Coffee is a commonly consumed beverage that contains anti-inflammatory compounds such as caffeine, chlorogenic acid, cafestol, trigonelline, and kahweol. Lactobacillus plantarum is a lactic acid bacterium most frequently used in the fermentation of food products of plant origin. L. plantarum is able to degrade some food phenolic compounds and provide high value-added compounds such as powerful antioxidants or food additives approved as flavouring agents. In this study, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of coffee extract fermented by L. plantarum on RAW264.7 macrophages. In lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW264.7 cells, these coffee extracts exhibited antiinflammatory activities through the reduction of nitric oxide (NO) production and inducible NO synthase expression. Fermented coffee extracts significantly decreased the expression of inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin 1β, interleukin 6, and interferon γ. Cyclooxygenase-2, which is one of the key biomarkers for inflammation, was significantly suppressed. These results might be helpful for understanding the anti-inflammatory mechanism of fermented coffee extract on immune cells and, moreover, suggest that fermented coffee extract may be a beneficial anti-inflammatory agent.

We attempted to investigate antibacterial and proteolytic activities of bacteria isolated from three ethnic fermented seafoods in the east coast of South Korea, gajami sikhae, squid jeotgal, and fermented jinuari (Grateloupia filicina). Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579, Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 15313, Staphylococcus aureus KCTC 1916, Escherichia coli O157:H7 ATCC 43895, and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium ATCC 4931 were selected to determine the antibacterial activity of the bacterial isolates. Among 233 isolates from the three foods, 36 isolates (15.5%) showed antibacterial activity against B. cereus ATCC 14579, the highest incidence of inhibition, followed by S. aureus KCTC 1916 (7.7%) and L. monocytogenes ATCC 15313 (6.0%). However, only five and three strains among the isolates exhibited inhibitory activity against Gram-negative indicators, E. coli ATCC 43895 and Sal. enterica ATCC 4931, respectively. The proteolytic activity of the isolates was determined via hydrolysis of skim milk after 24, 48, and 72 h incubation. After 72 h incubation, 72 out of 233 isolates (30.9%) showed proteolytic activity, and the isolates of fermented jinuari exhibited the highest incidence of proteolytic activity (60%, 36 isolates). These results suggest that ethnic fermented seafoods in the east coast of South Korea might be a promising source of bacterial strains producing antibacterial and proteolytic compounds.

Many traditional fermented foods contain diverse bacteria and many lactic acid bacteria (LAB) play important roles for the fermentation of foods such as many dairy foods and kimchi. Especially, Leuconostoc mesenteroides is one of major bacteria in those fermented foods and the development of this species would be expected to be critical for strain improvement as well as the industrialization. Up to now, a lot of plasmids were isolated from Leuconostocs species including Leu. mesenteroides and a number of vector systems has been developed. Many plasmid vector systems using Leuconostocs spp. employ RCR (rolling circle replication) producing single-stranded DNA intermediates or sometimes takes theta replication. These plasmids include the sequences for Pre protein, recombination specific sites such as RSA (recombination site A) and RSB (recombination site B), and single strain origins for RCR replication. This information might be helpful to elucidate the improvement of Leuconostocs spp. and moreover the development of diverse products using Leuconostocs spp.

Ski protein is implicated in proliferation/differentiation in a variety of cells. We had previously reported that Ski protein is present in granulosa cells of atretic follicles, but not in preovulatory follicles, suggesting that Ski has a role in apoptosis of granulosa cells. The alternative fate of granulosa cells other than apoptosis is to differentiate to luteal cells; however, it is unknown whether Ski is expressed and has a role in granulosa cells undergoing luteinization. Thus, the aim of the present study was to locate Ski protein in the rat ovary during luteinizationto predict the possible role of Ski. In order to examine the expression pattern of Ski protein along with the progress of luteinization, follicular growth was induced by administration of equine chorionic gonadtropin to immature female rats, and luteinization was induced by human chorionic gonadtropin treatment to mimic luteinizing hormone (LH) surge. While no Ski-positive granulosa cells were present in preovulatory follicle, Ski protein expression was induced in response to LH surge, and was maintained after the formation of the corpus luteum (CL). Though Ski protein is absent in granulosa cells of preovulatory follicle, its mRNA (c-Ski)was expressed and the level was unchanged even after LH surge. Taken together, these results demonstrated that Ski protein expression is induced in granulosa cells upon luteinization, and suggests that its expression is regulated post-transcriptionally.

Discovery, identification, and informatics of low molecular weight peptide are extensively rising in the field of proteomics research. In this study, we analyzed protein profiles to discover peptide based biomarker for twelve different soybean seeds with three different agronomic types using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS). For optimization of SELDI-TOF MS in soybean seed proteome analysis, four different extraction buffers were tested with urea solubilization buffer, thiourea/urea solubilization buffer, phenol extraction buffer, and modified trichloroacetic acid (TCA)/acetone precipitation/urea solubilization extraction buffer. Two different type of ProteinChip arrays, cation exchange (CM10) and anion exchange (Q10), applied to profile peptides. Among the four different extraction buffers, phenol extraction was selected to protein extraction methodology. Numbers of detected peak cluster in twelve soybean seeds were 125 at CM10 and 90 at Q10 array in the mass range from 2 to 40 kDa. Among them, 82 peak clusters at CM10 and 33 peak clusters at Q10 array showed significantly different peak clusters at p<0.00004 (CM10) and p<0.00005 (Q10) among twelve different soybean cultivars. Moreover, 29 peak clusters at CM10 and 17 peak clusters at Q10 array were detected in all cultivars as an ‘universally existed peptide’. In comparison with three different agronomic types, total of 55 peak clusters (CM10) and 23 peak clusters (Q10) were significantly different peak clusters at p<0.00004 and p<0.0001, respectively. In these probability levels, soybean seeds were well discriminated into different cultivar and different type with each other. Also we could find several specific peptide biomarkers for agronomic type.