• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.149-162
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• 2008

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of hot pepper extract and capsaicin on the adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells, lipolysis in rat epididymal adipocytes and histological changes in porcine adipose tissue. Methods : Inhibiton of preadipocyte differentiation and/or stimulation of lipolysis play important roles in reducing obesity. 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were differentiated with adipogenic reagents by incubating for 3 days in the absence or presence of hot pepper extract or capsaicin ranging from 0.01 to $1mg/m{\ell}$. The effects of hot pepper extract and capsaicin on adipogenesis were examined by measuring GPDH activity and by Oil Red O staining. Mature adipocytes from rat epididymal fat pad was incubated with hot pepper extract or capsaicin ranging from 0.01 to $1mg/m{\ell}$ for 3 hrs. The effects of hot pepper extract and capsaicin on lipolysis were examined by measuring free glycerol released. Fat tissue from pig skin was injected with hot pepper extract or capsaicinCFP ranging from 0.1 to $10mg/m{\ell}$ to examine the effects of hot pepper extract and capsaicin on histological changes under light microscopy. Results : The following results were obtained from present study on adipogenesis of preadipocytes, lipolysis of adipocytes and histological changes in fat tissue. 1. Hot pepper extract and capsaicin inhibited adipogenic differentiation at the concentration of 0.1 and $0.01mg/m{\ell}$, respectively, indicating that capsaicin was more effective in inhibiting adipogenesis than hot pepper extract. 2. Hot pepper extract and capsaicin decreased the activity of glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase(GPDH) at the concentration of 0.1 and $0.01mg/m{\ell}$, respectively, indicating that capsaicin was more effective in inhibiting adipogenic differentiation than hot pepper extract. 3. Hot pepper extract and capsaicin increased glycerol release at the concentration of $0.1mg/m{\ell}$. There was no difference in lipolytic activity between hot pepper extract and capsaicin at the corresponding concentration. 4. Hot pepper extract and capsaicin caused shrinkage of fat cells, resulting in cell death at the concentration of $1.0mg/m{\ell}$, although capsaicin exerted this action over wide area than hot pepper extract. Conclusions : These results suggest that hot pepper extract and capsaicin efficiently inhibited adipogenesis, increased lipolysis of adipocytes and caused to shrink fat cells. Future studies are needed to make use of hot pepper extract pharmacopuncture for the treatment of obesity.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.599-605
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• 2015

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Citrus flavonoids have a variety of physiological properties such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammation, anti-cancer, and anti-obesity. We investigated whether bioconversion of Citrus unshiu with cytolase (CU-C) ameliorates the anti-adipogenic effects by modulation of adipocyte differentiation and lipid metabolism in 3T3-L1 cells. MATERIALS/METHODS: Glycoside forms of Citrus unshiu (CU) were converted into aglycoside forms with cytolase treatment. Cell viability of CU and CU-C was measured at various concentrations in 3T3L-1 cells. The anti-adipogenic and lipolytic effects were examined using Oil red O staining and free glycerol assay, respectively. We performed real time-polymerase chain reaction and western immunoblotting assay to detect mRNA and protein expression of adipogenic transcription factors, respectively. RESULTS: Treatment with cytolase decreased flavanone rutinoside forms (narirutin and hesperidin) and instead, increased flavanone aglycoside forms (naringenin and hesperetin). During adipocyte differentiation, 3T3-L1 cells were treated with CU or CU-C at a dose of 0.5 mg/ml. Adipocyte differentiation was inhibited in CU-C group, but not in CU group. CU-C markedly suppressed the insulin-induced protein expression of CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein ${\alpha}$ ($C/EBP{\alpha}$) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma ($PPAR{\gamma}$) as well as the mRNA levels of $CEBP{\alpha}$, $PPAR{\gamma}$, and sterol regulatory element binding protein 1c (SREBP1c). Both CU and CU-C groups significantly increased the adipolytic activity with the higher release of free glycerol than those of control group in differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes. CU-C is particularly superior in suppression of adipogenesis, whereas CU-C has similar effect to CU on stimulation of lipolysis. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that bioconversion of Citrus unshiu peel extracts with cytolase enhances aglycoside flavonoids and improves the anti-adipogenic metabolism via both inhibition of key adipogenic transcription factors and induction of adipolytic activity.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.196-203
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• 2015

AbstractLiving modified organisms (LMO) are one of the most widespread products of modern biotechnology after DNA discovery. Due to the decline of grain self-sufficiency rate and the increase of reliance on LMO imports in Korea, a series of concerns with regard to safety of living modified(LM) crops has been raised. The aim of this study is to establish the detection methods for unintentional release or growing of LMO plants in environmental conditions. To detect LM crop events, general concepts of specific primer design and PCR conditions were provided by the Joint Research Centre (JRC). The certified reference materials of seven LM events (4 soybean, 2 cotton and 1 corn) were obtained from the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) and the American Oil Chemists' Society (AOCS). Genomic DNA from seven LM events were purified and PCR amplifications were carried out by using individual event-specific primer sets. LM-specific PCR products of all seven events were efficiently amplified by our methods. The results indicate that the established detection method for LMOs is suitable as a scientific tool to monitor whether the crops found in natural environments are LMOs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1437-1449
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• 2006

