• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.1062-1070
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• 2019

A components of garlic (Allium sativum) have anti-proliferative effects against various types of cancer. We aimed to investigate the capacity of garlic compounds to anti-tumor on a various cancer cell lines. Fractionation of garlic extract, guided by antiproliferative activity against human gastric cancer (AGS) cells, has resulted in the isolation of N-benzyl-N-methyldecan-1-amine (NBNMA). We investigated the effect of newly isolated NBNMA from garlic cloves on the inhibition of the growth of CT-26, AGS, HepG2, HCT-116, MCF7, B16F10, and Sarcoma-180 cells for in vitro and CT-26 colon carcinoma cells in vivo. NBNMA exhibited an antiproliferative effect in CT-26 cells by apoptotic cell death. NBNMA exhibited down-regulation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins and up-regulation of apoptotic Bad protein expression in western blot analyses. In addition, NBNMA meagre activated caspase 3 and caspase 9, initiator caspases of the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways of apoptosis. NBNMA treatment at a dose of 10 mg/kg for 21 days in experimental mice implanted with tumors resulted in significant reduction of the tumor weight (43%). NBNMA exhibited both in vitro and in vivo anticancer activity. These results indicate that NBNMA has promising potential to become a novel anticancer agent from garlic cloves for the treatment of colon carcinoma cancer.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.40
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• pp.243-270
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• 2007

Linked pearls pattern expressed on textiles have no limited scale or shape when manufacturing, so they are free in expression. And from the design, material, and color we can analogize the social culture of that age. Oriental linked pearls pattern was started from the Sasanian Persia and introduced through the Silk Road, so it is closely connected with the East and the West culture. This study will consider from the 5th century to the 10th century; the mural costume of the West Central Asia, the ancient textiles excavated from the Sinjiang and Qinghai area of China, and the linked pearls pattern which are collected at Shosoin, Japan. And from this study, will concentrate on clarifying the linked pearls pattern's condition of the cultural exchange between the East and the West and it's structural variation process. The design of linked pearls pattern delivered to the East through the Silk Road is differed by area. For example, in the Western Pamir Plateau, where the ancient Sogdians mainly lived, the excavated linked pearls pattern's subject were deer or cassowary variated from the West Asian motif. But the ones excavated from Kucha Xingang had Chinese motifs added so they showed Chinese characters or Buddhist Bodhisattva image instead of Helios. Like this, the appearance of new patterns, which were accompanied by structural variations, gradually deviated from the standardized pattern of the Sasanian Persia. And this structural variation process has relations with the construction and arrangement method of various patterns of the after ages. The foliated floral Spray, which is placed at the lozenge space of linked pearls' space, had developed into ogival - shaped pattern (Neunghwamun). And the prevalence of geometrical structure pattern after the 10th century and the unfolding method of Tapjamun which is arranging unit pattern in order, are similar to the linked pearl pattern. In brief, linked pearls pattern accompanied by technical improvement let us understand the polished artistic code from its expression, and has importance in showing universal pattern beyond region and culture.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2019

