• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1823-1825
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• 2005

Angiogenesis is tightly regulated by a variety of angiogenic activators and inhibitors. Disruption of the balanced angiogenesis leads to the progress of diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetic blindness. Even though a number of proteins involved in angiogenesis have been identified so far, more protein factors remain to be identified due to complexity of the process. Here I report that pituitary tumor-transforming gene (PTTG) induces migration and tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). High levels of both vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) are detected in conditioned medium obtained from cells transfected with PTTG expression plasmid. Taken together, these results suggest that PTTG is an angiogenic factor that induces production of both VEGF and bFGF.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.59-61
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• 2000

A single nucleotide polymorphism in the transforming growth factor-$\beta$ type II receptor (TGE$\beta$RII) gene of the rat was studied. TGF$\beta$RII is a tumor suppressor that is frequently inactivated by mutation in human colon cancers. A novel nucleotide polymorphism of G to A(or A to G), which causes a silent mutation at codon 129, was found in G:C rich sequence in the TGF$\beta$RII gene of Sprague-Dawley rats. The results suggest that genetic polymorphism occures without a strain of the laboratory animal.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.676-686
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• 2013

Background To overcome the potential drawbacks of a short half-life and dose-related adverse effects of using active transforming growth factor-beta 1 for cartilage engineering, a cell-mediated latent growth factor activation strategy was developed incorporating latent transforming growth factor-${\beta}$1 (LTGF) into an electrospun poly(L-lactide) scaffold. Methods The electrospun scaffold was surface modified with NH3 plasma and biofunctionalised with LTGF to produce both random and orientated biofunctionalised electrospun scaffolds. Scaffold surface chemical analysis and growth factor bioavailability assays were performed. In vitro biocompatibility and human nasal chondrocyte gene expression with these biofunctionalised electrospun scaffold templates were assessed. In vivo chondrogenic activity and chondrocyte gene expression were evaluated in athymic rats. Results Chemical analysis demonstrated that LTGF anchored to the scaffolds was available for enzymatic, chemical and cell activation. The biofunctionalised scaffolds were non-toxic. Gene expression suggested chondrocyte re-differentiation after 14 days in culture. By 6 weeks, the implanted biofunctionalised scaffolds had induced highly passaged chondrocytes to re-express Col2A1 and produce type II collagen. Conclusions We have demonstrated a proof of concept for cell-mediated activation of anchored growth factors using a novel biofunctionalised scaffold in cartilage engineering. This presents a platform for development of protein delivery systems and for tissue engineering.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.18-23
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• 2012

Purpose: Transforming growth factor beta receptor 2 ($TGFBR2$) is a tumor suppressor gene that plays a role in the differentiation of striated cells and remodeling of coronary arteries. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of this gene are associated with Marfan syndrome and sudden death in patients with coronary artery disease. Cardiovascular remodeling and T cell activation of $TGFBR2$ gene suggest that the $TGFBR2$ gene SNPs are related to the pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease (KD) and coronary artery lesion (CAL). Methods: The subjects were 105 patients with KD and 500 healthy adults as controls. Mean age of KD group was 32 months age and 26.6% of those had CAL. We selected $TGFBR2$ gene SNPs from serum and performed direct sequencing. Results: The sequences of the eleven SNPs in the $TGFBR2$ gene were compared between the KD group and controls. Three SNPs (rs1495592, rs6550004, rs795430) were associated with development of KD ($P$=0.019, $P$=0.026, $P$=0.016, respectively). One SNP (rs1495592) was associated with CAL in KD group ($P$=0.022). Conclusion: Eleven SNPs in $TGFBR2$ gene were identified at that time the genome wide association. But, with the change of the data base, only six SNPs remained associated with the $TGFBR2$ gene. One of the six SNPs (rs6550004) was associated with development of KD. One SNP associated with CAL (rs1495592) was disassociated from the $TGFBR2$ gene. The other five SNPs were not functionally identified, but these SNPs are notable because the data base is changing. Further studies involving larger group of patients with KD are needed.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.3083-3088
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• 2012

We investigated the prognostic value of pituitary tumor transforming gene 1 (PTTG1) expression according to clinicopathological features among localized or locally advanced prostate cancer cases receiving hormone therapy. A retrospective study involved 64 patients receiving combined androgen blockade treatment was performed. PTTG1 expression was determined by immunohistochemical staining using initial needle biopsy specimens for diagnosis. Associations of PTTG1 with various clinicopathological features and disease-free survival were examined via uni- and multivariate analyses. No association between PTTG1 expression and clinical T stage, Gleason score, pretreatment PSA levels, risk groups was found (p =0.682, 0.184, 0.487, 0.571, respectively). Univariate analysis revealed that increased PTTG1 expression, T3 stage and high risk group were associated with increased risk of disease progression (p =0.000, 0.042, and 0.001), and high PSA level had a tendency to predict disease progression (p =0.056). Cox hazard ratio analysis showed that PTTG1 low expression (p =0.002), PTTG1 high expression (p =0.000) and high risk group (p =0.0147) were significantly related to decreased disease-free survival. In conclusion, PTTG1 expression determined by immunohistochemical staining in needle biopsy specimens for diagnosis is a negative prognostic factor for progression in localized or locally advanced prostate cancer receiving hormone therapy.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 1996

