• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.177-183
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• 2008

The layers of keratinocytes form an acid mantle on the surface of the skin. Herein, we investigated the effects of acidic pH on the membrane current and $[Ca^{2+}]_c$ of human primary keratinocytes from foreskins and human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT). Acidic extracellular pH ($pH_e{\leq}5.5$) activated outwardly rectifying $Cl^-$ current ($I_{Cl,pH}$) with slow kinetics of voltage-dependent activation. $I_{Cl,pH}$ was potently inhibited by an anion channel blocker 4,4'-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2'-disulphonic acid (DIDS, 73.5% inhibition at 1${\mu}$M). $I_{Cl,pH}$ became more sensitive to $pH_e$ by raising temperature from $24^{circ}C$ to $37^{circ}C$. HaCaT cells also expressed $Ca^{2+}$-activated $Cl^-$ current ($I_{Cl,Ca}$), and the amplitude of $I_{Cl,Ca}$ was increased by relatively weak acidic $pH_e$ (7.0 and 6.8). Interestingly, the acidic $pH_e$ (5.0) also induced a sharp increase in the intracellular [$Ca^{2+}$] (${\triangle}[Ca^{2+}]_{acid}$) of HaCaT cells. The ${\triangle}[Ca^{2+}]_{acid}$ was independent of extracellular $Ca^{2+}$, and was abolished by the pretreatment with PLC inhibitor, U73122. In primary human keratinocytes, 5 out of 28 tested cells showed ${\triangle}[Ca^{2+}]_{acid}$. In summary, we found $I_{Cl,pH}$ and ${\triangle}[Ca^{2+}]_{acid}$ in human keratinocytes, and these ionic signals might have implication in pathophysiological responses and differentiation of epidermal keratinocytes.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.241-249
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• 2017

Plasma membrane hyperpolarization associated with activation of $Ca^{2+}$-activated $K^+$ channels plays an important role in sperm capacitation during fertilization. Although Slo3 (slowpoke homologue 3), together with the auxiliary ${\gamma}^2$-subunit, LRRC52 (leucine-rich-repeat-containing 52), is known to mediate the pH-sensitive, sperm-specific $K^+$ current KSper in mice, the molecular identity of this channel in human sperm remains controversial. In this study, we tested the classical $BK_{Ca}$ activators, NS1619 and LDD175, on human Slo3, heterologously expressed in HEK293 cells together with its functional interacting ${\gamma}^2$ subunit, hLRRC52. As previously reported, Slo3 $K^+$ current was unaffected by iberiotoxin or 4-aminopyridine, but was inhibited by ~50% by 20 mM TEA. Extracellular alkalinization potentiated hSlo3 $K^+$ current, and internal alkalinization and $Ca^{2+}$ elevation induced a leftward shift its activation voltage. NS1619, which acts intracellularly to modulate hSlo1 gating, attenuated hSlo3 $K^+$ currents, whereas LDD175 increased this current and induced membrane potential hyperpolarization. LDD175-induced potentiation was not associated with a change in the half-activation voltage at different intracellular pHs (pH 7.3 and pH 8.0) in the absence of intracellular $Ca^{2+}$. In contrast, elevation of intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ dramatically enhanced the LDD175-induced leftward shift in the half-activation potential of hSlo3. Therefore, the mechanism of action does not involve pH-dependent modulation of hSlo3 gating; instead, LDD175 may modulate $Ca^{2+}$-dependent activation of hSlo3. Thus, LDD175 potentially activates native KSper and may induce membrane hyperpolarization-associated hyperactivation in human sperm.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.109-118
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• 2004

Avian influenza(AI) is an epizootic disease of variable severity caused by type A influenza viruses of the orthomyxovirus group. Chickens were the most frequently affected avian species with AI viruses. There were many outbreaks of fowl plague, now known as highly pathogenic AI(HP AI), throughout the world since Perroncito described the fowl plague in 1978 in Italy. In recent years HPAI viruses of different serotypes such as H5, H7 and H9 has been isolated from humans on several occasions either related with outbreak of HPAI in birds or not. In 1997, one of the most noteworthy events in AI history was the human mortality with H5N1 HPAI virus infection in Hong Kong. Six persons of total 18 persons with clinical signs of influenza were died. Recently the human cases with mortality related with HP AI outbreaks in poultry industry has been increased such as outbreaks of HP AI throughout Asia countries including Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand and others in 2003. Although these outbreaks revealed the capable of spreading from birds to human, the capability for transmission between people was not clear. Therefore, this report will review the possibility of HP AI infection in human associated with HPAI outbreak in poultry industry.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.539-556
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• 1995

