β-glucosidase is an enzyme that hydrolyzes glycosidic bonds to generate terminal non-reducing residues in β-D-glucosides and oligosaccharides. These enzymes are used to degrade the plant cell walls of plant biomass. The 170 lactic acid bacteria isolated from beachu kimchi were examined for their β-glucosidase activity(E.C. 3.2.1.21.). Among the tested lactic acid bacteria, 48 strains utilized cellobiose as a carbon source. The highest β-glucosidase activity was 0.0537±0.0021(U/mg protein) in MSE129. MSE129 was identified to be Weissella koreenisis using 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis.

Oats (Avena satica L.) are an important source of dietary fiber mainly composed of β-glucans, which is reported to be effective in lowering of cholesterol and decreasing the risk of heart attack. Subcritical water extraction (SWE) is a new and promising method for the extraction of β-glucan due to its polarity-selectivity, efficiency of recovery, time-efficiency, and lower cost. In this study, efficiencies of the SWE were investigated for the extraction of β-glucan from oat flour. The conditions for maximizing the extraction efficiency were determined by varying temperature (110-190°C), pH of solvent (pH 3.0-10.6), static time (5-20 min) and particle size of oat flour. The amount of β-glucan was determined with a ‘Mixed-linkage β-glucan’ assay kit (Megazyme International Ltd.), according to McCleary and Codd (1991). The overall results showed that the concentration of β-glucan was highest under the following conditions: extraction temperature of 200°C, pH value of 4.0, static time of 10 min, and particle size of 425-850 μm. The extraction yield under the optimum condition was 6.98±1.17 g/100 g oat flour, which was over two-fold higher than that obtained using hot water extraction method (60°C, 3 h). Therefore, SWE is a feasible alternative for extracting soluble dietary fiber (β-glucan) from oat flour.

Lentinula edodes, a member of the Pleurotaceae, is a blood pressure and cholesterol lowering effect. Recently, research the reduction of irritation and the enhancement of function have been cultivation of natural resources using mushroom mycelium. For the development of food fermented with L. edodes mycelium of natural medicinal herb remnants, determined to be 20%, and the product were used after lyophilization. In this study, we were analyzed the contents of β-glucan and amino acids of fermented herb remnants by L. edoeds mycelials. β -Glucan is a type of polysaccharide that has immune-enhancing and is known to inhibit cancer cells. The content of β-glucan and total amino acids of fermented herb remnants by L. edoeds mycelials were 35.13% and 8,697.36 mg%, respectively. The content of essential amino acid from fermented herb remnants by L. edoeds mycelials was 3,226.85 mg%. Collectively, our findings suggest that fermented herb remnants by L. edoeds mycelials extract could be used as an chemo-preventive material for consumers.

β-glucan is a safe and highly potent biological response modifier that nutritionally activates the immune response through the Macrophage, Dendritic and additional immune cells to yield various therapeutic effects. Shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) contanining β-glucans may be beneficial for human health; they have been used in the treatment of cancer, hypertension, and high cholesterol levels. The effect of different substrates and various developmental stages (mycelium growth, primordium appearance, and fruiting-body formation) on β-glucan production in the edible mushroom L. edodes was studied. The cap of the mature mushroom showed the highest β-glucan activity, and β-glucan activity seemed to be influenced somewhat by some well-known inducers or sawdust. In this study, we utilized five strains (JMI 10022, 10036, 10077, 10079, 10080) of L. edodes regardless of origin and growth conditions. This experiment showed that the expression of β-glucan was induced by glucose bond, and increased with the growing of L. edodes. Quantitatively, reverse transcription PCR utilized pairs of primers specific for β-glucan gene expression shows that expressed genes were most commonly indentified during the process of fruiting-body formation. We suggest that the results will provide valuable information to assist L. edodes industry.

Diets rich in flavonoid-containing foods are sometimes associated with cancer, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disease prevention. β-glucan, one of the most important bioactive compounds in medicinal mushrooms, is used to boost the immune system, diabetes and cancer. In this study, we aimed to determine the content of two flavonoid compounds (naringenin and naringin) and β-glucan in Flammulina velutipes and Flammulina velutipe-gold strain. The naringenin, naringin, and β-glucan components from the Flammulina velutipes and Flammulina velutipe-gold strain were measured by the HPLC analysis. As a result, the contents of naringenin, naringin, and β-glucan were found to be much higher in Flammulina velutipe-gold strain than Flammulina velutipe. From the above results, we may suggest that Flammulina velutipe-gold strain might have useful as a material for functional food and pharmaceutics fir the pathological process of various human diseases.

