• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2017

Background: Radiotherapy is one of the most important modalities in cancer treatment; however, normal tissue damage is a serious concern. Drug development for the protection or reduction of normal tissue damage is therefore a clinical issue. Herein, we evaluated the protective properties of Panax ginseng Meyer and its corresponding mechanisms. Methods: C56BL/6 mice were orally pretreated with P. ginseng water extract (PGE; 25 mg/kg, 50 mg/kg, or 100 mg/kg) or intraperitoneally injected melatonin (20 mg/kg) for 4 d consecutively, then exposed to 15-Gy X-ray radiation 1 h after the last administration. After 10 d of irradiation, the biological properties of hematoxicity, fat accumulation, histopathology, oxidative stress, antioxidant activity, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and apoptosis signals were examined in the hepatic tissue. Results: The irradiation markedly induced myelosuppression as determined by hematological analysis of the peripheral blood. Steatohepatitis was induced by X-ray irradiations, whereas pretreatment with PGE significantly attenuated it. Oxidative stress was drastically increased, whereas antioxidant components were depleted by irradiation. Irradiation also notably increased serum liver enzymes and hepatic protein levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Those alterations were markedly normalized by pretreatment with PGE. The degree of irradiation-induced hepatic tissue apoptosis was also attenuated by pretreatment with PGE, which was evidenced by a terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase 2'-deoxyuridine 5'-triphosphate nick-end labeling assay, western blotting, and gene expressions analysis, particularly of apoptotic molecules. Conclusion: We suggest that PGE could be applicable for use against radiation-induced liver injury, and its corresponding mechanisms involve the modulation of oxidative stress, inflammatory reactions, and apoptosis.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.294-300
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• 2003

In the previous study, we have isolated several vaginal lactobacilli from Korean woman and selected one of them (KLB12) for further study, which was indentified as Lactobacillus fermentum by sequence analysis of 16S rRNA gene. Formulated L. fermentum KLB12 can be used for ecological treatment of bacterial vaginosis. For pharmaceutical formulation, the spray-drying process is required where stress such as high temperature is routinely applied. In this study, we found that heat stress at 60$^{\circ}C$ for 20∼30min reduced the viable cell population of KLB12 by 10$\sub$6/～10$\sub$9/. However, adaptation of KLB12 cells at 52$^{\circ}C$ made them more thermotolerant upon exposure to 60$^{\circ}C$. The level of thermal protection in RSM (reconstituted skim milk) by adaptation in acid (pH 5), cold (4$^{\circ}C$), ethanol (3％), NaCI (0.3M) was also examined. Although not as efficient as the homologous stress, adaptations in both cold and NaCI gave considerable cross protection against heat stress. When chloramphenicol was added during heat adaptation, adaptation effect was abolished. This suggests that de novo protein synthesis is necessary during the adaptation process. Important changes in proteome during heat adaptation was examined with two-dimensional gel electrophoresis.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.425-441
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• 2010

Forages are the backbone of sustainable agriculture. They includes a wide variety of plant species ranging from grasses, such as tall fescue and bermudagrass, to herbaceous legumes, such as alfalfa and white clover. Abiotic stresses, especially salinity, drought, temperature extremes, high photon irradiance, and levels of inorganic solutes, are the limiting factors in the growth and productivity of major cultivated forage crops. Given the great complexity of forage species and the associated difficulties encountered in traditional breeding methods, the potential from molecular breeding in improving forage crops has been recognized. Plant engineering strategies for abiotic stress tolerance largely rely on the gene expression for enzymes involved in pathways leading to the synthesis of functional and structural metabolites, proteins that confer stress tolerance, or proteins in signaling and regulatory pathways. Genetic engineering allows researchers to control timing, tissue-specificity, and expression level for optimal function of the introduced genes. Thus, the use of either a constitutive or stress-inducible promoter may be useful in certain cases. In this review, we summarize the recent progress made towards the development of transgenic forage plants with improved tolerance to abiotic stresses.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.713-717
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• 2008

In the present study, chronic effects of the hot water extracts of walnut seed (Juglans regia L.) (WSE) and Nelumbo nucifera seed (NSE) were investigated in mice exposed to 2 hr of restraint stress each day for 4 weeks. Corticosterone levels in serum were significantly increased in the vehicle-treated stressed group ($25\;{\mu}g/dL$) compared to that in the control group ($13\;{\mu}g/dL$). This stress induced gastric redness and lesions. However, treatment with WSE and/or NSE significantly protected the stomach from this lesion by 50-60% compared to that in the vehicletreated group. In the amygdala, the administration of WSE and/or NSE also reduced the immediate early gene (c-fos) expression by 70-90% vs. the vehicle-treated group. These suggest that WSE and/or NSE may reduce the appearance of symptoms induced by stress and these materials are useful as anti-stress foods, as natural products tend to be relatively safe compared to chemical products.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.117-130
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• 2015

