Althaea rosea has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat numerous diseases, but no studies have investigated its anti-influenza properties to date. In this study, we investigated the anti-influenza effects of Althaea rosea. BALB/c mice orally pretreated with Althaea rosea (200 킠, 0.1 mg/mL concentration in phosphate-buffered saline) and followed by infection of influenza A virus nasally showed higher survivability and lower lung virus titer against divergent subtypes of influenza A virus infection. We also found that oral administration of Althaea rosea elicited antiviral innate immune responses in serum, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, small intestinal fluid, and the lungs. Taken together, these findings suggest that aqueous extracts of Althaea rosea are a potential candidate for use as an anti-influenza drug.

The testis and epididymis are important organs of the male reproductive system; the function is to produce, mature, transport, and store sperm. It is important to understand the localization and expression of specific proteins based for the studies of its physiological processes. In the study, we investigated the expression and distribution of galectin-3, one beta-galactoside-binding proteins, in the testis and epididymis of mouse using western blot and immunohistochemistry. Western blot analysis revealed that the expression of galectin-3, 29 kDa protein, was low in the testis. In the epididymis, high expression was detected in the body and tail part, but moderate expression in the head part. By immunohistochemical analysis, we found that positive localization of galectin-3 was detected in some myoid cells and Leydig cells in the testis, but few in the seminiferous tubules. In the epididymis, galectin-3 was intensely expressed in the epithelium of epididymis, especially in the epithelium of both body and tail epididymis. Collectively, these results suggest that galcetin-3 is constitutively expressed in the testis and epididymis of mouse with varying intensity, and the role of galectin-3 in the male reproductive organ may be involved in the specific function of its structures.

We investigated the potential of fucoidan for its ability to provide protection from gamma ray-induced damage. In our results, the fucoidan significantly improved the counts of endogenous colony forming unit to 9.5±1.5, from 5.5±2.5 compared with un-treated irradiated control group at 10 day after 7 Gy whole body irradiation. After 2 Gy irradiation, fucoidan treatment attenuated the percent of tail DNA of splenocytes, parameters of DNA damage, from 30.17±1.7% to 13.67±2.81% by comet assay and also accelerated the proliferation of splenocytes, compared with un-treated irradiated control group by ³H-thymidine incorporation assay. Furthermore, fucoidan decreased the number of apoptotic fragments per intestinal crypt by 31.8% at 1 days after 2 Gy irradiation. These results indicated that the fucoidan significantly improved the hematopoietic recovery, prevented the DNA damage in immune cells and enhanced their proliferation, which had been suppressed by ionizing radiation. in addition, fucoidan rescued intestinal cells from radiation-induced apoptosis. Thus, this study raises the possibility of using fucoidan as adjuvant therapeutic agent after radiotherapy.

To investigate the effect of diazepam on fetal development in pregnant rats, this experiment was performed in eighty Sprague-Dawley female rats which were 8 weeks old and grouped into two according to different diazepam treatment period during 5-9 days of gestation and 10-14 days of gestation. Both experimental groups were included by saline treated groups (control) and diazepam-treated groups (6mg, 12mg and 24mg), respectively. Diazepam was injected to pregnant rats subcutaneously, which were wacrified on 20 days of gestation and mean litter size, fetal body weight, fetal crown-rump length (CRL) and pathological findings were examined. 1. Concerning mean litter size, diazepam-treated groups showed lower mean litter size than control in both 5-9 days and 10-14 days of gestation groups(p0.05) without difference according to dosage of diazepam and day of gestation. 2. Concerning fetal body weight, diazepam-treated groups during 5-9 days of gestation showed lower fetal body weight than control and the other treated group during 10-14 days(p0.01) without difference according to dosage of diazepam. Diazepam-treated group during 10-14 days of gestation showed no difference among experimented groups. 3. Concerning fetal crown-rump length (CRL), diazepam-treated groups during 5-9 days of gestation showed shorter CRL than control and the other treated group during 10-14 days of gestation(p0.01) without difference according to dosage of diazepam. 4. Reduction of mean litter size, fetal body weight and CRL was shown from when treated by the dosage of 6mg/kg of diazepam. 5. Maternal mortality according to dosage of the 20mg/kg of diazepam were 30% and 20% in the treated group during 5-9 days and 10-14 days of gestation, respectively. These results indicated that diazepam treatment in pregnant rats caused considerable reduction of mean litter size, fetal body weight and fetal crown-rump length when treated during 5-9 days of gestation.

