• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.44 no.5
• /
• pp.335-341
• /
• 2021

Zinc is an essential micronutrient with crucial roles in multiple facets of biological processes. Dysregulated zinc homeostasis impairs overall immune function and resultantly increases susceptibility to infection. Clinically, zinc supplementation is practiced for treatment of several infectious diseases, such as diarrhea and malaria. Recent focus on zinc as a beneficial element for immune system support has resulted in investigation of the immunomodulatory roles of zinc in a variety of immune cells. Besides its classical role as a cofactor that regulates the structural function of thousands of proteins, accumulating evidence suggests that zinc also acts, in a manner similar to calcium, as an ionic regulator of immune responses via participation as an intracellular messenger in signaling pathways. In this review, we focus on the role of zinc as a signaling molecule in major pathways such as those downstream of Toll-like receptors-, T cell receptor-, and cytokine-mediated signal transduction that regulate the activity and function of monocytes/macrophages and T cells, principal players in the innate and adaptive immune systems.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.101-111
• /
• 2001

To study the relationship between the DNA content of human chromosomes and their involvement in radiation-induced structural chromosome aberrations, the frequencies of translocations and dicentrics induced in human lymphocytes after in vitro exposure to 2Gy of x-tay were analysed by fluorescence in situ hybridization(FISH). Single whole chromosome probes(WCP), specific for chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, and 21 and triple combination of probes tot chromosome 1, 2 & 4 were used separately. A significant deviation of the frequency of symmetrical translocation and dicentrics from a DNA-proportional distribution was observed. Chromosomes 2, 7, 8, 9 and 21 were less frequently involved in the formation of symmetrical translocations and dicentrics than expected, whereas chromosomes 1 and 4 were more frequently involved. Chromosome 2 and 4 showed a higher frequency of acentric fragments. When triple combination probe for chromosome 1, 2 & 4 was used, no differences were found between the observed and expected frequency of exchange type aberrations. The results showed that the frequency of radiation-induced chromosome aberrations was not proportional to DNA contents, suggesting the difference in the susceptibility to specific aberrations among individual chromosomes. The results also indicated that the FISH technique with combination of probes for chromosome 1, 2 & 4 was useful for radiation biodosimetry.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.48 no.2
• /
• pp.116-124
• /
• 2012

Identification was performed in March 2008 for the 76 Enterococcus strains isolated from the Han-river, which is used as water supply for Seoul citizens. The antibiotic susceptibility, antibiotic resistant structural analysis, trans-conjugation, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) were also carried out for the isolated strains. Among the isolated strains, 25 strains were E. casseliflavus, 4 strains were E. faecalis and 1 strain was E. hirae. Investigation of antibiotic susceptibility indicated that 15 strains demonstrated tolerance against vancomycin, and that 11 strains of E. faecium and 4 strains of E. casseliflavus were VRE. The vanA gene detection of the VRE strains revealed that 6 E. faecium strains were vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREF) possessing vanA. Analyses of transposon Tn1546 structure containing vanA demonstrated that Km36 and Km37 belonged to Tn1 type, Km20 and Km38 was Tn2 type, and Km39 and Km40 was Tn3 type. PFGE disclosed that among the 6 VREF strains, Km36 and Km37 exhibited equivalent subtype, while the rest 4 strains showed subtypes different to each other. MLST for the 6 VREF strains disclosed that 3 strains were ST78, while the rest 3 strains were ST18, ST192 and ST230, respectively. All these clonal complexes were derived from CC17 which has been isolated from clinical sources. 4 strains belonged to CC78, while the rest 2 strains were CC18 and CC192, respectively.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.135-145
• /
• 1999

A total of 45 Staphylococcus aureus strains from clinical samples were tested for the biochemical test and antibiotic susceptibility test. Forty-five S. aureus strains were subjected to the molecular epidemiological study by susceptiblity test, antibiogram, bacteriophage typing, polymerase chain reaction and mec-associated hypervariable region gene in order to detect of mecA gene which was one of the structural gene related to antibiotic resistant expression factors. Three of 15 mecA-negative S. aureus isolates were classified as oxacillin resistant despite borderline minimal inhibitory concentration values. Methicillin susceptiblities were completely consistent with PCR results for these strains. On the other hand, 4 of 30 mecA-positive isolates yielded results in the oxacillin and methicillin susceptibility tests which were discrepant from those of PCR analysis. Except for SA6, the methicillin resistant S. aureus strains tested were highly resistant to penicillin, oxacillin, gentamicin, and chloramphenicol. In the phage typing, 27 strains were typable. The Iytic group III was as many as 12 strains, and 7 of 12 were 75/83A/84 type. In the PCR of specific mecA gene probe with chromosomal DNA of 30 methicillin resistant S. aureus, the amplified DNA band of 533 bp was confirmed in 30 strains and not in methicillin sensitive S. aureus. The single amplified band of hypervariable region related to mec was investigated in all of 30 methicillin resistant S. aureus, but in methicillin sensitive S. aureus it was amplified. The size of PCR products was between 200 bp and 600 Up. Four units was directly repeated.

