• Neonatal Medicine
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.136-140
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• 2010

Galactosemia is a group of inherited enzyme deficiencies characterized by increase in the blood galactose levels. This condition may be associated with deficiencies of galactose-1-phosphate uridyl transferase, galactokinase, or uridine diphosphate galactose-4-epimerase. However, the elevated galactose identified by neonatal screening tests has several other possible etiologies, including hepatic hemangioendothelioma, hepatic hemangioma, and patent ductus venosus with hypoplasia of the portal vein. We report a 13-day-old Korean male with hepatic hemangioendothelioma, which was incidentally detected during the evaluation for suspected galactosemia. Laboratory studies revealed that mildly elevated levels of galactose, galactose-1-phosphate and alpha- fetoprotein, at the time of admission, were graduallydecreased to the normal range over the 6 months of observation. Ultrasonography showed a well-defined heterogeneous hypoechoic mass in the liver, and magnetic resonance imaging study showed multiple enhanced mass lesions, which was compatible with the diagnosis of a hepatic hemangioendothelioma. Thus, hepatic imaging, especially ultrasonography, should be performed if neonatal screening suggests galactosemia.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.81-88
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• 2010

The fine structural characteristics of the apoptotic cells in the cutaneous epithelium of the anuran tadpole of the black-spotted frog, Rana nigromaculata was examined using the TUNEL (Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated biotinylated d-Uridine triphosphate Nick End Labeling) staining technique and TEM (transmission electron microscopy) observations. The cutaneous epithelium of the tadpole was composed of stratified cuboidal cells and the apoptotic cell death was observed continuously during the tail degeneration stages from the Shumway stage number 31 to 33. The early apoptotic cells shown in the epithelium demonstrated condensation and margination of the chromatin material at the nuclear periphery, and nuclear breakdown and cytoplasmic condensation were followed. Subsequent cytoplasmic degeneration of the apoptotic cell were produced by membrane-bounded cell fragments with relatively well preserved organelles. Following the processes of autophagic degradation, the late apoptotic cells being phagocytosed by other surrounding cells. These nearby cells, presumptive intraepithelial macrophages, contain a variety of lysosomal residual bodies which fuses with other cell organelles or other cytoplasmatic material to form secondary lysosomes. They are soon transformed into lamellar shaped vesicles and finally disappeared during the process of degradation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.69-74
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• 2008

This study carried out to investigate the antimicrobial resistance and biochemical characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) isolated from reproductive and respiratory tract in Thoroughbred horse. The specimens were collected from equine vaginal mucosa and upper respiratory tract from March to December 2006 using a culture swab in Korea. S. aureus suspected colonies on blood agar plates were selected and identified as standard biochemical tests and PCR (Applied Biosystems, USA). Antimicrobial resistance test of S. aureus isolates was performed with 30 antimicrobial agents (BBL, USA) by using the agar disk diffusion method. S. aureus isolates were isolated 58 (39.2%) strains of 148 samples: wound 64.7% (11/17), genital discharge 37.0% (37/100) and nasal discharge 32.2% (10/31). Almost isolates showed high resistance to spectinomycin, sulfonamides, erythromycin, tetracyelin, ciprofloxacin and penicillin. These results may provide the basic information to establish strategies for treatment and prevention of reproductive and respiratory disease in Thoroughbred horses in Korea.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.296-301
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• 2015

Explant culture condition of dorsal root ganglion have been used to investigate the pathophysiology of peripheral nerve injury, while applying for the various clinical symptom such as trauma, pressure, and stretch. However, explant culture is usually contaminated by mitotic cells, which may observed as a newly divided cells including fibroblast or glia. The mitotic cells could be able to interrupt and change the cell signaling that make it difficult to avoid detrimental effects during the experiments. To eliminate mitotic cells, anti-mitotic reagents like mixture of uridine and 5-fluorodeoxyuridine or cytosine arabinoside were added to the cultures on the following day, but there is no research that investigate viability of anti-mitotic reagent in dorsal root ganglion explant culture. In this study, we investigate inhibition effect of cytosine arabinoside to mitotic cells in dorsal root ganglion explant culture. Also we visualized and analyzed anti-mitotic effect and toxicity of cytosine arabinoside in various concentration condition. This dorsal root ganglion explant culture condition can be applied to research that effect and mechanism of various stimulation and chemical application which affect peripheral nerve regeneration.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.419-427
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• 2017