In order to compare the induced time of osteoporosis between ovariectomized and neurectomized models in ddY mice. Experimental groups were divided into Sham, ovariectomized (OVX group) and neurectomized (NX group) group. The changes of body weight, tibia weight and histomorphometry of epiphyseal regions of tibia that were generally used as criteria index in osteoporsis, were evaluated at 2 and 4 weeks after operations with other generally used index-changes of serum osteocalcin. Also, calcium and phosphorus levels in the ash tibia were demonstrated with their ratio (Ca/P ratio).

In this study we assessed the influences of ultraviolet (UV) light B radiation on epidermal cells by apoptotic sunburn cell (SBC) and the effect of green tea treatment on the inhibition of SBC formation in SKH1-hr mouse. The extent of changes following 200 mJ/㎠ (0.5 mW/sec) was studied at 0, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 or 36 hours after exposure. SBCs were recognized by 3 hours after irradiation. There was tendency to increase from 3 hours to 24 hours and decrease from then to 36 hours after irradiation. The mice that received 0, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400 or 800 mJ/㎠ of UVB were examined 24 hours after irradiation.

In order to study about the lobule and layer formation and cell migration of the mouse cerebellum from at the birth to 15th day effected by 2.5, 5 and 10 Gy r-raddiation at the 19th pregnancy. The routine tissue preparation and staining procedure, Immunohistochemical staining method by the several antibody and western brotting method were utilized from the birth to the 15th day. The results were as followings. 1. The body and cerebellum weights were more slowly increase of the the 2.5 Gy, 5 Gy and 10 Gy irradiation group compare to the control group, and the health condition of the 2.5 Gy group was a little bad. but the 10 Gy group was more severe and begun to die from the 12th day after birth.

Galectin-3 plays an important role in cell development, differentiation and cancer metastasis, including cell-cell/extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions and is supposed to have an effect of apoptosis on T-cells in thymic clonal selection. In this study, to know the effect of galectin-3 on thymocyte development, we used recombinant human galectin-3 (rHgal-3) from Escherichia coli, JM105, which was inserted with human gal-3 gene-transformed plasmid vector (prGal-3) to express human galectin-3. Expressed rHgal-3 was confirmed by western blot using the culture supernant of hybridoma (M3/38) producing monoclonal antibody to human galectin-3. Sepharose gel affinity chromatography was used to purify the expressed rHgal-3. Thymocytes and hepatocytes from 6-week-old male BALB/c mice were incubated with rHgal-3 and showed marked increase of apoptotic population on analysis using flow cytometry with 7-AAD in a dosedependent manner. However, rHgal-3 failed to induce apoptosis on hepatocytes. Interestingly, this apoptotic effect was not inhibited by lactose, a specific lectin domain inhibitor. From these results, we concluded that extrinsic galectin-3 induces apoptosis on mouse thymocytes, and galectin-3 may have an apoptotic effect on T-cells in thymic clonal selection.

The alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE) assay, called the comet assay, has been applied to detect DNA damage induced by a number of chemicals and biological factors in vivo and in vitro. The DNA damage was analysed by tail moment (TM) and tail length (TL), which were markers of DNA strand breaks in SCGE. Human, mouse and rat peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) were irradiated with different doses of ∨60Co γ-rays, e.g. 1, 2, 4, and 8 Gy at a dose rate of 1 Gy/min. A dose-dependent increase in TM (p less than 0.01) and TL (p less than 0.01) was obtained at all the radiation doses (1-8 Gy) in human, mouse and rat PBLs.

We investigated the cytogenetic characteristics of male black-striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarium) in Korea. Chromosome slides were obtained from blood cell cultures which were synchronized with thymidine blocking or not. In the chromosome slide which synchronization with thymidine blocking was employed on, the GTG(G bands by trypsin using Giemsa)-bands of high resolution were observed. The male black-striped field mouse has 48 chromosomes composed 46 autosomes and XY sex chromosomes. The centromeric regions of autosomes were positive to GTG-banding.