In this study, the surveys were carried out from October (2016) to October (2017) along the tidal flat of Geunso Bay, Taean Peninsula of the western edge of Korea. The sampling trips were carried out for a total of 16 times, once or twice a month. In order to investigate the monthly variation of the microphytobenthos (MPB) biomass, community composition and photo-physiology were analyzed by HPLC (High performance liquid chromatography). The total chlorophyll a (TChl a) concentrations used as an indicator of biomass of MPB in the upper 1 cm sediment layer ranged from 40.4 to $218.9mg\;m^{-2}$ throughout the sampling period. TChl a concentrations showed the maximum level on $24^{th}$ of February and remained high throughout March after which it started to declined. The biomass of MPB showed high values in winter and low values in summer. The monthly variations of Phaeophorbide a concentrations suggested that the low grazing intensity of the predator in the winter may have partly attributed to the MPB winter blooming. As a result of monthly variations of the MPB community composition using the major marker pigments, the concentrations of fucoxanthin, the marker pigment of benthic diatoms, were the highest throughout the year. The concentrations of most of the marker pigments except for chlorophyll b (chlorophytes) and peridinin (dinoflagellates) increased in winter. However, the concentrations of fucoxanthin increased the highest, and the relative ratios of the major marker pigments to TChl a except fucoxanthin decreased during the same period. The vertical distribution of Chl a and oxygen concentrations in the sediments using a fluorometer and an oxygen micro-optode Chl a concentrations decreased with oxygen concentrations with increasing depth of the sediment layers. Moreover, this tendency became more apparent in winter. The Chl a was uniformly vertical down to 12 mm from May to July, but the oxygen concentration distribution in May decreased sharply below 1 mm. The increase in phaeophorbide a concentration observed at this time is likely to be caused by increased oxygen consumption of zoobenthic grazing activities. This could be presumed that MPB cells are transported downward by bioturbation of zoobenthos. The relative ratios (DT/(DD+DT)) obtained with diadinoxanthin (DD) and diatoxanthin (DT), which are often used as indicators of photo-adaptation of MPB, decreased from October to March and increased in May. This indicated that there were monthly differences in activity of Xanthophyll cycle as well.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.54-63
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• 2019

As a part of the national marine ecosystem monitoring program, the temporal and spatial variation of sedimentary environment and pollution of organic matters and trace metals from four major tidal flats, i.e., Ganghwa Is., Garolim bay, Jeung Is., Suncheon bay, was investigated for 3 yerars from 2015 to 2017. The mean grain size of the sediment was $5.0-5.3{\varnothing}$ at Ganghwa Is, $4.5-4.8{\varnothing}$ at Garolim bay, $6.1-6.5{\varnothing}$ at Jeung Is, and $8.6-8.7{\varnothing}$ at Suncheon bay. The mean grain size (Mz) tended to decrease from the north (Ganghwa Is.) to the south (Suncheon bay). The ignition loss (IL) was 15.5% in Suncheon bay in 2015, which was relatively high compared to other sites, but gradually decreased over time from 8.3% in 2016 to 7.0% in 2017. In Jeung Is. and Suncheon bay, the concentration of Zn and As exceeded the threshold effect level (TEL) at some stations, but the range of trace metals in the other sites was below the level. In Jeung Is., the Mz and concentration of trace metals except Hg was positively correlated (r= 0.40-0.88, P<0.05). On the other hand, Mz was negatively correlated with trace metals (P<0.05) in Suncheon bay. The geoaccumulation index ($I_{geo}$) to evaluate contamination status of sediments for trace metal was less than 1(not contaminated) for Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd and Hg, and 2-3 (moderately to strongly polluted) for As at several stations in Suncheon bay and Jeung Is.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.208-225
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• 2019

To understand the mean surface circulation and surface currents in the East Sea, trajectories of surface drifters passed through the East Sea from 1991 to 2017 were analyzed. By analyzing the surface drifter trajectory data, the main paths of surface ocean currents were grouped and the variation in each main current path was investigated. The East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) heading northward separates from the coast at $36{\sim}38^{\circ}N$ and flows to the northeast until $131^{\circ}E$. In the middle (from $131^{\circ}E$ to $137^{\circ}E$) of the East Sea, the average latitude of the currents flowing eastward ranges from 36 to $40^{\circ}N$ and the currents meander with large amplitude. When the average latitude of the surface drifter paths was in the north (south) of $37.5^{\circ}N$, the meandering amplitude was about 50 (100) km. The most frequent route of surface drifters in the middle of the East Sea was the path along $37.5-38.5^{\circ}N$. The surface drifters, which were deployed off the coast of Vladivostok in the north of the East Sea, moved to the southwest along the coast and were separated from the coast to flow southeastward along the cyclonic circulation around the Japan Basin. And, then, the drifters moved to the east along $39-40^{\circ}N$. The mean surface current vector and mean speed were calculated in each lattice with $0.25^{\circ}$ grid spacing using the velocity data of surface drifters which passed through each lattice. The current variance ellipses were calculated with $0.5^{\circ}$ grid spacing. Because the path of the EKWC changes every year in the western part of the Ulleung Basin and the current paths in the Yamato Basin keep changing with many eddies, the current variance ellipses are relatively large in these region. We present a schematic map of the East Sea surface current based on the surface drifter data. The significance of this study is that the surface ocean circulation of the East Sea, which has been mainly studied by numerical model simulations and the sea surface height data obtained from satellite altimeters, was analyzed based on in-situ Lagrangian observational current data.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.318-331
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• 2019

