Gangliosides exist in glycosphingolipid-enriched domains on the cell membrane and regulate various functions such as adhesion, differentiation, and receptor signaling. Ganglioside GM3 by ST3GAL5 enzyme provides an essential function in the biosynthesis of more complex ganglio-series gangliosides. However, the role of gangliosides GM3 in porcine oocytes during in vitro maturation and early embryo development stage has not yet understood clear. Therefore, we examined ganglioside GM3 expression patterns under apoptosis stress during maturation and preimplantation development of porcine oocytes and embryos. First, porcine oocytes cultured in the NCSU-23 medium for 44 h after H2O2 treated groups (0.01, 0.1, 1 mM). After completion of meiotic maturation, the proportion MII (44 h) was significantly different among control and the H2O2 treated groups (76.8±0.3 vs 69.1±0.4; 0.01 mM, 55.7±1.0; 0.1 mM, 38.2±1.6%; 1 mM, P<0.05). The expressions of ST3GAL5 in H2O2 treated groups were gradually decreased compared with control group. Next, changes of ST3GAL5 expression patterns were detected by using immunofluorescene (IF) staining during preimplantation development until blastocyst. As a result, we confirmed that the expressions of ST3GAL5 in cleaving embryos were gradually decreased (P<0.05) according to the early embryo development progress. Based on these results, we suggest that the ganglioside GM3 was used to the marker as pro-apoptotic factor in porcine oocyte of maturation and early embryo production in vitro, respectively. Furthermore, our findings will be helpful for better understanding the basic mechanism of gangliosides GM3 regulating in oocyte maturation and early embryonic development of porcine in vitro.

Edaravone (Eda) is a potent scavenger of inhibiting free radicals including hydroxyl radicals (H2O2). Reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as H2O2 can alter most kinds of cellular molecules such as lipids, proteins and nucleic acids, cellular apoptosis. In addition, oxidative stress from over-production of ROS is involved in the defective embryo development of porcine. Previous study reported that Eda has protective effects against oxidative stress-like cellular damage. However, the effect of Eda on the preimplantation porcine embryos development under oxidative stress is unclear. Therefore, in this study, the effects of Eda on blastocyst development, expression levels of ROS, and apoptotic index were first investigated in preimplantation porcine embryos. After in vitro fertilization, porcine embryos were cultured for 6 days in PZM medium with Eda (10 μM), H2O2 (200 μM), and Eda+H2O2 treated group, respectively. Rate of blastocyst development was significantly increased (P<0.05) in the Eda treated group compared with only H2O2 treated group. And, we measured intracellular levels of ROS by DCF-DA staining methods and investigated numbers of apoptotic nuclei by TUNEL assay analysis is in porcine blastocyst, respectively. Both intracellular ROS levels and the numbers of apoptotic nucleic were significantly decreased (P<0.05) in porcine blastocysts cultured with Eda (10 μM). More over, the total cell number of blastocysts were significantly increased (P<0.05) in the Eda-treated group compared with untreated group and the only H2O2 treated group. Based on the results, Eda was related to regulate as antioxidant-like function according to the reducing ROS levels during preimplantation periods. Also, Eda is beneficial for developmental competence and preimplantation quality of porcine embryos. Therefore, we concluded that Eda has protective effect to ROS derived apoptotic stress in preimplantation porcine embryos.

6-Gingerol exerts anti-tumor effects in various cancer cell models. We evaluated the effect of 6-gingerol on the growth of MCF-7 breast cancer cells and MCF-10A breast epithelial cells to determine whether any growth-inhibitory effects found were attributable to apoptosis, and to elucidate the underlying mechanism of action. 6-Gingerol inhibited the viability of both cell lines in a dose- and time-dependent manner; however, the degree of inhibition was greater in MCF-7 than MCF-10A cells. By flow cytometry, induction of dose- and time-dependent apoptosis was found, and the magnitude of apoptosis was also markedly greater in MCF-7 than MCF-10A cells. Expression of caspase-3 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) was observed in MCF-7 cells treated with 6-gingerol, and further cleavage of PARP occurred in these cells. We suggest that 6-gingerol induces apoptosis in human breast cancer cells mainly by promoting caspase-3 expression and subsequent degradation of PARP.

