Internalization and expression of extracellular molecules into cells and tissues is known very important process to biological processes and therapy of various diseases. In this study, we analyzed expression pattern of extracellular molecule after transduction into various human cells. To investigate cellular expression of internalized molecule, we used adenovirus containing green fluorescence protein. After infection of adenovirus into various human cells, the efficiency of intracellular gene expression was assessed with determining GFP expressing cells by fluorescence microscopy or FACS. After one day of adenovirus infection into HepG2 and A549, we observed that GFP expression was low at 10moi but expression levels were increased at 100moi in both cells. But, adenovirus infection into HCT116 showed low expression of GFP at concentrations from 1moi to 100moi. After 2 day infection with adenovirus, GFP expression level at 10moi and 100moi was highly increased in HepG2 and A549 compared with 1 day infection. Especially, GFP expression was significantly increased in HCT116 after 2 days infection. However, GFP expressing SKOV3 cells by adenovirus infection were not found in all the experimental conditions tested. For quantitative analysis of GFP expression of cells by adenovirus infection, we carried out FACS analysis. As a result, GFP was expressed at very low levels at 1moi in all cells used in this experiment. GFP expression slightly increased after increasing moi to 10 in HepG2, HCT116, and A549 cells. By 100moi infection of adenovirus, GFP expression was elevated to 10 fold higher than 10moi in HepG2 and A549 and about 4 fold elevation was observed in HCT116. A549 showed 20 fold higher expression of GFP than SKOV3. We also found that GFP expression by adenovirus infection was the highest in HepG2 cells. Protein expression was enhanced by increasing concentrations or time of adenovirus infection. In these results, GFP expression efficiency of adenoviral gene transduction reveals the highest in HepG2 and lowest in SKOV3 among the cells tested. Taken together, we could confirm that intracellular protein expression efficiency by transduction of extracellular gene was different in various human cells. Our study suggests that the cell types and cellular properties should be carefully examined to enhance expression efficiency of extracelluar molecules in biological research and disease therapy

Photodynamic therapy(PDT) is recently developed as an effective treatment for malignant disease. Carboplatin, a less nephrotoxic analog of cisplatin, has been widely used for the treatment of multiple malignancies. In this study, we investigated the cytotoxic and apoptotic effect of combined modality of photofrin mediated PDT with cisplatin and carboplatin on KB cell human oral cancer cell line in vitro. The a ttached KB cells were incu bated with c isplatin(0.04mg/ml) and carboplatin(0.02mg/ml) for 24h at 37℃ and followed by photosensitization with photofrin for 6h and laser irradiation with 630nm LED at an intensity of 2.0 J/cm2 for activating photofrin for 15min. Then MTT assay and SYTO 16 green & Propidium iodide (PI) double staining were used respectively to measure the cytotoxicity and nuclear morphology at 24h after PDT. This study demonstrates that the combined modality with carbopaltin resulted in enhanced apoptotic cell death as well as cytotoxic e ffect on KB c ells in vitro, which s uggests the feasibility of combined modality and the possibility o f reducing the effective dosage of photofrin and carboplatin and lowering the side effects on normal cells

