• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2017

A two-tube reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assay was designed for the rapid visual detection of the M gene of all subtypes of avian influenza virus (AIV) and the H5 gene of the H5 subtype of highly pathogenic AIV (HPAIV). The reaction carried out in two tubes in a single step at $58^{\circ}C$ for 40 min, and the assay results could be visually detected by using hydroxynaphthol blue dye. Using M or H5 gene-specific primers, the assay successfully detected all subtypes or H5 subtypes of AIVs, including the Korean representative H5N1 and H5N8 HPAIVs. The detection limit of the assay was approximately $10^{2.0}$ $EID_{50}/reaction$ for the M and H5 genes of H5N1 HPAIV, respectively, and was more sensitive than that of previously reported RT-LAMP and comparable to that of real-time RT-PCR. These results suggest that the present RT-LAMP assay, with its high specificity, sensitivity, and simplicity, will be a useful diagnostic tool for surveillance of currently circulating H5 HPAIVs and other subtypes of AIV in bird population, even in under-equipped laboratories.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.257-265
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• 2020

The outbreak of human toxoplasmosis can be attributed to ingestion of food contaminated with Toxoplasma gondii. Toxoplasmosis recently increased in domestic and stray dogs and cats. It prompted studies on the zoonotic infectious diseases transmitted via these animals. Sero- and antigen prevalences of T. gondii in dogs and cats were surveyed using ELISA and PCR, and B1 gene phylogeny was analyzed in this study. Toxoplasmosis antibodies were measured on sera of 403 stray cats, 947 stray dogs, 909 domestic cats, and 2,412 domestic dogs collected at nationwide regions, Korea from 2017 to 2019. In addition, whole blood, feces, and tissue samples were also collected from stray cats (1,392), stray dogs (686), domestic cats (3,040), and domestic dogs (1,974), and T. gondii-specific B1 gene PCR was performed. Antibody prevalence of stray cats, stray dogs, domestic cats, and domestic dogs were 14.1%, 5.6%, 2.3%, and 0.04%, respectively. Antigen prevalence of these animals was 0.5%, 0.2%, 0.1%, and 0.4%, respectively. Stray cats revealed the highest infection rate of toxoplasmosis, followed by stray dogs, domestic cats, and domestic dogs. B1 gene positives were 5 of stray cats, and identified to high/moderate pathogenic Type I/III group. These findings enforce that preventive hygienic measure should be strengthened at One Health level in dogs and cats, domestic and stray, to minimize human toxoplasmosis infections.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.2.1-2.12
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• 2019

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of progressive lung disease, featured by airflow obstruction. Recently, a comprehensive analysis of the transcriptome in lung tissue of COPD patients was performed, but the heterogeneity of the sample was not seriously considered in characterizing the mechanistic dysregulation of COPD. Here, we established a new transcriptome analysis pipeline using a deconvolution process to reduce the heterogeneity and clearly identified that these transcriptome data originated from the mild or moderate stage of COPD patients. Differentially expressed or co-expressed genes in the protein interaction subnetworks were linked with mitochondrial dysfunction and the immune response, as expected. Computational protein localization prediction revealed that 19 proteins showing changes in subcellular localization were mostly related to mitochondria, suggesting that mislocalization of mitochondria-targeting proteins plays an important role in COPD pathology. Our extensive evaluation of COPD transcriptome data could provide guidelines for analyzing heterogeneous gene expression profiles and classifying potential candidate genes that are responsible for the pathogenesis of COPD.

• Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.771-779
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• 2018

BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are multipotent stem cells that can differentiate into several cell types. In addition, many studies have shown that MSCs modulate the immune response. However, little information is currently available regarding the maintenance of immunomodulatory characteristics of MSCs through passages. Therefore, we investigated and compared cytokine and gene expression levels from adipose (AD) and bone marrow (BM)-derived MSCs relevant to immune modulation from early to late passages. METHODS: MSC immunophenotype, growth characteristics, cytokine expressions, and gene expressions were analyzed. RESULTS: AD-MSCs and BM-MSCs had similar cell morphologies and surface marker expressions from passage 4 to passage 10. Cytokines secreted by AD-MSCs and BM-MSCs were similar from early to late passages. AD-MSCs and BM-MSCs showed similar immunomodulatory properties in terms of cytokine secretion levels. However, the gene expressions of tumor necrosis factor-stimulated gene (TSG)-6 and human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-G were decreased and gene expressions of galectin-1 and -3 were increased in both AD- and BM-MSCs with repeated passages. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that the immunophenotype and expression of immunomodulation-related cytokines of AD-MSCs and BM-MSCs immunomodulation through the passages were not significantly different, even though the gene expressions of both MSCs were different.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.62-62
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• 2006