Objectives: Banhahoobak-tang has been used to treat plum-pit qi, chest and hypochondriac distension, moist or greasy tongue coat, and wiry slow or wiry slippery pulse. It might be used to control coughing and vomiting. We observed that Banhahoobak-tang extract (BHTe) had anti-psychological stress effect. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of BHTe on restoring the transcriptional regulation of genes related to psychological stress. Methods: After giving psychological stress to mice, BHTe was orally administered at 100 mg/kg/day for five days. After extracting whole brain tissue from the mice, the gene expression changes were determined by microarray. Transcription factor binding site (TFBS) analysis showed up- and down-regulated genes related to psychological stress were protected by BHTe and segregated according to the structure of TFBS. We performed text based Pubmed search to select significant target genes involved in psychological stress affected by BHTe. Results: 1. Serum corticosterone level was decreased in the BHTe administered group, although the psychological stress was increased. 2. The BHTe administered group had no significant change in noradrenaline content in brain tissue, but the psychological stress group had decreased level. 3. The BHTe administered group had increased time of staying at open-arm than the psychological stress group. 4. Microarray revealed that TANK and RARA genes were up-regulated genes while AES, CDC42, FOS, NCL, and PVR were down-regulated genes by psychological stress but restored by BHTe.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.148-156
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• 2016

This study examined effects of Enterobacter ludwigii SJR3 showing a high 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase activity, on growth of tomato plant and its expression of stress-related genes under drought and salt stress. SJR3 strain was inoculated at $10^6cell/g$ soil to 4-week grown tomato plants, and drought and salt stresses were treated. After additional incubation for 1 week, root length, stem length, fresh weight and dry weight of tomato plants treated with SJR3 increased by 37.8, 37.2, 96.8 and 146.6%, respectively compared to those of uninoculated plants in drought stress environment, and they increased by 19.2, 25.4, 19.5, and 105.8%, respectively in salt stress environment. Proline content in tomato leaves increased significantly under stress conditions as one of a protecting substance against stresses, but proline contents in tomato treated with SJR3 decreased by 62.1 and 54.1%, respectively. Relative expression of genes encoding ACC oxidase, ACO1 and ACO4, ethylene response factor genes ERF1 and ERF4, and some other stress-related genes were examined from tomato leaves. Compared to the non-stressed tomato, expressions of all stress-related genes increased significantly in the stressed tomato, but gene expressions in the inoculated tomato were similar to those of no-stressed control tomato. Therefore, E. ludwigii SJR3 may play an important role in mitigating drought and salt stress in plants, and can increase productivity of crops under various abiotic stresses.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.288-298
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• 1992

Since the major important factors limiting plant growth and crop productivity are environmental stresses, of which low temperature is the most serious. It has been well known that many physiological processes are alterant in response to the environmental stress. With regard to the relationship between plant hormones and the regulation of chilling tolerance in rice seedlings, the major physiological roles of plant hormones: abscisic acid, ethylene and polyamines are evaluated and discussed in this paper. Rice seedlings were grown in culture solution to examine the effect of such plant hormones on physiological characters related to chilling tolerance and also to compare the different responses among tested cultivars. Intact seedlings about 14 day-old were chilled at conditions of 5$^{\circ}C$ and 80% relative humidity for various period. Cis-(＋)-ABA content was measured by the indirect ELISA technique. Polyamine content and ethylene production in leaves were determined by means of HPLC and GC respectively. Chilling damage of seedlings was evaluated by electrolyte leakage, TTC viability assay or servival test. Our experiment results described here demonstrated the physiological functions of ABA, ethylene, and polyamines related to the regulation of chilling tolerance in rice seedlings. Levels of cis-(＋)-ABA in leaves or xylem sap of rice seedlings increased rapidly in response to 5$^{\circ}C$ treatment. The tolerant cultivars had significant higher level of endogenous ABA than the sensitive ones. The ($\pm$)-ABA pretreatment for 48 h increased the chilling tolerance of the sensitive indica cultivar. One possible function of abscisic acid is the adjustment of plants to avoid chilling-induced water stress. Accumulation of proline and other compatible solutes is assumed to be another factor in the prevention of chilling injuies by abscisic acid. In addition, the expression of ABA-responsive gene is reported in some plants and may be involving in the acclimation to low temperature. Ethylene and its immediate precusor, 1-amincyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid(ACC) increased significantly after 5$^{\circ}C$ treatment. The activity of ACC synthase which converts S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) to ACC enhanced earlier than the increase of ethylene and ACC. Low temperature increased ACC synthase activity, whereas prolonged chilling treatment damaged the conversion of ACC to ethylene. It was shown that application of Ethphon was beneficial to recovering from chilling injury in rice seedlings. However, the physiological functions of chilling-induced ethylene are still unclear. Polyamines are thought to be a potential plant hormone and may be involving in the regulation of chilling response. Results indicated that chilling treatment induced a remarkable increase of polyamines, especially putrescine content in rice seedlings. The relative higher putrescine content was found in chilling-tolerant cultivar and the maximal level of enhanced putrescine in shoot of chilling cultivar(TNG. 67) was about 8 folds of controls at two days after chilling. The accumulation of polyamines may protect membrane structure or buffer ionic imbalance from chilling damage. Stress physiology is a rapidly expanding field. Plant growth regulators that improve tolerance to low temperature may affect stress protein production. The molecular or gene approaches will help us to elucidate the functions of plant hormones related to the regulation of chilling tolerance in plants in the near future.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.167-172
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• 2012

