BACKGROUND: Plant extracts have been widely used as important therapeutic drugs for many centuries all over the world. There have been many reports that natural products have various kinds of biological activities such as anti-allergy, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities. Recently, the screening for the efficacy and safety of natural products has been extensively performed. OBJECTIVE: This study was carried out to find a beneficial plant extract possessing excellent antioxidative and anti-melanogenic activities. We have found that the leaf of Robinia pseudo-acacia L. has active substances which are involved in those activities. METHODS: To confirm the antioxidative activity of the extract obtained from the leaves of Robinia pseudo-acacia L., scavenging ability of the extract on DPPH free radicals and its inhibitory effects on lipid autoxidation and peroxidation were investigated. In addition, inhibitory effects of the extract on mushroom tyrosinase as well as melanin biosynthesis in cultured B16 melanoma cells were evaluated. RESULTS: The acacia extract showed not only powerful antioxidative activity but also antimelanogenic acitivity as strong as that of arbutin which is a well known inhibitor of melanogenesis. CONCLUSION: These resulis suggest that the extract from the leaves of Robinia pseudo-acacia L. could be used as a 4ghtening and antioxidative agent for the skin.
Acacia ; Agaricales ; Arbutin ; Biological Products ; Free Radicals ; Mass Screening ; Melanins ; Melanoma, Experimental ; Monophenol Monooxygenase ; Plant Extracts ; Plants ; Robinia* ; Skin

Perfusion disorder of the optic nerve head has been thought to be one of the risk factors glaucoma and studies on optic nerve perfusion have been performed recently. Heidelberg Retina Flowmeter(HRF: Heidelberg Engineering GbmH, heidelberg, Germany) is known to be useful in the evaluation of retinal and optic nerve head microcirculation. The objective of this study is to present the changes of retinal and optic nerve head blood flow with regard to the age in normal subjects, thus providing the reference values of retinal and optic nerve head microcirculation. Twenty subjects of each decade from third to eighth, total 120 were included in this study. Microcirculations were measured by HRF at nasal and temporal juxtapapillary retina, nasal and temporal neuroretinal rim, and optic cup area. The mean flow was measured to be 385.14 at temporal neuroretinal rim, 432.62 at nasal neuroretinal rim, and 157.12 at optic cup area. Student`s t-test revealed that there was o significant difference in flow between nasal and temporal neuroretinal rim(0.45), and between nasal and temporal juxtapapillary retina(p=0.36). Pearson`s correlation analysis revealed significant linear inverse relationship between the age and flow at neuroretinal rim(NRR) and juxtapapillary retina(JPR)(correlation coefficient r=-0.83, p=0.034 for NRR and r=-0.87, p=0.012 for JPR), but not at optic cup(r=-0.62, p=0.13).
Glaucoma ; Microcirculation* ; Optic Disk ; Optic Nerve* ; Perfusion ; Reference Values ; Retina ; Retinaldehyde* ; Risk Factors

Protein phosphorylation at tyrosine residues is a key regulatory event that modulates insulin signal transduction. We studied the PTPN1 gene with regard to susceptibility to Korean type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its related quantitative traits. A total of seven SNPs [g.36171G>A (rs941798), g.58166G>A (rs3787343), g.58208A>G (rs2909270), g.64840C>T (rs754118), g.69560C>G (rs6020612), g.69866G>A (rs718050), and g.69934T>G (rs3787343)] were selected based on frequency (>0.05), linkage disequilibrium (LD) status, and haplotype tagging status. We studied the seven SNPs in 483 unrelated patients with type 2 diabetes (age: 64+/-2.8 years, onset age: 56+/-8.1 years; 206 men, 277 women) and 1138 nondiabetic control subjects (age: 64+/-2.9; 516 men, 622 women). The SNP rs941798 had protective effects against T2DM with an odds ratio of 0.726 (C.I. 0.541~0.975) and p-value=0.034, but none of the remaining six SNPs was associated with T2DM. Also, rs941798 was associated with blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, insulin sensitivity. rs941798 also has been associated with T2DM in previous reports of Caucasian-American and Hispanic-American populations. This is the first report that shows an association between PTPN1 and T2DM in the Korean as well as Asian population.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Blood Pressure ; Cholesterol, HDL ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; Haplotypes ; Humans ; Insulin ; Insulin Resistance ; Linkage Disequilibrium ; Male ; Odds Ratio ; Phenotype ; Phosphorylation ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases ; Signal Transduction ; Tyrosine

PURPOSE: Gleason score(GS) 7 tumors contain patterns 3 and 4 in various proportions. The clinical and pathological characteristics of patients with GS 3+4 and GS 4+3 found during a radical prostatectomy(RP) were retrospectively evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 124 cases of GS 7 prostate cancer were identified between April 2004 and February 2006. None of these patients had received either preoperative hormonal therapy, including 5alpha-reductase inhibitors, or radiation therapy. After classifying patients with GS 7 tumors into those with GS 4+3 and GS 3+4 tumors, the two groups were compared according to various clinicopathological parameters. RESULTS: In total, 84(67.7%) and 40(32.3%) of patients had final GS of 3+4 and 4+3, respectively. A final GS of 4+3 was associated with a higher pre-biopsy level of prostate-specific antigen(p<0.001) and a higher biopsy Gleason sum(p<0.001). Also, a higher pathological T stage(p=0.005), tertiary Gleason pattern 5(p<0.001), seminal vesicle invasion(p=0.008), bladder neck invasion(p=0.002), angiolymphatic invasion(p=0.008), perineural invasion(p=0.045), positive surgical margins(p=0.038) and larger tumor volumes(p<0.001) were associated with GS of 4+3. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrated that the statistically significant differences exist between GS 3+4 and 4+3 prostate cancers. Thus, GS 7 prostate cancers may be considered heterogeneous in their biological behaviors, and GS 7 prostate cancers with a GS of 4+3 may be considered more aggressive tumors compared to those with a GS of 3+4.
Biopsy ; Humans ; Neck ; Neoplasm Grading* ; Prostate* ; Prostatectomy ; Prostatic Neoplasms* ; Retrospective Studies ; Seminal Vesicles ; Urinary Bladder