• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.40 no.5
• /
• pp.330-335
• /
• 2006

Objective : The aim of the study was to review the clinical and radiological findings of those non-functioning adenomas[NFAs] with positive immnoreactivity for anterior pituitary hormones. Methods : Sixty patients with pituitary adenoma were treated at the author's institution between January 2000 and July 2005. All consecutive patients were underwent transsphenoidal surgery by same operator. In addition to the routine histopathological examination, surgical specimen was examined by immunohistochemical staining against adenohypophyseal cells. And clinical analysis was performed by retrospective review of medical records, neuroimaging examinations and immunohistochemical technique. We classified these pituitary adenomas into functioning adenomas [group F], immuno-positive NFAs [group S, so-called silent adenoma] and immuno-negative NFAs [group N], and compared clinical and radiological differences between group F, N, and S. Results : Of the 60 cases, group F was 25, group S was 25, and group N was 10. Among the group S, 5 cases showed reactivity against PRL, 1 against GH, 1 against both PRL and GH, 1 against TSH and GH, 2 against ACTH, 11 against FSH and 4 against both LH and FSH. Radiologically, invasiveness was noted in 8 in group S, compared to 3 in group N and 1 in group F [p = 0.02]. Intratumoral bleeding was noted in 7 of group S, 2 of group N and 2 of group F [p >0.05]. Conclusion : Silent adenomas were thought to behave more aggressive than other subgroups of pituitary adenomas. And so we suggest the immunohistochemical study against adenohypophyseal cells may be helpful for evaluating clinical course of pituitary adenoma, expecially for, NFAs.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.282-290
• /
• 1997

Hepatocytes of Anguilla japonica have been prepared using a collagenase perfusion technique. The isolated cells attached efficiently to fibronectin-coated culture dishes and subsequently formed monolayers in serum-free medium. These cultures maintained in appropriate medium at least for 10 days with minimal cell loss. The effects of estradiol and pituitary hormones on vitellogenin (Vg) synthesis were examined in primary hepatocyte culture of the immature eels. In fish, as in other oviparous vertebrates, estrogen is a major inducer of Vg synthesis. However, $estradiol-17\beta(E_2)$ alone was insufficient to induce Vg synthesis in cultures of eel hepatocytes. Combination of $E_2$ with growth hormone (GH) and/or prolactin (PRL) markedly stimulated Vg synthesis. Even in cultures exposed to $E_2$ or precultured without hormones for 8 days, $E_2$ alone could not fully induce Vg synthesis. The synthesis of Vg was dramatically increased when hepatocytes were cultured in medium supplemented with $E_{2}+GH+PRL$ for 6 days. At this point, even though GH and/or PRL were eliminated from the medium, Vg synthesis was not influenced by these factors during culture of further 3 days. These results indicate that pituitary hormones, in particular GH and PRL, play important roles in the regulation of Vg synthesis in primary cultures of eel hepatocytes.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.1-18
• /
• 2008

Objectives: Galgeunhaegitang-gamibang(GH) and Samhwangseze-gamibang(SG) has been known that they are helpful for treatment of atopic dermititis clinically, but there is no report about the effect of GH and SG. So, author aimed to investigate the effects of GH and SG on atopic dermititis of NC/Nga mice. Methods : NC/Nga mice were divide into three group : normal, control, and experimental group. Atopic dermatitis was induced in the control and experimental group by spreading DNCB. Then GH was orally administered three times in a week for 8 weeks to the experimental group and SG was spreaded two times in a day for 8 weeks to the experimental group, while the control group was given normal saline. We observed changes of clinical skin severity score, serum IgE, IL-4, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IgM, IgGl, $IFN-{\gamma}$ and so on. We used one-way ANOVA test statistically(p<0.01). Results : Clinical skin severities of experiment group in 13 and 16weeks were significantly decreased by 48% and 55% compared to the control group. Serum IgE, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IgM, IgGl levels of experimental group were singnificantly decreased compared to the control group. Serum $IFN-{\gamma}$ level of the experimental group was significantly increased against control group. mRNA expression levels of IL-4, IL-5, IL-6 and CCR3 in the skin tissues of experimental group were significantly decreased compared to the control group. In contrary, $IFN-{\gamma}$y mRNA expression level were increased compared to the control group. Histological observation of the ear and skin tissues showed that the extents of inflammation and infiltrated immune cells in the epidermis and dermis of experimental group were highly deminished compared to the control group. Judging from that $IL-1{\beta}$, $TNF-{\alpha}$, IL-6 expression of gene, the effects of inflammatory cytokine revelation were significantly decreased compared to the control group. In the model inducing COX-2 activity in RAW 264.7 cell, COX-2 activity was significantly inhibited depending on the density of GH compared to the control serum. According to cell multiplication, examination of cell toxicity showed that GH is safe at the density of 10, 50, 100mg/l and even 1000mg/l. Conclusion : Accordin to the above results, it is considered that GH and SG is effective treatment for the atopic dermatitis.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.95-100
• /
• 2000

