Earticle

Recently, translational research (TR) in health technology (HT) has been considered as an emerging alternative research system for the improvement of human health. TR from bench to bedside involves a strong bidirectional relationship between basic science discovery and clinical practice. To support R&D planning and policy in HT effectively, the performance of TR programs was analyzed and evaluated in a R&D project on health and medical technology. TR programs were classified into three parts: unilateral TR, bilateral TR and multilateral TR. Bibliometrics and citation analysis were performed to assess research papers and gather information for the performance analysis of TR programs. In addition, both quantitative and qualitative analysis were successfully carried out using ISI Web of Science, Google Scholar Citations, SCOPUS and Knowledgematrix. In conclusion, the performance analysis of TR programs could significantly improve the efficiency of R&D plans, R&D management and evaluation for a safe and healthy life.

Antimicrobial peptides are widely used in various organisms as a defense system against infection. The peptides are lethal towards bacteria and fungi, however have minimal toxicity in mammalian and plant cells. In this aspect, it is considered that antimicrobial peptides are new alternative materials for defensing against microbial infection. Here, we describe overall characteristics of antimicrobial peptides based on the mechanism of action, classification of the peptides, report detection/screening methods and chemical/biological production. It is expected that understanding of innate immune system based on antimicrobial peptides tends to develop novel natural antimicrobial agents, which might be applied for defensing pathogenic microorganisms resistant to conventional antibiotics.

In this study, novel nano silver sand filtration method was compared with UV treatment and normal sand filtration method through filtering treated water from sewage treatment plant. As a result, BOD5 removal rate of nano silver sand filtration showed higher approximately 31% and 23%, comparing with UV treatment and sand filtration. Moreover, KMnO4 removal rate of nano silver sand was about 6.6 and 2.8 times higher than other two methods. In addition, it showed better for removing SS and total coliform, comparing with others. Also, there is no bacteria on nano silver sand after experiments. Therefore, nano silver sand filtration will be effective for advanced water treatment.

Five yeast strains were isolated from traditional Makgeollies, Makgeollies were made by isolated yeasts after cultivation, and then property changes of Makgeollies were analyzed according to yeasts, storage temperatures and storage periods. Average pHs were shown to be 3.22~3.88 and statistically changed according to yeasts used, storage temperatures and storage periods. Total acidities were statistically changed according to storage periods. Amino-type nitrogen contents were in the ranges of 0.009~0.245% and statistically changed according to storage temperatures especially at 18 and 25℃ for 15 days. Average alcohol concentrations were in the ranges of 7.5~18.5% and reduced until 10 days and increased for 15 days according to yeasts used and storage periods. Consequently, Makgeollies, made by isolated yeast strains originated from traditional Makgeollies, revealed that alcohol concentrations and amino-type nitrogen contents were changed but pHs and total acidities were not dramatically changed according to yeasts used. It suggests that development of various Makgeollies would be possible using isolated yeast strains in this study, and optimal storage condition of ready-made Makgeollies to maintain its original property turned out to be at 4℃ for 5 days. Especially, Makgeolli made by F strain showed the best quality on its property, therefore Makgeolli which maintains its property stably until 10 days when stored at 4℃ could be made using this strain.

In this study, the treatment ability of the wastewater containing perchlorate by non-salt tolerant perchlorate reducing bacterial consortium (N-PRBC) was evaluated in a continuous stirred tank bioreactor (CSTR). To obtain the optimal operating condition the bioreactor was operated with the different wastewater empty bed retention time (EBRT). The treatment performance in the bioreactor could be maintained at 100 mg-ClO4 - L-1 up to a EBRT of 3 h, and the removal capacity in the CSTR was about 3.3 times higher than that in a batch operation. With a decrease from 9 h to 2 h in a EBRT, the volumetric perchlorate reduction rate was increased from 11.1 mg-ClO4- L-1 h-1 to 50.0 mg-ClO4 – L-1 h-1, and the specific perchlorate reduction rates were increased from 3.01 mg-ClO4- g-DCW-1 h-1. In conclusion, the treatment capacities in a CSTR were much better than those obtained in a batch operation.

In this study three major curcuminoids in turmeric curcumin (1), demethoxycurcumin (2) and bismethoxycurcumin (3) were efficiently extracted by optimizing extraction condition and simultaneously identified using a fast and reliable RPHPLC-UV-MS and TLC method. The analysis by the C18 column was performed and the UV wavelength was fixed at 425 nm. In this result, the total extraction yield of turmeric (Curcuma longa) was increased with extraction time from 1 to 7 h. So, optimum extraction time is 4 h. Also, the highest yield of extraction amount 0.433g 8.66% was obtained by ultrasonic waves with quarter frequency kHz and an extraction time of 7 h. The experiment method was consistent with theoretical Value r2 = 0.987 (1), 0.997 (2) and 0.998 (3). Moreover, LC-MS analysis provided efficiently molecular weight information of three major curcuminoids in turmeric extracts and high purity (~95%) of the curcuminoids were obtained. This work offers would be useful for chemical and biological studies of natural plants and its products.

