• 한국식품영양과학회지
• /
• 제39권2호
• /
• pp.193-202
• /
• 2010

더덕 70% 에탄올 추출물(CL) 및 그 분획물들(헥산, 클로로포름, 에틸아세테이트, 부탄올 그리고 물)의 in vitro 항산화 효과는 총 페놀 함량, 환원력, ABTS, DPPH 및 ORAC 분석법들로 실험하였다. 더덕 70% 에탄올 추출물의 에틸아세테이트 분획물(CLEA)은 가장 높은 총 페놀 함량을 보여 주었고 그 함량은 22.7 mg/g이었으며, CLEA는 $250\sim1,000\;{\mu}g/mL$에서 0.42~1.27로 뛰어난 환원력을 가지고 있었다. $100\sim400\;{\mu}g/mL$에서 CLEA는 27.7~70.3의 ABTS radical 소거작용을 보여주었으며, $400\;{\mu}g/mL$에서 81.6%로 가장 높은 DPPH radical 소거활성을 나타내었다. CLEA는 가장 높은 $ORAC_{{ROO}{\cdot}}$ 활성을 가졌고, CLEA와 부탄올 분획물은 70% 에탄올, 헥산, 클로로포롬 그리고 물 분획물보다 현저하게 높은 $ORAC_{{ROO}{\cdot}}$ 활성을 나타내었다. CLEA는 CL 70% 에탄올 추출물과 그 분획물들 중 가장 높은 항산화효과를 가지고 있었다. 따라서 고지방식이에 의해 산화적 스트레스가 유발된 동물 모델에 CLEA를 섭취시켰을 때 항산화 유전자 발현 변화를 microarray와 RT-PCR 기법으로 알아보았다. 31개의 항산화 유전자가 발현되었으나 CLEA 섭취에 의해 2배 이상 발현 증가를 보인 항산화 유전자는 없었다. 결론적으로 CLEA는 직접적인 항산화 효과는 있으나 고지방식 이에 의해 유도된 비만 마우스 내에서 항산화 유전자 발현 증가에 의한 간접적인 항산화 효과는 없었다.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• 제14권1호
• /
• pp.387-392
• /
• 2013

Objective: The aim of the present study was to explore mechanisms by which let-7c suppresses NSCLC cell proliferation. Methods: The expression level of let-7c was quantified by qRT-PCR. A549 and H1299 cells were transfected with let-7c mimics to restore the expression of let-7c. The effects of let-7c were then assessed by cell proliferation, colony formation and cell cycle assay. Mouse experiments were used to confirm the effect of let-7c on tumorigenicity in vivo. Luciferase reporter assays and Western blotting were performed to identify target genes for let-7c. Results: HOXA1 was identified as a novel target of let-7c. MTS, colony formation and flow cytometry assays demonstrated that forced expression of let-7c inhibited NSCLC cell proliferation by inducing G1 arrest in vitro, consistent with inhibitory effects induced by knockdown of HOXA1. Mouse experiments demonstrated that let-7c expression suppressed tumorigenesis. Furthermore, we found that let-7c could regulate the expression of HOXA1 downstream effectors CCND1, CDC25A and CDK2. Conclusions: Collectively, these results demonstrate let-7c inhibits NSCLC cell proliferation and tumorigenesis by partial direct targeting of the HOXA1 pathway, which suggests that restoration of let-7c expression may thus offer a potential therapeutic intervention strategy for NSCLC.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제22권1호
• /
• pp.26-34
• /
• 2009

Porcine embryonic stem (ES) cells have a great potential as tools for transgenic animal production and studies of regulation of differentiation genes. Although several studies showed successful derivation of porcine ES-like cells, these cells were not maintained long-term in culture. Therefore, this study was conducted to establish porcine pluripotent ES-like cells using in vivo fertilized embryos and to maintain these cells in long term culture. Porcine ES-like cells from in vivo embryos obtained by immunosurgery or whole explant culture were successfully cultured for over 56 passages. Morphology of porcine ES-like cells was flat-shaped with a monolayer type colony. These cells stained for alkaline phosphatase throughout the culture. Furthermore, porcine ES-like cells reacted with antibodies against Oct-4, SSEA-1, SSEA-4, Tra-1-60, and Tra-1-81, which are typical markers of undifferentiated stem cells. To characterize the ability of porcine ES-like cells to differentiate into three germ layers, embryoid body formation was induced. After plating of these cells, porcine ES-like cells were spontaneously differentiated into various cell types of all three germ layers. In addition, porcine ES-like cells were successfully derived from IVF blastocysts in media containing human recombinant basic fibroblast growth factor.

