Earticle

The anti-inflammatory effects of Sargassum fulvellum water extracts (SFWE) were investigated using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory response in this study. To examine the potential anti-inflammatory properties of SFWE, the NO, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, and cell proliferation were measured. It was confirmed that the NO and TNF-α secretion were significantly suppressed when SFWE was added to LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. Moreover, the expression of IL-6 and IL-1β cytokines was suppressed by SFWE in a dose-dependent manner. Especially, IL-6 inhibition activities were over 50% at 1% of SFWE. The cytotoxicity of SFWE and the proliferation of macrophages was measured by MTT assay. As a result, there was no cytotoxicity in the macrophage proliferation treated with SFWE compared to the control. In conclusion, these results suggested that the SFWE may have significant effects on inflammatory factors and can be a potential anti-inflammatory therapeutic materials.

This study was performed to investigate the inhibitory activity of ethanol extract from Ecklonia cava (EE-EC) against trypsin and the stability of this activity under various heat and pH conditions. As a results, The EE-EC showed trypsin inhibitory activity of 77, 54, and 32% at concentrations of 5, 2.5, and 1 mg/mL and was not affected by the heat treatment conditions used in this study. Whereas trypsin inhibitory activity of EE-EC was stable in the pH range of 2-8, but decreased with pH treatment of pH 10 compared with the control. Therefore, the EE-EC could be useful as a natural and functional agent.

The microalgae, Microcystis aeruginosa are able to proliferate in a wide range of freshwater ecosystem. M. aeruginosa was cultivated in 25 L and 240 L race-way reactor containing modified medium with added urea 0.2 g/L, increased Fe+2, and decreased Ca+2ion compared to BG11 medium. Sugar contents of M. aeruginosa grown in BG11 medium, and modified medium were 120 mg/mL and 140 mg/mL respectively. Fermentation was conducted with the extract of M. aeruginosa at 30℃ for 30 h, using Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Sc), Pichia stipitis (Ps), Zymomonas mobilis (Zm), and mixed-culture of these strains (Sc + Ps + Zm). Pichia stipitis (0.7%) was found to be more suitable for producing bioalcohol from M. aeruginosa extract than other strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (0.45%) and Zymomonas mobilis (0.61%), while mixed-cultured of these strains showed higest productivity by 1.75%. Biomass of M. aeruginosa contains the potency to be the most renewable resource for bioalcohol fermentation.

Indican (indoxyl-β-D-glucoside) is a colorless natural compound and can be used as a precursor for the production of indigo. This production step only require an enzyme, β-glucosidase, that readily screened from microbial resource by using selective media supplemented with indican as a sole carbon source. Agrobacterium tumefaciens was well grown in this media and thus presumed to produce a related enzyme. The corresponding gene, encoding a protein with a calculated molecular mass of 51 kDa, was cloned and overexpressed as MBP fusion proteins. The purified enzyme was determined to be a dimer and showed the maximum activity for indican at pH 7.0 and 40℃. The kinetic parameters for indican, Km and Vmax, were determined to be 1.4 mM and 373.8 μM/min/mg, respectively. The conversion yield of indican into indigo using this enzyme was about 1.7-1.8 folds higher than that of previously isolated enzyme from Sinorhizobium meliloti. Additionally, this enzyme was able to hydrolyze various β-1,4 glycoside substrates.

This study was conducted to optim ize the composition of CEM (cabbage extract medium) and cryoprotectants on the growth of Lactobacillus plantarum, a probiotics growing in plant and milk. For this, we analyzed the growth characteristics of Lb. plantarum in CEM and subsequently optimized the medium composition by addition of carbon, nitrogen sources and buffering agents. Among carbon sources, glucose showed the best result to increase the cell density after dilution of CEM. When 0.5% yeast extract and 1% soy peptone were supplemented in the diluted CEM, Lb. plantarum grew up to the maximum cell density. Addition of buffering agents in CEM was not significantly effective to increase the cell density. Meanwhile, addition of 12% skim milk, 5% sucrose and 0.5% glycerol showed a cryoprotective effect against cell damage of Lb. plantarum during freeze drying process showing high survival rate after 150 days. This optimized CEM can be used for economical production of bacterial cells particularly originated from a plant-related ecosystem.

Bacillus clausii I-52 which produced SDS- and H2O2-tolerant extracellular alkaline protease (BCAP) was isolated from heavily polluted tidal mud flat of West Sea in Incheon, Korea and stable strain (transformant C5) of B. clausii I-52 harboring another copy of BCAP gene in the chromosome was developed using the chromosome integration vector, pHPS9-fuBCAP. When investigated the production of BCAP using B. clausii transformant C5 through pilot-scale submerged fermentation (500 L) at 37℃ for 30 h with an aeration rate of 1 vvm and agitation rate of 250 rpm, protease yield of approximately 105,700 U/mL was achieved using an optimized medium (soybean meal 2%, wheat flour 1%, sodium citrate 0.5%, K2HPO4 0.4%, Na2HPO4 0.1%, NaCl 0.4%, MgSO4 · 7H2O 0.01%, FeSO4 · 7H2O 0.05%, liquid maltose 2.5%, Na2CO3 0.6%). The enzyme stability of BCAP was increased by addition of polyols (10%, v/v) and also, the stabilities of BCAP towards not only the thermal-induced inactivation at 50℃ but also the SDS and H2O2-induced inactivation at 50℃ were enhanced. Among the polyols examined, the best result was obtained with propylene glycol (10%, v/v). The BCAP supplemented with propylene glycol exhibited extreme stability against not only the detergent components such as α-orephin sulfonate (AOS) and zeolite but also the commercial detergent preparations. The granulized enzyme of BCAP was prepared with approximately 1,310,000 U/g of granule. Wash performance analysis using EMPA test fabrics revealed that BCAP granule exhibited high efficiency for removal of protein stains in the presence of anionic surfactants as well as bleaching agents. When compared to Savinase 6TⓇ and Everlase 6TⓇ manufactured by Novozymes, BCAP under this study probably showed similar or higher efficiency for the removal of protein stains. These results suggest that the alkaline protease produced from B. clausii transformant C5 showing high stability against detergents and high wash performance has significant potential and a promising candidate for use as a detergent additive.