Background: Glycosylation of natural compounds increases the diversity of secondary metabolites. Glycosylation steps are implicated not only in plant growth and development, but also in plant defense responses. Although the activities of uridine-dependent glycosyltransferases (UGTs) have long been recognized, and genes encoding them in several higher plants have been identified, the specific functions of UGTs in planta remain largely unknown. Methods: Spatial and temporal patterns of gene expression were analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription (qRT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and GUS histochemical assay. In planta transformation in heterologous Arabidopsis was generated by floral dipping using Agrobacterium tumefaciens (C58C1). Protein localization was analyzed by confocal microscopy via fluorescent protein tagging. Results: PgUGT72AL1 was highly expressed in the rhizome, upper root, and youngest leaf compared with the other organs. GUS staining of the promoter: GUS fusion revealed high expression in different organs, including axillary leaf branch. Overexpression of PgUGT72AL1 resulted in a fused organ in the axillary leaf branch. Conclusion: PgUGT72AL1, which is phylogenetically close to PgUGT71A27, is involved in the production of ginsenoside compound K. Considering that compound K is not reported in raw ginseng material, further characterization of this gene may shed light on the biological function of ginsenosides in ginseng plant growth and development. The organ fusion phenotype could be caused by the defective growth of cells in the boundary region, commonly regulated by phytohormones such as auxins or brassinosteroids, and requires further analysis.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.24-29
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• 2018

DC23, a triazolothione resorcinol analogue, is known to inhibit heat shock protein 90 and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase which are up-regulated in cancer and diabetes, respectively. This study was performed to elucidate the metabolism of DC23 in human liver microsomes (HLMs). HLMs incubated with DC23 in the presence of uridine 5'-diphosphoglucuronic acid (UDPGA) and/or ${\beta}$-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) resulted in the formation of four metabolites, M1-M4. M1 was identified as DC23-N-Oxide, on the basis of LC-MS/MS analysis. DC23 was further metabolized to its glucuronide conjugates (M2, M3, and M4). In vitro metabolic stability studies conducted with DC23 in HLMs revealed significant glucuronide conjugation with a $t_{1/2}$ value of 1.3 min. The inhibitory potency of DC23 on five human cytochrome P450s was also investigated in HLMs. In these experiments, DC23 inhibited CYP2C9-mediated tolbutamide hydroxylase activity with an $IC_{50}$ value of $8.7{\mu}M$, which could have implications for drug interactions.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.93-101
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• 2019

Nucleotides play important roles in numerous intracellular biochemical processes and are used in infant formulas and other dairy products. However, domestic analytical methods for assessing nucleotide content in products have not yet been established, and therefore, methods for determining nucleotide content are urgently required. A rapid and simple analytical method for determining the content of five types of nucleotides in dairy products was improved using solid phase extraction clean-up and high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector. The extraction solvent used in the AOAC method was not well dissolved and was changed to hydrophilic EDTA-Na. In addition, the results obtained using the isocratic elution method and a single wavelength were similar to those obtained using the AOAC method, and the time taken for analysis was shortened from 40 min to 25 min. The process of method validation revealed the following parameters: accuracy (84.69%-102.72%), precision (1.51%-6.82%), linearity (0.999), and limit of detection (cytidine 5'-monophosphate, 0.09 mg/L; uridine 5'-monophosphate, 0.11 mg/L; adenosine 5'-monophosphate, 0.12 mg/L; guanosine 5'-monophosphate, 0.11 mg/L; and inosine 5'-monophosphate, 0.14 mg/L). The method was also used to determine the nucleotide concentration in 25 samples (infant formulas, 1.99-29.39 mg/100 g; and cow milk, 0.28-0.83 mg/100 g). The newly improved method was appropriate for analyzing nucleotides in infant formulas and other dairy products faster when compared to conventional methods.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.53-58
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• 2021