In order to investigate the Immunomodulatory effects of ginseng, we have studied the effects of ginseng saponin on the proliferation and cytosine gene expression of human pheripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC). In the PBMC proliferation assay, total saponin exhibited proliferation inhibition on the PBMC or phytohemagglutinin(PHA)-stimulated PBMC in a dose-dependent fashion. Immunomodulatory effects of ginseng were further investigated using the cytokine gene expression as the indicators. In the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, interleukin (IL)-1, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-6, IL-13, granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), migration inhibitory factor and transforming growth factor genes were expressed in the PHA-stimulated PBMC 48 hrs after cell culture. Among expressed cytokines, total saponin could increase the expression of IL-1 and TNF of PBMC without stimulation of PHA. All of ginsenosides, $Rb_1$, $Rb_2$, $Rg_1$, Rc, Re, incresed TNF gene expression. Especially, Rb2 (20 g/ml) showed most prominent effect on TNF gene expression and it also slightly increased IL-1 gene expression of PBMC.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.334-337
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• 2008

A tightly regulated gene expression system composed of a single-copy target gene under the control of a lac promoter derivative and lacI gene in a multicopy plasmid is proposed, and its ability to control the flux of a metabolic pathway is demonstrated. A model system to control the flux of acetyl-CoA to acetyl phosphate was constructed by integrating pta, a gene encoding phosphotransacetylase, under a tac promoter into the chromosome of E. coli with a pta-negative background and transforming a multicopy plasmid containing the $lacI^Q$ gene into the strain. The production rate of acetate was shown to be tightly controlled when varying the concentration of the inducer (IPTG) in he model system.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.623-626
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• 2006

Group of genes controls the functioning of a cell by complex interactions. These interacting gene groups are called Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs). Two previous data mining approaches, clustering and classification have been used to analyze gene expression data. While these mining tools are useful for determining membership of genes by homology, they don't identify the regulatory relationships among genes found in the same class of molecular actions. Furthermore, we need to understand the mechanism of how genes relate and how they regulate one another. In order to detect regulatory relationships among genes from time-series Microarray data, we propose a novel approach using frequent pattern mining and chain rule. In this approach, we propose a method for transforming gene expression data to make suitable for frequent pattern mining, and detect gene expression patterns applying FP-growth algorithm. And then, we construct gene regulatory network from frequent gene patterns using chain rule. Finally, we validated our proposed method by showing that our experimental results are consistent with published results.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.461-466
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• 2008

Transforming growth $factor-{\beta}$ ($TGF-{\beta}$)-dependent apoptosis is important in the elimination of damaged or abnormal cells from normal tissues in vivo. Gadd45b has been known to participate in $TGF-{\beta}-induced$ apoptosis by the activation of p38 kinase. In this report, we show that Gadd45b is an immediate-early response gene for $TGF-{\beta}$ during apoptosis in EpH4 cells. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of $TGF-{\beta}-induced$ Gadd45b gene expression, we cloned the 5'-flanking region of the mouse Gadd45b gene. When transfected into EpH4 cells, this 5'-flanking region conferred promoter activity and inducibility by $TGF-{\beta}$. Deletion analyses demonstrated that the minimal promoter activity was detected in the proximal region 220 bp upstream of the transcription initiation site. We also found that the proximal Gadd45b promoter is activated by $TGF-{\beta}$ through the action of Smad2, Smad3, and Smad4. Finally, we show that the expression of Gadd45b gene by $TGF-{\beta}$ is suppressed in EpRas cells in which $TGF-{\beta}$ could not induce apoptosis, suggesting that Gadd45b may be a crucial target for $TGF-{\beta}-induced$ apoptosis in EpH4 cells.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.521-526
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• 1997

We isolated a mouse nck cDNA from the thymus cDNA expression library. The cDNA encodes a 377 amino acid protein and displays 97% amino acid sequence identity to human oncogenic protein nck, which is composed almost exclusivelv of three src homology 3 (SH3) domains and one SH2 domain. The sequence analysis also showed that the isolated cDNA is the mouse counterpart of the human nck and different from the mouse grb4, which has been reported to be highly similar to the human nck and, therefore considered as a mouse nck, Northern blot analysis showed that the transcript of the gene was 1.8 kb and was highly expressed in the testis, thymus, and brain but moderately in the liver and lymph node. Western blot analysis showed that the size of the protein was about 47 kDa. Overexpression of the mouse Nck transformed a mouse fibroblast cell line, NIH3T3. The results clearly indicate that normal nck gene has transforming ability and provide an argument against a suggested possibility that the transforming ability of the human nck gene is due to a mutation(s) in the gene.