Periodontal therapeutic modalities should be re-establishing and regenerating the periodontal tissue previously lost to the disease. To achieve periodontal regeneration, periodontal ligament cells must selective migrate to the deneded root surface, attached and proliferated it. Local pH concentration is one of the most factors that periodontal regeneration. The aims of this study were to examine on biological effects of pH to the human periodontal ligament cells in vitro, especially on the cell morphology, attachment, activity, vitality and viability. Human periodontal ligament cells were cultured from extracted tooth for non-periodontal reason. Immediately after extraction, any soft tissue adhering to the cervical parts of the roots was carefully removed with a sterile curette. To produce different pH levels in the media, Eagle's MEM was adjusted from pH 6.6 to 8.2 in 0.2 intervals with 1 M NaOH and 1 N HCl. After cultivation, Then, Periodontal ligament cells were cultured at pH ranging from 6.6-8.2. attachment assay was done at 1, 2 day incubation and activity assay was done at 1, 2, 3 day incubation. The experiments were evaluated by scaning electron microscopic techniques (HITACHIX-650 Scaning Electron Microanalyzer, Tokyo, Japan), MTT assay, and the cultured periodontal ligament cells were fixed in neutral formalin for 24 hours and immunohistochemically processed by PCNA for proliferating ability. The surviving cells in the medium showed slightly increased volume and widening intercellular distances at low concentration of pH than control group (pH 7.4), and apparently shrinkage at high concentration of pH than control group (pH 7.4). The results of the statistical analysis from the experiment on attachment, vitality and viability were as follows. Attachment of periodontal ligament cells at 1st and 2nd day, similar attachment rate of low concentration pH compared with control value (pH 7.4). But above pH 8.0, attachment rate were statistically significant decrease from control value(P<0.05). Periodontal ligament cell's activities were maximum at pH 7.6 by MTT assay. Similar with control value at low concentration of pH. But, the activities were statistically significant decrease at high concentraration of pH(P<0.05). Cellular proliferating rate (PCNA index) were statistically significant decrease from control value at low and high concentration of pH(p<0.05). This results suggested that hjgh concentration pH, in other words, alkali pH was cytotoxic effects on human periodontal ligament cells in vitro.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.130-134
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• 2023

This study evaluated cell viability and cytokine release in immortalized human oral fibroblasts (hTERT-hNOFs) and keratinocytes (IHOK) exposed to a dental-impregnated gingival retraction cord. To prepare the extracts, dental gingival retraction cords impregnated with aluminum chloride hexahydrate were immersed in a cell culture medium for 24 h at 37 ℃. hTERT-hNOFs and IHOK were cultured for 24 h. The cell culture medium was removed and extracts of the dental gingival retraction cords were added. After incubation with the extract solution, cell viability was evaluated using an MTT assay. The levels of the cytokines IL-1α and IL-8 were measured in the supernatants of each cell type. The cell viability after exposure to the extract solution for 10 min exceeded 70 % in both cell types. The ET50 values for hTERT-hNOF and IHOK were 35.75 and 28.98 min, respectively. For IHOK, the IL-1α level was (5.35 ± 5.22) pg/mL at 10 min, (3.58 ± 5.38) pg/mL at 20 min, and (2.85 ± 4.28) pg/mL at 60 min of exposure (p > 0.05). The IL-8 level in IHOK was (67.16 ± 18.70) pg/mL at 10 min, (78.36 ± 7.50) pg/mL at 20 min, and (111.9 ± 26.10) pg/mL at 60 min of exposure (p > 0.05). Cytokine release was not observed from hTERT-hNOFs. Based on these results, cell viability and cytokine release were confirmed in cells exposed to the impregnated gingival retraction cord. In addition, the application of the extracts to hTERT-hNOF and IHOK during the actual contact time and determination of ET50 may be beneficial for evaluating the biocompatibility of dental-impregnated gingival retraction cords.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1937-1943
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• 2005

The technology of emotion recognition is a crucial factor in day of ubiquitous that it provides various intelligent services for human. This paper intends to make the system which recognizes the human emotions based on 2-dimensional model with two bio signals, GSR and HRV. Since it is too difficult to make model the human's bio system analytically, as a statistical method, Hidden Markov Model(HMM) is used, which uses the transition probability among various states and measurable observation variance. As a result of experiments for each emotion, we can get average recognition rates of 64% for first HMM results and 55% for second HMM results

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.257-262
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• 2005

