Heung Bin Lim

Inhallation of e-Cigarette Cartridge Solution Aggravates Allergen-induced Airway Inflammation and Hyper-responsiveness in Mice

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are becoming increasingly popular worldwide and their cellular effects warrant further evaluation. In this study, we investigated the effects of an e-cigarette cartridge solution on allergen related asthmatic airway inflammation (AI) and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), when it is delivered by intratracheal route in mice. Asthmatic AI and AHR were induced by systemic sensitization to ovalbumin (OVA) followed by intratracheal, intraperitoneal, and aerosol allergen challenges in BALB/c mice. The cartridge solution of e-cigarette (containing 16 mg/ml nicotine) was diluted 50 times and 100 μl of the diluted solution was intratracheally instilled to OVA-sensitized (OVA-S) mice two times a week for 10 weeks. Long-term e-cigarette inhalation elicited no remarkable changes in the activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase enzymes in serum, however, increased infiltration of inflammatory cells including eosinophils, into airways from blood, aggravated the asthmatic AI and AHR, and stimulated the production of cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5 and IL-13, and OVA-specific IgE production. Our data suggest that the inhalation of e-cigarette solutions can function as an important factor to exacerbate the allergy-induced asthma symptoms. Further studies are needed to address the effects of e-cigarette solutions on human health.

Safety Assessment of Mainstream Smoke of Herbal Cigarette

Owing to the increase in price of cigarettes in Korea, herbal cigarettes have received increasing attention as a non-smoking aid; however, its safety has hardly been studied. We analyzed some of the toxic components in the mainstream smoke of herbal cigarettes, performed a mutagenicity test on smoke condensates for safety assessment, and compared the results with the corresponding values of a general cigarette with the same tar content. Herbal cigarette “A” was smoked using automatic smoking machine under ISO conditions in a manner similar to general cigarette “T”. The tar content measured was higher than that inscribed on the outside of a package. The mainstream smoke of herbal cigarette “A” did not contain detectable levels of tobacco-specific nitrosamines and nicotine. Carbon monoxide and benzo(α)pyrene contents in herbal cigarette “A” were higher than those in the general cigarette “T”. The phenolic contents such as hydroquinone, resorcinol, and catechol in herbal cigarette “A” were higher than those in the general cigarette “T”, but cresol contents in herbal cigarette “A” were lower than those in the general cigarette “T”. The content of aromatic amines such as 4-aminobiphenyl in herbal cigarette “A” was higher than that in the general cigarette “T”; however, this difference was not statistically significant. On the other hand, 1-aminonaphthalene, 2-aminonaphthalene, and 3-aminobiphenyl contents in herbal cigarette “A” were lower than those in the general cigarette “T”. The smoke condensates of herbal cigarette “A” exhibited a higher mutagenic potential than the condensates from the general cigarette “T” at the same concentration. We concluded that the mainstream smoke of herbal cigarette contains some toxic components, the smoke condensates of herbal cigarettes are mutagenic similar to general cigarette because of combustion products, and that the evaluation of the chemical and biological safety of all types of herbal cigarettes available on the market.

Antiasthmatic Effects on Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi Extracts Against Airway Inflammation and Hyperresponsiveness Induced by Diesel Exhaust Particles with Ovalbumin Sensitization

The feature of asthma are airway inflammation (AI), reversible airway obstruction, and an increased sensi- tivity to bronchoconstricting agents, elevated airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), excess production of Th2 cytokines, and eosinophil accumulation in the lungs. This study was performed to investigate if oral administration of Scutellaria baicalen- sis Georgi water extracts (SBG) have the antiasthmatic potential for the treatment of asthma. Asthmatic HI and AHR were induced by systemic sensitization to ovalbumin (OVA) with intratracheal instillation with 0.1 ㎎/mL of diesel exhaust parti- cles (DEP) suspension once a week for 10 weeks in BALB/c mice. SBG was orally administered with the concentraion of 200 ㎎/㎏ 5 days a week for 10 weeks. Long-term SBG treatment suppressed the eosinophil infiltration into airways from blood, the asthmatic AI and AHR by attenuating the production of cytokine IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13, histamine and OVA-specific IgE. Our data suggest that SBG has inhibitory effects on AI and AHR in a mouse model of asthma, may act as a potential Th2 cytokine antagonist, and may have a therapeutic effect on allergic asthma.

Attenuation Effect of Chamaecyparis obtusa Leaf Essential Oils on Airway Hyperresponsiveness and Airway Inflammation in Ovalbumin-Induced Murine Asthma Model

In this study, essential oils were extracted from the leaf of Chamaecyparis obtusa (CLEO), indigenous to Korea, CLEO constituents were analysed, and the effects of CLEO on airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and airway inflammation (AI) were investigated in Ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthma mouse model. Terpenoid components among identified CLEO constituents made up more than 80%. The CLEO-treated group in comparison to the control group showed reduced AHR, the decrease of eosinophil number in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), reduced specific anti-OVA IgE level in the serum, and a significant reduction in Th2 cytokines levels in the BALF with concentration. We concluded that CLEO have an alleviating effect on asthma-like symptoms such as AHR and AI. Further studies about antiasthmatic effect are necessary on the focus of single component of CLEO.