Thirty six pre-weaned Barbari kids at 4 months age were reared on four rations computed using coarse cereal grains and by-products of pulses and oil seeds with Crude Protein (CP) and Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN) of 12 and 55% (Low protein Low energy); 12 and 60% (Low protein High energy); 14 and 55% (High protein Low energy); and 14 and 60% (High protein High energy), respectively. After 180 days on feed, male animals ($4{\times}5=20$) were slaughtered to study the effect of diet on carcass characteristics and meat quality. To asses the effect, if any, of such diet on product quality, meat balls were prepared and evaluated for quality changes when fresh as well as during storage ($-20{\pm}1^{\circ}C$). Feeding a ration with CP12 and TDN 60% (LH) to kids produced animals with highest slaughter weight (20.3 kg) yielding higher carcass weight and dressing percentage, lean (65.6%) and fat (6.6%) contents with low bone and trim losses. Although total variety meat yield was markedly higher in HL, the non-carcass fat deposition was relatively higher in LH carcasses. The water activity ($a_w$) of fresh goat meat ranged from 0.994-0.995 and total cholesterol 72.8-90.5 mg/100 g meat. The pH was high in HL and HH meat resulting in decreased ($p{\leq}0.05$) extract release volume (ERV). Meat balls were prepared using meat obtained from goats fed different rations (treatments) and stored at $-20{\pm}1^{\circ}C$. They were evaluated on day 0 and months 1, 2, 3, 4 for physicochemical, microbiological and organoleptic changes. Overall moisture (%), $a_w$, TBA number and pH value were 67.9, 0.987, 0.17, 6.6 respectively and were not affected by treatments except pH that was significantly ($p{\leq}0.01$) lower on LH. As the storage period advanced moisture, pH, $a_w$ and TBA number increased irrespective of treatments. Feeding various diets had no marked effect on microbial load of meat balls but with increasing storage period Standard Plate Count (SPC) and psychrotrophs declined ($p{\leq}0.01$). Treatment LL and LH produced meat balls with better flavour.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1-7
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• 2019

Most oil refineries and chemical plants have flare systems designed to mitigate pressure rises in process facilities in case of emergencies that require the release of large amounts of gas due to sudden process shutdowns such as power outages. However, the rise of the flame of the flare system causes civil complaints from residents around the factory due to visible pollution, and economic loss occurs in the company, which requires constant management. In this study, two items were diagnosed and analyzed in order to derive the optimal operation method of flare system. First, to detect the cause of the rise in flame height, the acoustic leak detector was used to check gas leaks in safety valves and pressure control valves. Second, to identify the cause of flame instability, the pulsation phenomenon was diagnosed through the CFD simulation and modeling experiments of the sealing drum. By confirming the leak at 4.3% of the safety valve and 10% of the pressure control valve, the cause of abnormal sparking was derived. The information presented in this study can be easily applied to any company that has a flare system, and is expected to prevent complaints and product loss.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2008

Carbon dioxide($CO_2$) agent, which has more safely extinguished fire than any other gaseous fire extinguishing agents, has been widely used in various protected enclosures and types of fires. According to the concept of performance-based design(PBD). $CO_2$ extinguishing system to be designed is needed to be evaluated for the performance of fire suppression with possible fire scenarios in an enclosure. In this paper, CFD simulations were carried out to study the effects of opening area on the performance of $CO_2$ extinguishing system and the flow characteristics in the machine room of $100m^3$ in which kerosene spill fire happened. This study showed that time of fire suppression increased linearly in proportion to the size of opening area, and fires for each model were completely suppressed prior to the end of discharge of $CO_2$ agent. It was shown that mass flow rate through opening was influenced by the combined effects of heat release rate of fire and discharge of $CO_2$ agent. After $CO_2$ agent was completely discharged, oxygen concentrations in enclosures for each model were lower than the limit concentration of combustion.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.763-777
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• 2022