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2012

Asbestos exposure has been known to contribute to several lung diseases named asbestosis, malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer, but the disease-related molecular and cellular mechanisms are still largely unknown. To examine the effects of asbestos exposure in human bronchial epithelial cells at gene level, the global gene expression profile was analyzed following chrysotile treatment. The microarray results revealed differential gene expression in response to chrysotile treatment. The genes up- and down-regulated by chrysotile were mainly involved in processes including metabolism, signal transduction, transport, development, transcription, immune response, and other functions. The differential gene expression profiles could provide clues that might be used to understand the pathological mechanisms and therapeutic targets involved in chrysotile-related diseases.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.151-161
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• 2021

Fusarium wilt disease of tomato plants caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici (FOL race2) is one of the most important diseases of tomatoes worldwide. In the competition between tomato and FOL, the FOL can win by overcoming the immune system of tomato plants. Resistant interaction between the FOL race2 and tomato plants is controlled by avirulence genes (AVR2) in FOL and the corresponding resistance genes (I2) in tomato plants. In this study, 7 FOL isolates (KACC) were used to test their pathogenicity, and FOL race2 was selected because it is a broad problem in Korea. The Fol40044 isolates showed the most severe pathogenicity, and the avr2 gene was also isolated and identified. Moreover, to select resistance, 20 tomato varieties were inoculated with the Fol40044, and the degree of pathogenicity was evaluated by analyzing the expression of the avr2 gene. As a result, three resistant tomato varieties (PCNUF73, PCNUF101, PCNUF113) were selected, and the expression of the avr2 gene was much lower than that of the control Heinz cultivar. This result shows that the screening assay is very efficient when the avr2 gene is used as a marker to evaluate the expression level when selecting varieties resistant to tomato wilt disease. Based on these results, it is possible to isolate the I2 gene, which exhibits resistance and molecular biological interactions with the AVR2 gene from the three tomato-resistant varieties. The I2 gene provides breeders more opportunities for Fusarium disease resistance and may contribute to our understanding of their interactions with the FOL and host plant.

• BMB Reports
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.233-244
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• 2010

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, and 5-10% of the PD cases are genetically inherited as familial PD (FPD). LRRK2 (leucine-rich repeat kinase 2) was first reported in 2004 as a gene corresponding to PARK8, an autosomal gene whose dominant mutations cause familial PD. LRRK2 contains both active kinase and GTPase domains as well as protein-protein interaction motifs such as LRR (leucine-rich repeat) and WD40. Most pathogenic LRRK2 mutations are located in either the GTPase or kinase domain, implying important roles for the enzymatic activities in PD pathogenic mechanisms. In comparison to other PD causative genes such as parkin and PINK1, LRRK2 exhibits two important features. One is that LRRK2's mutations (especially the G2019S mutation) were observed in sporadic as well as familial PD patients. Another is that, among the various PD-causing genes, pathological characteristics observed in patients carrying LRRK2 mutations are the most similar to patients with sporadic PD. Because of these two observations, LRRK2 has been intensively investigated for its pathogenic mechanism (s) and as a target gene for PD therapeutics. In this review, the general biochemical and molecular features of LRRK2, the recent results of LRRK2 studies and LRRK2's therapeutic potential as a PD target gene will be discussed.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.55-58
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• 2008

Clusterin is an 80 kDa heterodimetric glycosylated protein and it plays diverse biological roles in various tissues and organs. Clusterin is reported to be associated with the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease and atherosclerosis. Therefore, we investigated the genotype for the A/G polymorphism at the position 4,183 of clusterin gene in Koreans and compared genotype of patients with control group. 100 patients (Male 63, Female 37), who previously underwent coronary artery stent due to ischemic heart disease and 100 controls (Male 36, Female 64) participated in this study. There was a significant association between 4,183 A/G polymorphism in clusterin gene and coronary artery disease (CAD). The present study shows that clusterin gene A/G polymorphism may be associated with the pathogenesis of CAD. Further studies with larger population may be needed for the development of diagnostic methods at genetic level such as DNA chip.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.333-342
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• 2001

To detect the genetic variations among infectious bursal disease (IBD) vaccine strains, the hypervariable region of VP2 gene of seven IBDV vaccine strains were amplified using reverse transcriptase/polymerase chain reation(RT/PCR). Ampllified PCR products of IBDV were cloned, sequenced, and compared with published sequences for IBDV. Vaccine strains (JOONG, HAN, B7, IB, BU2, G2, CIL) used in Korea and Korean field isolates (SH/92, K1, 310) had 81%(310 and HAN) ~ 98%(SH/92 and CIL) amino acid sequence similarity. Vaccine strains had 80%(HAN and IB) ~ 99%(JOONG and BU2) amino acid sequence similartiy. Intermediate plus vaccine strain, CIL was not substituted at positions 279(D $\rightarrow$ N) and 284(A $\rightarrow$ T), and conserved in serine-rich heptapeptide. At the two hydrophilic region, JOONG, IB and Bu2 strains had identical amino acid sequence comparing with STC strain. By phylogenetic analysis, JOONG and DAE strains were categorized in same group with BU2. The CIL and STC strains closely related but seperated from G2, HAN, B7 and IB strains.