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Cordycepin (3'-deoxyadenosine) isolated from Cordyceps militaris, a species of the fungal genus Cordyceps, has been shown to exhibit many pharmacological functions, such as anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities. In this study, we investigated the preventive role of cordycepin in ischemic/reperfusion (I/R) injury of isolated rat hearts and anesthetized rats. After Sprague-Dawley rats received cordycepin (3, 10, and 30 mg/kg) or control (0.5 % carboxyl methylcellulose) orally once a day for a week, hearts were isolated and mounted on Langendorff heart perfusion system. Isolated hearts were perfused with Krebs-Henseleit buffer for 15-min pre-ischemic stabilization period and subjected to 30-min global ischemia and 30-min reperfusion. Cordycepin administration (10 mg/kg, p.o.) significantly increased left ventricular developed pressure during the reperfusion period compared to that in the control group, but without any effect on coronary flow. Cordycepin (10 mg/kg, p.o.) significantly increased the phosphorylation of Akt/GSK-3β/p70S6K pathways, which are known to modulate multiple survival pathways. In addition, cordycepin decreased Bax and cleaved caspase-3 expression while increasing Bcl-2 expression, Bcl-2/Bax ratio, and heme oxygenase (HO-1) expression in isolated rat hearts. In anesthetized rats subjected to 30 min occlusion of left anterior descending coronary artery/2.5-h reperfusion, cordycepin (1, 3, and 10 mg/kg, i.v.) administered 15 min before the onset of ischemia dose-dependently decreased the infarct size in left ventricle. In conclusion, cordycepin could be an attractive therapeutic candidate with oral activity against I/R-associated heart diseases such as myocardial infarction.

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The characteristics of the distribution of plastic marine debris were determined on 12 beaches in South Korea in 2013 and 2014. The abundances of large micro- (1-5 mm), meso- (5-25 mm), and macroplastics (>25 mm) were 880.4, 37.7, and 1.0 particles/m(2), respectively. Styrofoam was the most abundant debris type for large microplastics and mesoplastics (99.1 and 90.9 %, respectively). Fiber (including fabric) was the most abundant of the macroplastics (54.7 %). There were no statistical differences in the mean numbers and weights of plastic debris among three beach groups from west, south, and east coasts. No significant differences were detected between the abundances of beached plastics in high strandline and backshore for all three size groups. Spearman's rank correlation was used to determine the relationships between the three debris size classes. The abundance of large microplastics was strongly correlated with that of mesoplastics for most material types, which suggests that the contamination level of large microplastics can be estimated from that of mesoplastics. As surveying of smaller particles is more labor intensive, the surveying of mesoplastics with a 5-mm sieve is an efficient and useful way to determine "hot-spots" on beaches contaminated with large microplastics.

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