• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.84 no.6
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• pp.1244-1256
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• 2023

In prostate cancer, the bone is the most common site of metastasis, and it is essential to evaluate metastatic bone lesions to assess the tumor burden and treatment response. Castration-resistant prostate cancer refers to the state wherein the cancer continues to progress despite a significant reduction of the sex hormone level and is associated with frequent distant metastasis. The Prostate Cancer Working Group 3 (PCWG3) released guidelines that aimed to standardize the assessment of treatment effects in castration-resistant prostate cancer using bone scintigraphy. However, these guidelines can be challenging to comprehend and implement in practical settings. The purpose of this review was to provide an overview of a specific image acquisition method and treatment response assessment for bone scintigraphy-based evaluation of bone lesions in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, in accordance with the PCWG3 guidelines.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.138-148
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• 1987

5${\alpha}$-dihydrotestosterone(DHT)과 testosterone(T)은 남성 생식기관의 주 생성 호르몬들로 그 구조가 매우 비슷하여 이들 각 개를 특이하게 측정(specific determination)하는 방법이 개발되지 않고 있다. 본 연구는 고속액체 크로마토그라피(HPLC)를 이용하여 이들을 분리한 후 섬광면역측 정법(Luminescence immunoassay, LIA)으로 정량하는 방법을 개발하여 이들의 응용 가능성을 검토하고져 하였다. DHT와 T의 retention time은 각각 10.3min, 17.6min이었다. DHT-LIA와 T-LIA에 서 다른 스테로이드들과의 교차반응도는 방사면역측정법(RIA)과 대동소이하였다. 정도관리(quality control) 시료의 intra-assay variation은 DHT-LIA가 8.7%, T-LIA가 6.0%의 변이계수를 나타내었고, inter-assay variation의 변이계수는 각각 12.0% 및 15.3%이었다. 실측치(y)와 기대치(x)간의 관계를 보면, DHT-LIA경우는 Y=0.94X+0.9(r=0.989), T-LIA는 Y=1.01X+0.06(r =0.988)로 두 측정치 사이에는 통계적으로 유의한 차이가 없었다. 위의-측정방법을 이용하여 DHT-enanthate와 T-enanthate 처리후 혈청내 DHT 및 T의 농도변화를 조사한 실험결과 LIA와 RIA의 값사이에 유의한 차이가 없었다. 위의 결과로 보아 본 실험에서 개발된 DHT와 T의 섬광면역측정법은 정립되었다고 사려된다.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.323-333
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• 2009

