• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.11.1-11.8
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• 2018

Interspecific hybridization experiments were conducted between the common seahorse Hippocampus kuda (male) and the slender seahorse H. reidi (female) during artificial rearing to develop a new aquarium fish with unique polyandrous mating. Molecular analysis via mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome b and nuclear DNA (ncDNA) ribosomal protein S7 gene supported the hybridization between the two species, and the hybrid also showed morphological characteristics of both species. Juveniles of H. kuda have dense melanophores on the whole body or only on the trunk and tail, whereas juveniles of H. reidi have thin melanophores on the whole body or present in stripes only along their prominent trunk and tail rings. However, all the hybrid juveniles had dense melanophores only on the tail, with the striped trunk rings, thus showing an intermediate pattern, and these patterns were limited to the fairly early stage of development (1-10 days old). In contrast, the two eye spines in the hybrid were apparent after 9 days old, which were not inherited from H. kuda (one eye spine), but from H. reidi (two eye spines). According to LOESS (local regression) analysis, the growth rate increased between 20 and 25 days, and the hybrids grew faster than H. kuda when they entered the explosive second phase of growth between 25 and 45 days for all the seahorses. This study highlights the hybridization between H. kuda and H. reidi may contribute to the improved taxonomic information of young seahorses.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.3.1-3.8
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• 2017

Seahorse, a syngnathidae fish, is one of the important organisms used in Chinese traditional medicine. Hippocampus abdominalis, a seahorse species successfully cultured in Korea, was validated for use in food by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in February 2016; however. the validation was restricted to 50% of the entire composition. Therefore, to use H. abdominalis as a food ingredient, H. abdominalis has to be prepared as a mixture by adding other materials. In this study, the effect of H. abdominalis on muscles was investigated to scientifically verify its potential bioactivity. In addition, the anti-fatigue activity of a mixture comprising H. abdominalis and red ginseng (RG) was evaluated to commercially utilize H. abdominalis in food industry. H. abdominalis was hydrolyzed using Alcalase, a protease, and the effect of H. abdominalis hydrolysate (HH) on the muscles was assessed in C2C12 myoblasts by measuring cell proliferation and glycogen content. In addition, the mixtures comprising HH and RG were prepared at different percentages of RG to HH (20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80% RG), and the anti-fatigue activity of these mixtures against oxidative stress was assessed in C2C12 myoblasts. In C2C12 myoblasts, $H_2O_2$-induced oxidative stress caused a decrease in viability and physical fatigue-related biomarkers such as glycogen and ATP contents. However, treatment with RG and HH mixtures increased cell viability and the content of fatigue-related biomarkers. In particular, the 80% RG mixture showed an optimum effect on cell viability and ATP synthesis activity. In this study, all results indicated that HH had anti-fatigue activity at concentrations approved for use in food by the law in Korea. Especially, an 80% RG to HH mixture can be used in food for ameliorating fatigue.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.354-361
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• 2015

Mitochondrial heat shock protein 75 (mtHSP75) is a member of the HSP90 family and plays essential roles in refolding proteins of the mitochondrial matrix. Mitochondria provide energy in the form of ATP and generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are activated in response to stress, and protect cells. In this study, we characterized the mtHSP75 of the big-belly seahorse Hippocampus abdominalis. The protein (BsmtHSP75) is encoded by an open reading frame (ORF) of 2,157 nucleotides, has 719 amino acids (aa), and is of molecular mass 82 kDa. BsmtHSP75 has two functional domains, a histidine kinase-like ATPase (HATPase_c) domain (123-276 aa) and an HSP90 family domain (302-718 aa). BsmtHSP75 was expressed in all tested tissues of healthy seahorses. The ovary contained the highest transcription level, followed (in order) by the blood, brain, and muscle. Pouch tissue showed the lowest expression level. The expression of BsmtHSP75 was significantly (P<0.05) up-regulated on viral or bacterial challenge, suggesting that BsmtHSP75 plays a role in the immune defense against bacterial and viral pathogens.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.109-118
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• 2006

The recent decrease in wild stocks of seahorse, Hippocampus coronatus, has prompted the production of the species in captivity. We here present data on the body color changes of the species according to culture conditions. This investigation examined relationship between adult body size and clutch and growth in 60 days after parturition and survival of juveniles with four fed enriched Artemia nauplii, copepod nauplii and copepod adult. Seahorse adults ($77.77{\pm}9.84mm$, n=12) collected from Kamak Bay and Yeoja Bay from August 2003 to November 2004 gave a parturition of $6\sim75$ juveniles (Mean, 39 juveniles/male/time) for 14 times. A day old seahorses were $14.48{\pm}1.38mm$ (n=15) in standard length (SL) with 14 dorsal fin rays, 12 pectoral fin rays and 4 anal fin rays. Sixty-day old seahorses were $24.65{\pm}0.83mm$ (n=4) in SL. Growth rate of seahorses was 0.18 mm/day at 24 in 60 days after parturition. When offered Artemia nauplii and copepod nauplii, 5 day old sea-horses preferred copepod nauplii to Aremia nauplii with a maximum predation rate of 31 copepod nauplii/sea-horse/h. However 30-day old seahorses preferred selected Artemia nauplii with a maximum predation rate of 14 Artemia nauplii/seahorse/h. Survival was highest (49%) when offered copepod nauplii together with enriched Artemia nauplii.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.826-833
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• 2017