PDT is an established cancer treatment modality. This can be attributed to the attractive basic concept of PDT; Combination of two therapeutic agents, a photosensitizing drug and light, which are relatively harmless by themselves but when combined, cause more or less selective tumor destruction. Hematoporphyrin-derived photosensitizers are known to be stable and highly efficient. In this study, we conducted a series of experiments to develop light-induced anticancer drugs against oral cancer cells. We tested the cytotoxicity of photodin by MTT assay and observed cell death pattern (apoptosis or necrosis) by hoechst 33342 and propidium iodide staining methods after PDT. IC50 value of photodin was 0.65 ug/ml. At higher doses of photodin ( > 7.8 ug/ml), cancer cells died exclusively from necrosis after PDT. By contrast, at IC50 value, photodin induced cancer cell to undergo apoptotic cell death. The induction begins approximately 6 hours after PDT. We investigated intracellular localization of photodin by oral cancer cell via confocal laser scanning microscopy. Oral cancer cells dual-stained with photodin and organelle-specific fluorescence probes (Mitotracker, Lysotracker, ER-Tracker) revealed that an intracellular fluorescence distribution was restricted to cytoplasmic compartments with no detectable fluorescence in the nucleus. Confocal images of cells containing photodin were overlapped with the mitochondria-specific fluorescence probe images of the same cells. These results demonstrated that photodin may play the role of a photosensitizer for oral squamous cancer cells without swelling and inflammation. Therefore, photodin-based PDT is a suitable treatment for oral cavity carcinoma patients.

Background : Achyranthes japonica Nakai (AJ) is a perennial herb with a wide distribution in East Asia including Korea, China, and Japan, and it is mainly used as a medicinal plant. In Korea, AJ has been widely used to control pain and improve symptoms in OA patients. AJ contains several important phytochemicals such as saponins, inokosterone, ecdysterone, and oleanolic acid bisdesmoside. Methods and Results : The aim of this work was to investigate the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of fermented and ethanol extracts of Achyranthes japonica Nakai (AJ). The extracts showed strong reductive power and nitrite scavenging, hydroxyl radical scavenging, superoxide radical scavenging, and DNA damage prevention activities. Treatment of RAW 264.7 macrophages with AJ inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced NO secretion and iNOS expression without affecting cell viability. AJ also inhibited cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) expression, leading to the suppression of COX-2-derived prostaglandin E2 production. These inhibitory effects of AJ were accompanied by reduced production of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukins (IL)-1β, -6, and -10. Furthermore, AJ suppressed LPS-induced phosphorylation of extracellular signal regulated kinase, c-Jun N-terminal kinase, and p38. Moreover, AJ inhibited malondialdehyde production and myeloperoxidase activity in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. Conclusion : The antioxidant activity of plants is closely related to their medicinal properties and is widely used as a parameter to determine the bioavailability of medicinal plants. The antioxidant and biological activities of AJ extracts might be due to the synergistic actions of multiple bioactive compounds. It can be concluded that AJ extracts are a potential source of biologically important drug candidates.

Recently, detection of esophageal diverticula by neck ultrasonography has been increasing. In particular, esophageal diverticula near the thyroid gland can be diagnosed as thyroid nodule on ultrasonography. To date, 13 cases of ultrasonographic features of Killian-Jamieson (K-J) diverticula have been reported. We report on four cases of K-J diverticula and discuss clinical characteristics, including ultrasonographic findings, in comparison with previously reported cases. Awareness of ultrasonographic finding of esophageal diverticula, a hypoechoic nodule containing echogenic foci found in the posterolateral aspect of the thyroid, is most important for making a differential diagnosis of K-J diverticulum from a thyroid nodule.

A new soybean cultivar for soy-paste, “Mansu”, was developed from the cross between ‘Suwon 192’, which was tolerant to disease, late maturing and high yielding, and ‘Suwon 196’ which was early maturing and large seed by soybean breeding team in the Yeongnam Agricultural Research Institute (YARI) to make new variety having large seed and high yielding. A promising line, SS97213-2B-3SSD-39-1-1, was selected and designated as the name of ‘Suwon 236’. It was characterized by regional yield trials (RYT) for three years from 2004 to 2006 and released as the name of “Mansu”. It has a determinate growth habit, purple flower, grey pubescence, pale green seed coat, yellow cotyledon, large spherical seed (26.5 grams per 100 seeds). Maturity date is 4 days later than the check cultivar, Taekwang. The average yield of Mansu was 2.93 ton per hectare in the regional yield trials (RYT) carried out for three years from 2004 to 2006 which was 7 percent higher than that of the check cultivar, Taekwang.