• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.202-210
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• 2024

Background: Panax ginseng Meyer polysaccharides exhibit various biological functions, like antagonizing galectin-3-mediated cell adhesion and migration. Galectin-8 (Gal-8), with its linker-joined N- and C-terminal carbohydrate recognition domains (CRDs), is also crucial to these biological processes, and thus plays a role in various pathological disorders. Yet the effect of ginseng-derived polysaccharides in modulating Gal-8 function has remained unclear. Methods: P. ginseng-derived pectin was chromatographically isolated and enzymatically digested to obtain a series of polysaccharides. Biolayer Interferometry (BLI) quantified their binding affinity to Gal-8, and their inhibitory effects on Gal-8 was assessed by hemagglutination, cell migration and T-cell apoptosis. Results: Our ginseng-derived pectin polysaccharides consist mostly of rhamnogalacturonan-I (RG-I) and homogalacturonan (HG). BLI shows that Gal-8 binding rests primarily in RG-I and its β-1,4-galactan side chains, with sub-micromolar K_D values. Both N- and C-terminal Gal-8 CRDs bind RG-I, with binding correlated with Gal-8-mediated function. Conclusion: P. ginseng RG-I pectin β-1,4-galactan side chains are crucial to binding Gal-8 and antagonizing its function. This study enhances our understanding of galectin-sugar interactions, information that may be used in the development of pharmaceutical agents targeting Gal-8.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2024

Purpose: Cancer is the leading cause of death in Koreans, with breast cancer being the most common among women. Breast cancer readily metastasizes, and the existing treatment processes impose a significant burden on patients. This study examined whether pomegranate-derived exosome-like nanovesicles (PNVs) have anti-cancer effects by inhibiting cell infiltration and metastasis while increasing apoptosis on breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells. Methods: Initially, exosome-like nanovesicles were isolated from pomegranate using ultracentrifugation. Subsequently, the size range of these nanovesicles was confirmed using nanoparticle tracking analysis. The ability of breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells to internalize these natural nanovesicles was assessed with flourescence microscope. The anti-cancer effects of the PNVs were confirmed by applying various concentrations of PNVs (10, 50, 100 ㎍/mL) to MDA-MB-231 cells and systematically assessing their impact on cell viability and migration. Results: The round shape of the lipid bilayer in the PNVs was confirmed, providing crucial insights into their structural properties. We demonstrate that PNVs-associated DiD dye can be efficiently internalized by the MDA-MB-231 cells. The data showed that the PNVs inhibited cell viability, invasion rates, and migration in MDA-MB-231 cells. In addition, PNVs were absorbed into the MDA-MB-231 cells, leading to an increased expression of apoptosis proteins, such as cleaved caspase-3 and phosphorus-JNK, in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, a reduction in cell infiltration and decreased expression of the transition markers MMP-2 and MMP-9 proteins were observed. Conclusion: For the first time, this study suggests that PNVs may be useful in the prevention or treatment of breast cancer by inhibiting the infiltration and metastasis of MDA-MB-231 cells and inducing apoptosis.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.830-843
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• 2019

Objective: To examine the potential of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging for detecting renal changes after iodinated contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) development in a diabetic rabbit model. Materials and Methods: Sixty-two rabbits were randomized into 2 groups: diabetic rabbits with the contrast agent (DCA) and healthy rabbits with the contrast agent (NCA). In each group, 6 rabbits underwent IVIM and BOLD imaging at 1 hour, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, and 4 days after an iohexol injection while 5 rabbits were selected to undergo blood and histological examinations at these specific time points. Iohexol was administrated at a dose of 2.5 g I/kg of body weight. Further, the apparent transverse relaxation rate (R2^*), average pure molecular diffusion coefficient (D), pseudo-diffusion coefficient (D^*), perfusion fraction (f) were calculated. Results: The D and f values of the renal cortex (CO) and outer medulla (OM) were significantly decreased compared to baseline values in the 2 groups 1 day after the iohexol injection (p < 0.05). A marked reduction in the D^* values for both the CO and OM was also observed after 1 hour in each group (p < 0.05). In the OM, a persistent elevation of the R2^* was detected for 4 days in the DCA group (p < 0.05). Histopathological changes were prominent, and the pathological features of CI-AKI aggravated in the DCA group until day 4. The D, f, and R2^* values significantly correlated with the histological damage scores, hypoxia-inducible transcription factor-1α expression scores, and serum creatinine levels. Conclusion: A combination of IVIM and BOLD imaging may serve as a noninvasive method for detecting and monitoring CI-AKI in the early stages in the diabetic kidney.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.213-224
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• 1994

