The Platycodon grandiflorus root, a Korean medicinal food, is well known to have beneficial effects on obesity and diabetes. In this study, we demonstrated the metabolic effects of P. grandiflorus root ethanol extract (PGE), which is rich in platycodins, on diet-induced obesity. C57BL/6J mice (four-week-old males) were fed a normal diet (16.58% of kilocalories from fat), high-fat diet (HFD, 60%...

The NF-κB is found in almost all animal cell types and is involved in a myriad of cellular responses. Aberrant expression of NF-κB has been linked to cancer, inflammatory diseases and improper development. Little is known about transcriptional regulation of the NF-κB family member gene RelA/p65. Sp1 plays a key role in the expression of the RelA/p65 gene. ZBTB2 represses transcription of the ge...

Vemurafenib/PLX4032, a selective inhibitor of mutant BRAFV600E, constitutes a paradigm shift in melanoma therapy. Unfortunately, acquired resistance, which unavoidably occurs, represents one major limitation to clinical responses. Recent studies have highlighted that vemurafenib activated oxidative metabolism in BRAFV600E melanomas expressing PGC1α. However, the oxidative state of melanoma resi...

Enhancing brown fat activity and promoting white fat browning are attractive therapeutic strategies for treating obesity and associated metabolic disorders. To provide a comprehensive picture of the gene regulatory network in these processes, we conducted a series of transcriptome studies by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and quantified the mRNA and long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) changes during white fa...

BACKGROUND Organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1, SLC22A1) is a membrane transporter that is important for therapeutic effect of the antidiabetic drug metformin. Its liver-specific expression in hepatocytes is strongly controlled by hepatocyte nuclear factor-4α (HNF4α). HNF4α expression and transcriptional activity have been demonstrated to be augmented by glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in human hep...