• BMB Reports
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.315-323
• /
• 2009

In order to elucidate ultimate biological function of the genome, the model animal system carrying mutations is indispensable. Recently, large-scale mutagenesis projects have been launched in various species. Especially, the mouse is considered to be an ideal model to human because it is a mammalian species accompanied with well-established genetic as well as embryonic technologies. In 1990', large-scale mouse mutagenesis projects firstly initiated with a potent chemical mutagen, N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) by the phenotype-driven approach or forward genetics. The knockout mouse mutagenesis projects with trapping/conditional mutagenesis have then followed as Phase II since 2006 by the gene-driven approach or reverse genetics. Recently, the next-generation gene targeting system has also become available to the research community, which allows us to establish and analyze mutant mice carrying an allelic series of base substitutions in target genes as another reverse genetics. Overall trends in the large-scale mouse mutagenesis will be reviewed in this article particularly focusing on the new advancement of the next-generation gene targeting system. The drastic expansion of the mutant mouse resources altogether will enhance the systematic understanding of the life. The construction of the mutant mouse resources developed by the forward and reverse genetic mutagenesis is just the beginning of the annotation of mammalian genome. They provide basic infrastructure to understand the molecular mechanism of the gene and genome and will contribute to not only basic researches but also applied sciences such as human disease modelling, genomic medicine and personalized medicine.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.104-108
• /
• 2015

Human serum albumin (HSA) has potential for diagnosis and therapy in clinical setting. The purpose of experiments was to develop and evaluate $^{68}Ga$-HSA as a PET agent for diagnosis of acute inflammation. NOTA-HSA was synthesized by conjugating 2-(p-isothiocyanatobenzyl)-1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triacetic acid to HSA in 0.1 M sodium carbonate buffer (pH 9.5) and then purified using a PD-10 size-exclusion column. NOTA-HSA was labeled with $^{68}Ga$ at room temperature for 10 min, and 8.4% sodium hydrogen carbonate buffer was added for neutralization. $^{68}Ga$-NOTA-HSA was purified using alumina N plus light cartridge and $0.22{\mu}m$ syringe filter. Labeling efficiency and radiochemical purity were determined by ITLC-SG with 0.1 M citric acid. Biodistribution study was performed in a male BALB/c mice model of Carrageenan-induced acute inflammation. Animal PET study was performed in acute inflammation mice model after tail vein injection of $^{68}Ga$-HSA. This radiotracer showed high labeling efficiency (>99%) around pH 7. Biodistribution study showed higher inflamed footpad uptake than control footpad uptake. Animal PET study revealed 2 times higher uptake on inflamed footpad compared to control footpad. In these experiments, we developed $^{68}Ga$-HSA for acute inflammation PET imaging and evaluated it in a mouse disease model. The results demonstrated that $^{68}Ga$-HSA has potential as a PET imaging agent for diagnosis of acute inflammation.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
• /
• v.53 no.4
• /
• pp.248-258
• /
• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to characterize the early stages of periodontal disease and determine the optimal period for its evaluation in a mouse model. The association between the duration of ligation and its effect on the dentogingival area in mice was evaluated using micro-computed tomography (CT) and histological analysis. Methods: Ninety mice were allocated to an untreated control group or a ligation group in which periodontitis was induced by a 6-0 silk ligation around the left second maxillary molar. Mice were sacrificed at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 11, and 14 days after ligature placement. Alveolar bone destruction was evaluated using micro-CT. Histological analysis was performed to assess the immune-inflammatory processes in the periodontal tissue. Results: No significant difference in alveolar bone loss was found compared to the control group until day 3 after ligature placement, and a gradual increase in alveolar bone loss was observed from 4 to 8 days following ligature placement. No significant between-group differences were observed after 8 days. The histological analysis demonstrated that the inflammatory response was evident from day 4. Conclusions: Our findings in a mouse model provide experimental evidence that ligature-induced periodontitis models offer a consistent progression of disease with marginal attachment down-growth, inflammatory infiltration, and alveolar bone loss.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.20 no.10
• /
• pp.425-432
• /
• 2019

