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Hyaluronic acid (HA) has been shown to promote angiogenesis. However, the mechanism behind this effect remains largely unknown. Therefore, in this study, the mechanism of HA-induced angiogenesis was examined. CD44 and PKCδ were shown to be necessary for induction of the receptor for HA-mediated cell motility (RHAMM), a HA-binding protein. RHAMM was necessary for HA-promoted cellular invasion and endothelial cell tube formation. Cytokine arrays showed that HA induced the expression of plasminogen activator-inhibitor-1 (PAI), a downstream target of TGFβ receptor signaling. The induction of PAI-1 was dependent on CD44 and PKCδ. HA also induced an interaction between RHAMM and TGFβ receptor I, and induction of PAI-1 was dependent on RHAMM and TGFβ receptor I. Histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3), which is decreased by HA via rac1, reduced induction of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) by HA. ERK, which interacts with RHAMM, was necessary for induction of PAI-1 by HA. Snail, a downstream target of TGFβ signaling, was also necessary for induction of PAI-1. The down regulation of PAI-1 prevented HA from enhancing endothelial cell tube formation and from inducing expression of angiogenic factors, such as ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and MMP-2. HDAC3 also exerted reduced expression of MMP-2. In this study, we provide a novel mechanism of HA-promoted angiogenesis, which involved RHAMM-TGFβRI signaling necessary for induction of PAI-1.

The aim of this study was to investigate the preventive effect of Agrocybe chaxingu polysaccharide on streptozocin (STZ)-induced pancreatic β-cells destruction. Agrocybe chaxingu polysaccharide markedly reduced nitric oxide (NO) production and iNOS expression levels in RINm5F cells in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, Agrocybe chaxingu polysaccharide significantly inhibited iNOS expression and blood glucose levels in STZ-induced diabetic mice. Moreover, immunohistochemical analysis revealed that it enhanced pancreatic β-cells resistance to destruction by STZ. These results suggest that Agrocybe chaxingu polysaccharide may have value as a therapeutic agent against diabetes mellitus.

In this study, 28 simple sequence repeat (SSR) primer sets were used to analyze the genetic diversity, population structure, and genetic relationships among 37 accessions of foxtail millet from Korea, China and Pakistan. A total of 298 alleles were detected with an average allele number of 10.6 per locus among 37 foxtail millet accessions. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 (b226) to 20 (b236). Of the 298 alleles, 138 alleles (46.3%) were rare (frequency < 0.05), 152 alleles (51.0%) were detected at an intermediate frequency (range, 0.05–0.50), and eight alleles (2.7%) were abundant (frequency > 0.50), respectively. The average gene diversity values were 0.652, 0.692, and 0.491 and polymorphic information content values were 0.621, 0.653, and 0.438, for accessions from Korea, China, and Pakistan, respectively. The accessions from China showed higher SSR diversity than those from Korea and Pakistan. A phylogenetic tree constructed using the un-weighted pair group methods with arithmetic mean algorithm revealed three major groups of accessions that were not congruent with geographical distribution patterns with a few exceptions. The lack of correlation between the accession clusters and their geographic location indicates that the diffusion of foxtail millet from China to Korea might have occurred through multiple routes. Our results provide support for the origin and diffusion route of foxtail millet in East Asia. This SSR-based assessment of genetic diversity, genetic relationships, and population structure among genetic resources of foxtail millet landraces will be valuable to foxtail millet breeding and genetic conservation programs in Korea.

We evaluated the morphological characteristics of 54 Perilla accessions by examining two quantitative and four qualitative characteristics in order to understand better the relationships between the cultivated types and the weedy types of Perilla species. The size, germination rate, hardness, and color of seeds were examined. The cultivated type of Perillafrutescens var. frutescens showed variation in seed size (2.08 to 2.96 mm) and germination rate (54 to 99%). Most accessions had soft seeds, but the seed colors of white, gray, brown, and dark brown. The weedy type of var. frutescens also showed the variation in seed size (1.54 to 1.94 mm), germination rate (0 to 46%), and had only the hard seeds in dark brown. The cultivated type of var. crispa showed the seed size range of 1.6 to 1.72 mm, and the germination rate of 3 to 34%, and had only the hard seeds in dark brown. The weedy type of var. crispa showed the seed size of 1.45 to 1.96 mm, the germination rate of 0 to 27%, and also hard seeds with dark brown color. The accessions of cultivated type of var. frutescens exhibited the bigger variation in seed characteristics than the weedy type of var. frutescens and the cultivated and weedy types of var. crispa. Principal component analyses clearly discriminated between the cultivated and weedy types in var. frutescens, and between var. frutescens and var. crispa in the two cultivated types. However, the seed characteristics of the cultivated type and the weedy type in var. crispa were not clearly discriminated. In this study, the size, germination rate, and hardness of seed were the useful characters for discriminating var. frutescens and var. crispa in the cultivated types, and the cultivated type and the weedy type in var. frutescens. The cultivated type of var. frutescens might be regarded as a more domesticated type than the cultivated type of var. crispa.

The neutralizing epitope (K-COE) of the spike protein from a Korean strain of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) has been shown to prevent and foster an immune response to PED, when orally adjusted. The cell surface of the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, was engineered to anchor the K-COE on the outer layer of the cell, and consequently, the altered yeast was applied as a dietary complement for animal feed, with immunogenic functions. In this study, the K-COE gene (K-COE) of the Korean strain of PEDV with the signal peptide of rice amylase 1A (Ramy1A), was fused with the gene encoding the carboxyterminal half (320 amino acid residues from the C terminus) of yeast α-agglutinin, a mating associated protein that is anchored covalently to the cell wall.