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Biomedical subjects

Young Sook Yoo

Publications and source records attributed to Young Sook Yoo.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

Application of ozone, UV and ozone/UV processes to reduce diethyl phthalate and its estrogenic activity.

A research study to monitor the micropollutant levels present in the Han River, a major drinking water source for the Seoul Metropolitan district in Korea, was performed over a five-year period from 2000 to 2004, inclusive. Of the detected micropollutants, phthalates were found to be the major contaminants. In this study, the estrogenic activities of the detected phthalates and raw water samples contaminated with the pollutants were assessed by the E-screen assay using the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. Of the phthalates, diethyl phthalate (DEP) and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) showed relatively high cell proliferation. Using DEP as a phthalate probe, three candidate processes, ozone alone, UV alone, and the ozone/UV combined, were evaluated for their efficiency in removing DEP and reducing its estrogenic activity. The ozone/UV process was shown to have the highest efficiency for the elimination of DEP and its by-products, leading to the complete mineralization of DEP. This study also found that the ozone/UV process is the best candidate to reduce the estrogenicity induced by DEP and its by-products.

Cell Line, Tumor↗

Enhancement of anti-inflammatory tendency by SB203580, p38alpha specific inhibitor, in human fibroblast-like synoviocyte cell line, MH7A.

Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta) is an abundant cytokine, which, together with TNF-alpha, mediates inflammatory events in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). IL-1beta is known to induce the induction of inflammatory cytokines and metalloproteinases (MMPs) in rheumatoid synovial cells. Here, we assessed these inflammatory events by measuring IL-1beta levels in the human synovial cell line, MH7A. We observed that the activation of p38 MAP kinase by IL-1beta was involved in the induction of inflammatory cytokines, as well as several genes, including MMP-1 and MMP-3. SB203580, a specific p38 MAP kinase inhibitor, inhibited the production of IL-1beta-induced cytokines and MMPs, while the levels of the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMPs) were unchanged by treatment with SB203580. Moreover, the induction of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) and interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1) were both found to be induced by the inhibition of p38 MAP kinase. Therefore, we suggested that the inhibition of p38 MAP kinase might enhance anti-inflammatory tendencies in the MH7A cells.

Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal↗

Capillary electrophoresis at the omics level: towards systems biology.

Emerging systems biology aims at integrating the enormous amount of existing omics data in order to better understand their functional relationships at a whole systems level. These huge datasets can be obtained through advances in high-throughput, sensitive, precise, and accurate analytical instrumentation and technological innovation. Separation sciences play an important role in revealing biological processes at various omic levels. From the perspective of systems biology, CE is a strong candidate for high-throughput, sensitive data generation which is capable of tackling the challenges in acquiring qualitative and quantitative knowledge through a system-level study. This review focuses on the applicability of CE to systems-based analytical data at the genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic levels.

Animals↗

Modeling and simulation in signal transduction pathways: a systems biology approach.

Modeling, the heart of systems biology, of complex processes (example: signal transduction) is a wide scientific discipline where many approaches from different areas are confronted with the aim of better understanding, identifying and modeling of complex data coming from various sources. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the basic steps of systems biology view towards signaling pathways, which mainly deals with the computational tools. The paper emphasizes the modeling and simulation approach in the signal transduction pathways using the topologies of the biochemical reactions with an overview of the different types of software platforms. Finally, we demonstrated the epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway model as an example to study the growth factor mediated signaling system with biological experiments. This paper will enables new comers to underline the strengths of the computational approaches towards signal transduction, as well as to highlight the systems biology research directions.

Animals↗

Monitoring the neuropeptide metabolites by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

The developments of bio-analytical methods for analyzing bioactive peptides are of paramount importance. Neuropeptides and their bioactive fragments play a vital role in the regulation of many biological processes and diseases. This paper presents the use of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) method for monitoring neuropeptides along with their degradation products in plasma samples from cancer patients. The neuropeptides focused in this study were beta-endrophin, substance P, and bradykinin. The method involves the enzyme digestion of the neuroactive peptides followed by MALDI-MS sample preparation and subsequent acquisition of the MS spectral data. The mass spectral profile identifies most of the C-terminal and N-terminal peptides, and the mass accuracy was in the range of -1.68 to 1.46 Da with the mass spectrometer utilised. Analysis of the neuropeptide degradation patterns from the cancer patients were compared with the controls showed similar results. The study reveals that this approach can be used to identify the enzymatic digestion products of protein.