In previous study, both constitutive expression and 3-methylcholanthrene (3MC)-mediated elevation of CYP1A2 mRNA were demonstrated in human hepatoma HepG2 cells by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), suggesting that HepG2 cells would be appropriate for the study of human CYP1A2 regulation(Chung and Bresnick, 1994). Further studies were conducted to determine the basis of this induction phenomenon that is observed in HepG2 cells. Since CYP1A1 gene, another polycyclic hydrocarbon(PH)-inducible gene, is regulated by PHs through their interactions via receptors with cis-elements, the 5'-flanking region of human CYP 1A2 gene was analyzed to search such responsive elements. The promoter activity of various lengths of CYP1A2 gene sequence (-3203/+58bp) was measured in transiently-transfected HepG2 cells by fusion constructs containing the CAT, hGH or luciferase genes as a reporter. This region of the CYP1A2 gene, although containing a XRE, was only weakly responsive (less than 2 fold induction) to 10 nM of TCDD or 1 $\mu$M 3 MC treatment. This small enhancement of promoter activity is inconsistent with the previous observation, i.e., 12 to 14 fold-enhanced CYP1A2 mRNA from 1 $\mu$M 3 MC treated HepG2 cells, suggesting that additional mechanisms would exist for PH-mediated induction of CYP1A2 in these cells.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.163-168
• /
• 2005

The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and growth hormone (GH) in serum, the quantitation of spermato-genesis and the comparable relationships among these measurements during pubertal period in New Zealand White male rabbits. To investigate the age-related testicular changes in DNA contents of spermatogenic cells, the fine-needle testicular biopsies from males aged 10 to 28 wks were evaluated by flow cytometry(FCM). Body weight increased significantly between the ages of 12 and 20 wks (P<0.05) and reached 3.4 kg at 28 wks of age. The highest serum IGF-I level (451.3ng/mL) was observed at 20wks of age (P<0.05) and thereafter remained stable at low levels. Serum GH level at 18 wks of age was 183.3 pg/mL which was significantly higher compared to the other ages (P<0.05), and the rising time in serum GH tend to be somewhat earlier than that of IGF-I. The relative percentage of It-cells in testicular cell compartments was $48.2\%$ at the age of 18 wks which significantly increased than those of 16-wk-old (P<0.05) and thereafter increased with the advance of age to $68\%$. The percentage of 2C-cells in testis was $26.8\%$ at 18 wks of age which was significantly lower than $54.3\%$ at 16 wks old (P<0.05). The percentage of 4C-cells was constantly maintained $2\~6\%$ except the $9.9\%$ at 18 wks of age. In conclusion, the results suggest that the puberty onset occurred at about the 18 wks of age and that the IGF-I and GH in serum during the pubertal period showed the age/growth-specific changes and these changes might be related to the spermatogenesis. The DNA FCM combined with fine-needle testicular biopsy could offer a very sensitive method to monitor the quantitative spermatogenic events related to the puberty onset.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nutrition Society Conference
• /
• 1995.11b
• /
• pp.11-34
• /
• 1995