Parabens are alkyl esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid, which are widely used in foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceutic products as preservatives. Absorbed parabens are metabolized fastly and excreted. Actually human body is exposed to complex mixture of parabens. Safety assessment at various toxicological end points revealed parabens have a little acute, subacute and chronic toxicities. Some reports have argued that as parabens have estrogenic activity, they are associated with the incidence of breast cancer through dermal absorption by cosmetics. There is an inference that antiandrogenic activity of parabens may give rise to a lesion of male reproductive system, but also there is an contrary. At cellular level, parabens may inhibit mitochondrial function of sperms and androgen production in testis, but also there is an contrary. Parabens seem to have little or no toxicity in embryonic development. Parabens can cause hemolysis, membrane permeability change in mitochondria and apoptosis, suggesting cellular toxicity of parabens. Parabens evoked endocrine disruption in several fish species and have toxic effect on small invertebrates and microbes. Therefore, the toxicity of parabens should be considered as a potentially toxic chemical in the freshwater environment. In conclusion, though parabens may be considered as a low toxic chemical, more definite data are required concerning the endocrine disrupting effect of parabens on human body and aquatic animals according to route and term of exposure as well as the residual concentration of parabens.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.550-554
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to screen the testosterone-like activities of eight oriental medicines with an in vitro testosterone compound detection (TCD) system. Distilled water and 80% ethanol, both at 80℃, were used to obtain extracts from Cervus nippon temminck (Nokgaksang), Cynanchum wilfordii (Baeksuo), Lespedeza cuneata (Yagwanmun), Panax ginseng (Hongsam), Smilax china (Toryeong), Taraxacum platycarpum (Mindlre), Tribulus terresteis (Namgase), and Trigonella foenum-graecum (Horopa), and extracts at concentrations of 5, 50, and 500 ㎍/ml were assessed using the TCD system. The testosterone-like activities of the 80% ethanol extracts were seen to increase with concentration and ranged from 0.9 to 5.0 times higher than those of the negative control; Horopa and Yagwanmun exhibited superior testosterone-like activities, followed by Mindlre and Hongsam at the same concentration. Toryeong and Namgase, on the other hand, showed low activity with Nokgaksang and Baeksuo exhibiting very low levels. Compared with the activities of the positive control (5α-DHT), the 80% ethanol extracts of Horopa and Yagwanmun at a concentration of 500 ㎍/ml showed higher testosterone-like activities than 10^-8 M 5α-DHT. The water extracts showed lower activity levels than the ethanol samples, and the change of activity with concentration was also lower. It was confirmed that the 80% ethanol extracts of Horopa, Yagwanmun, and Mindlre etc. enhance the transcription efficiency of testosterone-related genes and may therefore be useful in developing health food or medicinal treatments for the improvement of male menopausal symptoms.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.838-844
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender-specific changes of plasma MDA, SOD, and lymphocyte DNA damage during high intensity exercise. In this study, 17 healthy male and 18 healthy female college students ran on a treadmill at 85%$VO_{2max}$ until the point of all-out. Blood-collecting was carried out five times (Rest, Ex-Exha, R0.5h, R4h and R24h), and with the collected blood, plasma malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and lymphocyte DNA damage were analyzed. Plasma MDA and SOD concentration increased significantly at the Ex-Exha (p<0.05), and there were no significant differences in gender. For the degree of lymphocyte DNA damage, all %DNA in the tail, tail length and tail moment increased significantly at the Ex-Exha (p<0.05), and %DNA in the tail and tail length were significantly higher in the male group than in the female group (p<0.05). These results suggest that acute high intensity exercise not only causes oxidative stress but also brings about lymphocyte DNA damage. In addition, it was found that males showed higher DNA damage than females in terms of oxidative stress subject to high intensity exercise. Nevertheless, further subsequent studies are required in order to better understand the mechanism behind DNA damage varying with gender, in a way that takes into consideration physical fitness, hormonal level, exercise intensity and duration - additional factors which might affect DNA damage.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.79-87
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• 2009

Due to its well-known function in parturition and milk ejection, oxytocin (OT) has been considered as a 'female neurohypophyseal hormone'. Recent studies, however, clearly indicate that OT has some local roles in male reproduction via both central and peripheral routes. In experimental rodents, OT is released within distinct brain regions in response to social stimuli, and the brain OT receptor (OTR) mediated actions were strongly involved in the regulation of a variety of male behaviors such as mating-associated behaviors. In particular, OT and/or OTR knockout mice provide important clues about the molecular regulatory mechanism of the socio-sexual behaviors. Several lines of evidence also show that OT is synthesized within rodents testis, epididymis and prostate, and the presence of OTRs in these organs. In rodent testes, OT might have a role in the modulation of steroidogenesis via stimulation of the conversion of testosterone (T) to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) by 5alpha-reductase. Similar effects of OT on this androgen conversion were observed in epididymis and prostate suggesting the OT's modulatory role, such as contractility induction, in these androgen-dependent organs. In this context, further investigations on the OT's role in male CNS and reproductive organs are likely to provide better understanding on the complex socio-sexual behaviors and a platform for development of therapeutics to treat some psychological and/or andrological problems.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2007