In this study, comparative analysis is performed on the long-term persisted warm eddies that were generated in 2003 (WE03) and in 2014 (WE14) over the East Sea using the HYCOM reanalysis data. The overshooting of the East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) was appeared during the formation period of those warm eddies. The warm eddies were produced in the shallow Korea Plateau region through the interaction of the EKWC and the sub-polar front. In the interior of the both warm eddies, a homogeneous water mass of about $13^{\circ}C$ and 34.1 psu were generated over the upper 150 m depth by the winter mixing. In 2004, the next year of the generation of the WE03, the amount of the inflow through the western channel of the Korea Strait was larger, while the inflow was lesser than its climatology during 2015 corresponding to the development period of the WE14. The above results suggest that the heat and salt are supplied in the warm eddies through the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC), however the amount of the inflow through the Korea Strait has negligible impact on the long-term persistency of the warm eddies. Both of the warm eddies were maintained more than 18 months near Ulleung island, while they have no common feature on the pathways. In the vicinity of the Ulleung basin, large and small eddies are continuously created due to the meandering of the EKWC. The long-term persisted warm eddies in the Ulleung Island seem to be the results of the interaction between the pre-existed eddies located south of the sub-polar front and fresh eddies induced by the meanderings of the EKWC. The conclusion is also in line with the fact that the long-term persisted warm eddies were not always created when the overshooting of the EKWC was appeared.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.245-251
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• 2019

This study examined the effects of 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (MQ) on the monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1)-induced migration of monocytes, which is an important phenomenon for the body defense and immune response. MQ is a major component extracted from Impatiens balsamina leaves, which have been used for many years in Asian medicine for the treatment of a range of diseases and pain. The cytotoxicity of MQ began to appear at a concentration of $10{\mu}M$, and approximately 50% cytotoxicity was confirmed at $100{\mu}M$. The MCP-1 induced migration of the THP-1 monocyte cell line increased after MQ treatment in a dose dependent manner and the largest increase was observed at $0.1{\mu}M$. The level of cAMP expression decreased after a treatment with $0.1{\mu}M$ MQ. The phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (Erk1/2), a key signaling protein involved in the signaling pathway of C-C motif chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2), a receptor for MCP-1, was increased by the simultaneous treatment of $0.1{\mu}M$ MQ. These results show that MQ increases the MCP-1-induced migration of THP-1, decreases the level of cAMP expression, and increases the level of Erk1/2 phosphorylation.

• Journal of Ginseng Culture
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• v.1
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• pp.93-109
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• 2019

This study aims to look at the process of ginseng being removed from the Western pharmacopoeia in the 19th century, experiencing a crisis as an export product in the America in the 20th century, and eventually settling in the U.S. society and the military as a dietary supplement in the 21th century. In this process, the legislation of provided a bridgehead for ginseng and other botanical dietary supplements to enter the U.S. market. As a result, ginseng could be re-listed in the U.S. pharmacopoeia as a dietary supplement. However, this did not mean a complete soft landing of ginseng and other botanical dietary supplements in the America. The U.S. medical community, which has been afraid of the indiscriminate spread of botanical dietary supplements, has constantly raised "the risk-discourse" and expressed concerns over the use and abuse of botanical dietary supplements that have not been scientifically verified. This involved not only the fundamental problems caused by the lax verification process of , but also a new atmosphere in the U.S. where the public sought information about botanical dietary supplements rather than seeking professional clinicians related to their health. Against this situation, "the advocate-discourse" suggested by dietary supplement manufacturers and the people in charge of botanical products seemed rather relaxed. As consumers are taking this side, the advocates had only to stress that botanical dietary supplements have been used worldwide for a long time without any problems and were made from 'natural' materials. The fact that ginseng and other botanical dietary supplements were able to advance to the U.S. Military's dietary supplement manual, which is strict in controlling food, seems to have jumped on the bandwagon of this atmosphere in the U.S. Society. In the early U.S. dietary supplement manual reviewed in this paper, ginseng was the most detailed among many botanical dietary supplements. Although there are some 'safety concerns' that still exist in the civilian society, but there are also certainly good scientific explanations for the efficacy and references to the popularity and influence of ginseng in the American society. Given this, the U.S. society and military's interest in ginseng as a dietary supplement seem quite high.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.82 no.1
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• pp.42-52
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• 2019