Comparison of Mutagenic Activities of Various Ultra-Fine Particles

Air pollution is increasing, along with consumption of fossil fuels such as coal and diesel gas. Air pollutants are known to be a major cause of respiratory-related illness and death, however, there are few reports on the genotoxic characterization of diverse air pollutants in Korea. In this study, we investigated the mutagenic activity of various particles such as diesel exhaust particles (DEP), combustion of rice straw (RSC), pine stem (PSC), and coal (CC), tunnel dust (TD), and road side dust (RD). Ultra-fine particles (UFPs) were collected by the glass fiber filter pad. Then, we performed a chemical analysis to see each of the component features of each particulate matter. The mutagenicity of various UFPs was determined by the Ames test with four Salmonella typhimurium strains with or without metabolic activation. The optimal concentrations of UFPs were selected based on result of a concentration decision test. Moreover, in order to compare relative mutagenicity among UFPs, we selected and tested DEP as mutation reference. DEP, RSC, and PSC induced concentration-dependent increases in revertant colony numbers with TA98, TA100, and TA1537 strains in the absence and presence of metabolic activation. DEP showed the highest specific activity among the particulate matters. In this study, we conclude that DEP, RSC, PSC, and TD displayed varying degrees of mutagenicity, and these results suggest that the mutagenicity of these air pollutants is associated with the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in these particulate matters.

A UPLC-ESI-Q-TOF method for rapid and reliable identification and quantification of major indole alkaloids in Catharanthus roseus

We developed a novel ultra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight (UPLC-Q-TOF) mass spectrometry method that allows sensitive, rapid, and reliable detection and identification of six representative indole alkaloids (vincristine, vinblastine, ajmalicine, catharanthine, serpentine, and vindoline) that exhibit physiological activity in Catharanthus roseus (C. roseus). The alkaloids were eluted on a C18 column with acetonitrile and water containing 0.1% formic acid and 10 mM ammonium acetate, and separated with good resolution within 13 min. Electrospray ionization-Q-TOF (ESI-Q-TOF) analysis was performed to characterize the molecules and their fragment ions, and the characteristic ions and fragmentation patterns were used as to identify the alkaloids. The proposed analytical method was verified in reference to the ICH guidelines and the results showed excellent linearity (R2 > 0.9988), limit of detection (1 ng/mL to 10 ng/mL), limit of quantification (3 ng/mL to 30 ng/mL), intra-day and inter-day precisions, and extraction recovery rates (92.8% to 104.1%) for all components. The validated UPLC-Q-TOF method was applied to the analysis of extracts from the root, stem, and leaves of C. roseus, allowing the identification of six alkaloids by comparison of retention times, molecular ions, and fragmentation patterns with those of reference compounds. Sixteen additional indole alkaloids were tentatively identified by comparison of chromatograms to chemical databases and literature reports. The contents of bis-indole alkaloids (vincristine and vinblastine) were high in the aerial parts, while the contents of mono-indole alkaloids (ajmalicine, catharanthine, serpentine, and vindoline) were high in the roots. The present results demonstrate that the proposed UPLC-Q-TOF method can be useful for the investigation of phytochemical constituents of medicinal plants.

Comparative In Vitro Biological Toxicity of Four Kinds of Air Pollution Particles

Accumulating epidemiological evidence indicates that exposure to fine air pollution particles (APPs) is associated with a variety of adverse health effects. However, the exact physiochemical properties and biological toxicities of fine APPs are still not well characterized. We collected four types of fine particle (FP) (diesel exhaust particles [DEPs], natural organic combustion [NOC] ash, synthetic organic combustion [SOC] ash, and yellow sand dust [YSD]) and investigated their physicochemical properties and in vitro biological toxicity. DEPs were almost entirely composed of ultrafine particles (UFPs), while the NOC, SOC, and YSD particles were a mixture of UFPs and FPs. The main elements in the DEPs, NOC ash, SOC ash, and YSD were black carbon, silicon, black carbon, and silicon, respectively. DEPs exhibited dose-dependent mutagenicity even at a low dose in Salmonella typhimurium TA 98 and 100 strains in an Ames test for genotoxicity. However, NOC, SOC, and YSD particles did not show any mutagenicity at high doses. The neutral red uptake assay to test cell viability revealed that DEPs showed dose-dependent potent cytotoxicity even at a low concentration. The toxicity of DEPs was relatively higher than that of NOC, SOC, and YSD particles. Therefore, these results indicate that among the four FPs, DEPs showed the highest in vitro biological toxicity. Additional comprehensive research studies such as chemical analysis and in vivo acute and chronic inhalation toxicity tests are necessary to determine and clarify the effects of this air contaminant on human health.

Composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of Eleutherococcus senticosus fruit extracts

This study was designed to examine the in vitro antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of essential oil and crude methanolic (MeOH) extract of Eleutherococcus senticosus (common name, Siberian ginseng) fruit and its partitioned fractions, including hexane, ethyl acetate (EtOAc), n-butanol (BuOH) and aqueous. 1,1-dephenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl free radical scavenging and reducing power assay suggest that antioxidant activity of EtOAc and BuOH fractions is due to the reducing ability of the antioxidant against oxidative effects of reactive oxygen species. In addition, the essential oil of Siberian ginseng fruit showed remarkable antimicrobial activity against Kocuria rhizophila (MIC = 125 µg/ml), Micrococcus luteus (MIC = 500 µg/ml), and Escherichia coli (MIC = 63 µg/ml). The chemical compositions of the essential oil obtained by the simultaneous steam-distillation and extraction method were analyzed using GC-MS; trans-caryophyllene (21.7%), humulene (7.4%), bicyclogermacrene (6.0%), (+) spathulenol (4.5%), germacrene-D (3.2%), tau-muurolol (2.5%) and delta-cadinene (2.3%) were found as main constituents. Furthermore, HPLC analysis identified ursolic acid as one of the principal components in Siberian ginseng fruit extract. Although this study has been carried out by in vitro assay, these results suggest that Siberian ginseng fruit may be a good candidate as a source of antioxidant and antimicrobial ingredients.