Bradykinin↗

Capillary electrophoretic competitive immunoassay with laser-induced fluorescence detection for methionine-enkephalin.

Immunoassays are commonly used in bioresearch for the detection and quantification of small proteins and macromolecules in biological fluids and other complex matrices. In this report, a competitive immunoassay using capillary electrophoresis (CE) with laser-induced fluorescence was developed for methionine-enkephalin (ME). The method is based on the competitive reaction between the ME and fluorescein conjugated ME (ME-F) with anti-ME antibody, capillary electrophoresis separation of the ME-antibody bound and free ME-F, followed by the laser-induced fluorescence detection of the fluorescent species. With the optimized separation conditions, it was possible to separate the antibody bound and free fluorescien conjugated ME by a capillary electrophoresis-laser-induced fluorescence (CE-LIF) analysis using an uncoated fused-silica capillaries. The results concluded that the assay specificity, selectivity and accuracy were excellent.

Electrophoresis, Capillary↗

IFNgamma and TNFalpha synergistically induce neurite outgrowth on PC12 cells.

PC12 cells are commonly used in the study of neuronal cells. It was reported that IFNgamma enhances neurite outgrowth of PC12 cells by NGF-stimuli. Accordingly, IFNgamma was examined to determine if it could solely produce neurite outgrowth. In addition, because the synergism between TNFalpha and IFNgamma is well-known, this study investigated whether or not a mixture of IFNgamma and TNFalpha might augment neurite outgrowth on PC12 cells. Finally, this study examined how an AG490 treatment, which was used to inhibit the IFNgamma signal in this study, affected the cytokine-mediated phenomenon. The results showed that the cytokines did not cause an increase in apoptosis in the PC12 cells and the serum-starved condition blocked the cytokine-mediated neurite outgrowth. Interestingly, AG490 enhanced this effect. In conclusion, it was shown that IFNgamma has the potential to form neurites, and TNFalpha can enhance this ability.

Animals↗

Method development and measurements of endogenous serine/threonine Akt phosphorylation using capillary electrophoresis for systems biology.

Signal transduction studies have indicated that Akt is essential for transducing the signals originating from extracellular stimuli. An exploration of the Akt signal transduction mechanism depends on the ability to assay its activation states by determining the ability of Akt to phosphorylate various substrates. This paper describes a CE-based kinase assay for Akt using a UV detection method. The RPRAATF peptide was used as the specific substrate to determine the Akt activity. Under the CE separation conditions used, the phosphorylated and nonphosphorylated forms of the RPRAATF peptide were rapidly resolved in the Akt reaction mixture within 20 min. Using this method for measuring the Akt activity, the incubation time for the Akt reactions as well as the kinetic parameters (KM) were examined. Furthermore, the developed method was applied to a PC12 cell system to assess the dynamics of the Akt activity by examining the effectiveness of the RPRAATF peptide substrate under various cytokine-stimulated environments. These results highlight the feasibility of the CE method, which is a simple and reliable technique for determining and characterizing various enzyme reactions particularly kinase enzymes.

Animals↗

A positive role of the PI3-K/Akt signaling pathway in PC12 cell differentiation.

Activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K) is considered to be a key event upon stimulation of cells with growth factors. Akt is known to be a downstream target of PI3-K when it is activated by nerve growth factor (NGF). NGF induces cell differentiation of PC12 cells as indicated by neurite outgrowth. In order to investigate the role of PI3-K/Akt in NGF-induced differentiation of PC12 cells, we generated cells ectopically expressing constitutively activated (CA), wild type (WT) and dominant negative (DN) forms of Akt. NGF-induced neurite outgrowth was greatly accelerated in the cells expressing CA-Akt, and dramatically inhibited in those expressing DN-Akt. Pre-treatment with an Akt inhibitor, ML-9 [1-(5-chloronaphthalene-1-sulfonyl)-1H- hexahydro-1,4-diazepine], inhibited NGF-induced Akt phosphorylation as well as neurite outgrowth but did not markedly affect the activities of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). The PI3-K inhibitors wortmannin and LY294002 blocked NGF-induced Akt phosphorylation as well as neurite outgrowth. These results indicate that PI3-K/Akt is a positive regulator of NGF-induced neuronal differentiation in PC12 cells.