• International Area Studies Review
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.123-143
• /
• 2018

Many studies on the acceptance of multi-national products have made academic contributions by offering various implications. However, there have been relatively few studies on the attitudes and behaviors of multi-national products depending on the purchasing tendency of consumers. The purpose of this study is to investigate how acceptance process of multi-national product, which is high involvement, appears by sorting consumers' purchasing tendency into rational consumption tendency, brand pursuit tendency, and consciousness of other people. Also, in order to supplement the measurement method of existing research, this study sought to analyze the acceptance behavior of consumers more precisely by classifying the situation before and after exposures of multi-national origin information on products. For this, 266 consumers were surveyed and statistical analysis was conducted through structural equation modeling. As a result of the research model, it was found that consciousness of other people has a significant effect on susceptibility and antipathy of multi-national product. In addition, antipathy against multi-national products has more powerful effect than susceptibility.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.45 no.6
• /
• pp.485-491
• /
• 2007

The effects of biological pretreatment on the Japanese red pine Pinus densiflora, was evaluated after exposure to three white rot fungi Ceriporia lacerata, Stereum hirsutum, and Polyporus brumalis. Change in chemical composition, structural modification, and their susceptibility to enzymatic saccharification in the degraded wood were analyzed. Of the three white rot fungi tested, S. hirsutum selectively degraded the lignin of this sortwood rather than the holocellulose component. After eight weeks of pretreatment with S. hirsutum, total weight loss was 10.7%, while lignin loss was the highest at 14.52% among the tested samples. However, holocellulose loss was lower at 7.81 % compared to those of C. lacerata and P. brumalis. Extracelluar enzymes from S. hirsutum showed higher activity of ligninase and lower activity of cellulase than those from other white rot fungi. Thus, total weight loss and changes in chemical composition of the Japanese red pine was well correlated with the enzyme activities related with lignin- and cellulose degradation in these fungi. Based on the data obtained from analysis of physical characterization of degraded wood by X-ray Diffractometry (XRD) and pore size distribution, S. hirsutum was considered as an effective potential fungus for biological pretreatment. In particular, the increase of available pore size of over 120 nm in pretreated wood powder with S. hirsutum made enzymes accessible for further enzymatic saccharification. When Japanese red pine chips treated with S. hirsutum were enzymatically saccharified using commercial enzymes (Cellulclast 1.5 L and Novozyme 188), sugar yield was greatly increased (21.01 %) compared to non-pre treated control samples, indicating that white rot fungus S. hirsutum provides an effective process in increasing sugar yield from woody biomass.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.9
• /
• pp.3973-3980
• /
• 2014

Prostate adenocarcinoma is one of the leading causes of cancer related mortality in men but still limited knowledge is available about its associated functional SNPs including rs1042522 (Pro72Arg). The present study was undertaken to explore the association of this SNP with susceptibility to prostate adenocarcinoma along with its structural and functional impacts in the Pakistani population in a case-control study. Three-dimensional structure of human TP53 with Pro72Arg polymorphism was predicted through homology modeling, refined and validated for detailed structure-based assessment. We also carried out a HuGE review of the previous available data for this polymorphism. Different genetic models were used to evaluate the genotypes association with the increased risk of PCa (Allelic contrast: OR=0.0.34, 95%CI 0.24-0.50, p=0.000; GG vs CC: OR=0.17, 95%CI 0.08-0.38, p=0.000; Homozygous: OR=0.08, 95%CI 0.04-0.15, p=0.000; GC vs CC: OR=2.14, 95%CI 1.01-4.51, p=0.046; Recessive model: OR=0.10, 95%CI 0.05-0.18, p=0.000; Log Additive: OR=3.54, 95%CI 2.13-5.89, p=0.000) except the Dominant model (OR=0.77, 95%CI 0.39-1.52, p=0.46). Structure and functional analysis revealed that the SNP in the proline rich domain is responsible for interaction with HRMT1L2 and WWOX. In conclusion, it was observed that the Arg coding G allele is highly associated with increased risk of prostate adenocarcinoma in the Pakistani population (p=0.000).