The laboratory animal group separation is dividing animal population into subgroups, which have similar average and standard deviation values among the subgroups, based on the biological characteristics such as body weight, glucose level in blood, etc. Although group separation is very important and initial step in experimental design, it needs a labor intensive process for researchers because of making similar average and standard deviation values among the subgroups using the raw biological characteristics. To reduce the labor cost and increase the efficiency of animal grouping, we developed a web program named as laboratory animal group separation (LAGS) program. This LAGS uses biological characteristics of population, number of group, and the number of elements per each subgroup as input data. The LAGS automatically separates the population into each subgroup that has similar statistical data such as average and standard deviation values among subgroups. It also provides researchers with the extraordinary data generated in the process of grouping and the final grouping results by graphical display. Through our LAGS, researchers can validate and confirm results of laboratory animal group separation by just a few mouse clicks.

In this paper, we investigated the effect of nanostructure on the cell behaviors such as adhesion and growth rate. Nanoporous structures with various diameters (30, 40, 45, 50, 60 nm) and 500 nm of the depth were fabricated using the anodizing method. The water contact angle of the surface consisting of nanopores with 30 nm diameter was 40 degree and those were 60~70 degree in cases of nanopores with over 40 nm diameter. Hela cells were cultivated on various nanoporous structure surface to investigate the cell behavior on nanostructure. As a result, Hela cells preferred 30 nm diameter nanoporous surface that has lower water contact angle. This result was confirmed by protein adsorption experiment and scanning electron microscope investigation.

This research was to investigate the polyester preparation using waste ethylene glycol (EG) generated from the wastepaper pretreatment process. Waste EG was obtained from using EG five times repeatedly in the pretreatment of wastepaper. The hydroxyl value of the waste EG was 441 mg KOH/g and its composition was 0.68% cellulose, 6.5% hemicellulose, 6.1% lignin, and 86.7% EG. Maleic acid was used as carboxylic acid. The effect of reaction temperature and time except carboxyl group/hydroxyl group ratio on the crosslinkage of the prepared polyester was marginal. Citric acid, lithium hydroxide and dicumyl peroxide were used as additive or catalyst to enhance the crosslinkage of polyester. Among them, 10% of citric acid was found to be most effective. The crosslinkage was 86% when the polyester was prepared at an optimum condition such as 130℃ and 15 minutes, 1.5 of C/H ratio, and 10% of citric acid, and its insoluble percentage in boiling water for 6 hours was 47%. The weight loss of the prepared polyester was approximately 40% when it was buried in damp soil for 5 months, indicating that it is readily biodegradable. This results can provide some information for future development of wastepaper pretreatment by organic solvent.

In this study, we evaluated the effects of Biochanin A on glucose uptake in C2C12 myotube. We found that Biochanin A significantly stimulated 2-[N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl)amino]-2-deoxy-d-glucose (2-NBDG) uptake in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, AMPK and PPAR-gamma activities were markedly increased by Biochanin A in a dose-dependent manner. However, Akt, an insulin dependent signaling molecule, did not change by Biochanin A. These results suggest that Biochanin A stimulates glucose uptake via AMPK and PPAR-gamma pathways.

In the screening process of organic solvent tolerant bacteria showing good growth in media containing several kinds of organic solvents, one strain was isolated and identified as Bacillus sp. BCNU 5006. The strain was able to tolerate many organic solvents including benzene, toluene, xylene, octane, dodecane, butanol and ethylbenzene. Likewise, it could also utilize these solvents as the sole source of carbon with significant enzyme production. The lipolytic enzyme stability of Bacillus sp. BCNU 5006 was studied in the presence of several kinds of solvents at a 25% (v/v) concentration. The highest enzyme stability was observed in the presence of octane (107%), followed by ethylbenzene (88%), decane (86%), and chloroform (85%). Especially, BCNU 5006 lipase was determined to be more stable than immobilized enzyme (Novozyme 435) in the presence of octane, chloroform and xylene. This organic solvent tolerant Bacillus sp. BCNU 5006 could be expected as a potential bioremediation agent and biocatalyst for biodegradation and provide on organicsolvent-based enzymatic synthetic method in industrial chemical processes.

In this study, the optimum conditions of fermentation were determined by isolating the microorganisms with the ability to bioconvert the Citrus peel flavonoid, and the effect of the fermented Citrus peel extract which was bioconverted on the oxidative damage of HIT-T15 cell was investigated. The Aureobasidium pullulans Y-12 was isolated and identified with the strains having bioconversion activity. The fermentation conditions for bioconversion activity were confirmed to be optimal when culturing for three days at 25℃, 150 rpm in a culture medium containing 5% Citrus peel power and 0.8% casitone. As a result of bioconversion, 32.8 mg/g and 21.5 mg/g of naringenin and hesperetin, which were aglycone flavones, were produced respectively. Also in the flavonoid content, it was confirmed that FCP produced 154.8 mg/g while CP produced 33.7 mg/g, thus producing more by approximately 4.6 times. As a result of treating FCP and CP after inducing the oxidative damage for HIT-T15 cell by treating the deoxy-D-ribose with IC50 (38 mM) concentration, the surviving rate was recovered to 90% for FCP treatments in the 0.01 mg/mL concentration and for CP treatments in the 0.025 mg/mL concentration. Also in the insulin secretion rate, FCP treatments increased by 206% and CP treatments by 132% when treated in the 0.1 mg/mL concentration. As the bioconverted FCP can inhibit the oxidative damage of HIT-T15 cell in the low concentration, it was considered its usability as the functional material for prevention of the type 2 diabetes.