• BMB Reports
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.143-154
• /
• 2002

The structural and functional aspects of ervatamin B were studied in solution. Ervatamin B belongs to the $\alpha+\beta$ class of proteins. The intrinsic fluorescence emission maximum of the enzyme was at 350 nm under neutral conditions, and at 355 nm under denaturing conditions. Between pH 1.0-2.5 the enzyme exists in a partially unfolded state with minimum or no tertiary structure, and no proteolytic activity. At still lower pH, the enzyme regains substantial secondary structure, which is predominantly $\beta$-sheet conformation and shows a strong binding to 8-anilino-1-napthalene-sulfonic acid (ANS). In the presence of salt, the enzyme attains a similar state directly from the native state. Under neutral conditions, the enzyme was stable in urea, while the guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl) induced equilibrium unfolding was cooperative. The GuHCl induced unfolding transition curves at pH 3.0 and 4.0 were non-coincidental, indicating the presence of intermediates in the unfolding pathway. This was substantiated by strong ANS binding that was observed at low concentrations of GuHCl at both pH 3.0 and 4.0. The urea induced transition curves at pH 3.0 were, however, coincidental, but non-cooperative. This indicates that the different structural units of the enzyme unfold in steps through intermediates. This observation is further supported by two emission maxima in ANS binding assay during urea denaturation. Hence, denaturant induced equilibrium unfolding pathway of ervatamin B, which differs from the acid induced unfolding pathway, is not a simple two-state transition but involves intermediates which probably accumulate at different stages of protein folding and hence adds a new dimension to the unfolding pathway of plant proteases of the papain superfamily.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.33 no.12
• /
• pp.2021-2030
• /
• 2020

Objective: Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) has been extensively used in the field of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) research to elucidate their characteristics and clinical potential by normalization of target genes against reference genes (RGs), which are believed to be stably expressed irrespective of various experimental conditions. However, the expression of RGs is also variable depending on the experimental conditions, which may lead to false or contradictory conclusions upon normalization. Due to the current lack of information for a clear list of stable RGs in bovine MSCs, we conducted this study to identify suitable RGs in bovine MSCs. Methods: The cycle threshold values of ten traditionally used RGs (18S ribosomal RNA [18S], beta-2-microglobulin [B2M], H2A histone family, member Z [H2A], peptidylprolyl isomerase A [PPIA], ribosomal protein 4 [RPL4], succinate dehydrogenase complex, subunit A [SDHA], beta actin [ACTB], glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase [GAPDH], TATA box binding protein [TBP], and hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltrasnfrase1 [HPRT1]) in bovine bone marrow-derived MSCs (bBMMSCs) were validated for their stabilities using three types of RG evaluation algorithms (geNorm, Normfinder, and Bestkeeper). The effect of validated RGs was then verified by normalization of lineage-specific genes (fatty acid binding protein 4 [FABP4] and osteonectin [ON]) expressions during differentiations of bBMMSCs or POU class 5 homeobox 1 (OCT4) expression between bBMMSCs and dermal skins. Results: Based on the results obtained for the three most stable RGs from geNorm (TBP, RPL4, and H2A), Normfinder (TBP, RPL4, and SDHA), and Bestkeeper (TBP, RPL4, and SDHA), it was comprehensively determined that TBP and RPL4 were the most stable RGs in bBMMSCs. However, traditional RGs were suggested to be the least stable (18S) or moderately stable (GAPDH and ACTB) in bBMMSCs. Normalization of FABP4 or ON against TBP, RPL4, and 18S presented significant differences during differentiation of bBMMSCs. However, although significantly low expression of OCT4 was detected in dermal skins compared to that in bBMMSCs when TBP and RPL4 were used in normalization, normalization against 18S exhibited no significance. Conclusion: This study proposes that TBP and RPL4 were suitable as stable RGs for qPCR study in bovine MSCs.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.347-354
• /
• 2013