Growth hormone (GH) plays a key role in regulating postnatal growth and can stimulate growth of animals by acting directly on specific receptors on the plasma membrane of tissues or indirectly through stimulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I synthesis and secretion by the liver and other tissues. IGF-I and IGF-Ⅱ are polypeptides with structural similarity with proinsulin that stimulate cell proliferation by endocrine, paracrine and autocrine mechanisms. The initial event in the metabolic action of IGFs on target cells appears to be their binding to specific receptors on the plasma membrane. Current evidence indicates that the mitogenic actions of both IGFs are mediated primarily by binding to the type I IGF receptors, and that IGF action is also mediated by interactions with IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs). Six distinct IGFBPs have been identified that are characterized by cell-specific interaction, transcriptional and post-translational regulation by many different effectors, and the ability to either potentiate or inhibit IGF actions. Nutritional deficiencies can have their devastating consequence during growth. Although IGF-I is the major mediator of GH's action on somatic growth, nutritional status of an organism is a critical regulator of IGF-I and IGFBPs. Various nutrient deficiencies result in decreased serum IGF-I levels and altered IGFBP levels, but the blood levels of GH are generally unchanged or elevated in malnutrition. Effects of protein, energy, vitamin C and D, and zinc on serum IGF and IGFBP levels and tissue mRNA levels were reviewed in the text. Multiple factors are involved in the regulation of intestinal epithelial cell growth and differentiation. Among these factors the nutritional status of individuals is the most important. The intestinal epithelium is an important site for mitogenic action of the IGFs in vivo, with exogenous IGF-I stimulating mucosal hyperplasia. Therefore, the IGF system appears to provide and important mechanism linking nutrition and the proliferation of intestinal epithelial cells. In order to study the detailed mechanisms by which intestinal mucosa is regulated, we have utilized IEC-6 cells, an intestinal epithelial cell line and Caco-2 cells, a human colon adenocarcinoma cell line. Like intestinal crypt cells analyzed in vivo or freshly isolated intestinal epithelial cells, IEC-6 cells and Caco-2 cells possess abundant quatities of both type Ⅰ and type Ⅱ IGF receptors. Exogenous IGFs stimulate, whereas addition of IGFBP-2 inhibits IEC-6 cell proliferation. To investigate whether endogenously secreted IGFBP-2 inhibit proliferation, IEC-6 cells were transfected with a full-length rat IGFBP-2 cDNA anti-sense expression construct. IEC-6 cells transfected with anti-sense IGFBP-2 protein in medium. These cells grew at a rate faster than the control cells indicating that endogenous IGFBP-2 inhibits proliferation of IEC-6 cells, probably by sequestering IGFs. IEC-6 cells express many characteristics of enterocyte, but do not undergo differentiation. On the other hand, Caco-2 cells undergo a spontaneous enterocyte differentiation. On the other hand, Caco-2 cells undergo a spontaneous enterocyte differentiation after reaching confluency. We have demonstrated that Caco-2 cells produce IGF-Ⅱ, IGFBP-2, IGFBP-3, and an as yet unidentified 31,000 Mr IGFBP, and that both mRNA and peptide secretion of IGFBP-2 and IGFBP-3 increased, but IGFBP-4 mRNA and protein secretion decreased after the cells reached confluency. These changes occurred in parallel to and were coincident with differentiation of the cells, as measured by expression of sucrase-isomaltase. In addition, Caco-2 cell clones forced to overexpress IGFBP-4 by transfection with a rat IGFBP-4 cDNA construct exhibited a significantly slower growth rate under serum-free conditions and had increased expression of sucrase-isomaltase compared with vector control cells. These results indicate that IGFBP-4 inhibits proliferation and stimulates differentiation of Caco-2 cells, probably by inhibiting the mitogenic actions of IGFs.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.1235-1239
• /
• 2008

To study the health promoting effects of medicinal plants, 30 medicinal plants commonly available in Korea have been evaluated for their antioxidant compounds and antioxidant and antiproliferative activities. Total polyphenolics and flavonoids in the methanolic extracts were measured by spectrophotometric methods and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) radical scavenging activities and chelating effects have been determined for antioxidant activities. Moreover, the effects of medicinal plants on cell proliferation of intestinal (Caco-2) and pituitary (GH3) tumor cells were investigated using thiazolyl blue terazolium bromide (MIT) assay. The methanolic extracts of Pueraria thunbergiana and Artemisiae asiatria contained the highest total polyphenolic and flavonoid contents, respectively. P. thunbergiana exhibited the highest antioxidant activities. A. asiatria showed the strongest antiproliferative activity against Caco-2 and Ponciruc trifoliata Rafin and Lophathrum gracile Bronghiart exhibited the highest activities against GH3. Although there was positive correlation between ABTS radical scavenging activity and polyphenolic contents ($R^2=8189$), no relationship was found between antiproliferative and antioxidant activities.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.637-647
• /
• 2018

