• Molecules and Cells
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.243-250
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• 2015

Patterning of the polar axis during the early leaf developmental stage is established by cell-to-cell communication between the shoot apical meristem (SAM) and the leaf primordia. In a previous study, we showed that the DRL1 gene, which encodes a homolog of the Elongator-associated protein KTI12 of yeast, acts as a positive regulator of adaxial leaf patterning and shoot meristem activity. To determine the evolutionally conserved functions of DRL1, we performed a comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence of DRL1 and its yeast homolog, KTI12, and found that while overall homology was low, well-conserved domains were presented. DRL1 contained two conserved plant-specific domains. Expression of the DRL1 gene in a yeast KTI12-deficient yeast mutant suppressed the growth retardation phenotype, but did not rescue the caffeine sensitivity, indicating that the role of Arabidopsis Elongator-associated protein is partially conserved with yeast KTI12, but may have changed between yeast and plants in response to caffeine during the course of evolution. In addition, elevated expression of DRL1 gene triggered zymocin sensitivity, while overexpression of KTI12 maintained zymocin resistance, indicating that the function of Arabidopsis DRL1 may not overlap with yeast KTI12 with regards to toxin sensitivity. In this study, expression analysis showed that class-I KNOX genes were downregulated in the shoot apex, and that YAB and KAN were upregulated in leaves of the Arabidopsis drl1- 101 mutant. Our results provide insight into the communication network between the SAM and leaf primordia required for the establishment of leaf polarity by mediating histone acetylation or through other mechanisms.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.274-280
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• 2014

Six compounds were isolated from the n-BuOH fraction of the aerial parts of Aruncus dioicus var. kamtschaticus including: sambunigrin (1), prunasin (2), aruncide A (3), aruncide C (4), 1-O-caffeoyl-${\beta}$-D-glucopyranose (5), and caffeic acid (6). Their structures were confirmed by comparing the spectral data with those reported in the literature. The isolated compounds (1 - 6) were then examined for their cytotoxic effects towards MCF-7, HL-60, and HeLa cancer cell lines, as well as their DPPH radical scavenging activity. The results indicated that compound 4 possessed the strongest inhibitory effect toward HeLa cell line with $IC_{50}$ value of $5.38{\pm}0.92{\mu}M$. Compound 3 possessed selective cytotoxic activity on HL-60 cells with $IC_{50}$ value of $6.27{\pm}0.17{\mu}M$, compound 5 was found as the best in inhibiting proliferation with $IC_{50}$ value of $2.25{\pm}0.09{\mu}M$, and the other compounds showed significant inhibition with $IC_{50}$ values ranging from 6.10 to $11.27{\mu}M$. Compound 5 also displayed the strongest cytotoxic effect toward MCF-7 cell line ($IC_{50}$ $4.32{\pm}0.15{\mu}M$). Both 5 and 6 demonstrated strong radical scavenging activity ($IC_{50}$ $6.87{\pm}0.03$ and $4.33{\pm}0.22{\mu}M$, respectively). Compounds 1 and 5 were isolated for the first time from this plant.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.311-316
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• 2019

Artocarpus heterophyllus has been used as traditional medicine. This plant is one of the sources of flavonoid. Flavonoid compounds possessed a wide range of biological properties including anticancer. This study was performed to investigate the cytotoxic effect of flavonoids from A. heterophyllus on H460 and MCF-7 cell lines. The interaction of flavonoids and cisplatin against tested cancer cells was also evaluated. MTT assay was used to determine the cytotoxic effect of flavonoid. Isobologram analysis was selected to evaluate the synergistic effect between flavonoid and cisplatin, their interaction was then confirmed using AO/PI staining method. Amongst of flavonoid compounds, artocarpin exhibited strong cytotoxic effect on both MCF-7 and H460 cell lines with IC₅₀ values of 12.53 ㎍/mL (28.73 μM) and 9.77 ㎍/mL (22.40 μM), respectively. This compound enhanced anticancer activity of cisplatin against H460 and MCF-7. The combination produced a synergistic effect on H460 and MCF-7 cell lines with a combination index (CI) values of 0.2 and 0.18, respectively. The AO/PI stained demonstrated that the combination of artocarpin and cisplatin caused morphological changes that indicated apoptosis. Moreover, artocarpanone also significantly increased cytotoxic effect of cisplatin compared to its single concentration with CI below than 1. This result suggested the potency of flavonoid named artocarpin to enhance the anticancer activity of cisplatin on H460 and MCF-7 cell lines.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.221-231
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• 2016

