Medical mushroom, Phellinus linteus and Phellinus baumii called as “Sanghwang” have cultivated in Korea. PL has been studied extensively for its extraordinary capacity of suppressing cancer or enhancing body immunity. The mycelial materials of PL have mainly been used as research samples worldwide because fruiting bodies was difficult to be artificially cultivated. Alternatively, P. baumii (variety, ‘Jangsu’) have been cultivated in Korea. However, fruiting body morphology of P. baumii is clearly different to that of PL. Generally, Phellinus spp. including P. linteus slowly grow on artificial medium such as Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA). In contrast, P. baumii strains were rapidly grown on the artificial media when compared to other Phellinus spp. and thus it was considerable that its mycelial growing ability can be acted as a factor for producing fruiting bodies. This study aimed to find Phellinus isolates having high mycelial growth rate. Five Phellinus isolates that show rapid growth rate on YGM medium were selected from 36 Phellinus isolates collected in Korea. They were identified on nucleotide sequences of rDNA-ITS region. Phellinus linteus strain and Phellinus spp. showing mycelial growth rate comparing to P. baumii were characterized on cultural and bioactive characteristics (antioxidant activity and immune activation).

Acteoside acts as an anti-oxidative activity and anti-apoptosis in the cells. But, it has been not studied on maturation and development of porcine oocytes. The aims of the present study were to examine the effects of acteoside on the morphological progress of meiosis, developmental competence, and ROS in porcine oocytes. Oocytes were matured in tissue culture medium-199, supplemented with acteoside at various concentrations: 0 (control), 10, 30 and 50 μM. The oocytes maturation rates of groups supplemented with acteoside were no significantly different (81.13, 85.96, 82.95 and 83.68%, respectively). Level of ROS was significantly decreased in acteoside treated group. Furthermore, the parthenogenetic blastocyst rate was significantly improved in 10 μM acteoside treated group compared with control group (44.83 vs. 27.75%). And we investigated effect of acteoside on the oocytes condition represented by cytoplasmic maturation by homogeneous distribution and formation of cytoplasmic organelles and regulation of apoptosis-related genes. In the results. during IVM, 10 μM acteoside treated oocytes showed that the mitochondria and lipid droplet were smaller and homogeneous distribution in cytoplasm compare with control oocytes. And reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) of parthenogenetic blstocysts revealed that acteoside increased the anti-apoptotic genes (Mcl-1, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL), whereas reduced the expression of pro-apoptotic genes (Bax and Bak). In conclusion, based on the results, the effect of acteoside on IVM was not attractive. However, in acteoside treated group, cytoplasmic maturation seemed to be improved with morphologically uniform distribution of cytoplasmic organelles. Furthermore, embryonic development in acteoside treated group was significantly highly increased than that of non-treated group. Our results represents that addition of acteoside to the IVM medium has a beneficial effect in physiology of porcine oocytes, providing a improved method for porcine oocytes in vitro. * This work was supported by a grant (Code# PJ008148) from BioGreen21 Program, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

The Egr family of zinc finger transcription factors is rapidly induced by various mitogens and regulates cell growth, differentiation, and apoptosis. While it is clear that loss of Egr1 leads to anovulatory infertility due to LHβ deficiency in female mice, molecular function of Egr1 in male reproduction has not been clearly investigated. Here, we demonstrate that Egr1 acts as an intrinsic transcription factor in Leydig cells to regulate their proliferation and steroidogenesis in the testis as well as an extrinsic factor for male reproduction via LHβ transcription in the pituitary. Egr1 is predominantly expressed in spermatogonia and Leydig cells in immature testes and later detected in some of these cell types in mature testes. The fertility potential of Egr1(-/-) male mice is relatively deteriorated even at 2 month-old age and aggravated with aging. The incidence of abnormalities of seminiferous tubules such as Sertoli cell only was dramatically increased with aging. The number and mean size of Leydig cells were significantly reduced in Egr1(-/-) testes. The impairment of Leydig cells is consistent with significant reduction in levels of testosterone and expression of factors critical for steroidogenesis such as StAR in Egr1(-/-) testes. Exogenous administration of hCG rapidly and transiently induced Egr1 expression in Leydig cells culture in vitro. hCG could reinstate reduced mean size of Leydig cells but not reduced number of Leydig cells and aberrantly low StAR expression, suggesting that Egr1 has critical functions for Leydig cell proliferation and their steroidgenesis. In addition, daily sperm production and in vitro fertilization (IVF) competence were significantly reduced, and apoptosis was facilitated in these mice. Furthermore, hCG administration to compensate for relatively low LH levels in Egr1(-/-) males could not restore the compromised reproductive phenotypes such as IVF competence and apoptosis in these mice. Interestingly, expression of Egr2, a member of Egr family, is significantly elevated in Egr1(-/-) Leydig cells suggesting that genetic compensation of Egr2 may alleviate phenotypic aberration of Egr1(-/-) male testes. Collectively, these results suggest that Egr1 act as an intrinsic transcription factor required for proliferation and steroidogenesis of Leydig cells to govern spermatogenesis in the testis.

개가시나무 가지의 에탄올 추출물에서 항산화활성을 관찰하였으며, 활성성분을 규명하기 위한 연구를 진행하였다. 그 결과, 4종류의 화합물을 분리하여 동정하였다. 분리 동정된 성분은 catechin(1), epi-catechin(2), tyrosol(3) 및 tiliroside(4)이다. 분리 성분의 항산화활성은 DPPH 라디칼 및 superoxide 음이온 라디칼 소거활성을 이용하여 측정하였다. 화합물 1, 2, 3, 4는 100 µL/mL 농도에서 각각 94.2 %, 93.4 %, 33.6 %, 11.2 %의 DPPH 라디칼 저해활성을 나타내었다. 또한, 화합물 1, 2, 3, 4는 200 µL/mL 농도에서 각각 60.2 %, 35.1 %, 20.6%, 4.5 %의 superoxide 음이온 라디칼 저해활성을 나타내었다. 화합물 1 ∼ 4는 개가시나무에서는 처음으로 분리된 물질이다.