Innate immunity is the ability to differentiate infectious agents from self. The innate immune system is comprised of a complicated network of recognition and effector molecules that act together to protect the host in the early stage of an infectious challenge. Mannose-binding lectin (MBL or mannose-binding protein, MBP) belongs to the family of $Ca^{2+}$-dependent lectins (C-type lectin with a collagen-like domain), which are considered an important component of innate immunity. While it is associated with increased risk and severity of infections and autoimmunity, the most frequent immuno-deficiency syndrome was reported to be low MBL level in blood. Deficiency of human MBL is caused by mutations in the coding region of the MBL gene. Rat homologue gene of human MBL gene was used to study functions of wild type and mutant MBL proteins. Although extensive studies have yielded the structural information of MBL, the functions of MBL, especially mutant MBL, still require investigation. We previously reported the cloning of rat wild-type MBL gene and the production of a truncated form of MBL protein and its antibody. Here, we present the cloning of mutant MBL cDNA in collagen-like domain (R40C, G42D, and G45E) using site-directed mutagenesis and differential behaviors of wild type and mutant MBL in cells. The major difference between wild type and mutant MBL was that while wild type MBL was secreted, mutant MBL was inhibited for secretion, retained in endoplasmic reticulum, and still functioned as a lectin.

• Nutritional Sciences
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.3-9
• /
• 2005

Obesity can be defined as a metabolic disease due to an increased fat accumulation in the body caused by an imbalance of calorie intake and output The prevalence of obesity has increased substantially over the past 2-3 decades in developed and developing countries. The health impact of weight gain is so marked that obesity has now been classified as a major global public health problem In order to investigate the effect of diet conversion and oral administration of Platycodon grandiflorum extracts on the treatment of obesity, male Spraque-Dawley rats were divided into four groups: a group converted to normal diet (Control group), a group maintained high fat (30%) diet (H), and two groups with Platycodon grandiflorum extract added to the previously mentioned two groups. All animals were fed high fat diet for 7 weeks to induce the obesity. Then they were divided as mentioned above. Animals were fed experimental diet and Platycodon grandiflorum extract (150 mg/ml/rat/day) for 7 weeks. Body weight, adipose tissue weight (subcutaneous, epididymal, peritoneal fat pads) and serum lipids (total cholesterol and triglyceride) showed some differences among groups. The Platycodon grandiflorum feeding markedly decreased both body weight and adipose tissue weight in control group compared to H, high fat diet maintaining, group. Platycodon grandiflorum extracts significantly decreased the concentrations of serum lipids compared to H group. Fat cell numbers and sizes were significantly reduced in the oriental medicinal herb extract administrated group. Increased fatty acid binding protein (FABP) expression in high fat diet group was decreased by the dietary conversion to normal diet and the oral administration of Platycodon glandiflorum extracts. In contrast, there was no significant effect on FABP expression in the high fat maintenance group. In this study, the conversion from high fat diet to low fat or normal diet had a beneficial effect on body weight loss and serum lipid profiles. Dietary Platycodon glandiflorum extracts had an additive beneficial effect on the prevention and treatment of obesity.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.307-315
• /
• 2001

Litter size has been one of the important economic traits in porcine reproduction. The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system has been shown to mediate actions of the steroid hormone or to synergize with other endocrine factors so that it consequently plays roles in reproductive processes, including ovulation, implantation, maintenance of pregnancy, and fetal development. However, the effect of the serum IGF system on porcine litter size has not been deeply studied. Therefore, this study was conducted to relate serum IFG-II concentration and IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) expression with porcine litter size. Moreover, the possible association of those with estrogen receptor (ER) as a candidate gene for litter size was investigated. Swine were separated into two groups showing high and low litter sizes, and sera were collected from sows in the estrous cycle to postnatal growth of their female progeny. Serum IFG-II concentration was measured by radioimmunoassay and IGFBP-3 expression was detected by Western ligand blotting. During the estrous cycle, IGFBP-3 expression in both groups decreased moderately from metestrus to estrus, but IFG-II concentration showed a reverse pattern. Also, IFG-II concentration and IGFBP-3 expression decreased gradually as pregnancy proceeded. Unlike IGFBP-3, IFG-II decreased moderately as newborn pigs grew. Significant differences in serum IFG-II amount between the two groups were detected at 60 (p<0.01), 75, 90, and 105 d (p<0.05) of pregnancy and at 60 (p<0.01), 45, and 105 d (p<0.05) of postnatal growth. Furthermore, based on ER genotypes, a high litter size group with genotypes AB and BB showed lower IFG-II concentration than a low litter size group with a genotype AA during pregnancy. Taken together, the results indicate that the serum IFG-II and IGFBP-3 are correlated with the litter size in pigs.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.607-615
• /
• 2003