The estrogen-mediated effect of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is a highly critical factor for the clinical application of MSCs. However, the present study is conducted on MSCs derived from adult donors, which have different physiological status with steroid hormonal changes. Therefore, we explores the important role of 17β-estradiol (E2) in MSCs derived from female and male newborn piglets (NF- and NM-pBMSCs), which are non-sexually matured donors with steroid hormones. The results revealed that in vitro treatment of MSCs with E2 improved cell proliferation, but the rates varied according to the gender of the newborn donors. Following in vitro treatment of newborn MSCs with E2, mRNA levels of Oct3/4 and Sox2 increased in both genders of MSCs and they may be correlated with both estrogen receptor α (ERα) and ERβ in NF-pBMSCs, but NM-pBMSCs were only correlated with ERα. Moreover, E2-treated NF-pBMSCs decreased in β-galactosidase activity but no influence on NM-pBMSCs. In E2-mediated differentiation capacity, E2 induced an increase in the osteogenic and chondrogenic abilities of both pBMSCs, but adipogenic ability may increased only in NF-pBMSCs. These results demonstrate that E2 could affect both genders of newborn donor-derived MSCs, but the regulatory role of E2 varies depending on gender-dependent characteristics even though the original newborn donors had not been affected by functional steroid hormones.

The production of therapeutic protein from transgenic domestic animal is the major technology of biotechnology. Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is known to play an important role in the growth of the animal. The objective of this study is construction of knock-in vector that bovine IGF-1 gene is inserted into the exon 7 locus of β-casein gene and expressed using the gene regulatory DNA sequence of bovine β-casein gene. The knock-in vector consists of 5’ arm region (1.02 kb), bIGF-1 cDNA, CMV-EGFP, and 3’ arm region (1.81 kb). To express bIGF-1 gene as transgene, the F2A sequence was fused to the 5’ terminal of bIGF-1 gene and inserted into exon 7 of the β-casein gene. As a result, the knock-in vector is confirmed that the amino acids are synthesized without termination from the β-casein exon 7 region to the bIGF-1 gene by DNA sequence. These knock-in vectors may help to create transgenic dairy cattle expressing bovine bIGF-1 protein in the mammary gland via the expression system of the bovine β-casein gene.

The present study was conducted to determine the optimal supplementation level of beta-mannanase in the diet of laying hens. A total of 320 Hy-Line Brown layers (80 weeks of age) were assigned randomly into four groups on the basis of laying performance. Each treatment had eight replicates with 10 birds each (80 birds per treatment). Two hens were caged individually. Treatments were basal diet supplemented with 0 (control), 0.04, 0.08, and 0.16% beta-mannanase during the nine-week feeding period. Laying hens fed diets supplemented with increasing levels of beta-mannanase had increased (linear, p<0.05) overall egg production and egg mass. In addition, these hens had greater retention of dry matter, crude protein, gross energy, calcium, and mannan (linear, p<0.05). Dietary beta-mannanase treatments had no effect on blood metabolites such as total carbohydrate, triglycerides, glucose, total protein, and blood urea nitrogen, or excreted ammonia nitrogen and volatile fatty acids. The results obtained in present study indicate that dietary supplementation of beta-mannanase has the potential for improving the performance of laying hens. The optimal supplementation level is 0.04% beta-mannanase in the diet.

