effect of Codonopis pilosula extract on cell death induced by $H_2O_2$ in SK-N-MC neuroblastoma cells. We measured the antioxidant effect by DPPH radical scavenging analysis, BSA analyssis and examined the cell viability by crystal violet and cytochrome C, Bax, Bcl-2, p53, p21 by using Western blot analysis. Codonopis pilosula extract scavenged DPPH radical in a dose-dependent manner and shown direct free radical scavenging effect, suggested that Codonopis pilosula extract have antioxidant effect in vitro. Treatment of cells with hydrogen peroxide, a reactive oxygen species, was to induce cell death and pretreatment with Codonopis pilosula extract attenuated the occurrence of $H_2O_2-induced$ cell death. To elucidate the protective mechanisms of action of Codonopis pilosula extract, Western blot analyses for Bcl-2 and Bax expression and cytochrome c release were carried out. Pretreatment with Codonopis pilosula extract induced the expression of Bcl-2 and suppressed the release of cytochrome c and Bax into the cytosol, thereby arresting $H_2O_2-induced$ apoptotic cell death. Especially p21 and p53 were decreased prior to $H_2O_2$ treatment. These results suggest that Codonopis pilosula extract is associated with the cell cycle and anti-apoptotic cell death.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.243-249
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• 2011

The genetic diversity and population history of the Asian shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus, were investigated with a nucleotide sequence analysis of 536 base pairs (bp) of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI) in 111 samples collected from four populations in Korea and one in Japan. In total, 28 haplotypes were defined by 27 variable nucleotide sites in the COI region examined. The observed haplotypes had a shallow haplotype genealogy and no geographical associations. Most of the populations had high haplotype diversity (0.656-0.788) and low nucleotide diversity (0.00165-0.00244), and significant negative values for Fu's $F_S$, suggesting rapid and recent population growth from an ancestral population and sudden population expansion. The pairwise fixation indices ($F_{ST}$) estimated with the exact test and the migration rates indicate that substantial gene flow occurs among these populations as a result of sea currents, except between the Yellow Sea coast of Korea (BUA) and the Pacific Ocean coast of Japan (JPA). These two populations (BUA and JPA) showed significant genetic differentiation and low migration rate.