Several isotopomers of cyclooctanone were prepared by selective deuterium substitution. Intrinsic isotope effects on $^{13}C$ NMR chemical shifts of these isotopomers were investigated systematically at low temperature. These istope effects were discussed in relation to the preferred boat-chair conformation of cyclooctanone. Deuterium isotope effects on NMR chemical shifts have been known for a long time. Especially in a conformationally mobile molecule, isotope perturbation could affect NMR signals through a combination of isotope effects on equilibria and intrinsic effects. The distinction between intrinsic and nonintrinsic effects is quite difficult at ambient temperature due to involvement of both equilibrium and intrinsic isotope effects. However if equilibria between possible conformers of cyclooctanone are slowed down enough on the NMR time scale by lowering temperature, it should be possible to measure intrinsic isotope shifts from the separated signals at low temperature. $^{13}C$ NMR has been successfully utilized in the study on molecular conformation in solution when one deals with stable conformers or molecules were rapid interconversion occurs at ambient temperature. The study of dynamic processes in general requires analysis of spectra at several temperature. Anet et al. did $^1H$ NMR study of cyclooctanone at low temperature to freeze out a stable conformation, but were not able initially to deduce which conformation was stable because of the complexity of alkyl region in the $^1H$ NMR spectrum. They also reported the $^1H$ and $^{13}C$ NMR spectra of the $C_9-C_{16}$ cycloalkanones with changing temperature from $-80^{\circ}C$ to $-170^{\circ}C$, but they did not report a variable temperature $^{13}C$ NMR study of cyclooctanone. For the analysis of the intrinsic isotope effect with relation to cylooctanone conformation, $^{13}C$ NMR spectra are obtained in the present work at low temperatures (up to $-150^{\circ}C$) in order to find the chemical shifts at the temperature at which the dynamic process can be "frozen-out" on the NMR time scale and cyclooctanone can be observed as a stable conformation. Both the ring inversion and pseudorotational processes must be "frozen-out" in order to see separate resonances for all eight carbons in cyclooctanone. In contrast to $^1H$ spectra, slowing down just the ring inversion process has no apparent effects on the $^{13}C$ spectra because exchange of environments within the pairs of methylene carbons can still occur by the pseudorotational process. Several isotopomers of cyclooctanone were prepared by selective deuterium substitution (fig. 1) : complete deuterium labeling at C-2 and C-8 positions gave cyclooctanone-2, 2, 8, $8-D_4$ : complete labeling at C-2 and C-7 positions afforded the 2, 2, 7, $7-D_4$ isotopomer : di-deuteration at C-3 gave the 3, $3-D_2$ isotopomer : mono-deuteration provided cyclooctanone-2-D, 4-D and 5-D isotopomers : and partial deuteration on the C-2 and C-8 position, with a chiral and difunctional case catalyst, gave the trans-2, $8-D_2$ isotopomer. These isotopomer were investigated systematically in relation with cyclooctanone conformation and intrinsic isotope effects on $^{13}C$ NMR chemical shifts at low temperature. The determination of the intrinsic effects could help in the analysis of the more complex effects at higher temperature. For quantitative analysis of intrinsic isotope effects, the $^{13}C$ NMR spectrum has been obtained for a mixture of the labeled and unlabeled compounds because the signal separations are very small.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.75-88
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• 2005