Microsatellites, which are sequences of repetitive short nucleotides, are abundant in the genome and have relatively many alleles at a locus. Hence, microsatellite markers are used in various research areas such as medicine, agriculture, and biology. Thanks to recent advanced techniques and databases associated with microsatellite marker development, foreign research relying on microsatellite markers is increasing in various study areas. In this study, by analyzing microsatellites-related articles published during 2000-2014 from eight Korean national journals representing zoology, botany, genetics, ecology and environmental science, breeding science, and forest science ('Animal Cells and Systems', 'Journal of Plant Biology', 'Genes and Genomics', 'Korean Society of Environment and Ecology', 'Korean Journal of Breeding Science', 'Journal of Agricultural Science, Chungnam National University', 'Journal of Korean Forest Society' and 'Forest Science and Technology'), we found that the number of articles and diversity of study subjects and objects have increased considerably. However, there are fewer applications of microsatellites in the national forest science area. During 2000-2014 in 'Journal of Korean Forest Society', the percentage of articles dealing with microsatellite markers was found to be the lowest with 4.2% among articles focusing on PCR-based markers including RAPD, AFLP, and ISSR. However, in 'Canadian Journal of Forest Research' and 'Forest Ecology and Management', microsatellite marker articles were represented at their highest with 69.2% and 76.2%, respectively. Given the advantages of microsatellite markers, the publication of research papers using microsatellites should be increased in Korean forest science journals to the level of studies published in prominent international journals.

• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.145-151
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• 2011

Backgrounds: Multidisciplinary approaches including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy are currently being performed to target various cancers in Western Medicine. However, some cancers still remain difficult to battle, which has long attracted many scientists for the discovery of new agents to fight cancers. Ginseng is one of the herbs used in Oriental Medicine including Korea, China and Japan. We have further investigated ginseng for its anticancer effect. Objective: This is a comprehensive review summary of anticancer effect of ginseng and ginsenoids as a possible agent for future cancer treatment. Methods: Data were retrieved from two web sites; www.pubmed.com and www.riss.kr, and authorized texts concerning anticancer effects of ginseng. From collected data, information on anticancer effect of ginseng was thoroughly sorted, restructured, then assessed. Results: Panax Ginseng C.A. Meyer belongs to Araliaceae Panax family, a perennial prairie plant with its root known as Ginseng Radix. Ginseng induces anticancer effect through cell cycle arrest, acceleration of apoptosis, anti-angiogenesis, and suppression of metastasis. Anticancer effect of ginseng may be due to single compound or multi-compound actions. Many studies report involvement of immune mechanisms of cytokines, Natural Killer (NK) cells, macrophages and some antibodies in enhancing anticancer effect of ginseng. In near future, possibility of applying these mechanisms into clinical trials is convinced. There were some important findings on saponin in ginsenoids in reviewing for this article; First, eradication of metastatic tumors were influenced by macrophage activation. Second, suppression of malignant melanoma cell metastasis to lung were induced by macrophage and NK cell activation in spleen with red ginseng acidic polysaccharide (RGAP). Third, final metabolites of M1, M4 had exerted anticancer effect of ginseng. Conclusion: Unknown anticancer mechanisms of ginseng have been studied for many years up until now. Ginseng is comprised of multiple bio-chemical compounds that create complex pharmaceutical interactions. Therefore, for its proper usage and safe prescription, studies on different types of ginseng and patients' susceptibility to ginseng according to their constitution and stages of the disease should be further pursued. More efforts are needed to understand the anticancer mechanisms of ginseng as well.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.293-299
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• 2002

Cytotoxic and antimutagenic effects of a novel cis-$\varepsilon$-viniferin and five known stilbenes, transresveratrol, trans-$\varepsilon$-viniferin, gnetin H, suffruticosols A and B, isolated from the seeds of Paeonia lactiflora Pall. (Paeoniaceae) were determined against five different cancer cell lines, and mutagenicity of N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) in Salmonella typhimurium TA100, respectively. Six stilbenes showed cytotoxic activity in a dose-dependent manner, and especially did potent cytotoxic activity against C6 (mouse glioma) cancer cell with $IC_{50}$ values ranging from 8.2 to $20.5{\;}{\mu\textrm{g}}/ml$. trans-Resveratrol showed significant cytotoxic activity against HepG2 (liver hepatoma) and HT-29 (colon) human cancer cell lines with $IC_{50}$ values of 11.8 and 25.2 g/ml, respectively. In contrast, trans-$\varepsilon$-viniferin and cis--viniferin, and gnetin H exhibited marked cytotoxic activity against Hela (cervicse) and MCF-7 (breast) human cancer cell lines with $IC_{50}$ values of 20.4, 21.5, and $12.9{\;}{\mu\textrm{g}}/ml$, respectively. However, suffruticosol A and B had less cytotoxic effect against all cancer cells except C6. Meanwhile, six stilbenes exerted antimutagenic activity in a dose-dependent fashion. Of them, trans-resveratrol exhibited the strongest antimutagenic effect against MNNG with $IC_{50}$ value of $27.0{\;}{\mu\textrm{g}}/plate$, while other five resveratrol oligomers also did moderate antimutagenic activity with $IC_{50}$ values ranging from 31.7 to $35.2{\;}{\mu\textrm{g}}/plate$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.292-292
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• 2017