Background: Transforming growth factor ${\beta}$ (TGF-${\beta}$), retinoic acid (RA), p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and MEK signaling play critical roles in cell differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. We investigated the effect of RA and the role of these signaling molecules on the phosphorylation of Smad2/3 (p-Smad2/3) induced by TGF-${\beta}1$. Methods: A549 epithelial cells and CCD-11Lu fibroblasts were incubated and stimulated with or without all-trans RA (ATRA) and TGF-${\beta}1$ and with MAPK or MEK inhibitors. The levels of p-Smad2/3 were analyzed by western blotting. For animal models, we studied three experimental mouse groups: control, bleomycin, and bleomycin+ATRA group. Changes in histopathology, lung injury score, and levels of TGF-${\beta}1$ and Smad3 were evaluated at 1 and 3 weeks. Results: When A549 cells were pre-stimulated with TGF-${\beta}1$ prior to RA treatment, RA completely inhibited the p-Smad2/3. However, when A549 cells were pre-treated with RA prior to TGF-${\beta}1$ stimulation, RA did not completely suppress the p-Smad2/3. When A549 cells were pre-treated with MAPK inhibitor, TGF-${\beta}1$ failed to phosphorylate Smad2/3. In fibroblasts, p38 MAPK inhibitor suppressed TGF-${\beta}1$-induced p-Smad2. In a bleomycin-induced lung injury mouse model, RA decreased the expression of TGF-${\beta}1$ and Smad3 at 1 and 3 weeks. Conclusion: RA had inhibitory effects on the phosphorylation of Smad induced by TGF-${\beta}1$ in vitro, and RA also decreased the expression of TGF-${\beta}1$ at 1 and 3 weeks in vivo. Furthermore, pre-treatment with a MAPK inhibitor showed a preventative effect on TGF-${\beta}1$/Smad phosphorylation in epithelial cells. As a result, a combination of RA and MAPK inhibitors may suppress the TGF-${\beta}1$-induced lung injury and fibrosis.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.699-709
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• 2021

Muscle mass improvement through lifestyle modification has been shown to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome. This study examined the capacity of ethanol extracts of Scytosiphon lomentaria (SLE) to suppress the bioactivity of myostatin, a potent negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass, as well as the effect of SLE treatment on metabolic homeostasis in obese zebrafish induced by high feeding. A total of 10 ㎍/ml SLE completely blocked myostatin (1 nM/ml) signaling in the pGL3-(CAGA)₁₂ luciferase assay and suppressed myostatin-induced Smad2 phosphorylation in the Western blot analysis. In the zebrafish larvae analysis, the whole body glucose concentration of the high feeding control (HFC) group was significantly higher than that of the normal feeding control (NFC) group. However, the glucose levels of the high feeding group treated with 12.5 ug SLE and of the high feeding group treated with 18.75 ug SLE were similar to those of the NFC group. The mRNA expression level of the GLUT2 gene of the HFC group was significantly lower than that of the NFC group. SLE treatment restored the expression of the GLUT2 gene to a level that was close to that of the NFC group, indicating that SLE is capable of regulating glucose levels in zebrafish larvae. The current results highlight the potential of SLE as a natural MSTN inhibitor and supplement that can be used to facilitate the treatment of metabolic syndrome.