• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2016

To evaluate the applicability of cellular energy allocation (CEA) in the bivalves as a biomarker for the assessment of environmental contamination, the energy contents and energy consumption in several tissues of the Manila clam, Ruditapes philippinarum were analyzed. The contents of lipid, glucose, protein and electron transport system (ETS) activity in the foot, siphons, gills, and body of R. philippinarum exposed to crude oil-spiked sediments were measured at 1, 2, 4, 7, 10 days after exposure. The reserved energy (energy available, EA) in the lipid, glucose and protein decreased as contamination level and exposure time increased. In contrast, the ETS activity (energy consumed, EC) showed the reverse tendency. The order of available energy contents were foot > siphons > gill > body. Significant differences in both EA and EC were found only at the highest contamination level (58.3 mg TPAHs/kg DW). EA decreased significantly in the foot and gill at 1 day, in the body at 2 and 7 days after exposure. EC increased significantly in the body at 4 days after exposure. CEA showed higher sensitivity to the contamination than EA or EC. Especially, CEA in the foot and body decreased significantly at lower ranges of contamination level (as low as 6.5 mg TPAHs/kg DW) during 1 to 7 days after exposure. The CEA is more useful than EA or EC alone for the assessment of sediment contamination at lower level that acute toxicity could not be detected. CEA analyses in the body of R. philippinarum after 4 days' exposure to contaminated sediments seem to be the most sensitive and reliable.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.219-229
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• 2020

Objective: Considering the physiological and clinical importance of leptin receptor (LEPR) in regulating obesity and the fact that porcine LEPR expression is not known to be controlled by lncRNAs and miRNAs, we aim to characterize this gene as a potential target of SSC-miR-323 and the lncRNA TCONS_00010987. Methods: Bioinformatics analyses revealed that lncRNA TCONS_00010987 and LEPR have SSC-miR-323-binding sites and that LEPR might be a target of lncRNA TCONS_00010987 based on cis prediction. Wild-type and mutant TCONS_00010987-target sequence fragments and wild-type and mutant LEPR 3'-UTR fragments were generated and cloned into pmiRRB-REPORT^TM-Control vectors to construct respective recombinant plasmids. HEK293T cells were co-transfected with the SSC-miR-323 mimics or a negative control with constructs harboring the corresponding binding sites and relative luciferase activities were determined. Tissue expression patterns of lncRNA TCONS_00010987, SSC-miR-323, and LEPR in Anqing six-end-white (AQ, the obese breed) and Large White (LW, the lean breed) pigs were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction; backfat expression of LEPR protein was detected by western blotting. Results: Target gene fragments were successfully cloned, and the four recombinant vectors were constructed. Compared to the negative control, SSC-miR-323 mimics significantly inhibited luciferase activity from the wild-type TCONS_00010987-target sequence and wild-type LEPR-3'-UTR (p<0.01 for both) but not from the mutant TCONS_00010987-target sequence and mutant LEPR-3'-UTR (p>0.05 for both). Backfat expression levels of TCONS_00010987 and LEPR in AQ pigs were significantly higher than those in LW pigs (p<0.01), whereas levels of SSC-miR-323 in AQ pigs were significantly lower than those in LW pigs (p<0.05). LEPR protein levels in the backfat tissues of AQ pigs were markedly higher than those in LW pigs (p<0.01). Conclusion: LEPR is a potential target of SSC-miR-323, and TCONS_00010987 might act as a sponge for SSC-miR-323 to regulate LEPR expression.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.384-389
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• 2009

This study was carried out to elucidate the relation between expression levels of three melanin synthesis genes (Tyrosinase, Tyrosinase-related protein 1 and Dopachrome tautomerase) according to the Melanocortin-1 receptor genotypes with coat color patterns in Hanwoo cattle, Jeju black cattle and Holsteins. Using real-time semiquantitative reverse transcription-PCR assay (RT-PCR), the expression levels of these three genes were analyzed in skin tissues from four representative coat colored areas: yellowish-brown from MC1R e/e Hanwoo, wild type black from $E^+/E^+$ Jeju black cattle (JBC), and dominant black and white pied regions from $E^D/E^D$ Holstein. The TYR, TYRP1 and DCT genes showed higher expression levels of 4.5, 2.3 and 2.5 times higher in the black skin area of Holsteins than those of from JBC, respectively (p<0.001). In addition, the expression levels of these three genes from JBC were significantly higher than those from Hanwoo cattle (p<0.001). These results show that coat color phenotypes in Hanwoo cattle, JBC and Holsteins is directly correlated with TRY, TYRP1 and DCT transcription levels, which probably reflected involvement with MC1R genotypes; e/e in Hanwoo, $E^+/E^+$ in JBC and $E^D/E^D$ in Holsteins. Consequently, this study suggested that the status of MC1R protein may not only induce the transcription activities of a series of TYR and its related genes responsible for melanin synthesis, but also determine the levels of total melanin contents in bovine skin.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.70-77
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• 2011