Sulfated polysaccharides are known to be immune-stimulators in mammals and can be used as food additives to enhance immunity. In this study, the immune-stimulating activity of water-soluble anionic macromolecules F2 fractionation isolated from Codium fragile using ion-exchange chromatography was tested in olive flounder, Paralichythys olivaceus, in vitro and in vivo. The gene expression of interleukin (IL)-1β was adopted to check the immune-affection. As a result, in vitro study revealed that the expression of IL-1β was significantly upregulated in head kidney cells by 1 and 5 μg/ml of polysaccharides 4 h and by 5 μg/ml of polysaccharides at 24 h. In vivo, IL-1β gene expression in head kidney was significantly upregulated by 20 and 100 μg of the polysaccharides at day 1 post-i.p. injection, while downregulated at day 3 but not significant. Meanwhile, in peritoneal cells, it was upregulated by 20 μg of the polysaccharides at day 1 but the upregulation was sustained until day 3 though it was not significant. These results indicate that the sulfated polysaccharides from C. fragile are an immune-stimulator and might be potential feed additives for olive flounder.

Sparassis latifolia (formerly S. crispa) is used in food and nutraceuticals or dietary supplements, as rich in flavor compounds and β-glucan. Some previous studies have reported the effects of mushroom on brain function, including its neuroprotective effect. Thus, for this mushroom to be used as an effective nutraceutical for brain function, it would be desirable for it to contain other compounds such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in addition to β-glucan. In this study, the enhancement of growth and GABA production in the mycelium of medicinal and edible mushroom S. latifolia was investigated. Amino acids were added externally as the main source of nutrition, and the effects of amino acids were investigated using liquid medium, specifically amino acid-free potato dextrose broth (PDB). The amino acids added were L-glutamic acid (named PDBG medium) and L-ornithine (named PDBO medium). The growth of mycelia was determined to be 0.9 ± 0.00 g/L, 2.2 ± 0.16 g/L, and 1.93 ± 0.34 g/L PDBG respectively. The GABA content was 21.3 ± 0.9 mg/100 g in PDB medium, and it in PDBG 1.4% medium, at 115.4 ± 30.2 mg/100 g. However, the PDBO medium was not effective in increasing the GABA content of mycelia. Amino acids had little effect on the β-glucan content of mycelia. The β-glucan content was 39.7 ± 1.4 mg/100 mg, 34.4 ± 0.2 mg/100 mg, and 35.2 ± 9.2 mg/100 mg in PDB, PDBG 1.8% and PDBO 1.4% media, respectively. Addition of glutamic acid and ornithine positively affected the growth of S. latifolia mycelia, and glutamic acid positively affected GABA production; no degradation of GABA was observed with addition of glutamic acid.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that deprives the patient of memory, is associated mainly with extracellular senile plaque induced by the accumulation of amyloid β protein (Aβ). Silybum marianum (Asteraceae; SM) is a medicinal plant that has long been used in traditional medicine as a hepatoprotective remedy owing to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. The present study examined the methanol extract of the aerial parts of SM for neuroprotection against Aβ (25-35)-induced neuronal death in cultured rat cortical neurons to investigate a possible therapeutic role of SM in AD. The primary cortical neuron cultures were prepared using embryonic day 15 to 16 SD rat fetuses. Cultured cortical neurons exposed to 10 μM Aβ (25-35) for 36 h underwent neuronal cell death. At 10 and 50 μg/mL, SM prevented Aβ (25-35)-induced neuronal cell death and apoptosis in cultured cortical neurons. Furthermore, SM inhibited the Aβ (25-35)-induced decrease in anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2, and the increase in the proapoptotic proteins, Bax and active caspase-3. Cultured cortical neurons exposed to 1 mM N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) for 14 h induced neuronal cell death. SM (10 and 50 μg/mL) prevented NMDA-induced neuronal cell death. These results suggest that SM inhibited Aβ (25-35)-induced neuronal apoptotic death via inhibition of NMDA receptor activation and that SM has a possible therapeutic role in preventing the progression of neurodegeneration in AD.

Fe-based pigments have attracted much interest owing to their eco-friendliness. In particular, the color of nanosized pigments can be tuned by controlling their size and morphology. This study reports on the effect of length on the coloration of β-FeOOH pigments prepared using an NH4OH solution. First, rod-type β-FeOOH is prepared by the hydrolysis of FeCl3·6H2O and NH4OH. When the amount of NH4OH is increased, the length of the rods decreases. Thus, the length of the nanorods can be adjusted from 10 nm to 300 nm. The color of β-FeOOH changes from orangered to yellow depending on the length of β-FeOOH. The color and phase structure of β-FeOOH is characterized by UVvis spectroscopy, CIE Lab color parameter measurements, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD).