Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a lipid messenger mediated by G protein-coupled receptors (LPAR1-6). It is involved in the pathogenesis of certain chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. In addition, it controls the self-renewal and differentiation of stem cells. Recent research has demonstrated the close relationship between periodontitis and various diseases in the human body. However, the precise role of LPA in the development of periodontitis has not been studied. We identified that LPAR1 was highly expressed in human periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs). In periodontitis-mimicking conditions with Porphyromonas gingivalis -derived lipopolysaccharide (Pg-LPS) treatment, PDLSCs exhibited a considerable reduction in the cellular viability and osteogenic differentiation potential, in addition to an increase in the inflammatory responses including tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β expression and nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) activation. Of the various LPAR antagonists, pre-treatment with AM095, an LPAR1 inhibitor, showed a positive effect on the restoration of cellular viability and osteogenic differentiation, accompanied by a decrease in NF-κB signaling, and action against Pg-LPS. These findings suggest that the modulation of LPAR1 activity will assist in checking the progression of periodontitis and in its treatment.

본 연구에서는 국내 유통 중인 농산물 9품목(n = 578)에 대한 납과 카드뮴 함량을 조사하고 이들의 섭취로 인한 위해성을 평가하고자 하였다. 납과 카드뮴의 함량은 마이크로웨이브 분해 후 ICP-MS로 분석하였다. 조사대상 농산물의 납 평균 함량은 각각 보리 0.014 mg/kg, 완두콩 0.010 mg/kg, 강낭콩 0.008 mg/kg, 녹두 0.006 mg/kg, 파인애플 0.008 mg/kg, 살구 0.016 mg/kg, 매실 0.015 mg/kg, 자두 0.021 mg/kg, 대추 0.019 mg/kg이었고, 카드뮴 평균함량은 보리 0.017 mg/kg, 완두콩 0.004 mg/kg, 강낭콩 0.007 mg/kg, 녹두 0.005 mg/kg, 파인애플 0.001 mg/kg, 살구 0.002 mg/kg, 매실 0.002 mg/kg, 자두 0.002 mg/kg, 대추 0.003 mg/kg이었다. 모든 시료의 납, 카드뮴 함량은 EU, CODEX 및 국내 기준보다 낮은 수준이었다. 조사 대상 농산물에 대한 납, 카드뮴의 인체노출량을 산출한 결과, 납은 잠정주간섭취허용량(PTWI, 25 μg/kg b.w./week)의 0.067%, 카드뮴은 월간잠정섭취허용량(PTMI, 25 μg/kg b.w./month)의 0.28%이었다. 이상의 결과는 조사 대상 농산물의 납, 카드뮴 오염도와 이들의 섭취에 의한 위해성이 모두 낮은 수준이라는 것을 보여준다.

We demonstrated the sensitivity of optically active single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with a diameter below 1 nm that were homogeneously dispersed in cement composites under a mechanical load. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was selected as the dispersing agent to achieve a homogeneous dispersion of SWCNTs in an aqueous solution, and the dispersion state of the SWCNTs were characterized using various optical tools. It was found that the addition of a large amount of DNA prohibited the structural evolution of calcium hydroxide and calcium silicate hydrate. Based on the in-situ Raman and X-ray diffraction studies, it was evident that hydrophilic functional groups within the DNA strongly retarded the hydration reaction. The optimum amount of DNA with respect to the cement was found to be 0.05 wt%. The strong Raman signals coming from the SWCNTs entrapped in the cement composites enabled us to understand their dispersion state within the cement as well as their interfacial interaction. The G and G’ bands of the SWCNTs sensitively varied under mechanical compression. Our results indicate that an extremely small amount of SWCNTs can be used as an optical strain sensor if they are homogeneously dispersed within cement composites.

An importance of food allergen detection has been growing in food industry. Here, we developed a rapid and easy-to-use detection system for Ara h1, a major allergen in peanut, using gold nanoparticles and switchable linkers. The detection system was performed by two steps. In the first step, Ara h1 was mixed with various concentrations (0.2 - 1.0μg/mL) of biotinylated anti-Ara h1 antibody (i.e., switchable linker, SLs) solutions for 20 min. After mixing, streptavidin coated gold nanoparticle (Abs. 4.0) was added to the mixture solutions with agitation for10 min. Without Ara h1(control), the region of aggregation caused by quantitative relationship between SLs and gold nanoparticle was observed at more than 0.4 μg/mL of SLs. However, under presence of Ara h1, SLs covered with Ara h1 had less ability to react with gold nanoparticles than naked SLs. This resulted in a change of the quantitative relationship mentioned above, which led to shift of the aggregation region. When 10 nM and 40 nM of Ara h1 were added, the aggregation region was appeared from 0.5and 0.8 μg/mLof switchable linkers, respectively. Ara h1 in peanut sample was also detected with this system. 0.4 μg/mL of switchable linkers are mixed with serially diluted peanut extract solutions. As a result, the shift of the aggregation region was observed from undiluted extract to 10 -2 diluted solution. This system could be adapted to detect other harmful/useful bio materials in food.