This study examined the effects of livestock disease news, such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), collected by the Korea Press Foundation on BIGKinds on the consumption of beef and pork. The consumer purchase data were obtained from the Rural Development Administration's Agrifood consumer panel data. Survival analysis showed that the FMD news noted beef and pork, and the first purchase rate decreased due to FMD news. The time-dependent Cox proportional hazards model revealed all models to be significant. FMD news was significant in each model. In 2010, the Hazard Ratio of domestic and imported pork was 0.999, and the first purchase rate decreased 0.999 times for each additional FMD news item. On the other hand, the Hazard Ratio of pork in 2015 was 1.001, and the first purchase rate increased. In the case of beef, results similar to pork were shown. This study estimated the impact of consumer meat consumption disease news on the first purchases according to origin and meat. These results provide the necessary information for rational production and consumption activities. In addition, it can also be used for promotion by estimating the duration of livestock disease news.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.60-74
• /
• 2017

To facilitate prevention of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), a GIS is widely used for monitoring, investigating epidemics, managing HPAI-infected farms, and eradicating the disease. After the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 2010 and 2011, the government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) established the GIS-based Korean Animal Health Integrated System (KAHIS) to avert livestock epidemics, including HPAI. However, the KAHIS is not sufficient for controlling HPAI outbreaks due to lack of responsibility in fieldwork, such as sterilization of HPAI-infected poultry farms and regions, control of infected animal movement, and implementation of an eradication strategy. An outbreak prediction model to support efficient HPAI control in the ROK is proposed here, constructed via analysis of HPAI outbreak patterns in the ROK. The results show that 82% of HPAI outbreaks occurred in Jeolla and Chungcheong Provinces. The density of poultry farms in these regions were $2.2{\pm}1.1/km^2$ and $4.2{\pm}5.6/km^2$, respectively. In addition, reared animal numbers ranged between 6,537 and 24,250 individuals in poultry farms located in HPAI outbreak regions. Following identification of poultry farms in HPAI outbreak regions, an HPAI outbreak prediction model was designed using factors such as the habitat range for migratory birds(HMB), freshwater system characteristics, and local road networks. Using these factors, poultry farms which reared 6,500-25,000 individuals were filtered and compared with number of farms actually affected by HPAI outbreaks in the ROK. The HPAI prediction model shows that 90.0% of the number of poultry farms and 54.8% of the locations of poultry farms overlapped between an actual HPAI outbreak poultry farms reported in 2014 and poultry farms estimated by HPAI outbreak prediction model in the present study. These results clearly show that the HPAI outbreak prediction model is applicable for estimating HPAI outbreak regions in ROK.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.347-360
• /
• 1993

The project was undertaken to provide information on the present system of traditional pig farming in the South Pacific region, to identify the problems currently limiting productivity of such pigs and to offer practical strategies which could be used for increasing productivity of the animals. The problems were identified by surveying some 220 subsistence pig farms in eleven island countries in the South Pacific region using a prepared questionnaire. The units were found to be generally small, consisting of about 2-4 sows per herd. The productivity of the units as assessed in terms of sow reproductive efficiency was rather low, being only about 7.5. Feed, housing, breeding, disease, marketing, lack of capital, technical know-how and existing social traditions were identified as current constraints. Based on three of the most limiting factors identified namely feed, housing and breeding, strategies for improvement were developed on the basis of better and more effective use of locally available feed resources, better housing and genetic improvement through crossbreeding programmes. These improvement strategies were tested as a package model on some ten farms in two of the island countries. The results of these on-farm trials indicated that using the improvement strategies increased sow reproductive efficiency by approximately 60 percent, to nearly 12. The significance of these findings in the overall management of traditionally raised pigs in the South Pacific region is discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Veterinary Pathology Conference
• /
• 2002.11a
• /
• pp.145-145
• /
• 2002

