The creation of probiotic-containing fermented milk products for use by human is an important research topic and has high potential for development. Also, studies have shown that heat-killed probiotics are more stable and easier to use than live probiotics. However, as of this time, research has not been reported in Korea that has evaluated the product or functionality of fermented milk after the addition of heat-killed probiotics. This study was conducted to verify the physiological activity of heat-killed Enterococcus faecalis EF-2001 after its addition to Lactobacillus-fermented milk. Briefly, NFM normal fermented milk (NFM) was used as the control sample, whereas fermented milk with 100 μg/mL EF-2001 (EFM1) and fermented milk with 500 μg/mL EF-2001 (EFM2) were used as the treated samples. Among the samples, EFM2 had the highest acidity of 1.15, but no other factors significantly differed (p<0.05). Furthermore, EFM2 had the highest Lactobacillus count of 9.22 (p<0.05). ABTS, DPPH and FRAP were measured to determine the antioxidant activity of the samples. With respect to those parameters, EFM2 had the highest antioxidant measurements. Therefore, the study confirmed that the addition of E. faecalis EF-2001 to NFM is suitable with the standard and does not affect the quality of characteristics. In conclusion, the treatment sample had higher antioxidant activity than did NFM; this result may be used as a basic for further research and as a guideline for the manufacturing of heat-killed probiotic-containing NFM.

The epididymis in the male reproductive tract is the site where spermatozoa produced from the testis become mature. The epididymis is divided into 4 different segments, initial segment and caput, corpus, and caudal epididymis, depending upon functional and morphological features. Aquaporins (Aqps) are water channel molecules, which are present in the epididymis and play a major role in removal of epididymal water, resulting in creation of microenvironment for sperm maturation and concentration of sperms. Nandrolone decanoate (ND) is a synthetic anabolic-androgenic steroid, which is used to treat clinical diseases and improve physical ability and appearance. Even though it is well determined that the ND causes the male infertility by affecting the testis, little is known the effect of the ND on the epididymis. The present study was focused to examine the effect of ND at different treatment doses and periods on expression of Aqp1 and Aqp9 genes in the epididymis of pubertal rats. Results showed that mRNA expression of Aqp1 and Aqp9 genes among the parts of the epididymis was differentially regulated by ND treatment doses. In addition, treatment periods of ND caused differential expression of Aqp1 and Aqp9 mRNAs among segments of the epididymis. Therefore, it is believed that male infertility induced by ND could be resulted not only from malfunction of the testis but also from aberrant gene expression of Aqp1 and Aqp9 in the epididymis.