As ubiquitous organisms entomopathogenic fungi may natually occur within environment including phylloplanes and soil or deposite and survive for a while after spraying a fungal suspension to control insect pest. The existence of pathogenic fungi is a threat to arthropods foraging for food and oviposition sites. The detection and avoidance of pathogens is important for host survival, longevity and ultimate fitness. Although entomopathogenic fungi are ubiquitous worldwide and act as common natural enemies of many invertebrate species, very few studies have conducted abiut the detection and avoidance of pathogenic fungi by insect pest. We have studied that an insect pest can recognize a high virulence fungi on crop surface, avoid oviposition and don’t enter the field treated their pathogen.

We investigated the insect community along altitudinal gradient to gather basic data for distributional monitoring of insect species in the forest ecosystem. The investigation area was Seon-gaksan (Mt.) in Jinan-gun, Jeollabuk-do province, where the bucket-light trap and pit-fall trap for quantification were installed in Quercus vegetation at altitude of 300m, 600m and 900m. The field collecting was performed on May, July and September 2013 respectively. ANOVA analysis was conducted to analyze the significance between insect species along altitude using the collected insect community data. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results showed statistically significant differences among ground-beetles and ants abundance with altitude as a response variable. Although we expected a distinct cluster with the difference of altitude at each study site, nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMS) showed distinct clusters with the moth, ground-beetles, and ant assemblage at altitudinal increase and sampling month. In the result, a total of 309 species in 18 families of nocturnal moths were collected by bucket-light trap. The insects collected in pit-fall trap were ground-beetles with 196 individuals of 26 species and ants with 11,276 individuals of 14 species respectively.

The influenza virus is an important respiratory risk affecting humans, and effective treatments are needed. Some oriental medicines are currently applied for treatment of common colds as well as influenza infection. Previous studies have reported that the therapeutic properties of MA-128 are effective for treatment of psoriasis antiasthmatic and atopic dermatitis. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic properties of the novel herbal medicine, MA-128, for treatment of influenza virus infection by oral administration. MA-128 is an active natural biological compound from herbal-marine origin. The results showed that oral administration of MA-128 in mice could confer a survival benefit against Type A influenza virus infection. Daily oral administration of MA-128 resulted in delayed death in infected mice for three days against mouse adapted H3N2 (A/Philippines/2/82). However, it protected more than 60% of mice from lethal infection of 2009 pandemic H1N1 (A/Korea/CJ01/2009) influenza virus. In addition, lung viral titers were significantly reduced at seven days post infection (~100 times) compared with mock-treated mice and viruses were cleared at 9 dpi only in the MA-128 treated groups. This study demonstrated the potential of the novel herbal medicine, MA-128, as an herbal remedy against influenza A viruses.

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of macrophages on growth of human colon cancer cells. The results showed that co-culture of colon cancer cells with macrophages inhibited the growth of colon cancer cells (HCT116 and SW620) depending on the number of macrophages, RAW 264.7 cells, and activated THP-1 cells accompanied by down regulation of pSTAT3 in cancer cells. We also found that expression and release of cancer cell growth inhibitory cytokines, IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) and IL-10, was increased in macrophages. Blocking of the STAT3 pathway with specific inhibitor and siRNA of STAT3 abolished the growth of colon cancer cells and expression of IL-1ra and IL-10. In addition, neutralization of IL-1ra and IL-10 with antibodies resulted in reversal of macrophage-induced inhibition of cancer cell growth. These data showed that IL-1ra and IL-10 released from macrophages inhibit growth of colon cancer cells through inhibition of the STAT3 pathway.

운간초의 분화 품질을 향상시키기 위하여 ‘Kumoma’ 와 ‘Kumoma-Gusa’ 두 품종의 생장과 개화에 미치는 영향을 구명하고자 식물생장억제제 (PGRs) 4종을 처리 하였다. 식물생장억제제 종류와 처리농도는 paclobutrazol (10, 20, 40, 80 mg·L-1), flurprimidol (5, 10, 20, 40mg·L-1), daminozide (500, 1000, 2000, 4000mg·L-1), chlormequat (50, 100, 200, 400 mg·L-1)이고 엽면살포 와 토양관주 방법으로 처리하였다. Paclobutrazol 40 mg·L-1 처리는 운간초의 두 품종에서 초장과 화경 장을 줄이는데 효과적이었다. ‘Kumoma’ 품종에서, paclobutrazol 40 mg·L-1 엽면살포와 토양관주 처리방 법은 초장을 각각 12.6, 12.5 cm로, 화경장은 3.4, 3.3 cm로 줄일 수 있었다. ‘Kumoma-Gusa‘ 품종에서 는 paclobutrazol 토양관주는 처리 농도가 증가함에 따라 초장은 13.2-10.7 cm, 화경장은 3.9-2.0 cm까지 줄일 수 있었지만 꽃의 수는 대조구와 비교했을 때 현 저하게 감소하여서 20개까지 감소하였다. Flurprimidol 20mg·L-1 스프레이와 토양관주 처리는 두 품종 모두 초장과 화경장을 줄일 수 있었다. ‘Kumoma’ 품종에 서 flurprimidol 10 mg·L-1 스프레이 또는 토양관주 처리는 개화 품질을 향상시킬 수 있었고 대조구와 비 교해 꽃의 수는 44.7개 이상, 출하 일수는 5일 정도 빨리 출하 할 수 있었다. ‘Kumoma-Gusa‘ 품종에서 PGRs처리에 의한 초장 과 화경장 억제효과가 가장 큰 것은 paclobutrazol 80mg·L-1과 flurprimidol 40mg·L-1 이었고 paclobutrazol 과 flurprimidol 스프레이와 토양관주 처리에서 각각, 초장은 10.7, 9.9 cm, 화경장은 2.0, 1.5 cm 로 생장 억제효과가 가장 큰 것을 알 수 있었다. 그러나 flurprimidol 40 mg·L-1 토양관주 처리에서 출하일수는 농도에 따라 3-13일 정도 대조구보다 늦어졌고 꽃의 수는 15.6개로 가장 적은 것을 관찰 할 수 있었다. 두 품종 모두에서 daminozide 처리는 초장과 화경장 이 줄어들지 않았지만 ‘Kumoma’ 품종에서는 대조구 와 비교했을 때 꽃의 수가 증가하였다. Chlormequat 처리는 paclobutrazol 과 flurprimidol 처리와 비교했 을 때 화경장 감소효과는 작았고 처리 식물의 잎은 다른 처리에 비해 연한 녹색을 보여주었다. 두 품종 모두에서 chlormequat 과 daminozide 처리는 생육과 개화 품질에 효과적으로 영향을 주지는 않았지만 꽃의 수는 모든 처리농도에서 41개 이상을 보여주었고, ‘Kumoma-Gusa’ 품종에 chlormequat 토양관주 처리는 최대 꽃의 수 63개를 볼 수 있었다. 이번 결과들은 paclobutrazol 과 flurprimidol 처리가 운간초 분화의 품질 향상을 위한 화경장의 생육을 조 절하는 생장억제제로서 사용 될 수 있음을 보여 주었 고, ‘Kumoma’ 품종에서는 paclobutrazol 40 mg·L-1 스프레이는 생육특성을, flurprimidol 10 mg·L-1 토양관 주 방법은 개화관련 특성의 품질을 향상시키는 생장억 제제의 농도로 추천 될 수 있고, ‘Kumoma-Gusa’ 품종 에서는 flurprimidol 20mg·L-1 스프레이와 flurprimidol 5mg·L-1 토양관주 방법이 운간초 분화의 생육특성과 개 화품질을 향상시키는 생장억제제의 농도로 추천 될 수 있다.

Propylea japonica is small ladybug(approximately 4-5mm) and is met with everywhere in Korea. When there was no aphid, the survival rate of P. japonica was 0% among another instar bugs and 26.7～32.8% among same instar bugs after 48 hours. When there were sufficient aphids, the cannibalism of P. japonica was low, so the survival rate of P. japonica was 78.6～95.8% among another instar bugs and 80.6～100% among same instar bugs after 48 hours. In the comparison of the number of eggs at different oviposition site, P. japonica preferred the corrugated cardboard. In experiment using T-tube, the rate of decoy was 81% at cotton aphid compared with pepper leaf and 62% at cotton aphid compared with artificial diet. In the artificial diet using shrimp and chicken liver, the developmental period from egg to adult was 17days and the survival rate from egg to adult was 66.7% but the vitality was not good. These data suggest that P. japonica can be used effective natural enemy for control of aphids and is needed to research about artificial diet, mass rearing system and control effect in field.