The key regulators of apoptosis are the interacting protein of the Bcl-2 family. Bcl-2, an important member of this family, blocks cytochrome C release by sequestering pro-apoptotic BH3-only proteins such as Bid, Bad, Bax and Bim. The pro-survival family members (Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, Bcl-W) are critical for cell survival, since loss of any of them causes cell death in certain cell type. However, its role during early porcine embryonic development is not sufficient. In this study, we traced the effects of Bcl-2 inhibitor, ABT-737, on early porcine embryonic development. We also investigated several indicators of developmental potential, including gene expression (apoptosis-related genes) and apoptosis, which are affected by ABT-737. Porcine embryos were cultured in the PZM-3 medium with or without ABT-737 for 6 days. In result, significant differences in developmental potential were detected between the embryos that were cultured with or without ABT-737 ($14.7{\pm}3.0$ vs $30.3{\pm}4.8%$, p<0.05). TUNEL assay showed that the number of containing fragmented DNA at the blastocyst stage increased in the ABT-737 treated group compared with control (4.7 vs 3.7, p<0.05). The mRNA expression of the pro-apoptotic gene Bax increased in ABT-737 treated group (p<0.05), whereas expressions of the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members (Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, Bcl-W) decreased (p<0.05). Also, expressions of the ER stress indicator genes (GRP78, XBP-1 and sXBP-1) increased in ABT-737 treated group (p<0.05). In conclusion, Bcl-2 is closely associated with of apoptosis- and ER stress-related genes expressions and developmental potential in pig embryos.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.34-42
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• 2023

In a signal transduction network, from the perception of stress signals to stress-responsive gene ex- pression, binding of various transcription factors to cis-acting elements in stress-responsive promoters coordinate the adaptation of plants to abiotic stresses. Among the AP2/ERF transcription factor family genes, group VII ERF genes, such as RAP2.12, RAP2.2, RAP2.3, AtERF73/HRE1, and AtERF71/ HRE2, are known to be involved in the response to hypoxia stress in Arabidopsis. In this study, we dissected the HRE1 promoter to identify hypoxia-responsive region(s). The 1,000 bp upstream promoter region of HRE1 showed increased promoter activity in Arabidopsis protoplasts and transgenic plants under hypoxia conditions. Analysis of the promoter deletion series of HRE1, including 1,000 bp, 800 bp, 600 bp, 400 bp, 200 bp, 100 bp, and 50 bp upstream promoter regions, using firefly luciferase and GUS as reporter genes indicated that the -200 to -100 region of the HRE1 promoter is responsible for the transcriptional activation of HRE1 in response to hypoxia. In addition, we identified two putative hypoxia-responsive cis-acting elements, the ERF-binding site and DOF-binding site, in the -200 to -100 region of the HRE1 promoter, suggesting that the expression of HRE1 might be regulated via the ERF transcription factor(s) and/or DOF transcription factor(s). Collectively, our results suggest that HRE1 contains hypoxia-responsive cis-acting elements in the -200 to -100 region of its promoter.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.450-458
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• 2015

The heat shock proteins (Hsps), one of the most highly conserved groups of proteins, play crucial roles in protecting cells against environmental stressors, such as temperature, salinity, heavy metals and pathogenic bacteria. The glutathione S-transferases (GST) have important role in detoxification of oxidative damage, environmental chemicals and environmental stress. The purpose of this study is to investigate the gene expression of Hsp70 and GST on change of temperature and salinity in Mytilus coruscus. The M. coruscus was cultured in incubator of separate temperature and salinity (8, 20, $30^{\circ}C{\times}20$‰, 25‰, 30‰) for 28 days. Ten individuals in each group were selected after each 14 and 28 days exposure. Results that the expression of Hsp70 mRNA was no significant changed in M. coruscus exposed to temperature ($8^{\circ}C$, $20^{\circ}C$, $30^{\circ}C$) and salinity (20‰, 25‰, 30‰) for 14 days. Whereas the expression of Hsp70 mRNA was increased in exposure to temperature $30^{\circ}C$ and salinity (20‰, 25‰, 30‰) for 28 days. The expression of GST mRNA was increased in exposure to temperature $30^{\circ}C$, salinity (25‰, 30‰) for 14 days and temperature ($8^{\circ}C$, $20^{\circ}C$, $30^{\circ}C$), salinity (20‰, 25‰, 30‰) for 28 days. These results suggest that Hsp70 and GST were played roles in biomarker gene on the thermal and salinity stress.