Androstadienes↗

Determination of protein phosphorylation and the translocation of green fluorescence protein-extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 by capillary electrophoresis using laser induced fluorescence detection.

In this study, we developed a method to monitor the phosphorylation and translocation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK2) proteins after PC12 cells have been stimulated by a mitogen. The method involves the use of green fluorescent protein (GFP), capillary electrophoresis and the measurement of laser-induced fluorescence (CE-LIF). We showed the prescence of the non-phosphorylated GFP-ERK2 and phosphorylated GFP-ERK2 in cell lysates by CE-LIF, and then compared the phosphorylations of GFP-ERK2 and GFP-183A. Phosphorylated GFP-ERK2 was detected at 6.7 min and the non-phosphorylated GFP-ERK2 at 5.3-5.5 min. The results were compared with confocal laser scanning microscope imaging and western blot results, and suggest that the developed method can be used to detect other enzymatic modifications.

Animals↗

Analysis of substance P in rat brain by means of immunoaffinity capture and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass-spectrometry.

Interest in the analysis of low abundance neuropeptides particularly using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass-spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) is increasing because these neuropeptides are essential to the mechanism of transportation and the metabolism. This article describes an immunoprecipitation procedure that is suitable for MALDI-MS analysis of substance P (SP), a neuropeptide, in rat brain tissues. Substance P was precipitated from brain tissue extracts by immunoprecipitation with antibodies directed against SP, and are analyzed by MALDI-TOF-MS. Mass spectrometric analysis showed a singly charged [M+H]+ ion peak that corresponded to the SP molecular mass and was observed with a detection error of 1.6%. The average mass errors between the observed and theoretical molecular mass were within the 0.11 Da range. Capillary zone electrophoresis analysis was subsequently performed, and the effects of the different separation parameters were examined. Beginning with milligram quantities of brain tissue, picomole quantities of SP could be detected using this method.

Animals↗

SB203580 induces prolonged B-Raf activation and promotes neuronal differentiation upon EGF treatment of PC12 cells.

SB203580 is a p38 MAPK inhibitor that has been implicated in the activation of c-Raf. This study shows that the addition of SB203580 to PC12 cells causes the sustained activation of B-Raf but not of ERK. The addition of SB203580 prolonged the transient activation of both B-Raf and ERK by EGF alone. No significant change was detected in MAPKAPK-2 activity at low concentrations of SB203580, which induced neurite outgrowth in the EGF-stimulated PC12 cells. Therefore, these results indicate that SB203580 influences not only c-Raf as previously reported, but can also induce the activation of B-Raf, which in conjunction with EGF causes the sustained activation of ERK and differentiation in PC12 cells.

Animals↗

New method for analyzing the nitrite level in PC12 cells using capillary electrophoresis.

Nitric oxide (NO) is a gaseous molecule shown to have signal transmitter properties in organisms. Direct measurement of NO in physiological conditions has been difficult due to its short lifetime and low concentration. Nitrite has been used as a marker for NO formation in biological systems. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) has been recently used to measure nitrite in biological fluids. The purpose of this study is to analyze nitrite in PC12 cells (pheochromocytoma cell line) using CE. Optimal CE performance was employed with 150 mM Tris-phosphate, 6 microM hexadecyltrimethyammonium chloride buffer at pH 7.0 and a fused-silica column of 57 cm x 75 microm I.D. The signal was measured with a UV detector at 214-nm wavelength and negative potential of 10 kV was applied for nitrite analysis. Under the optimum conditions, we monitored the changes in the concentration of the nitrite levels through synergistic stimulation of tumor necrosis factor alpha plus gamma-interferon in PC12 cells.

Animals↗

Analysis of vasopressin using capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detector based on competitive immunoassay.

A competitive immunoassay based on CE-LIF has been developed for the determination of vasopressin in biological mixtures. Vasopressin participates in the hormonal control of water metabolism and the constriction of arterioles in humans. Thus, detection of vasopressin is important in diagnosing pathological conditions and physiological water metabolism. The peptides were fluorescently tagged with FITC and purified by HPLC. The purified product was then mixed with the cerebrospinal fluid sample followed with the addition of anti-vasopressin antibody. It was possible to separate antibody-bound and free FITC-tagged vasopressin within 10 min by CE-LIF analysis using uncoated fused-silica capillary with high reproducibility.

Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid↗

Direct monitoring of the expression of the green fluorescent protein-extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 fusion protein in transfected cells using capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection.

Proper subcellular localization of the extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) is important in regulating physiological functions such as proliferation and differentiation in the pheochromocytoma cell line (PC12 cells). Thus, a direct visualization method is necessary to observe ERK localization within the cell or in crude cellular extracts. In this paper, a determination method was established for the detection of ERK2 localization in PC12 cells using green fluorescent protein (GFP) and capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). GFP as a reporter or labeling tag for gene expression in biochemistry and cell biology was used for the detection of ERK2 localization in PC12 cells. PC12 cells were transfected with GFP-ERK2 plasmid construct that was inserted into a variant GFP gene (enhanced green fluorescent protein), and successfully expressed GFP-ERK2 fusion proteins. GFP-ERK2 fusion proteins were detected within 5 min by CE analysis using an uncoated fused-silica capillary with LIF. Optimum conditions for GFP-ERK2 fusion proteins detection were 100 mM 3-(cyclohexylamino)-1-propanesulfonic acid buffer containing 100 mM sodium dodecylsulfate, pH 11, running at 20 degrees C. This result offers new opportunity in screening for the determination of localization of intracellular components, protein-protein interactions and kinase activity within the cells.

Animals↗

Determination of protein phosphorylation by extracellular signal-regulated kinase using capillary electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) is a key regulatory enzyme mediating cell responses to mitogenic stimulation and is one of the key components in linking growth factor receptor activation to serine/threonine protein phosphorylation processes. Phosphorylation reaction by ERK plays an important role in many signal transduction pathways. ERK phosphorylates numerous substrates such as MBP, microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2) and nuclear protein. In particular, MBP is a substrate commonly employed for the detection of ERK activity and contains the consensus primary sequence PRT97P. In this paper, we compared the degree of the phosphorylation reaction of MBP substrate peptides by ERK with the three different MBP substrate peptides, MBP1(KNIVTPRTPPPSQGK), MBP2(VPRTPGGRR) and MBP3(APRTPGGRR) in order to select an efficient substrate peptide for phosphorylation reaction by ERK. The results showed that the MBP3 peptide is the most efficient substrate for phosphorylation reaction by ERK. Using MBP3 peptide, the phosphorylation reaction of MBP by ERK was monitored with both matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) and capillary electrophoresis (CE). Our results demonstrate the feasibility of the CE method, the method being a simple and reliable technique in determining and characterizing various kinds of enzyme reaction especially including kinase enzymes.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Role of p38 MAPK in the regulation of apoptosis signaling induced by TNF-alpha in differentiated PC12 cells.

TNF-alpha elicits various responses including apoptosis, proliferation, and differentiation according to cell type. In neuronal PC12 cells, TNF-alpha induces moderate apoptosis while lipopolysarccaharide or trophic factor deprivation can potentiate apoptosis that is induced by TNF-alpha. TNF-alpha initiates various signal transduction pathways leading to the activation of the caspase family, NF-subk;B, Jun N-terminal kinase, and p38 MAPK via the death domain that contains the TNF-alpha receptor. Inhibition of translation using cycloheximide greatly enhanced the apoptotic effect of TNF-alpha. This implies that the induction of anti-apoptotic genes for survival by TNF-alpha may be able to protect PC12 cells from apoptosis. Accordingly, Bcl-2, an anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member, was highly expressed in response to TNF-alpha. In this study, we examined the anti-apoptotic role of p38 MAPK that is activated by TNF-alpha in neuronal PC12 cells. The phosphorylation of p38 MAPK in response to TNF-alpha slowly increased and lasted several hours in the PC12 cell and DRG neuron. This prolonged and slow phosphorylation of p38 MAPK was distinct from other non-neuronal cells. The specific inhibitor of p38 MAPK, SB202190, significantly enhanced the apoptosis that was induced by TNF-alpha in PC12 cells. This indicates that the activation of p38 MAPK could protect PC12 cells from apoptosis since there is no known role of p38 MAPK in response to TNF-alpha in neuron. This discovery could be evidence for the neuroprotective role of the p38 MAPK.

Animals↗