The rising concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide is causing ocean acidification and global warming. The seahorse is an important species in marine ecosystems and fishery markets, however, their populations have recently decreased due to ocean acidification. As a result, we examined changes in the physiological responses of the spotted seahorse Hippocampus kuda when it was exposed to acidic sea water (pH 6.0, 6.5, and 7.0) and normal seawater (pH 8.0 as the control) over a period of 15 days. As the pH decreased, the seahorses' body weight and length also decreased. Components in body of ash, the crude lipids and crude proteins also differed significantly with changes in pH, due to stress caused by the seahorses' exposure to the acidic water conditions. The superoxide dismutase levels were significantly lower in the pH 6.0 and 6.5 groups than they were in the pH 7.0 and pH 8.0 groups. However, the catalase and glutathione levels were significantly higher in the acidic sea water groups. We suggest that decreasing the pH level of rearing water induces a stress response in H. kuda, damaging their ability to maintain their homeostasis and energy metabolism. Antioxidant enzymes are generally sensitive to acidic stress; in this study, the antioxidant activity was significantly affected by the pH level of the rearing water. These results indicate that physiological stress, induced by exposure to acidification, induces an antioxidant reaction, which can reduce general components in the body and the growth of H. kuda.

• Proceedings of the Korean Aquaculture Society Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.435-436
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• 2004

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2012

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignancy of bone, and patients often develop pulmonary metastasis. The mechanisms underlying osteosarcoma metastasis remain to be elucidated. Recently, anti-inflammatory agents were shown to be useful in the treatment of tumor progression. We previously isolated a natural anti-inflammatory peptide from the seahorse Hippocampus kuda bleeler. Here, we examined the antitumor metastatic activity of this peptide and investigated its mechanism. The peptide significantly inhibited 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced invasive migration of human osteosarcoma MG-63 cells. Its inhibitory effect on invasive migration was associated with reduced expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP1 and MMP2). In addition, TPA stimulation increased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and small GTPase Rac1 expression, whereas the peptide decreased ROS generation and Rac1 activation. Taken together, these results suggest that the peptide inhibits invasive migration of MG-63 osteosarcoma cells by inhibiting MMP1 and MMP2 expression through downregulation of Rac1-ROS signaling.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.194-203
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• 2024

Evaluating cell metabolism is crucial during pluripotent stem cell (PSC) differentiation and somatic cell reprogramming as it affects cell fate. As cultured stem cells are heterogeneous, a comparative analysis of relative metabolism using existing metabolic analysis methods is difficult, resulting in inaccuracies. In this study, we measured human PSC basal metabolic levels using a Seahorse analyzer. We used fibroblasts, human induced PSCs, and human embryonic stem cells to monitor changes in basal metabolic levels according to cell number and determine the number of cells suitable for analysis. We evaluated normalization methods using glucose and selected the most suitable for the metabolic analysis of heterogeneous PSCs during the reprogramming stage. The response of fibroblasts to glucose increased with starvation time, with oxygen consumption rate and extracellular acidification rate responding most effectively to glucose 4 hours after starvation and declining after 5 hours of starvation. Fibroblasts and PSCs achieved appropriate responses to glucose without damaging their metabolism 2~4 and 2~3 hours after starvation, respectively. We developed a novel method for comparing basal metabolic rates of fibroblasts and PSCs, focusing on quantitative analysis of glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation using glucose without enzyme inhibitors. This protocol enables efficient comparison of energy metabolism among cell types, including undifferentiated PSCs, differentiated cells, and cells undergoing cellular reprogramming, and addresses critical issues, such as differences in basal metabolic levels and sensitivity to normalization, providing valuable insights into cellular energetics.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.405-413
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• 2004

The previous morphology-based taxonomic frameworks within the family Syngnathidae had emphasized the significance of the male brood pouch and reproductive biology in defining the group. However, several different hypotheses had been proposed by different investigators. This study has been carried out to determine the phylogenetic relationships among 19 species belonging to the order Syngnathiformes with three Gasterosteiformes species as outgroup taxa by using the mitochondrial cytochrome b DNA sequences. Phylogenetic analyses based on neighbor-joining distance, maximum parsimony, minimum evolution and maximum likelihood method strongly supported that the family Syngnathidae, the suborder Syngnathoidei and the order Syngnathiformes were all monophyletic group. Although much of previous morphological analyses were supported by our molecular data, there were some significant discrepancies between molecular and morphological work. Such an interesting result was that the weedy seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) strongly grouped together with the New Zealand pot-belly seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis). Considering the markedly different brooding structure between them, this unexpected result might be explained whether by multiple independent origins of brooding structure or by hybridization between the female Hippocampus and other syngnathid species having individual membranous egg compartment. In addition, the suborder Aulostomoidei was paraphyletic group because the shrimpfish (Aeliscus strigatus), belonging to the family Centriscidae, always grouped together with the family Syngnathidae as a sister taxon.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.127-133
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• 2019

Seahorses have long been used as ornamental and medicinal products. The sea horse Hippocampus abdominalis has a beautiful color and unique shape and is also used for ornamental purposes and as a traditional medicine in China. This study examined the value of H. abdominalis as a health functional food or food additive. H. abdominalis was hydrolyzed using seven proteases: flavourzyme, neutrase, alcalase, trypsin, kojizyme, pepsin and protamex. The yields of all of the enzyme hydrolysates were higher than that of the aqueous extract. Of the enzymatic hydrolysates, seahorse Protamex hydrolysate (SHP) gave the highest yield and had excellent antioxidant and angiotensin-I converting enzyme inhibitory activities. It protected Vero cells against oxidative by 2,2-azobis-(2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH) and antihypertension in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats. This study attempted to demonstrate H. abdominalis as a health functional food or food additive in the future.