This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of human milk fortifier (HMF) on growth and nutritional status in growing rats fed infant formula supplemented with HMF. Three week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups and fed regular formula (RF), premature formula (PF) and regular formula fortified with HMF (RF+HMF) diets for 3 weeks. There was no significant difference in weight gain among groups. However, a significant increase of food intake was observed in PF and RF+HMF groups compared with RF group. With increasing food intake, the intakes of carbohydrate and protein were significantly increased in PF and RF+HMF groups. The weight of perirenal fat was significantly increased in rats fed RF+HMF; however, the weights of liver, kidney and spleen were not significantly different among groups. Although total lipids, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol concentrations of serum were not significantly different among groups, triglyceride was significantly increased in PF group. The triglyceride and total-cholesterol of liver were significantly increased in rats fed regular formula fortified with HMF and PF compared with RF group. Glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT), glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), creatinine (Cre) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) in serum showed no significant difference among groups. The concentration of growth hormone was significantly increased in PF group compared with other groups. The concentration of hemoglobin was significantly increased in rats fed PF and RF+HMF. These results suggest that the supplementation of human milk fortifier in growing rats may promote growth as increasing food intake and lipid contents in tissues and prevent the anemia of infants.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.247-256
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• 2008

The belief that stress leads to illness has a long history. A number of the orofacial disease are also closely associated with stress. Despite research in the relationship of stress and the orofacial diseases leading to statistically significant correlations, the pathology remains vague. In the present study, the expression of clusterin, a stress protein responsible for antiapoptosis and cytoprotection, under restraint stress condition was observed in the submandibular gland, one of the major salivary glands. Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 2 groups: normal group and restraint stress group. The rats of restraint stress group were placed in the stress cages and then sacrificed at day 0, 3 and 5 day of the experiment. After that, the submandibular glands of all the rats were excised immediately. The levels of clusterin proteins and mRNA in the tissues were measured by immunohistochemistry and Northern blot analyses, respectively. The results were as follows: 1. In the immunohistochemistry, clusterin protein was detected only immediately after the application of restraint stress. 2. In the restraint stress group, at day 3 and 5, histologically apoptosis was induced with karyorrhectic and pyknotic changes. 3. By the restraint stress, acinic cells were destructed earlier than ductal cells. 4. In the Northern blot, mRNA of clusterin was expressed only immediately after the application of restraint stress. The overall results suggest that as an early response to stress, clusterin is expressed in the glands to protect the glandular cells from the stress. But if stress is so strong and prolonged that it can exceed the stress adaptability of the cells, then the cells may undergo apoptosis instead of producing clusterin. An Epidemiologic Study of Symptoms of Temporomandibular Disorders in Korean College Students.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.487-494
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• 2008

Background: Chromosome 17p allele losses and mutations of p53 gene are the most common genetic abnormalities in lung cancer. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the factors associated with p53 protein overexpression and to evaluate its prognostic value in patients with pathologic stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: This is a retrospective review for the patients who underwent surgical resection at Samsung Medical Center between Jan 2003 and Jun 2004. Immunohistochemical staining for p53 protein was performed on tumor tissues from patients with lung cancer. The p53 overexpression was evaluated in relation to age, sex, smoking history, histology and pathologic stage by univariate and multivariate analyses. The disease-free survival (DFS), disease-specific survival (DSS) and overall survival (OS) were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier methods and the differences in DFS, DSS and OS were assessed by using the log-rank tests. Results: A total of 125 patients were included in the analysis and a median frequency of p53 expression in tumor tissue was 10%. The p53 overexpression (${\geq}10%$) was more common in squamous cell carcinoma (66%) than in adenocarcinoma (38%, p=0.002). The p53 overexpression was more common in pathologic stage IB (59%) than in IA (38%, p=0.002). Patients with p53-overexpressing tumor (27 years) smoked more years compared with those without it (20 years, p=0.032). Smoking history ${\geq}25$ pack-years was more common in patients with p53 overexpression (58%) than in those without it (38%, p=0.024). In the multivariate analysis, only histology was significantly associated with p53 overexpression. However, there were no significant differences of DFS, DSS and OS in relation to p53 status. Conclusion: The p53 overexpression was associated with histology, pathologic stage and smoking history in patients with pathologic stage I NSCLC. However, the p53 overexpression was not associated with patient's survival.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.463-472
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• 2015

