• Molecules and Cells
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2008

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the selective death of motor neurons. Mutations in the SOD1 gene are responsible for a familial form of ALS (FALS). Although many studies suggest that mutant SOD1 proteins are cytotoxic, the mechanism is not fully understood. To investigate the role of mutant SOD1 in FALS, human SOD1 genes were fused with a PEP-1 peptide in a bacterial expression vector to produce in-frame PEP-1-SOD fusion proteins (wild type and mutants). The expressed and purified PEP-1-SOD fusion proteins were efficiently transduced into neuronal cells. Neurones harboring the A4V, G93A, G85R, and D90A mutants of PEP-1-SOD were more vulnerable to oxidative stress induced by paraquat than those harboring wild-type proteins. Moreover, neurones harboring the mutant SOD proteins had lower heat shock protein (Hsp) expression levels than those harboring wild-type SOD. The effects of the transduced SOD1 fusion proteins may provide an explanation for the association of SOD1 with FALS, and Hsps could be candidate agents for the treatment of ALS.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.504-520
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• 2020

Proliferation of shrubs at the expense of native forage in pastures has been associated with large changes in dry-matter intake and dietary components for grazing ruminants. These changes can also affect the animals' physiology and metabolism. However, little information is available concerning the effect of pastoral-shrub grazing on the rumen bacterial community. To explore rumen bacteria composition in grazing yaks and the response of rumen bacteria to increasing shrub coverage in alpine meadows, 48 yak steers were randomly assigned to four pastures with shrub coverage of 0%, 5.4%, 11.3%, and 20.1% (referred as control, low, middle, and high, respectively), and ruminal fluid was collected from four yaks from each pasture group after 85 days. Rumen fermentation products were measured and microbiota composition determined using Ion S5™ XL sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) and similarity analysis indicated that the degree of shrub coverage correlated with altered rumen bacterial composition of yaks grazing in alpine shrub meadows. At the phyla level, the relative abundance of Firmicutes in rumen increased with increasing shrub coverage, whereas the proportions of Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria and Verrucomicrobia decreased. Yaks grazing in the high shrub-coverage pasture had decreased species of the genus Prevotellaceae UCG-001, Lachnospiraceae XPB1014 group, Lachnospiraceae AC2044 group, Lachnospiraceae FCS020 group and Fretibacterium, but increased species of Christensenellaceae R-7 group, Ruminococcaceae NK4A214 group, Ruminococcus 1, Ruminococcaceae UCG-002, Ruminococcaceae UCG-005 and Lachnospiraceae UCG-008. These variations can enhance the animals' utilization efficiencies of cellulose and hemicellulose from native forage. Meanwhile, yaks grazed in the high shrub-coverage pasture had increased concentrations of ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N) and branched-chain volatile fatty acids (isobutyrate and isovalerate) in rumen compared with yaks grazing in the pasture without shrubs. These results indicate that yaks grazing in a high shrub-coverage pasture may have improved dietary energy utilization and enhanced resistance to cold stress during the winter. Our findings provide evidence for the influence of shrub coverage on the rumen bacterial community of yaks grazing in alpine meadows as well as insights into the sustainable production of grazing yaks on lands with increasing shrub coverage on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.456-464
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• 2005

Antimicrobial drug-resistance is natural response to antimicrobial stress based on selection, which weakens chemotherapy effect. Introduction of large numbers of chemotherapeutic agents to clinical practice has generated strains of microorganisms that survive and multiply in vivo with high-drug concentrations. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), bacteria found in normal daily life, can be easily ingested through milk vegetables, and meats, etc. MRSA emerged in many port of the world, increasing complex clinical problems. Therefore, new agents are needed to treat MRSA. Glycyrrhiza uralensis was extracted using 80% MeOH to investigate its antimicrobial activity against MRSA stains KCCM 11812, 40510, and 40512 through bacterial measurement, disc diffusion, and O.D. methods, MIC values, MRSA gene expression investigation, and scanning electron microscope observation. Results revealed MecA, Mecl, MecRI, and FemA were the most highly manifested MRSA genes. Methanolic extract of G. uralensis significantly inhibited MRSA and thus could be used in development of antibacteria.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.9 s.89
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• pp.1204-1210
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• 2007

The topoisomerase II inhibitor etoposide causes an accumulation of DNA double strand breaks within the nuclei of cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of etoposide on the cell growth and apoptosis of human RPE cells. Etoposide evoked a significant inhibition of cell growth, and also induced DNA fragmentation in ARPE-19 cells. In addition, etoposide significantly up-regulated the expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), which is a stress-responsive protein and is known to play a protective role against the oxidative injury. And, etoposide-induced HO-1 expression was affected by the ROS scavenger N-acetyl cysteine. We also used oligonucleotides interfering with HO-1 mRNA (siRNA) for the inhibition of HO-1 expression. Interestingly, knock-down of the HO-1 gene significantly increased the level of DNA fragmentation in etoposide-treated ARPE-19 cells. In conclusion, these results suggest that up-regulated HO-1 plays as an anti-apoptotic factor in the process of apoptosis of ARPE-19 cells stimulated by etoposide.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.2051-2057
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• 2011

Several studies have demonstrated that nanoparticles (NPs) have toxic effects on cultured cell lines, yet there are no clear data describing the overall molecular changes induced by NPs currently in use for human applications. In this study, the in vitro cytotoxicity of three oxide NPs of around 100 nm size, namely, mesoporous silica (MCM-41), iron oxide ($Fe_2O_3$-NPs), and zinc oxide (ZnO-NPs), was evaluated in the human embryonic kidney cell line HEK293. Cell viability assays demonstrated that 100 ${\mu}g/mL$ MCM-41, 100 ${\mu}g/mL$ $Fe_2O_3$, and 12.5 ${\mu}g/mL$ ZnO exhibited 20% reductions in HEK293 cell viability in 24 hrs. DNA microarray analysis was performed on cells treated with these oxide NPs and further validated by real time PCR to understand cytotoxic changes occurring at the molecular level. Microarray analysis of NP-treated cells identified a number of up- and down-regulated genes that were found to be associated with inflammation, stress, and the cell death and defense response. At both the cellular and molecular levels, the toxicity was observed in the following order: ZnO-NPs > $Fe_2O_3$-NPs > MCM-41. In conclusion, our study provides important information regarding the toxicity of these three commonly used oxide NPs, which should be useful in future biomedical applications of these nanoparticles.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.664-670
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• 2011

Oxidative stress results in sustained release of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) from vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). We investigated whether extracellular HSP90 predisposed VSMCs to pro-inflammatory phenotype. Exposure of human aortic smooth muscle cells to HSP90 not only significantly enhanced CXCL10 secretion but also increased CXCL10 transcription. HSP90-mediated CXCL10 secretion was attenuated by OxPAPC, a TLR-2/4 inhibitor, and curcumin, a TLR-4 dimerization inhibitor. Inhibitors of diphenyleneiodium chloride and the Akt pathway also attenuated CXCL10 secretion in response to HSP90. The gene delivery of I${\kappa}$B using recombinant adenoviruses and treatment with resveratrol, which inhibit NF-${\kappa}$B activity, significantly attenuated HSP90-induced CXCL10 secretion from VSMCs. We propose that extracellular HSP90 contributes to an inflammatory reaction in the stressed vasculature by inducing CXCL10 expression of VSMCs, and that TLR-4, Akt, and NF-${\kappa}$B play active roles in the process.

• Proceedings of the SCSK Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.13-34
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• 2003

Fructose-1, 6-diphosphate (FOP), a glycolytic metabolite is reported to ameliorate inflammation and inhibit the nitric oxide production in murine macrophages stimulated with endotoxin. It is also reported that FOP has cytoprotective effects against hypoxia or ischemia/reperfusion injury in brain and heart. In this study, we examined whether FDP has protective effects on UV-induced oxidative damage in skin cell culture system and human skin in vivo. FDP had a protective role in UVB-induced LDH release and ROS accumulation in HaCaT although it did not show direct radical scavenging effect in the experiment using 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). FDP also preserved cellular GSH content after UV irradiation in HaCaT and normal human fibroblast culture system. Cellular oxidative stress induces multiple downstream signaling pathways that regulate expression of multiple gene including MMP-1 and collagen, we examined the effects of FDP on UV-induced alteration of these protein expression in fibroblast culture and human skin in vivo. The increased MMP-1 expression in fibroblast and human skin by UV irradiation was significantly decreased by FDP. FDP also prevented the UV-induced decrease of collagen expression in fibroblast and human skin. Moreover, the decreasing the intracellular levels of reducing equivalents in human fibroblast by glutathione (GSH) depletion lowered the UVA dose threshold for reduction of procollagen expression, indicating that the differences of glutathione contents define the susceptibility of fibroblasts towards UV-induced reduction of procollagen expression. FDP also preserved cellular GSH content after UV irradiation, indicating that FDP has protective effects on UV-induced reduction of procollagen expression, which are possibly through maintaining intracellular reducing equivalent. Based on these premises, we examined the effect of daily use of a moisturizer containing FDP on facial wrinkle in comparison with vehicle moisturizer lacking FDP. In the clinical study, FDP significantly decreased facial wrinkle compared with vehicle alone after 6 months of use. Our results suggest that FDP has anti-aging effects in skin by increasing cellular antioxidant system and preventing oxidative signal and inflammatory reaction. Therefore FDP may be useful anti-aging agent for cosmetic purpose.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.2707-2712
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• 2015