We investigated the anti-diabetic activity and enzymatic activity of 24 commercial doenjang samples certified for traditional foods. Twenty four doenjang samples showed the wide ranges in enzymatic activities (protease activities 0-50.45 unit/g, α-amylase activities 0-675.9 unit/g, β-amylase 13.6-308.6 unit/g), and there were no difference in enzymatic activity by the producing region. To evaluate the potential anti-diabetic activity of 24 doenjang samples, we examined the effect of doenjang methanol extract (DME) on 2-[n-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1, 3-diazol-4-yl) amyno]-2-deoxyd- glucose (2-NBDG) uptake. Ten samples among 24 samples significantly stimulated the uptake of 2-NBDG. When the cells were treated with DME at 400 ug/mL, No. 17 and 23 specially stimulated 2-NBDG uptake by 1.23-fold and 1.25-fold, respectively, compared with untreated control cell. And there were no cytotoxicity in the C2C12 cells treated with DME at concentration of 500 ug/mL. Among 24 samples, No. 6, 7, 12, 21 and 24 showed the α-glucosidase inhibitor activity at concentration of 10 mg/mL; however, they were less effective than acarbose which is a commercial α-glucosidase inhibitor.

Cigarette smoking (SM) is considered to be well known environmental toxin which contributes to the onset of various diseases. SM cause direct lungs damage, activate lungs inflammatory responses, and in some cases leads to the development of lung cancer. Cytokines in injured starfish (Asterina pectinifera) is the potential changes in its expression during the regeneration process. Especially, expression of TGF-β1 has increased in arm cut starfish extract after eight days. Also, starfish including saponin like the ginseng. Saponin is widely used in the world because of some effective pharmacological activities. Therefore, the current study was designed to elucidate the pharmacological activities of starfish extract against cigarette smoking induced damage in cell line and pulmonary tissue. We investigate that the effect of eight days starfish extract after arm cut (8d) and intact starfish extract on cell line and mouse lung injury by SM. In cell proliferation analysis, although cigarette smoking extract (CSE) was co-treated, the higher proliferation ability is shown in 8d treatment than intact starfish extract. 8d and intact starfish extract was directly transported to pulmonary cells through respiratory organ by nebulizer inhalation. In this case of cigarette smoking, the pulmonary structure was damaged and functions become abnormal. However, 8d treated groups showed similar with the control group compared with SM group. Among them, 8d was proved to be more effective than intact starfish extract. These results demonstrate that 8d could more protect pulmonary structure and function than intact starfish extract against cigarette smoking by ginseng like saponin and regulation of inflammatory cytokines.

We previously reported that Ultra nattokinaseⓇ showed high fibrinolytic activity and revealed antithrombotic effect in rat blood plasma based on its ability to suppress collagen-induced platelet aggregation. This research was carried out to verify the clot lysing activity and blood flow enhancing effects of Ultra nattokinaseⓇ via monitoring and comparing the antithrombotic effects in rat artery between oral administration of Ultra nattokinaseⓇ and maltodextrin. SD rats were fed with 1.11 mg/kg of Ultra nattokinaseⓇ for 4 weeks. The effect on arterial thrombosis was then evaluated using an antithrombotic model after induction by FeCl3. Detected fibrinolytic activity was proportional to the content of Ultra nattokinaseⓇ and statistical extents of the antithrombotic activity was enhanced strongly twice rather than control group. The PT and the aPTT, however, showed only a small difference between two groups. The results suggest that Ultra nattokinaseⓇ can effectively treat thromboembolism and enhance blood flow, and that Ultra nattokinaseⓇ can also prevent venous occlusion by aiding clot lysis.

1)Obesity increases the risk of many adult diseases, such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, ischemic heart disease and breast cancer. Inhibition of adipogenesis is an effective way in the anti-obesity management. Because of main components of Saururus chinensis is flavonoid, it has been showed some improvement by its antioxidant effects on the atherosclerosis, heart disease and diabetic hyperlipidemia. But mechanism of anti-obesity effect of S. chinensis is not clear. We investigated the effects of ethanol extracts of S. chinensis on adipogenesis in the 3T3-L1 pre-adipocyte. The 3T3-L1 cell line is commonly used to study adipogenesis in vitro. In this study, ethanol extracts of S. chinensis significantly decrease the lipid accumulation in the 3T3-L1 cells proved by measuring triglyceride contents and Oil red O staining. The proposed mechanism of inhibition of adipogenesis in the 3T3-L1 cells with ethanol extracts of S. chinensis is down-regulation of transcriptional factors and adipocytespecific genes such CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα) and Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor γ (PPARγ) in concentration dependent pattern. These results suggest that ethanol extracts of S. chinensis inhibits adipognesis in the 3T3-L1 cells and can be used as a safe and efficient natural substance to manage anti-obesity.