Objective: To determine whether the presence of Y-chromosome microdeletion affects the outcome of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) program. Methods: Fourteen couples with microdeletion in azoospermic factor (AZF)c region who attempted IVF/ICSI or cryopreserved and thawed embryo transfer cycles were enrolled. All of the men showed severe oligoasthenoteratoazoospermia (OATS) or azoospermia. As a control, 12 couples with OATS or azoospermia and having normal Y-chromosome were included. Both groups were divided into two subgroups by sperm source used in ICSI such as those who underwent testicular sperm extraction (TESE) and those used ejaculate sperm. We retrospectively analyzed our database in respect to the IVF outcomes. The outcome measures were mean number of good quality embryos, fertilization rates, implantation rates, $\beta$-hCG positive rates, early pregnancy loss and live birth rates. Results: Mean number of good quality embryos, implantation rates, $\beta$-hCG positive rates, early pregnancy loss rates and live birth rates were not significantly different between Y-chromosome microdeletion and control groups. But, fertilization rates in the Y-chromosome microdeletion group (61.1%) was significantly lower than that of control group (79.8%, p=0.003). Also, the subgroup underwent TESE and having AZFc microdeletion showed significantly lower fertilization rates (52.9%) than the subgroup underwent TESE and having normal Y-chromosome (79.5%, p=0.008). Otherwise, in the subgroups used ejaculate sperm, fertilization rates were showed tendency toward lower in couples having Y-chromosome microdeletion than couples with normal Y-chromosome. (65.5% versus 79.9%, p=0.082). But, there was no significance statistically. Conclusions: In IVF/ICSI cycles using TESE sperm, presence of V-chromosome microdeletion may adversely affect to fertilization ability of injected sperm. But, in cases of ejaculate sperm available for ICSI, IVF outcome was not affected by presence of Y-chromosome AZFc microdeletion. However, more larger scaled prospective study was needed to support our results.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.184-189
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• 2007

In order to investigate the enhancement effects of low dose radiation on biological activation, this study applied low dose X-ray to the whole body of male rats to find out whether hormesis is induced in male germ cells. Total 36 Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats as experimental animal were subdivided into 6 groups(in 6 rats per group) such as control, 10 mGy, 20 mGy, 50 mGy, 100 mGy and 200 mGy radiation group All the groups showed slightly increasing number of sperms per 0.1g semen ($14.216{\times}10^6,\;13.901{\times}10^6,\;14.153{\times}10^6,\;13.831{\times}10^6,\;14.137{\times}10^6,\;14.677{\times}10^6$ respectively), and the motility of sperms amounted to 50.9%, 49.5%, 55.1%, 54.3%, 48.0% and 52.2% respectively. Particularly, compared to the control, the other 5 groups showed higher male hormone level, and the microscopic observations of testicle tissues showed no vacuolization in seminiferous tubules and testis cells. In the results of this experiment, no harmful effect was observed on Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats for which the dose of radiation was controlled as regulated legally by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Welfare. However, as these results were obtained from a limited number of animals, we cannot maintain that the same effect will be observed in the human body. Therefore, there should be further research on the effect on other animals and ultimately on the human body.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.318-322
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• 2014

5-Alpha reductase II, which converts testosterone (T) to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), is a crucial enzyme II in benign prostatic hyperplasia. Inhibitory effects of Curcuma longa L. (CL) extracts on 5-alpha reductase II activity were investigated in rat prostate tissue homogenates as well as LNCaP cells expressing human 5-alpha reductase II. Hot water extract (CL-HW) of Curcuma longa L. significantly inhibited 5-alpha reductase activity by over 80% at a concentration of $100{\mu}g/mL$, whereas 20% ethanol extracts (CL-E20) of Curcuma longa L. exhibited significant inhibitory activity from $50{\mu}g/mL$. These results indicated that Curcuma longa L is a potent 5-alpha reductase II inhibitor for benign prostatic hyperplasia treatment.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.705-711
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• 2019

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common urogenital disorder in men, benign tumor and is a typical disease deteriorating the quality of old men's lives, and its prevalence increases with age. Though the molecular pathogenesis of BPH has not yet been clearly revealed, it is known that the variation and aging of the endocrine including sex hormone may cause BPH. Especially the hypertrophy of the prostate cell by the formation of the excessive dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is estimated to cause BPH. If testosterone exists excessively in blood, a lot of DHT is produced in prostate by $5{\alpha}-reductase$. Thus, in this study we tried to analyze haematological change and histopathological change by using the model rat with BPH caused by hypodermic injection of testosterone to prove the effect of Houttuynia cordata extracts on BPH. Rats were divided into four experimental groups: no treatment group (N), the testosterone injection and D.W treatment group (DO), the testosterone injection and Houttuynia cordata treatment group (HO) and testosterone injection and finasteride treatment group (FO). Prostate weight, volume and weight ratio in the HO and FO groups were significantly lower than the DO group. Testosterone and DHT levels in the HO group were significantly lower than the DO group. The HO and FO groups showed trophic symptoms and were lined by flattened epithelial cells, thus, the stromal proliferation is relatively low as compared to the DO group. These results suggest that Houttuynia cordata may control benign prostatic hyperplasia.