Background: The human homologue of the mouse double minute 2 (MDM2) gene is a negative regulator of Tp53. MDM2-309T>G a functional promoter polymorphism was found to be associated with overexpression thereby attenuation of Tp53 stress response and increased cancer susceptibility. We have planned to evaluate the possible role of MDM2-309T>G polymorphism with risk and response to chemotherapy in AML. Materials and Methods: A total of 223 de novo AML cases and 304 age and sex matched healthy controls were genotyped for the MDM2-309T>G polymorphism through the tetra-primer amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS)-PCR method. In order to assess the functional relationship of -309T>G SNP with MDM2 expression level, we quantified MDM2 mRNA in 30 primary AML blood samples through quantitative RT-PCR. Both the (-309T>G) genotypes and the MDM2 expression were correlated with disease free survival (DFS) rates among patients who have achieved complete remission (CR) after first induction chemotherapy. Results: MDM2-309T>G polymorphism was significantly associated with AML development (p<0.0001). The presence of either GG genotype or G allele at MDM2-309 confered 1.79 (95% CI: 1.12-2.86; p<0.001) and 1.46 fold (95%CI: 1.14-1.86; p= 0.003) increased AML risk. Survival analysis revealed that CR+ve cases with GG genotype had significantly increased DFS rates (16months, p=0.05) compared to CR+ve TT (11 months) and TG (9 months) genotype groups. Further, MDM2 expression was also found to be significantly elevated in GG genotype patients (p=0.0039) and among CR+ve cases (p=0.0036). Conclusions: The MDM2-309T>G polymorphism might be involved in AML development and also serve as a good prognostic indicator.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.789-798
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• 2016

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are industrially important microorganisms for probiotics. The recent widespread application of LAB for preparation of functional food is attributable to the accumulating scientific evidence showing their beneficial effects on human health. In this study, we isolated and characterized plant-derived LAB that show angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory and antioxidant activities. The selected strain K2 was isolated from Kimchi, and identified as Lactobacillus plantarum by 16S rRNA gene analysis. The strain grew under static and shaking culture systems. They were also able to grow in different culture conditions like $25^{\circ}C{\sim}37^{\circ}C$ temperature, 4~10 pH range and ~6% NaCl concentration. L. plantarum K2 was highly resistant to acid stress; survival rate of the strain at pH 2.5 and 3 were 80% and 91.6%, respectively. The strain K2 also showed high bile resistance to 0.3% bile bovine and 0.3% bile extract with more than 74% of survival rate. The cell grown on MRS agar plate containing bile extract formed opaque precipitate zones around the colonies, indicating they have bile salt hydrolase activity. The strain showed an inhibitory activity against pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes; antibacterial activity was probably due to the lactic acid. The K2 strain showed relatively higher autoaggregation values, antihypertensive and antioxidant activities. These results suggest that L. plantarum K2 could be not only applied as a pharmabiotic for human health but also is also starter culture applicable to fermentative products.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.169-175
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• 2004

Purpose: The tumor suppressor gene p53 has been shown to be a factor in the carcinogenesis or progression of gastric cancer. The mutant p53 has been reported to cause a higher risk of lymph-node metastasis. Futhermore, mutation of the p53 has been linked to a poor prognosis for gastric cancer. The heat shock protein-27 (HSP27), a stress protein, has also been reported to be a poor prognostic factor in ovarian and breast cancers. However, in gastric-cancer patients, controversies exist as to its influence on the prognosis. In the present study, we used an immunohistochemical stain to observe the effects of p53 and HSP27 on the clinicopathological factors and on the prognosis for gastric-cancer patients. Materials and Methods: To evaluate the significance of p53 and HSP27 in gastric cancer patients, we analyzed 212 cases of gastric cancer (stage I.IV). Tissue samples of 212 patients were stained immunohistochemically for the mutant p53 protein and for HSP27. The correlations between protein expression and the clinicopathological factors were investigated. Results: The overall expression rates for p53 and HSP27 were $36.9\%\;and\;27.8\%$, respectively. p53 and HSP27 were correlated to each other because the HSP27 expression rate was higher in the p53-positive group (P=0.046). Statistically, the p53 and the HSP27 expression rates were significantly increased in the case of tumor invasiveness, lymphatic metastasis and vessel involvement. Therefore, they play a role in cancer progression. The 5-year survival rates of the p53-positive and the p53-negative groups were $62.8\%\;and\;60.1\%$, respectively (P=0.793) while the 5-year survival rates for the HSP27-positive and HSP27-negative groups were $54.2\%\;and\;63.1\%$, respectively (P=0.090). Conclusion: p53 and HSP27 were correlated to each other in our immunohistochemical study of gastric carcinomas and they were not independent prognostic factors in gastric- cancer patients. However, further studies are needed to determine their prognostic values for gastric-cancer patients.