Expression type for mixed-use of Dongba characters can be divided into dominant type and parallel type. Causes for mixed-use includes three points: 1. similar or compatible patterns are the precondition for mixed-use; 2. certain relation exists among semantics of words represented by characters, or characters belong to the same classification in terms of meaning or have correlative meanings; 3. outcome is obtained during self-adjustment transitional stage of internal character of writing system. There are three solutions to solve the problem of similar characters: 1. re-distribution of characters’ functions; 2. integration of characters; 3. reconstruction of expression which is embodied in two aspects, including ideographical and phonetic expression transited from ideographical expression to additional phonetic complement, and transition from ideographical expression to pure phonetic expression.

There have been many studies on superwetting surfaces, ranging from superhydrophilicity to superhydrophobicity, owing to the variety of their potential applications. There are some drawbacks to developing these films for certain applications, such as the fragility of the microscopic roughness feature that is vital to ensure superwettability. At the first part of in this presentation, we fabricated intrinsically stable superwetting films using the organosilicate based layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly method in order to control hierarchical roughness and adjusted the surface chemistry of the multilayer structures. At the second part, hydrophilic branched poly(ethylenimine) and nanoparticle were assembled into LbL multilayers in the presence of UV-curable poly(urethane acrylate).

동절기에 제주도 지역에서 도래하는 떼까마귀의 유전적 특성과 집단 간 유연관계를 구명하기 위해, 미토콘드리아 COI 유전자 서열의 다형성에 기반한 모계 계통 구조와 계통 유연관계를 분석하였다. 떼까마귀 DNA는 우도와 제주도 내에서 발견된 깃털과 사체 시료에서 분리하였다. 결정된 COI 서열들(n=41)은 떼까마귀(Corvus frugilegus)에서 기존 에 보고된 서열들과 97.0% 이상 일치하였다. 제주도 떼까마귀 COI 서열들은 3가지 haplotype(J01-J03)으로 구분되었으 나 지역-특이적인 양상을 보이지 않아, 이들이 하나의 모계 기원에서 유래한 집단임을 알 수 있었다. 떼까마귀 전체 COI 서열에서 8개의 COI haplotype들이 발견되었다. 이 중 3가지 haplotype들은 러시아 동부, 몽골, 한국 등 동북아시 아의 COI 서열들을 포함하였고, 나머지 5가지는 중앙아시아, 중동아시아, 러시아 서부, 유럽국가의 떼까마귀에서 발견 되었다. 계통수 상에서 떼까마귀의 COI 서열들은 측소적 종분화 단계인 2아종, C. f. frugilegus와 C. f. pastinator인 2개의 모계 계통으로 뚜렷하게 구분되었다. DNA barcoding 분석을 통한 연구결과는 모계 계통의 구조, 계통 유연관계 및 분자생태를 이해하는 데 중요한 정보를 제공할 것이다.

We present our efforts for extending the simultaneous multi-frequency receiver system of the Korean Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Network (KVN) to global baselines in order to measure the frequency-dependent position shifts in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) jets, the so called core shift effect, with an unprecedented accuracy (a few micro-arcseconds). Millimeter VLBI observations with simultaneous multi-frequency receiver systems, like those of the KVN, enable us to explore the innermost regions of AGN and high precision astrometry. Such a system is capable of locating the frequency dependent opacity changes accurately. We have conducted the feasibility test-observations with the interested partners by implementing the KVN-compatible systems. Here we describe the science case for measuring the core shift effect in the AGN jet and report progress and future plans on extending the simultaneous multi-frequency system to global baselines.