Chronic viral infection has been reported to cause a range of hepatic lesion, including hepatic fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a wide variety of animal species. Woodchucks (Marmota monax) chronically infected with woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) develop similar progressive hepatic inflammatory and neoplastic lesions that are remarkably similar to those associated with HBV infection in humans. Twenty two-month-old offspring from woodchucks (Marmota monax) experimentally infected with woodchuck hepatitis virus, were purchased. One randomly chosen animal was autopsied. The liver exhibits marked cirrhotic changes characteristic of the pre-transformation phase of WHV. We believe that this may represent a new suitable and cost-effective model for the disease processes associated with hepadnaviruses in a number of other species, most notably Hepatitis B virus infection in man.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.685-691
• /
• 2022

Plants produce chemicals of immense diversity that provide great opportunities for development of new antifungal compounds. In search for environment-friendly alternatives to the fungicide of current use, we screened plant extracts obtained from more than eight hundred plant materials collected in Korea for their antifungal activity against the model plant pathogenic fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae. This initial screening identified antifungal activities from the eleven plant extract samples, among which nine showed reproducibility in the follow-up screening. These nine samples were able to suppress not only M. oryzae but also other fungal pathogens. Interestingly, the plant extracts obtained from Actinostemma lobatum comprised five out of eight samples, and were the most effective in their antifungal activity. We found that butanol fraction of the A. lobatum extract is the most potent. Identification and characterization of antifungal substances in the A. lobatum extracts would provide the promising lead compounds for new fungicide.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.50 no.4
• /
• pp.512-521
• /
• 2022

Since the main symptoms of COVID-19 involve the respiratory system, the infection rate of this disease is predicted to be higher in patients with other respiratory conditions such as allergic rhinitis. In such a situation, it will be meaningful to conduct research on an allergy treatment that has fewer side effects and can effectively reduce allergy symptoms. Here, we prepared experimental samples under various fermentation conditions with mixed extracts of six medicinal plants. To examine the anti-allergic efficacy of these samples, an egg albumin-induced allergic rhinitis animal model experiment, a serum histamine and IgE experiment, and a COX and LO inhibitory activity experiment were conducted. As a result of animal experiments, OVA+SP-4 showed superior efficacy compared to OVA+SP-1 in nasal rubbing and sneezing experiments and had anti-allergic efficacy similar to that of OVA-cetirizine. The serum histamine concentration of OVA+SP-4 was also 1.3 times higher than that of the OVA+cetirizine group, showing a high histamine reduction ability, and IgE showed the same trend. An analysis of COX inhibitory efficacy also confirmed that COX-1 and COX-2 inhibitory efficacy is high, and the longer the fermentation time, the higher the antiallergic efficacy. The composition proposed by this study is expected to have a significant effect on sustainable allergy prevention and treatment in the future by applying it to human patients.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.284-296
• /
• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Ohmae-hwan (OMH) and Mume Fructus (MF) on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Methods: Mice were divided into 4 groups: a normal group, control group, MF group, and OMH group. Three groups, excluding the normal group, were fed a 5% solution of dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) in water for 10 days to induce inflammatory bowel disease. From the fourth day of DSS treatment, the control group was given distilled water only, the MF group was given MF powder in distilled water, and the OMH group was given dried OMH extract powder in distilled water for 7 days. Results: For each animal, changes in body weight, colon length, and component levels in blood and colon tissues after each treatment were noted. The weight in the control group and MF group decreased slightly compared with that in the OMH group, and the colon length in the MF group and OMH group was more than that in the control group. TNF-α and WBC were decreased in both the MF group and the OMH group. RBC was increased in the OMH group, like in the normal group, compared with the control group and MF group. Hb and PLT of each group were not significantly different. Regarding changes in the colon tissues, both the MF group and OMH groups recovered similar to the normal group. Conclusions: Thus, treatment with OMH and MF seems to be effective against inflammatory bowel disease, and OMH is likely to increase body weight and induce RBC recovery better than MF.