Extra-hypothalamic growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) plays an important role in reproduction. To study the treatment effect of Grin (a novel hGHRH homodimer), the infertility models of 85 male Chinese hamsters were established by intraperitoneally injecting 20 mg/kg of cyclophosphamide once in a week for 5 weeks and the treatment with Grin or human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) as positive control was evaluated by performing a 3-week mating experiment. 2-8 mg/kg of Grin and 200 U/kg of hMG showed similar effect and different pathological characteristics. Compared to the single cyclophosphamide group (0%), the pregnancy rates (H-, M-, L-Grin 26.7, 30.8, 31.3%, and hMG 31.3%) showed significant difference, but there was no difference between the hMG and Grin groups. The single cyclophosphamide group presented loose tubules with pathologic vacuoles and significant TUNEL positive cells. Grin induced less weight of body or testis, compactly aligned tubules with little intra-lumens, whereas hMG caused more weight of body or testis, enlarging tubules with annular clearance. Grin presented a dose-dependent manner or cell differentiation-dependentincrease in testicular GHRH receptor, and did not impact the levels of blood and testicular GH, testosterone. Grin promotes fertility by proliferating and differentiating primitive cells through up-regulating testicular GHRH receptor without triggering GH secretion, which might solve the etiology of oligoasthenozoospermia.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.13-18
• /
• 1999

The totipotential spermatogonial stem cells of adult testis which give rise to mature sperm cells is well-known to incorporate foreign DNA as well as those of somatic cells. Also, the integration rates of foreign DNA after haploid stages are generally known to decrease and /or is simply bound foreign DNA into the sperm plasma membrane. To overcome these problems, liposome and DNA complexes were used to determine how direct injection of these complexes into testis were integrated into sperm genome and resulted in transgenic offspring. To study this purpose, cation liposome was gently mixed with WAF/hGH DNA (1 : 2) and the complexes were injected into testis. At 10, 20, 40, 60, and 80 days after direct injection into testis, mature sperm cells were recovered by using artificial virgin method from two goats and each semen except a part of semen used for DNA analysis such as PCR or Southern blotting was cryopreserved for the artificial insemination. The results obtained in this study are summarized as follows. 1. By PCR, the presence of exogenous DNA was confirmed up to 80 days after injection with liposome/DNA complexes. The highest integration rates were obtained at day 40 after direct injection. This results suggested that spermatogonial stem cells were integrated exogenous DNA into their genome. 2. Among 23 Korean Native Goats which were artificially inseminated, 4 goats resulted in pregnancy and produced 7 young goats. 3. Two young goats were confirmed as a transgenic by PCR and Southern blot analysis. Therefore, our results suggested that testis-mediated gene transfer can be used as a feasible tools for the production of transgenic livestock.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.247-270
• /
• 1998

The more society has complicated, the more we have met stressful circumstance. And it is found that many physical and mental symptoms induced by stress. Soyosan(SYS) is one of the well-known oriental medicine for the treatment of general syndrome induced by emotional stress. This study was taken to know effects of SYS water extract on immune-depressed mice induced by stress. The results obtained in this study were as follows : 1. SYS inhibited murine weight-loss induced by stress 2. In vivo& in vitro, SYS increased phagocytic activity. 3. SYS enhanced the production of such reactive oxygen intermediates as superoxide and hydrogen peroxide from macrophages. 4. In vitro, SYS little influenced the production of reactive nitrogen intermediates. 5. SYS increased the number of the rosette forming cells of spleen. 6. SYS changed the ratio of helper and suppressor T cells by increasing $CD4^+$ T cells and decreasing $CD8^+$ T cells. 7. SYS increased cytotoxic activity on human lymphoma cell line(K562). 8. SYS increased the plasma level of GH and DHEA. whereas it decreased that of ACTH and cortisol. According to the above results, it might be considered that SYS would be used for immune-depressive disease induced by stress.