• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.85-92
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• 2003

Seok-jeong (SJ) is a solution of various metal ions and numerous other organic substances produced through extraction and fermentation of herbs and soil using geo-microbes, and it has been shown to improve symptoms of senile dementia. In this study, we investigated the protective effects of SJ against neurotoxicity of cadmium in HT22 hippocampal neuron cell line. SJ significantly protected from the cadmium-induced decreased cell viability measured by MTT assay (p＜0.01). The protective effects of SJ against cadmium toxicity were confirmed through observing morphological changes using inverted microscope. Additionally, SJ significantly repressed the formation of lipid peroxidation induced by high concentration of cadmium, and likewise, significantly repressed the reduction of glutathione by cadmium in HT22 cells. Vitamin C at the concentration found in SJ did not show any protective effect against cadmium toxicity in HT22 cells, indicating that vitamin C may not have a major role in the protective mechanism of SJ. Taken together, these results suggest that SJ may be a valuable agent for the protection of cadmium toxicity on the neuronal cells, and that the mechanism of the action of SJ may be due to reduced lipid peroxidation and increased glutathione level.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.79-86
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• 2022

Excessive glutamate causes oxidative stress in neuronal cells, which can cause degenerative neurological disorders. We tried to find medicinal plant showed neuroprotective activity by using glutamate-injured HT22 cell as a model system. In this study, we found that Boesenbergia rotunda methanol extract showed neuroprotective activity against glutamate induced neurotoxicity in mouse hippocampal HT22 cells. B. rotunda methanol extract suppressed the formation of reactive oxygen species and decreased intracellular Ca²⁺concentration. Also, B. rotunda made mitochondrial membrane potential maintain to normal levels. In addition, B. rotunda increased total glutathione amount and activated antioxidative enzyme such as glutathione reductase and glutathione peroxidase compared to glutamate-treated groups. These results suggested that B. rotunda decreased neuronal cell death damaged by high concentrations of glutamate treatment, via antioxidative mechanism and might be one of candidate of development of new drug to treat neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's disease.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.671-682
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• 1998

Electrophysiological phenomena of pyramidal cells in the CA1 area of the dorsal hippocampus were recorded from and filled with neurobiotin in anesthetized rats. The electropharmacological properties of membrane as well as the cellular-synaptic generation of rhythmic slow activity (theta) were examined. The intracellular response characteristics of these pyramidal cells were distinctly different from responses of interneurons. Pyramidal cells had a high resting membrane potential, a low input resistance, and a large amplitude action potential. A afterhyperpolarization was followed a single action potential. Most of pyramidal cells did not display a spontaneous firing. Pyramidal cells displayed weak inward rectification and anodal break excitation. The slope of the frequency-current relation was 53.4 Hz/nA for the first interspike interval and 15.9 Hz/nA for the last intervals, suggesting the presence of spike frequency adaptation. Neurobiotin-filled neurons showed pyramidal morphology. Cells were generally bipolar dendritc processes ramifying in stratum lacunosum-moleculare, radiatum, and oriens. Commissural stimulation discharged pyramidal cells, followed by excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs and IPSPs). The frequency of theta-related membrane potential oscillation was voltage-independent in pyramidal neurons. At strong depolarization levels (less than 30 mV) pyramidal cells emitted sodium spike oscillation, phase-locked to theta. The observations provide direct evidence that theta-related rhythmic hyperpolarization of principal cells is brought by the rhythmically discharging interneurons. Furthermore, the findings in which interneurons were also paced by rhythmic inhibitory postsynaptic potentials during theta suggest that they were periodically hyperpolarized by their GABAergic septal afferents.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.169-175
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• 2006

Ginseng is the best known and most popular herbal medicine used worldwide. In spite of reported beneficial effects of ginseng on the CNS, there is few scientific evidences established at the cellular level. Among more than 30 ginsenosides, Rb1 and Rg1, the active ingredients of ginseng, are regarded as the main compounds responsible for many pharmaceutical actions of ginseng. Daily treatment with Rb1 or Rg1 for 3 d significantly decreased the number of bromodeoxyuridine(BrdU)(+) cells in primary neural progenitor cells(NPCs) isolated from hippocampi at embryonic day 16.5(E16.5). In contrast, treatment with Rb1 or Rg1 greatly increased the number of microtubule associated protein(MAP2) (+) cells. In addition, the transcription factors, Ngn1 and Hes1, proneural members of the basic helix-loop-helix(bHLH) family, significantly increased in Rb1 or Rg1 treated-NPCs. Based on these results, we suggest for the first time that ginsenosides Rb1 and Rg1 decrease proliferation but promote neuronal differentiation of hippocampal NPCs.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.321-330
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• 2021

Oxidative stress plays a crucial role in the development of neuronal disorders including brain ischemic injury. Thioredoxin 1 (Trx1), a 12 kDa oxidoreductase, has anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic functions in various cells. It has been highly implicated in brain ischemic injury. However, the protective mechanism of Trx1 against hippocampal neuronal cell death is not identified yet. Using a cell permeable Tat-Trx1 protein, protective mechanism of Trx1 against hydrogen peroxide-induced cell death was examined using HT-22 cells and an ischemic animal model. Transduced Tat-Trx1 markedly inhibited intracellular ROS levels, DNA fragmentation, and cell death in H2O2-treatment HT-22 cells. Tat-Trx1 also significantly inhibited phosphorylation of ASK1 and MAPKs in signaling pathways of HT-22 cells. In addition, Tat-Trx1 regulated expression levels of Akt, NF-κB, and apoptosis related proteins. In an ischemia animal model, Tat-Trx1 markedly protected hippocampal neuronal cell death and reduced astrocytes and microglia activation. These findings indicate that transduced Tat-Trx1 might be a potential therapeutic agent for treating ischemic injury.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.467-473
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• 1997

Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid), one of bioactive amino acid in the mammalian brain, is known to exert inhibitory effects on neurons via GABA receptor. In the present study, we examined effects of taurine on glutamateinduced neurotoxicity on hippocampal neuron cell culture using cell counting method and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay. After 10 d of culture, cells were stimulated with appropriate drugs. Only 43% of cultured neuronal cells survived at one day after stimulation with 500 uM L-glutamate for 10 min. Survival rate was enhanced by 82% in the presence of 10 mM taurine. LDH activity from the culture supernatant incubated with a combination of L-glutamate and taurine was less than half of that with L-glutamate alone. In the next series of experiments, interleukin-6 (IL-6) mRNA expression in cultured astrocytes was investigated using reverse tanscription-PCR (RT-PCR). IL-6 mRNA was detected in the astrocytes stimulated with L-glutamate in a dose-dependent manner, while not detected in the unstimulated control astrocytes. The expression of IL-6 mRNA caused by 10 mM glutamate was inhibited by taurine, but not by GABA. These findings demonstrated a neuroprotective action of taurine against glutamate-induced toxicity.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.835-845
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• 2008

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of FS for the modulation of ROS and MMP in a hypoxic model of cultured rat cortical cells. Methods : For the effect of FS on the viability, FS was added to culture media (neurobasal supplemented with B27) and cell viability was measured by LDH assay. To investigate the effects of FS on ROS generation and MMP preservation, cells grown in FS-containing media were given a hypoxic shock(2% $O_2/5%$ $CO_2$, $37^{\circ}C$, 3 hrs) on DIV 10, stained with $H_2DCF-DA$(10 nM) and JC-1, respectively, and observed by fluorescent microscope. Results : 1. FS has a protective effect of cortical cells in both normoxia and hypoxia. 2. FS reduced the generation of ROS and this reduction was especially significant at 3 days after hypoxia. 3. FS was effective for the maintenance of MMP in hypoxia, and this efficacy was especially significant at 3 days after hypoxia. Conclusions : Taken together, these results indicate that FS attenuates ROS generation and MMP dissipation, which eventually protects from neuronal cell death in hypoxia.

• BMB Reports
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2002

Neural cell survival is an essential concern in the aging brain and many diseases of the central nervous system. Neural transplantation of the stem cells are already applied to clinical trials for many degenerative neurological diseases, including Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, and strokes. A critical problem of the neural transplantation is how to reduce their apoptosis and improve cell survival. Neurotrophic factors generally contribute as extrinsic cues to promote cell survival of specific neurons in the developing mammalian brains, but the survival factor for neural stem cell is poorly defined. To understand the mechanism controlling stem cell death and improve cell survival of the transplanted stem cells, we investigated the effect of plausible neurotrophic factors on stem cell survival. The neural stem cell, HiB5, when treated with PDGF prior to transplantation, survived better than cells without PDGF. The resulting survival rate was two fold for four weeks and up to three fold for twelve weeks. When transplanted into dorsal hippocampus, they migrated along hippocampal alveus and integrated into pyramidal cell layers and dentate granule cell layers in an inside out sequence, which is perhaps the endogenous pathway that is similar to that in embryonic neurogenesis. Promotion of the long term-survival and differentiation of the transplanted neural precursors by PDGF may facilitate regeneration in the aging adult brain and probably in the injury sites of the brain.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.76-82
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• 2007

By combining in situ hybridization (ISH) and immunocytochemistry (IC), microscopic topological localization of mRNAs and proteins can be determined. Although this technique can be applied to a variety of tissues, it is particularly important for use on neuronal cells which are morphologically complex and in which specific mRNAs and proteins are located in distinct subcellular domains such as dendrites and dendritic spines. One common technical problem for combined ISH and IC is that the signal for immunocytochemical localization of proteins often becomes much weaker after conducting ISH. In this manuscript, we report a simplified but robust protocol that allows immunocytochemical localization of proteins after ISH. In this protocol, we fix cultured cortical or hippocampal neurons with 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA), rinse briefly in PBS, and then further fix the cells with $-20^{\circ}C$ methanol. Our method has several major advantages over previously described ones in that (1) it is simple, as it is just consecutive routine fixation procedures, (2) it does not require any special alteration to the fixation procedures such as changes in salt concentration, and (3) it can be used with antibodies that are compatible with either methanol (MeOH-) or PFA-fixed target proteins. To our best knowledge, we are the first to employ this fixation method for fluorescence ISH + IC.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.25-44
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• 2007

The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is an intracellular protein that is widely distributed throughout hippocampal and neocortical brain tissue. Mifepristone (RU486) is a potent GR antagonist that has also been shown to exhibit partial agonist-like effects. The precise location of the GR domain involved in the agonist-like activity of RU486 is unknown. Here, we examine this aspect of GR signaling by comparing human GR (hGR) construct with a Guyanese squirrel monkey GR (gsmGR) construct in which nuclear translocation and transactivation are known to be impaired. Using an objective translocation scoring method, we found that both hGR and gsmGR are translocated by RU486, and that nuclear translocation of hGR is significantly increased compared to gsmGR at 10 nM, 100 nM and 1000 nM RU486 in transiently transfected COS1 cells. While addition of RU486 to the cells transfected with hGR results in a 16-fold dose-dependent increase in transactivation compared to non-treated cells, no significant change in transactivation is observed with gsmGR at doses up to 100 nM RU486. Further experiments using six GR chimeras indicate that replacement of the hGR carboxyl-terminus of tau-1 transactivation domain (C-AF1, amino acids 132-428) with that from gsmGR diminishes hGR transactivation by RU486. These results demonstrate that RU486-induced transactivation of GR is determined in part by amino acids in the C-AF1 domain.