• 대한본초학회지
• /
• 제36권5호
• /
• pp.81-91
• /
• 2021

Objectives : Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease that decreases bone density and increases the risk of fractures. Bisphosphonates and SERMs are mainly used to treat osteoporosis, but, long-term use increases the risk of side effects such as jaw bone necrosis and breast cancer. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a therapeutic agent for a natural product with few side effects. Water extract of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos (wLF) was mainly found to have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects. However, the effect of wLF on osteoporosis has not been elucidated. Therefore, this experiment investigated the effect of wLF on osteoclasts, osteoblasts and osteoporosis models. Methods : In order to study the effect of wLF on osteoporosis, the OVX-induced rat model was used for in vivo study. After 8 weeks, we measured body weight, uterine weight, liver weight, femur weight, bone density, trabecular area and tibia ash weight. To determine the effect of wLF on osteoclast differentiation, we measured the number of TRAP-positive cells and TRAP activity. To examine the effect of wLF on the expression of osteoblast-related genes, we measured the mRNA expression of alkaline phosphatase (ALP, Alpl) and osteocalcin (OCN, Bglap2). Results : In vivo experiment, wLF inhibited the reduction of femur weight, trabecular area, bone density and tibia ash weight. In vitro experiment, wLF had no significant effect on osteoclast differentiation. However, wLF increased the mRNA expression of Alpl and Bglap2 in MC3T3-E1 cell. Conclusions : This result suggested that wLF may be used for the treatment and prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis.

• 대한한방종양학회지
• /
• 제5권1호
• /
• pp.47-60
• /
• 1999

Traditional oriental medicines have been used for treatment of various kinds of human cancers for long times and some of them proven to be effective clinically. However, the pharmacological actions and mechanisms related to cancer treatment are generally unknown. In an effort to clarify the action mechanisms of several oriental medicines used for cancer treatments, we planned this experimental procedures. We selected Cordyceps sinensis (冬蟲下草), Punellae Herba (夏枯草), Rehmanniae Radix (熟地黃), Paeoniae Radix (白芍藥), Oldenlandiae Herba (白花蛇舌草), Partulaceae Herba (馬齒? ), Scdopendra subspinipes mutilans (蜈蚣), Mylabris Phalerara (班蟄), Phellinus igniarius(桑黃), Ganodermae Lignum(靈芝) for evaluation, which have been used for patients of gastric cancers. The twenty grams of medicines were boiled in 100ml of water for 1 hour and filtered with $0.2\;{\mu}m$ pore-sized filter unit to remove insoluble particles. Initially we evaluated the effects oriental medicines on growth inhibition in stomach cancer cells. The gastric cancer cell line, AGS, was cultured in RPMI 1640 supplemented with l0% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum and treated with $10{\mu}l$ oriental medicines per 1ml of medium up to 48 hours. The specimens were subjected to MTT assay for evaluation of growth inhibition. We found mat Mylabris phalerata (班蟄) markedly suppressed the growth of cancer cells as shown in results. Next, we checked the effects of oriental medicines on cancer on cell cycles and apptosis. Mylabrls phalerata (班蟄) inhibited cell cycle progression of cancer cells a compared with control cells and cells treated with other medicines. In addition, Mylabri phalerata (班蟄) induced apoptosis in 30-40% of stomch cancer cells within 24 hours. Other oriental medicines used for this experiments did not show apoptosis-inducing effects on cancer cells. Finally, we determined the expression levels of genes associated with cell cycle and apoptosis. The expressions of Bcl-2 and bcl-XL were downregulated by the treatment of Mylabris phalerata (班蟄). However, the expression levels of genes related to cell cycles were not altered significantly. In conclusion, we found that Mylabris phalerata (班蟄) has in vivo gowth-inhibiting and apptosis-inducing effects on stomach cancer cells. However, we think that at least animal experiments are necessay for evduations.

• 한국응용약물학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국응용약물학회 2007년도 Proceedings of The Convention
• /
• pp.79-92
• /
• 2007