Many organisms are known to survive in icy environments. These include both over wintering terrestrial insects and plants as well the marine fish inhabiting high latitudes. The adaptation of these organisms is both a fascinating and important topic in biology. Marine teleosts in particular, can encounter ice-laden seawater that is approximately $1^{\circ}C$ colder than the colligative freezing point of their body fluids. These animals produce a unique group of proteins, the antifreeze proteins (AFPs) or antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) that absorb the ice nuclei and prevent ice crystal growth. Presently, there are at least four different AFP types and one AFGP type that are isolated from a wide variety of fish. Despite their functional similarity, there is no apparent common protein homology or ice-binding motifs among these proteins, except that the surface-surface complementarity between the protein and ice are important for binding. The remarkable diversity of these proteins and their odd phylogenetic distribution would suggest that these proteins might have evolved recently in response to sea level glaciations just 1-2 million years ago in the northern hemisphere and 10-30 million years ago around Antarctica. Winter flounder, Pleuronectes americanus, has been used as a popular model to study the regulation of AFP gene expression. It has a built-in annual cycle of AFP expression controlled negatively by the growth hormone. The signal transduction pathways, transcription factors and promoter elements involved in this process have been studied in our laboratory and these studies will be presented.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.134-142
• /
• 1996

Diabetes carries an increased risk of atherosclerotic disease that is not fully explained by known car-diovascular risk factors. There is accumulating evidence that advanced glycation of structural proteins, and oxidation and glycation of circulating lipoproteins, are implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic ather-osclerosis. Reactions involving glycation and oxidation of proteins and lipids are believed to contribute to atherogenesis. Glycation, the nonenzymatic binding of glucose to protein molecules, can increase the ather-ogenic potential of certain plasma constituents, including low density lipoptotein(LDL). Glycation of LDL is significant increased in diabetic patients compared with normal subjects, even in the presence of good glycemic control. Metabolic abnormalities associated with glycation of LDL include diminished recognition of LDL by the classic LDL receptor; increased covalent binding of LDL in vessel walls ; enhanced uptake of LDL by the macrophages, thus stimulating foam cell formation ; increased platelet aggregation; formation of LDL-immune complexes ; and generation of oxygen free radicals, resulting on oxidative damage to both the lipid and protein components of LDL and to any nearby macromolecules. Oxidized lipoproteins are characterzied by cytotoxicity, potent stimulation of foam cell formation by macrophages, and procoagulant effects. Combined glycation and oxidation, "glycoxidation" occurs when oxidative reactions affect the initial products of glycation, and results in irreversible structural alterations of proteins. Glycoxidation is of greatest significance in long lived proteins such as collagen. In these proteins, glycoxidation products, believed to be atherogenic, accumulate with advancing age : in diabetes, their rate of accumulate is accelerated. Inhibition of glycation, oxidation and glycoxidation may form the basis of future antiaterogenic strategies in both diabetic and nondiabetic individuals.dividuals.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.40 no.5
• /
• pp.740-748
• /
• 2007

To gain insight into the structure and function of repressor proteins of bacteriophages of gram-positive bacteria, repressor of temperate Staphylococcus aureus phage ${\phi}11$ was undertaken as a model system here and purified as an N-terminal histidine-tagged variant (His-CI) by affinity chromatography. A ~19 kDa protein copurified with intact His-CI (~ 30 kDa) at low level was resulted most possibly due to partial cleavage at its Ala-Gly site. At ~10 nM and higher concentrations, His-CI forms significant amount of dimers in solution. There are two repressor binding sites in ${\phi}11$ cI-cro intergenic region and binding to two sites occurs possibly by a cooperative manner. Two sites dissected by HincII digestion were designated operators $O_L$ and $O_R$, respectively. Equilibrium binding studies indicate that His-CI binds to $O_R$ with a little more strongly than $O_L$ and binding species is probably dimeric in nature. Interestingly His-CI binding affinity reduces drastically at elevated temperatures ($32-42^{\circ}C$). Both $O_L$ and $O_R$ harbor a nearly identical inverted repeat and studies show that ${\phi}11$ repressor binds to each repeat efficiently. Additional analyses indicate that ${\phi}11$ repressor, like $\lambda$ repressor, harbors an N-terminal domain and a C-terminal domain which are separated by a hinge region. Secondary structure of ${\phi}11$ CI even nearly resembles to that of $\lambda$ phage repressor though they differ at sequence level. The putative N-terminal HTH (helix-turn-helix) motif of ${\phi}11$ repressor belongs to the HTH -XRE-family of proteins and shows significant identity to the HTH motifs of some proteins of evolutionary distant organisms but not to HTH motifs of most S. aureus phage repressors.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.143-151
• /
• 1998