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.45 no.3
• /
• pp.209-217
• /
• 2018

The innate immune recognition is based on the detection of microbial products. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) located on the cell surface and the endosome senses microbial components and nucleic acids, respectively. Chicken TLRs mediate immune responses by sensing ligands from pathogens, have been studied as immune adjuvants to increase the efficacy of vaccines. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of TLR3 and TLR4 genes in chicken were associated with resistance and susceptibility to viral infection. In this study, SNPs of chTLR3 and chTLR4 genes were retrieved from public database and annotated with chicken reference genome. Three-dimensional models of the chTLR3 and chTLR4 proteins were built using a Swiss modeler. We identified 35 and 13 nsSNPs in chTLR3 and chTLR4 genes respectively. Sorting Intolerant from Tolerant (SIFT) and Polymorphism Phenotyping v2 (Polyphen-2) analyses, suggested that, out of 35 and 13 nsSNPs, 4 and 2 SNPs were identified to be deleterious in chTLR3 and chTLR4 gene respectively. In chTLR3, 1 deleterious SNP was located in ectodomain and 3 were located in the Toll / IL-1 receptor (TIR) domain. Further structural model of chTLR3-TIR domain suggested that 1 deleterious SNP be present in the B-B loop region, which is important for TIR-TIR domain interactions in the downstream signaling. In chTLR4, the deleterious SNPs were located both in the ectodomain and TIR domain. SNPs predicted for chTLR3 and chTLR4 in this study, might be related to resistance or susceptible to viral infection in chickens. Results from this study will be useful to develop the effective measures in chicken against infectious diseases.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.19 no.9
• /
• pp.932-945
• /
• 2009

Several species of Gram-positive bacteria have cell wall peptidoglycan (syn. murein) in which not all of the sugar moieties are N-acetylated. This has recently been shown to be a secondary effect, caused by the action of a peptidoglycan N-acetylglucosamine deacetylase. We have found that the opportunistic pathogen Listeria monocytogenes is unusual in having three enzymes with such activity, two of which remain in the cytoplasm. Here, we examine the enzyme (PgdA) that crosses the cytoplasmic membrane and is localized in the cell wall. We purified a hexa-His-tagged form of PgdA to study its activity and constructed a mutant devoid of functional Lmo0415 (PgdA) protein. L. monocytogenes PgdA protein exhibited peptidoglycan N-acetylglucosamine deacetylase activity with natural substrates (peptidoglycan) from both L. monocytogenes and Escherichia coli as well as the peptidoglycan sugar chain component N-acetylglucosamine, but not with N-acetylmuramic acid. As was reported recently [6], inactivation of the structural gene was not lethal for L. monocytogenes nor did it affect growth rate or morphology of the cells. However, the pgdA mutant was more prone to autolysis induced by such agents as Triton X-100 and EDTA, and is more susceptible to the cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMP) lysozyme and mutanolysin, using either peptidoglycan muramidases or autolysis-inducing agents. The pgdA mutant was also slightly more susceptible than the wild-type strain to the action of certain beta-lactam antibiotics. Our results indicate that protein PgdA plays a protective physiological role for listerial cells.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.10 no.1 s.30
• /
• pp.43-47
• /
• 2006

This study attempted to examine how the hydrogen embrittlement susceptibility of the STS 444 stainless steel varies under different welding conditions and how its effect on hydrogen embrittlement differs by the impressed current density levels. For doing so, U bend test specimens was used to impress the current density at 5,10, 15, and 20 $mA/cm^2$ in the $0.5M\;H_2SO_4+0.001M\;As_2O_3$ solution with an electrochemical corrosion tester. The hydrogen embrittlement was assessed by observing the time to failure, and then the microphotographs of metal structures were compared to investigate the metal- related structural properties. The study findings suggest that the effect on hydrogen embrittlement for the STS 444 steel significantly depends on both the welding conditions, or variations in the amount of shield gas, and the levels of current density. In particular, as the impressed current density increases, the hydrogen embrittlement increases rapidly.