Adrenomedullin (AM) is a peptide expressed in all body tissues, and its related receptors are increased in liver fibrosis. In this study, we evaluated the effect of AM deficiency on liver fibrogenesis induced by $CCl_4$ using AM heterozygous (HT) mice. The animals received a single injection of $CCl_4$ or olive oil for the acute experiment, and received $CCl_4$ or olive oil three times a week for 6 weeks for the chronic experiment. Fibrosis was accessed using histopathological analysis and the western blot. The AM HT mice showed mild pericentrilobular degeneration when compared to the AM wild type (WT) mice. In the acute experiment, there was no significant difference between the AM WT and AM HT mice. However, in the chronic experiment, the $CCl_4$-treated AM HT mice showed more severe liver fibrosis than that of the CCl₄-treated AM WT mice. The AST and ALT levels of the AM HT $CCl_4$ group were higher than those of the AM WT CCl₄ group. Additionally, the collagen deposition, $\alpha$- SMA protein and TGF-$\beta$ protein were increased in the AM HT $CCl_4$ group when compared to the AM WT $CCl_4$ group. The AM HT mice also exhibited severe lipid peroxidation through the GSH decrement. Taken together, our data suggest that AM deficiency increases the susceptibility to liver fibrosis induced by $CCl_4$, indicating a novel therapeutic target for patients with liver fibrosis.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.23-33
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• 2007

The lacrimal gland are compound tubule-acinar glands. The main lacrimal function is the production of the aqueous layer, the thickest and major constituent of the precorneal tear film. The lacrimal gland also has an important function in the defense system of the ocular surface, forming a part of the conjunctival-associated hymphoid tissue. The ultrastructural characteristics of the lacrimal gland of the rabbit were described. The lacrimal tissues of rabbits were processed through the conventional techniques for transmission electron microscopy. The secretory portions consisted of three cell types: 1. Serous cells with electron dense secretory granules. 2. Seromucous cells containing variable moderately electron dense secretory granules with flocculent material. 3. Mucous rolls containing mucous secretory granules. The serous cells were situated at the basal portion of acini, and they contained electron dense granules of variable densities and sizes. The seromucous cells contained a few protein secretory granules and more mucous secretory granules. The mucous cells contained even fewer protein secretory granules and exclusively mucous secretory granules. The epithelium of the intralobular ducts showed secretory granules, junctional complexes, and large basolateral intercellular spaces with lateral folds. These study might be helpful in determining inter-relationships, similarities and differences among the orbital glands of various physiological or pathological conditions.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.6 s.73
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• pp.961-967
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• 2005

Macrophage migration inhibitory fartor (MIF), known as a cytokine, is a multifunctional protein that is ubiquitously expressed in a variety of cells and tissues; however, enzymatic function of MIF still remains elusive in cells. In this study, we assessed details of the tautomerase activity of MIF. We established rapid purification condition for MIF by using pGEX system and compared the L-dopachrome tautomerase activity of GST-MIF, tMIF, and MIF. The results show that GST (glutathione S-transferase)-epitope tag or N-terminal amino acids flanking the essential $P^{2}$ almost completely abrogated L-dopachrome tautomerase activity of MIF. Subsequently, to determine whether the N-terminal tags have effects on oligomerization of MIF, protein cross-linking products were analyzed on $15\%$ SDS-PACE. The result demonstrates that N-terminal tags are dispensable for the formation of MIF's homooligomers. Thus, the results imply that exposure of If containing hydrophobic pocket in the active site is critical for L-dopachrome tautomerase activity of MIF. In addition, our study suggest that the MIF's tautomerase activity might be influenced by interacting with cellular partners.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2012

This study was conducted to investigate effects of different levels of seleniferous whole crop barley (WCB) supplementation on performance, and blood characteristics as physiological responses in growing pigs. A total of 20 cross-bred pigs ((Landrace ${\times}$ Yorkshire) ${\times}$ Duroc) were divided into 4 treatments of 5 pigs each and experimental period lasted for 6 weeks. They were fed diets containing 0.1 (non-seleniferous WCB as controls), 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 mg/kg levels of selenium (Se) by supplementing seleniferous WCB, and non-seleniferous or seleniferous WCB was formulated to 5% level in total ration. The diets were isonitrogenous (18% crude protein) and isocaloric (3,500 kcal/kg digestible energy) across treatments. Increasing levels of seleniferous WCB supplements did not affect feed intake and BW gain, and blood total protein concentration was (p<0.05) significantly higher for 0.2 mg/kg Se treatments than for controls. On d 14, blood albumin concentration was higher (p<0.05) for seleniferous WCB supplemented groups than for control group. Contrarily, blood glucose concentration was tended to be higher for controls than for seleniferous WCB groups. Blood total lipid concentration was significantly (p<0.05) lowered with increasing levels of seleniferous WCB. Serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase did not have any difference among treatments. It was tended that blood total cholesterol and triglyceride were lowered with increasing levels of seleniferous WCB. Blood Se concentration was significantly (p<0.05) increased with increasing levels of seleniferous WCB. The results indicate that Se present in seleniferous WCB had favorable effects on blood characteristics and blood Se increased by supplementing seleniferous WCB implies not only a good intestinal absorption of Se present in WCB but also the possibility of Se transfer into tissues.