Previous in vitro studies have demonstrated that ginsenoside Rc inhibits UGT1A9, but there are no available data to indicate that ginsenoside Rc inhibits UGT1A9 in vivo. The effect of single and repeated intravenous injection of ginsenoside Rc was evaluated on the pharmacokinetics of mycophenolic acid. After injection of ginsenoside Rc (5 mg/kg for one day or 3 mg/kg for five days), 2-mg mycophenolic acid was intravenously injected, and the pharmacokinetics of mycophenolic acid and mycophenolic acid-β-glucuronide were determined. Concentrations of mycophenolic acid and its metabolite from rat plasma were analyzed using a liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Single or repeated pretreatment with ginsenoside Rc had no significant effects on the pharmacokinetics of mycophenolic acid (P > 0.05): The mean difference in maximum plasma concentration (C_max) and area under the concentration-time curve (AUC_inf) were within 0.83- and 0.62-fold, respectively, compared with those in the absence of the ginsenoside Rc. These results indicate that ginsenoside Rc has a negligible effect on the disposition of mycophenolic acid in vivo despite in vitro findings indicating that ginsenoside Rc is a selective UGT1A9 inhibitor. As a result, ginsenoside Rc has little possibility of interacting with drugs that are metabolized by UGT1A9, including mycophenolic acid.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.174-180
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• 2021

Chalcones exhibit multiple biological activities. Various studies have attempted to modify the structure of chalcones with a special focus on the addition of substituents to the benzene rings. However, these chemical modifications did not improve the water solubility and bioavailability of chalcones. Glycosylation can markedly affect the physical and chemical properties of hydrophobic compounds. Here, we evaluated the ability of a highly promiscuous glycosyltransferase (GT) BsGT1 from Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633 to biosynthesize chalcone glucosides. Purified BsGT1 catalyzed the conversion of 4'-hydroxychalcone (compound 1), 4'-hydroxy-4-methylchalcone (compound 2), and 4-hydroxy-4'-methoxychalcone (compound 3), into chalcone 4'-O-β-D-glucoside (compound 1a), 4-methylchalcone 4'-O-β-D-glucoside (compound 2a), and 4'-methoxychalcone 4-O-β-D-glucoside (compound 3a), respectively. To avoid the addition of expensive uridine diphosphate glucose (UDP-Glc), a whole-cell biotransformation system was employed to provide a natural intracellular environment for in situ co-factor regeneration. The yields of compounds 1a, 2a, and 3a were as high as 90.38%, 100% and 74.79%, respectively. The successful co-expression of BsGT1 with phosphoglucomutase (PGM) and UDP-Glc pyrophosphorylase (GalU), which are involved in the biosynthetic pathway of UDP-Glc, further improved the conversion rates of chalcones (the yields of compounds 1a and 3a increased by approximately 10%). In conclusion, we demonstrated an effective whole-cell biocatalytic system for the enzymatic biosynthesis of chalcone β-D-glucoside derivatives.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.10-24
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• 2021

Objectives: Yongdamsagan-tang (YST) and Paljung-san (PJS) in traditional medicine and finasteride in modern medicine are used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In recent, the use of combination herbal remedies with conventional drugs has been increasing. Therefore, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of these drugs to treat BPH and the influence of herbal formulas on finasteride metabolism. Methods: The inhibitory effects of the herbal formulas and finasteride on the production of inflammatory mediators and cytokines were determined in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated RAW 264.7 cells. Additionally, the influence of herbal formulas on activities of human drug metabolizing enzymes (DMEs) was assessed using human microsomal enzymes. Results: We observed that YST, PJS and finasteride inhibited the production of nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in RAW 264.7 cells. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) of YST on PGE₂ production was calculated to be below 25 ㎍/mL. YST inhibited the activity of uridine diphosphate-glucuronosyltransterase (UGT) 1A4 with an IC₅₀ value of 49.35 ㎍/mL. The activities of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A2, CYP2B6, CYP2C19, CYP3A4, and UGT1A1 were inhibited by PJS (IC₅₀ < 100 ㎍/mL, each). Although PJS and YST inhibited the activities of CYP3A4 and UGT1A4, respectively, these formulas may not influence the metabolism of finasteride because the IC₅₀ values of herbal formulas on DMEs are too high to affect metabolism. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the combination of finasteride and YST or PJS might not influence their drug metabolism and that the drugs may have synergistic effects against BPH.