Ficus carica L. (common fig), one of the first plants cultivated by humans, originated in the Mediterranean basin and currently grows worldwide, including southwest Asia and South Korea. It has been used as a traditional medicine for treatment of metabolic, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases as well as hemorrhoids and skin infections. Its pharmacological properties have recently been studied in detail, but research on the anti-cancer effect of its latex has been only been studied on a limited basis on several cell lines, such prostate cancer, breast cancer, and leukemia. In this study, we investigated the anti-cancer activity of the latex of Ficus carica L.and its underlying mechanism in FaDu human hypopharynx squamous carcinoma cells. (See Ed. note above) We confirmed through SDS-PAGE analysis and gelatinolytic activity analysis that the latex of Ficus carica contains cysteine protease ficin. Our data showed that the latex inhibited cell growth in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, the latex treatment markedly induced apoptosis in FaDu cells as determined by FACS analysis, elevated expression level of cleaved caspase-9, -3 and PARP (poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase), and. increased the expression of Bax (pro-apoptotic factor) while decreasing the expression of Bcl-2 (anti-apoptotic factor). Taken together, these results suggested that latex containing the ficin inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis by caspase and the Bcl-2 family signaling pathway in FaDu human hypopharynx squamous carcinoma cells. These findings point to the potential of latex of Ficus carica to provide a novel chemotherapeutic drug due to its growth inhibition effects and induction of apoptosis in human oral cancer cells.

Understanding the identity of an urban space is one of the most important considerations for spatial planners and designers, who are charged with revealing and strengthening the space’s sense of place. However, in many cases, an urban space is regarded merely as a physical form, lacking an interpretation of various semantics, such as its history, political economy, social culture, and art. The purpose of this study is to investigate how an urban space evolves, and thus, how the social images of urban spaces can be recognized with Lefebvre’s theory. Therefore, we examine an urban district to reveal the interaction between societies and spaces through images reflected in news media and public articles, and eventually define the identity of the space. This study takes Yeonnam-dong district as its case, and carefully examines the social relations affecting spatial practices in the area by means of Lefebvre’s spatial triad: representation of space, representational space, and spatial practice. Using historical observation as a research method, we conducted a case review of Yeonnam-dong over 40 years (from 1975 to 2016). The results indicate that there have been complicated power dynamics and struggles to form the current image of Yeonnam-dong, which is still an ongoing process; this exemplifies Lefebvre's notion of the social construction of spaces. The results provide meaningful lessons for planners and designers that they should play important roles as coordinators in radical spatial changes. One of the major limitations of this study is that it does not fully examine the detailed roles of each social entity in the landscape changes, which should be investigated in further studies.