Protein -surfactant interactions have been investigate by measuring ζ-potential of $\beta$-lactoglobulin-coated emulsion droplets and $\beta$-lactoglobulin in solution in the rpesenceof surfactant, with particular emphasis on the effect of protein heat treatment(7$0^{\circ}C$, 30min). When ionic surfactant (SDS or DATEM) is added to the protein solution, the ζ-potential of the mixture is found to increase with increasing surfactant concentration, indicating surfactant binding to the protein molecules. For heat-denatured protein,it has been observed that the ζ-potential tends to be lower than that of the native protein. The effect of surfactant on emulsions is rather complicated .With SDS, small amounts of surfactant addition induce a sharp increase in zeta potential arising from the specific interaction of surfactant with protein. With further surfacant addition, there is a gradual reductio in the ζ-potential, presumably caused by the displacement of adsorped protein (and protein-surfactant complex) from the emulsion droplet surfac by the excess of SDS molecules. At even higher surfactant concentrations, the measured zeta potential appears to increase slightly, possibly due to the formation of a surfactant measured zeta potential appears to increase slightly, possibly due to the formation of surfactant micellar structure at the oil droplet surface. This behaviour contrastswith the results of the corresponding systems containing the anionic emulsifier DATEM, in which the ζ-potential of the system is found to increase continuously with R, particularly at very low surfactant concentration. Overall, such behaviour is consisten with a combination of complexation and competitive displacement between surfactant and protein occurring at the oil-water interface. In addition, it has also been found that above the CMC, there is a time-dependent increase in the negative ζ-potential of emulsion droplets in solutions of SDS, possibly due to the solublization of oil droplets into surfactant micelles in the aqueous bulk phase.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.26 no.8
• /
• pp.1080-1088
• /
• 2013

Our previous results showed that kisspeptin-10 (Kp-10) injections via intraperitoneal (i.p.) once daily for three weeks notably promoted the egg laying rate in quails. In order to investigate the mechanism behind the effects of Kp-10 on enhancing the egg laying rate in birds, this study focused on the alternations of lipids synthesis in liver after Kp-10 injections. 75 female quails (22 d of age) were allocated to three groups randomly, and subjected to 0 (control, Con), 10 nmol (low dosage, L) and 100 nmol (high dosage, H) Kp-10 injections via i.p. once daily for three weeks, respectively. At d 52, quails were sacrificed and sampled for further analyses. Serum $E_2$ concentration was increased by Kp-10 injections, and reached statistical significance in H group. Serum triglyceride (TG) concentrations were increased by 46.7% in L group and 36.8% in H group, respectively, but did not reach statistical significance, and TG contents in liver were significantly elevated by Kp-10 injections in a dose-dependent manner. Serum total cholesterol (Tch) concentrations significantly decreased in H group, while in H group the hepatic Tch content was markedly increased. The level of non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA), apolipoprotein A1 and B (apoA1 and apoB) were not altered by Kp-10 injections. The genes expression of sterol regulatory element binding protein-1 (SREBP-1), fatty acid synthetase (FAS), apolipoprotein VLDL-II (apoVLDL-II), cholesterol $7{\alpha}$-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) and vitellogenin II (VTG-II) were significantly up-regulated by high but not low dosage of Kp-10 injection compared to the control group. However, the expression of SREBP-2, acetyl-CoA carboxylase ($ACC_{\alpha}$), malic enzyme (ME), stearoyl-CoA (${\Delta}9$) desaturase 1 (SCD1), apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1), fatty acid binding protein 2 (FABP2), 3-hydroxyl-3-methyl glutaryl-coenzyme A reductases (HMGCR), estrogen receptor ${\alpha}$, ${\beta}$($ER{\alpha}$ and ${\beta}$) mRNA were not affected by Kp-10 treatment. In line with hepatic mRNA abundance, hepatic SREBP1 protein content was significantly higher in H group. Although the mRNA expression was not altered, the content of $ER{\alpha}$ protein in liver was also significantly increased in H group. However, SREBP-2 protein content in liver was not changed by Kp-10 treatment. In conclusion, exogenous Kp-10 consecutive injections during juvenile stage significantly advanced the tempo of egg laying in quails, which was associated with the significant elevation in hepatic lipids synthesis and transport.