Objective: Excessive lipid accumulation in adipocytes results in prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome. Curcumin (CUR), a naturally phenolic active ingredient, has been shown to have lipid-lowering effects. However, its underlying mechanisms have remained largely unknown. Therefore, the study aims to determine the effect of CUR on cellular lipid accumulation in porcine subcutaneous preadipocytes (PSPA) and to clarify novel mechanisms. Methods: The PSPA were cultured and treated with or without CUR. Both cell counting Kit-8 and lactate dehydrogenase release assays were used to examine cytotoxicity. Intracellular lipid contents were measured by oil-red-o staining extraction and triglyceride quantification. Apoptosis was determined by flow cytometry and the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate-nick end labelling assay. Adipogenic and apoptosis genes were analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blot. Results: The CUR dose-dependently reduced the proliferation and lipid accumulation of PSPA. Noncytotoxic doses of CUR (10 to 20 μM) significantly inhibited extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) phosphorylation and expression of adipogenic genes peroxisome proliferation-activity receptor-γ (PPAR-γ), CCAAT/enhancer binding protein-α, sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c, adipocyte protein-2, glucose transporter-4 as well as key lipogenic enzymes fatty acid synthase and acetyl-CoA carboxylase, while ERK1/2 activation significantly reversed CUR-reduced lipid accumulation by increasing PPAR-γ. Furthermore, compared with differentiation induced media treated cells, higher dose of CUR (30 μM) significantly decreased the expression of AKT and B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2), while increased the expression of BCL-2-associated X (BAX) and the BAX/BCL-2 expression ratio, suggesting triggered apoptosis by inactivating AKT and increasing BAX/BCL-2 ratio and Caspase-3 expression. Moreover, AKT activation significantly rescued CUR inhibiting lipid accumulation via repressing apoptosis. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that CUR is capable of suppressing differentiation by inhibiting ERK1/2-PPAR-γ signaling pathway and triggering apoptosis via decreasing AKT and subsequently increasing BAX/BCL-2 ratio and Caspase-3, suggesting that CUR provides an important method for the reduction of porcine body fat, as well as the prevention and treatment of human obesity.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.273-282
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• 2023

Probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) has been widely used to evaluate the seismic risk of nuclear power plants (NPPs). However, studies on seismic PSA for process plants, such as gas plants, oil refineries, and chemical plants, have been scarce. This is because the major disasters to which these process plants are vulnerable include explosions, fires, and release (or dispersion) of toxic chemicals. However, seismic PSA is essential for the plants located in regions with significant earthquake risks. Seismic PSA entails probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA), event tree analysis (ETA), fault tree analysis (FTA), and fragility analysis for the structures and essential equipment items. Among those analyses, ETA can depict the accident sequence for core damage, which is the worst disaster and top event concerning NPPs. However, there is no general top event with regard to process plants. Therefore, PSA cannot be directly applied to process plants. Moreover, there is a paucity of studies on developing fragility curves for various equipment. This paper introduces PSA for gas plants based on FTA, which is then transformed into Bayesian network, that is, a probabilistic graph model that can aid risk-informed decision-making. Finally, the proposed method is applied to a gas plant, and several decision-making cases are demonstrated.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.205-216
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• 2024

Recently, seismic Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) methods have been developed for process plants, such as gas plants, oil refineries, and chemical plants. The framework originated from the PSA of nuclear power plants, which aims to assess the risk of reactor core damage. The original PSA method was modified to adopt the characteristics of a process plant whose purpose is continuous operation without shutdown. Therefore, a fault tree, whose top event is shut down, was constructed and transformed into a Bayesian Network (BN), a probabilistic graph model, for efficient risk-informed decision-making. In this research, the fault tree-based BN from the previous research is further developed to consider the multi-hazard of earthquake-induced fire and explosion (EQ-induced F&E). For this purpose, an event tree describing the occurrence of fire and explosion from a release is first constructed and transformed into a BN. And then, this BN is connected to the previous BN model developed for seismic PSA. A virtual plot plan of a gas plant is introduced as a basis for the construction of the specific EQ-induced F&E BN to test the proposed BN framework. The paper demonstrates the method through two examples of risk-informed decision-making. In particular, the second example verifies how the proposed method can establish a repair and retrofit strategy when a shutdown occurs in a process plant.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.813-819
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• 2010

The intracellular lipid droplets were stained with Oil Red O dye and quantified. Compared to the control, lipid accumulation was significantly decreased by 19.4% with the treatment of LCM at the concentration of $1000\;{\mu}g$/mL. Intracellular triglyceride (TG) level was also reduced by 21% at the concentration of $1000\;{\mu}g$/mL. To determine the mechanism for the reduction in TG content, levels of glucose uptake and glycerol release were measured. Incubation of the 3T3-L1 adipocytes with LCM did not affect the cellular uptake of glucose. However, the level of free glycerol released into the cultured medium drastically increased by 24.3% with the treatment of LCM. In subsequent measurements using quantitative real-time PCR, mRNA levels of hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) and adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) except lipoprotein lipase (LPL) were significantly elevated at higher concentration. These results suggest that LCM partially stimulates the lipolysis through the induction of HSL and/or ATGL gene expression, resulting in the reduced lipid accumulation and increased glycerol release.