Oxidative stress have known to be a risk factor for the degenerative processes and closely related to a lot of diseases. It is well established that antioxidants are good in protection and therapeutic means against oxidative damage. There is increasing interest in natural antioxidants and many natural antioxidants have been found and utilized as the possible protection for various diseases and skin aging. We have screened natural antioxidant agents for cosmeceuticals, nutraceuticals, and drugs as therapeutic and preventive means against oxidative stress, and have developed a number of novel antioxidants from various natural sources. A novel melanin synthesis inhibitor, Melanocin A, isolated from the metabolite of a fungal strain Eupenicillium shearii F80695 inhibited mushroom tyrosinase and melanin biosynthesis of B16 melanoma cells with $IC_{50}$ value of 9.0 nM and MIC value of $0.9\;{\mu}M$, respectively. Melanocin A also exhibited potent antioxidant activity by scavenging of DPPH and superoxide anion radicals. UV was found to increase the level of hydrogen peroxides and other reactive oxygen species (ROS) in skin tissues. This increase in ROS may not only alter the structure and function of many genes and proteins directly but may also modulate their expressions through signal transduction pathways and, ultimately, lead to skin damage. We investigated the effect of Melanocin A on UV-induced premature skin aging. Firstly, the effect of Melanocin A on UV-induced matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 expression in an immortalized human keratinocyte cell line, HaCaT in vitro was investigated. Acute UV irradiation induced MMP-9 expression at both the mRNA and protein levels and Melanocin A suppressed this expression in a dose-dependent manner. We then investigated UV-induced skin changes in hairless mice in vivo by Melanocin A. Chronic exposure of hairless mouse dorsal skin to UV increased skin thickness and induced wrinkle formation and the gelatinase activities of MMP-2 and MMP-9. Moreover, Melanocin A significantly suppressed UV-induced morphologic skin changes and MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression. These results show that Melanocin A can prevent the harmful effects of UV that lead to skin aging. Therefore, we suggest that Melanocin A should be viewed as a potential therapeutic agent for preventing and/or treating premature skin aging. Terrein is a bioactive fungal metabolite isolated from Penicillium species. Terrein has a relatively simple structure and can be easily synthesized. However, the biologic effects of terrein are comparatively unknown. We found for the first time that terrein potently inhibit melanin production in melanocytes and has a strong hypopigmentary effect in a spontaneously immortalized mouse melanocyte cell line, Mel-Ab. Treatment of Mel-Ab cells with terrein (10-100 mM) for 4 days significantly reduced melanin levels in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, terrein at the same concentration also reduced tyrosinase activity. We then investigated whether terrein influences the extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) pathway and the expression of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF), which is required for tyrosinase expression. Terrein was found to induce sustained ERK activation and MITF down-regulation, and luciferase assays showed that terrein inhibits MITF promoter activity in a dose-dependent manner. To elucidate the correlation between ERK pathway activation and a decreased MITF transcriptional level, PD98059, a specific inhibitor of the ERK pathway, was applied before terrain treatment and found to abrogate the terrein-induced MITF attenuation. Terrein also reduced the tyrosinase protein level for at least 72 h. These results suggest that terrain reduces melanin synthesis by reducing tyrosinase production via ERK activation, and that this is followed by MITF down-regulation.

• 대한본초학회지
• /
• 제28권1호
• /
• pp.23-31
• /
• 2013

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to determine the anti-obesity effect and molecular mechanism of YY312, a herbal extract composed of Imperatae Rhizoma, Citri Unshius Pericarpium Immaturus, and Evodiae Fructus, on a high-fat diet-induced animal model and on 3T3-L1 cells. Methods : C57BL/6 mice were fed for 6 weeks with a normal diet or a high-fat diet (HFD). Then they orally administered daily with 300 mg/kg YY312 for next 10 weeks. Body weight and food consumption were recorded weekly and daily, respectively. Tissue weights, serum lipid, and glucose levels were analyzed at the end of the study. Additionally, the effects of YY312 on adipocyte differentiation in 3T3-L1 cells were examined. After differentiating 3T3-L1 cells were treated with YY312, Oil-red O staining, RT-PCR, and Western blotting were performed for lipid accumulation, mRNA expression of adipogenesis gene, and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) phosphorylation, respectively. Results : YY312-administered mice showed a significant reduction of body weights and abdominal adipose tissue weights. YY312 also reduced the serum levels of triglycerides and total cholesterol, compared with the HFD group. Treatment with YY312 inhibited lipid accumulation and blocked expression of adipogenic transcription factors and lipogenesis genes, including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor ${\gamma}$, CCAT/enhancer binding protein ${\alpha}$ and fatty acid synthase. YY312 increased AMPK phosphorylation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Conclusions : This study showed that herbal extract YY312 has an anti-obesity effect in vitro and in vivo. Thus, YY312 could be developed as a supplement for reduction of body weight gain induced by an HFD.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• 제32권4호
• /
• pp.481-491
• /
• 2024