Ameloblastoma is the most commonly occurring odontogenic tumor in oral cavity. Although most are benign epithelial neoplasm, they are generally considered to be locally aggressive and destructive, exhibiting a high rate of recurrence. The biological behavior of this neoplasm is a slowly growing, locally invasive tumor without metastasis, therefore malignant neoplasm, changed its histological appearance to carcinoma or showed distant metastasis, is only defined clinically. In this study, we identified the differentially expressed genes(DEGs) in stages under benign or malignant ameloblastoma compared with normal patient using ordered differential display(ODD) reverse transcription(RT)-PCR and $GeneFishing^{TM}$ technology. ODD RT-PCR is rather effective when the investigation of samples containing very small amounts of total RNA must be accomplished. ODD RT-PCR used the means of amplification with anchored T-primer and adaptor specific primer. bearing definite two bases at their 3' ends and so this method could display differential 3'-expressed sequence taqs(ESTs) patterns without using full-length cDNAs. Compared with standard differential display, ODD RT-PCR is more simple and have enough sensitivity to search for molecular markers by comparing gene expression profiles, However, this method required much effort and skill to perform. $GeneFishing^{TM}$ modified from DD-PCR is an improved method for detecting differentially expressed genes in two or more related samples. This two step RT-PCR method uses a constant reverse primer(anchor ACP-T) to prime the RT reaction and arbitrary primer pairs(annealing control primers, ACPs) during PCR. Because of high annealing specificity of ACPs than ODD RT-PCR, the application of $GeneFishing^{TM}$ to DEG discovery generates reproducible, authentic, and long(100bp to 2kb) PCR products that are detectable on agarose gels. Consequently, various DEGs observed differential expression levels on agarose gels were isolated from normal, benign, and malignant tissues using these methods. The expression patterns of the some isolated DEGs through ODD RT-PCR and $GeneFishing^{TM}$ were confirmed by Northern blot analysis and RT-PCR. The results showed that these identified DEGs were implicated in ameloblastoma neoplasm processes. Therefore, the identified DEGs will be further studied in order to be applied in candidate selection for marker as an early diagnosis during ameloblastoma neoplasm processes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.1607-1623
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• 2019

Sediment bioelectrochemical systems (SBESs) can be integrated into brackish aquaculture ponds for in-situ bioremediation of the pond water and sediment. Such an in-situ system offers advantages including reduced treatment cost, reusability and simple handling. In order to realize such an application potential of the SBES, in this laboratory-scale study we investigated the effect of several controllable and uncontrollable operational factors on the in-situ bioremediation performance of a tank model of a brackish aquaculture pond, into which a SBES was integrated, in comparison with a natural degradation control model. The performance was evaluated in terms of electricity generation by the SBES, Chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and nitrogen removal of both the tank water and the tank sediment. Real-life conditions of the operational parameters were also experimented to understand the most close-to-practice responses of the system to their changes. Predictable effects of controllable parameters including external resistance and electrode spacing, similar to those reported previously for the BESs, were shown by the results but exceptions were observed. Accordingly, while increasing the electrode spacing reduced the current densities but generally improved COD and nitrogen removal, increasing the external resistance could result in decreased COD removal but also increased nitrogen removal and decreased current densities. However, maximum electricity generation and COD removal efficiency difference of the SBES (versus the control) could be reached with an external resistance of $100{\Omega}$, not with the lowest one of $10{\Omega}$. The effects of uncontrollable parameters such as ambient temperature, salinity and pH of the pond (tank) water were rather unpredictable. Temperatures higher than $35^{\circ}C$ seemed to have more accelaration effect on natural degradation than on bioelectrochemical processes. Changing salinity seriously changed the electricity generation but did not clearly affect the bioremediation performance of the SBES, although at 2.5% salinity the SBES displayed a significantly more efficient removal of nitrogen in the water, compared to the control. Variation of pH to practically extreme levels (5.5 and 8.8) led to increased electricity generations but poorer performances of the SBES (vs. the control) in removing COD and nitrogen. Altogether, the results suggest some distinct responses of the SBES under brackish conditions and imply that COD removal and nitrogen removal in the system are not completely linked to bioelectrochemical processes but electrochemically enriched bacteria can still perform non-bioelectrochemical COD and nitrogen removals more efficiently than natural ones. The results confirm the application potential of the SBES in brackish aquaculture bioremediation and help propose efficient practices to warrant the success of such application in real-life scenarios.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.142-150
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• 2005

Background : Continuous growth stimulation by various factors, as well as chronic oxidative stress, may co-exist in many solid tumors, such as lung cancer. A new family of antioxidant proteins, the peroxiredoxins (Prxs), have been implicated in the regulation of many cellular processes, including cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. However, a real pathophysiological significance of Prx proteins, especially in lung disease, has not been sufficiently defined. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the distribution and expression of various Prx isoforms in lung cancer and other pulmonary conditions. Method : Patients diagnosed with lung cancer, and who underwent surgery at the Ajou Medical Center, were enrolled. The expressions of Prxs, Thioredoxin (Trx) and Thioredoxin reductase (TR) were analyzed using proteomic techniques and the subcellular localization of Prx proteins was studied using immunohistochemistry on normal mouse lung tissue. Result : Immunohistochemical staining has shown the isoforms of Prx I, II, III and V are predominantly expressed in bronchial and alveolar lining epithelia, as well as in the alveolar macrophages of the normal mouse lung. The isoforms of Prx I and III, and thioredoxin were also found to be over-expressed in the lung cancer tissues compared to their paired normal lung controls. There was also an increased amount of the oxidized form of Prx I, as well as a putative truncated form of Prx III, in the lung cancer samples when analyzed using 2-dimensional electrophoresis. In addition, a 43 kDa intermediate molecular weight protein band, and other high molecular weight bands of over 20 kDa, recognized by the anti-Prx I antibody, were present in the tissue extracts of lung cancer patients on 1-Dimensional electrophoresis, which require further investigation. Conclusion : The over-expressions of Prx I and III, and Trx in human lung cancer tissue, as well as their possible chaperoning function, may represent an attempt by tumor cells to adjust to their microenvironment in a manner advantageous to their survival and proliferation, while maintaining their malignant potential.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.201-208
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• 2006