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of anti-obesity and antioxidant enzyme activities in vitro by different solvent fractions from the roots of Codonopsis lanceolata. The cytotoxicity of different solvent fractions of C. lanceolata on 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were evaluated using the MTT assay, the rate of cell survival progressively decreased in a dose-dependent manner. Butyl alcohol fraction at $200{\mu}g/mL$ exhibited a pronounced cytotoxic effect (75.73%) on 3T3-L1 cell comparable to that of the hexane fraction (79.82%), methylene chloride fraction (84.02%), ethyl acetate fraction (87.62%) and DW fraction (86.30%) at the same concentration. The Oil Red O solution was used to determine whether different solvent fractions of C. lanceolata induce adipocyte differentiation in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Confluent 3T3-L1 cells were treated with $50{\mu}g/mL$ concentration of solvent fraction extracts from C. lanceolata. Inhibitory degree of lipid accumulation against solvent fraction extracts showed a significant level compared with the control. Both lipid accumulation and adipocyte differentiation showed relatively high effect on methyl chloride fraction. The root extract of C. lanceolata had the highest SOD enzyme activity of 84.5% in ethyl acetate partition layer and while water partition layer of diploid showed the lowest SOD enzyme activity of 57.9%. The activity of CAT, APX and POD showed a significantly higher activity in ethyl acetate partition layer compared with the other fraction. These results suggested that the roots of C. lanceolata may assist in the potential biological activity on anti-obesity and antioxidant capacity.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2016

Prunellae Spica, the herbaceous plant in the genus Prunella, is a traditional herbal medicine and has been reported to have diuretic, anti-bacterial and anti-oxidant effects. However, the mechanism of its action was not clearly identified. In the present study, we investigated the hepatoprotective effect of Prunellae Spica extract (PSE) against the damage of mitochondria and death in hepatocyte induced by oxidative stress. Treatment of arachidonic acid (AA)+iron significantly induced oxidative stress and apoptosis in the hepatocytes. However, PSE protected cells and inhibited apoptosis by altering the protein levels such as poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase and pro-caspase 3. Moreover, AA+iron induced reactive oxygen species production and mitochondrial dysfunction, and Both of them were inhibited by PSE treatment. PSE markedly activated AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), an important regulator in cell survival. Furthermore, this activation by PSE was mediated with liver kinase B1, a major upstream kinase that phosphorylates Thr 172 of AMPKα, and this activation was associated with its cell protection, as assessed by an experiment of a chemical inhibitor. In conclusion, this study demonstrate that PSE protects hepatocytes against oxidative stress as mediated with activation of LKB1-dependent AMPK pathway.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.543-554
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• 2014

Natural plant extract has been the subject of intense research aiming in elucidating the underlying mechanisms of their chemopreventive effects upon various forms of human cancers. The objective of our study was to evaluate the natural antioxidants and anticancer agent potential of Phyllostachys. The chemical composition of steam extract from Phyllostachys was carried out using GC-MS. The steam extract of Phyllostachys was dominated by monoterpenes (62.96% - 71.36%) and sesquiterpenes (23.58% - 33.13%) as the main compounds. The antioxidant activities of the steam extract was determined using a DPPH scavenging and hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity test systems. Furthermore, the amounts of total phenolics in steam extract were determined spectrometrically The steam extract of P. pubescens and P. bambusoides were presented the high activity (69.4% and 64.0%, respectively.). The steam extract from Pyllostachys species showed a hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity of approximately 50.4% - 54.6% when compared to that of the standard gallic acid. The anticancer activities of steam extract were determined using a MTT assay. Assessment of the cytotoxic effect of the steam extract on PC-3 cells showed that the P. bambusoides (20.85%) and P. pubescens (20.41%) were superior in induced cytotoxicity compared with the steam extract of P. nigra var. henonis (1.15%). Findings from this study indicated that steam extract of P. bambusoides and P. pubescens possessed potential as medicinal drug especially in prostate cancer treatment.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.191-200
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• 1992

Several strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens were isolated from soil in the Taegu area and characterized to develop some useful vector systems for higher plant genetic engineering. The selected colonies had a unique form, and strains from the colonies were capable of tumor formation on the sunflower leaf surface. They had a large plasmid. The restriction analysis showed that they were another kinds of Ti plasmic compared with C58 and Ach5. The isolated strains were identified as the nopaline type and also as biovar 1 A. tumefaciens, according to their tumor morphology, blophyslcal and biochemical characteristics. One of the isolated strains, AK204 was transformed with binary vector (pGA642), having selectable marker (Kmr, Tcr). Furthermore, maize tissue cells were transformed by cocultivation with AK204/pGA642, and the transformants were selected on the selective medium and identified using PAGE patterns of their soluble proteins.