Mitochondrial DNA (mt DNA) sequence analysis has been a useful tool for species identification of animals and human individuals. Two hypervariable regions (HV1 and HV2) in control region of mitochondrial genome were analyzed for human individual identification. In case of animal species identification, several genes on mt DNA such as cytochrome b (cytb), RNAs, cytochrome oxidases (CO) were used. In this study, co-amplification of HV1 and cytb was carried out in order to check the contamination of animal DNA and to verify the human DNA. The primer sets used in PCR were H15997/L16236 for HV1 and H14724/L15149 for cytb. PCR products for HV1 and cytb were 239 bp and 425 bp, respectively. The appearance of two bands on agarose gel implied the DNA came from human, however the single band of cytb gene represented the non-human animal DNA.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.159-165
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• 2001

Follicular fluid has pivotal effects on attraction and motility of spermatozoa for successful fertilization. The effect of samples of human follicu1ar fluid(hFF) on attraction and motility of spermatozoa was investigated. Capillary tubes loaded with one of these samples, hFF sample A collected from patients with tubal factor, hFF sample B collected from patients with male factor, m-HTF and heated hFF sample were used for assessment of attraction and motility of spermatozoa following culture of 1, 2, and 4 hrs. Number and motile rate of spermatozoa in the tubes loaded with hFF sample A were significantly(P<0.05) higher than those of m-HTF, hFF sample B and heated hFF. Although the fresh hFF tended to increase the attraction of spermatozoa as compared to inactivated hFF, there was no significant difference between treatments.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1742-1750
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• 2015

Human insulin is composed of 21 amino acids of an A-chain and 30 amino acids of a B-chain. This is the protein hormone that has the role of blood sugar control. When the recombinant human proinsulin is expressed in Escherichia coli, a serious problem is the formation of an inclusion body. Therefore, the inclusion body must be denatured and refolded under chaotropic agents and suitable reductants. In this study, H27R-proinsulin was refolded from the denatured form with β-mercaptoethanol and urea. The refolding reaction was completed after 15 h at $15^{\circ}C$, whereas the reaction at $25^{\circ}C$ was faster than that at $15^{\circ}C$. The refolding yield at $15^{\circ}C$ was 17% higher than that at $25^{\circ}C$. The refolding reaction could be carried out at a high protein concentration (2 g/l) using direct refolding without sulfonation. The most economical and optimal refolding condition for human preproinsulin was 1.5 g/l protein, 10 mM glycine buffer containing 0.6 M urea, pH 10.6, and 0.3 mM β-mercaptoethanol at $15^{\circ}C$ for 16 h. The maximum refolding yield was 74.8% at $15^{\circ}C$ with 1.5 g/l protein. Moreover, the refolded preproinsulin could be converted into normal mature insulin with two enzymes. The average amount of human insulin was 138.2 g from 200 L of fermentation broth after enzyme reaction with H27R-proinsulin. The direct refolding process for H27R-proinsulin was successfully set up without sulfonation. The step yields for refolding and enzyme reaction were comparatively high. Therefore, our refolding process for production of recombinant insulin may be beneficial to the large-scale production of other biologically active proteins.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.381-392
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• 2004

Arsenic trioxide($As_2O_3$) was introduced into the treatment of refractory or relapsed acute promyelocytic Ieukemia. Some investigators have reported that arsenic trioxide had induced apoptosis in a variety of solid human tumor cell lines, including non-small cell lung cancer. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs(NSAIDs) are powerful chemopreventive agents for gastrointestinal cancers and the growth of established tumors are reduced by inducing apoptosis. It's also reported that NSAIDs enhanced tumor response to chemotherapeutic drugs or radiation. In this study, we aimed to determine whether combination of arsenic trioxide with sulindac augmented its apoptotic potential in NCI-H157 human lung cancer cells. The human lung cancer cell line NCI-H157 was treated with arsenic trioxide and sulindac. Cell viability was measured by the MTT assay. Apoptosis was measured by nuclear staining and flow cytometric analysis. The catalytic activity of the caspase families were measured by the fluorogenic cleavage of biosubstrates. The western blotting were also performed to define the mechanical basis of apoptosis. Combination treatment of arsenic trioxide and sulindac decreased the viability of NCI-H157 human lung cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. The catalytic activity of caspase-3, 8 and 9 proteases were increased after combination treatment. Consistently PARP was cleaved from 116kDa to 85kDa fragments, and the expression of ICAD was decreased by time-dependent manner. Also combination treatment increased the expression of Fas and Fas/L. Combination therapy of arsenic trioxide with sulindac augments cell death and induces apoptosis via the activation of caspase cascade in NCI-H157 human lung carcinoma cells.