Optical characteristics of InGaAs quantum dot (QD) laser structures with an Al native oxide (AlOx) layer as a current-blocking layer were studied by means of photoluminescence (PL), PL excitation, and spatially-resolved micro-PL techniques. The InGaAs QD samples were first grown by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE), and then prepared by wet oxidation and thermal annealing techniques. For the InGaAs QD structures treated by the wet oxidation and thermal annealing processes, a broad PL emission due to the intermixing effect of the AlOx layer was observed at PL emission energy higher than that of the non-intermixed region. We observed a dominant InGaAs QD emission at about 1.1 eV in the non-oxide AlAs region, while InGaAs QD-related emissions at about 1.16 eV and $1.18{\sim}1.20eV$ were observed for the AlOx and the SiNx regions, respectively. We conclude that the intermixing effect of the InGaAs QD region under an AlOx layer is stronger than that of the InGaAs QD region under a non-oxided AlAs layer.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.247-256
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• 2012

Stable carbon isotope ratio of oil components are known to be unaffected by weathering processes and thus has been widely used to determine the origin of spilled oil. In this study, molecular index and composition of stable carbon isotope in 15 crude oils and petroleum product were analyzed and used as oil fingerprints to determine the discriminating power of each fingerprinting method among target crude oils. Through the fingerprints of alkane distribution only Bintulu and B-C(1%) were distinguishable from other crude oils. The pristane/phytane ratio can classify the crude oils into three groups but differentiation of crude oils within a group was impossible using the ratio. The crude oils of A.L., A.S.L., Foroozan and B-C(1%) were differentiated from the other oils using PAH source recognition indexes of C2D/C2P and C3D/C3P. The usage of 4-mD/1-mD and 2/3-mD/1-mD ratio was able to distinguish A.S.L., Bintulu and Oman from the other crude oils. However the PAH source recognition ratios in the other crude oils were similar and thus they were impractical to be used for source identification among the target crude oils. Stable carbon isotope ratios of alkanes were able to uniquely specify each crude oil in the plot of ${\delta}^{13}C_{C21}$ and ${\delta}^{13}C_{C25}$ except A.L., A.M., Qatar-Marine, B-C(1%). The oil fingerprinting method using stable carbon isotope ratios of individual alkane compounds showed more discriminating power among the target crude oils than the conventional source recognition indexes of PAHs or alkanes.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.236-245
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• 2019

Fruit ripening is a genetically programmed process involving a number of biochemical and physiological processes assisted by variations in gene expression and enzyme activities. This process generally affects the phytochemical profile and the bioactive principles in fruits and vegetables. To appraise the variation in bioactive principles of fruits from Rosa rugosa during its ripening process, we analyzed the changes in antioxidant and anti-elastase activities and polyphenolic compounds during the four ripening stages of fruits. Overall, an extract of unripe fruits contained the highest levels of total phenolic and flavonoid contents, radical scavenging activity, reducing power, oxygen radical antioxidant capacity, and elastase inhibitory activity, compared with the extracts of fruits at other stages of ripening. Additionally, we found that the reduction of flavonoid content occurs because of decreased transcriptional levels of genes involved in flavonoid biosynthesis pathway during the ripening process. Based on HPLC analysis, we found that the extract of unripe fruits contained the highest amount of myricetin, caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, syringic acid, and p-coumaric acid and suggested that the antioxidant and anti-elastase activities of the extract obtained from stage 1, should be mediated by the presence of these compounds. Additionally, we analyzed the interaction sites and patterns between these compounds and elastase using the structure-based molecular docking approach, and suggested that chlorogenic acid strongly interacted with elastase. Together, these findings suggest that the maturity of fruits has profound effects on the pharmaceutical value of R. rugosa.