Paxlovid is the first approved oral treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 and includes nirmatrelvir, a protease inhibitor targeting the main protease (M^pro) of SARS-CoV-2, as one of the key components. While some specific mutations emerged in M^pro were revealed to significantly reduce viral susceptibility to nirmatrelvir in vitro, there is no report regarding resistance to nirmatrelvir in patients and animal models for SARS-CoV-2 infection yet. We recently developed xenograft tumors derived from Calu-3 cells in immunodeficient mice and demonstrated extended replication of SARS-CoV-2 in the tumors. In this study, we investigated the effect of nirmatrelvir administration on SARS-CoV-2 replication. Treatment with nirmatrelvir after virus infection significantly reduced the replication of the parental SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-2 Omicron at 5 days post-infection (dpi). However, the virus titers were completely recovered at the time points of 15 and 30 dpi. The virus genomes in the tumors at 30 dpi were analyzed to investigate whether nirmatrelvir-resistant mutant viruses had emerged during the extended replication of SARS-CoV-2. Various mutations in several genes including ORF1ab, ORF3a, ORF7a, ORF7b, ORF8, and N occurred in the SARS-CoV-2 genome; however, no mutations were induced in the M^pro sequence by a single round of nirmatrelvir treatment, and none were observed even after two rounds of treatment. The parental SARS-CoV-2 and its sublineage isolates showed similar IC₅₀ values of nirmatrelvir in Vero E6 cells. Therefore, it is probable that inducing viral resistance to nirmatrelvir in vivo is challenging differently from in vitro passage.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• 제38권4호
• /
• pp.270-277
• /
• 2014

Background: The effect of methyl jasmonate (MJ) on ginsenoside production in different organs of ginseng (Panax ginseng Meyer) was evaluated after the whole plant was dipped in an MJ-containing solution. MJ can induce the production of antioxidant defense genes and secondary metabolites in plants. In ginseng, MJ treatment in adventitious root resulted in the increase of dammarenediol synthase expression but a decrease of cycloartenol synthase expression, thereby enhancing ginsenoside biosynthesis. Although a previous study focused on the application of MJ to affect ginsenoside production in adventitious roots, we conducted our research on entire plants by evaluating the effect of exogenous MJ on ginsenoside production with the aim of obtaining new approaches to study ginsenoside biosynthesis response to MJ in vivo. Methods: Different parts of MJ-treated ginseng plants were analyzed for ginsenoside contents (fine root, root body, epidermis, rhizome, stem, and leaf) by high-performance liquid chromatography. Results: The total ginsenoside content of the ginseng root significantly increased after 2 d of MJ treatment compared with the control not subjected to MJ. Our results revealed that MJ treatment enhances ginsenoside production not in the epidermis but in the stele of the ginseng root, implying transportation of ginsenosides from the root vasculature to the epidermis. Application of MJ enhanced protopanaxadiol (PPD)-type ginsenosides, whereas chilling treatment induced protopanaxatriol (PPT)-type ginsenosides. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the production of PPD-type and PPT-type ginsenosides is differently affected by abiotic and biotic stresses in the ginseng plant, and they might play different defense mechanism roles.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• 제65권2호
• /
• pp.204-214
• /
• 2022

Objective : Osteoporosis result from age-related decline in the number of osteoblast progenitors in the bone marrow. Probiotics have beneficial effects on the host, when administered in appropriate amounts. This study investigated the effects of probiotics expressing specific genes, especially the effects of genetically modified bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-2-expressing Lactobacillus plantarum CJNU 3003 (LP) on ovariectomized rats. Methods : Twenty-eight female Wistar rats (250-300 g, 12 weeks old) were divided into four groups : the sham (control), the ovariectomy (OVX)-induced osteoporosis group (OVX), the OVX and LP (OVX/LP), OVX and genetically modified BMP-2-expressing LP (OVX/LP with BMP) groups. The three groups underwent bilateral OVX and two of these groups were administered two different types of LP via oral gavage daily. At 16 weeks post-OVX, blood was collected from the heart and the bilateral tibiae were extracted and were scanned by ex-vivo micro-computed tomography and stained with hematoxylin-and-eosin (H&E) and Masson's trichrome stain for pathological assessment. The serum levels of osteocalcin (OC), rat C-telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX-I), BMP-2, and receptor activator of nuclear factor-ĸB ligand (RANKL) were measured. Results : The 3D-micro-computed tomography images showed that the trabecular structure in the OVX/LP with BMP group was maintained compared with OVX and OVX/LP groups. No significant differences were detected in trabecular thickness (Tb.Th) between control and OVX/LP with BMP groups (p>0.05). Furthermore, a tendency toward increased BMD, trabecular bone volume, Tb.Th, and trabecular number and decreased trabecular separation was found in rats in the OVX/LP with BMP groups when compared with the OVX and OVX/LP groups (p>0.05). The H&E and Masson's trichrome stained sections showed a thicker trabecular bone in the OVX/LP with BMP group compared with the OVX and OVX/LP groups. There was no difference in serum levels of OC, CTX and RANKL control and OVX/LP with BMP groups (p>0.05). In contrast, significant differences were found in OC and CTX-1 levels between the OVX and OVX/LP with BMP groups (p<0.05). Conclusion : Our results showed that the expression of genetically modified BMP-2 showed inhibition effect for bone loss in a rat model of osteoporosis.