• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.544-555
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• 2002

The aim of this study is to develop the $^1H$-MRS data postprocessing software for both single-voxel and multi-voxel technique, which plays and important role as a diagnostic tool in clinical field. This software is based on graphical user interface(GUI) under windows operating system of personal computer(PC). In case of single-voxel MRS, both of raw data in time-domain and spectrum data in frequency-domain are simultaneously displayed in a screen. Several functions such as DC correction, zero filling, line broadening, Lorentz-Gauss filtering and phase correction, etc. are included to increase the quality of spectrum data. In case of multi-voxel analysis, spectroscopic image reconstructed by 3-D FFT was displayed as a spectral grid and overlapped over previously obtained T1- or T2-weighted image for the spectra to be spatially registered with the image. The analysis of MRS peaks were performed by obtaining the ratio of peak area. In single-voxel method, statistically processed peak-area ratios of MRS data obtained from normal human brain are presented. Using multi-voxel method, MR spectroscopic image and metabolite image acquired from brain tumor are demonstrated.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.1185-1193
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• 2006

This study investigated the effects of green tea on the disorders of lipid metabolism, oxidative system and hepatic functions induced by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), using adult male rats (SD) for 3 weeks. These 36 animals were divided into four groups. TCDD ($50{\mu}g/kg$ BW) was intraperitoneally injected at the beginning of experiment. Green tea powder was added 1% or 3% levels in basal diets respectively. Relative weights of thymus were decreased about one-third of control group, but those of liver, brain and testis were significantly increased in rats treated TCDD. Neutrophill% and lymphocyte% by TCDD treatment was improved by green tea diets. In liver functional enzyme, elevation of glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities due to TCDD treatment was lowered by green tea diets. The concentrations of serum and liver lipids were significantly increased by TCDD treatment, however, those of serum and liver triglyceride tended to decrease by green tea diets. Fecal lipid excretion was increased in rats fed green tea diets. Especially, fecal total cholesterol level was significantly elevated by 3% green tea diets. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) were increased in rats fed 3% green tea diets. Increment of benzphetamine N-demethylase (BPND) activity by TCDD treatment was declined by 1% green tea diets. These results indicate that green tea can exert improving effects on liver lipid accumulation and unfavorable hepatic functions, and elevate antioxidation.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 1978

Piscicidal substance produced by Streptomyces sp. isolated from soil was toxic against various kinds of fish. After extraction with CH$Cl_3$ from the culture medium, the substance was purified by avicel column chromatography. In order to test toxicity, various kinds of fish were subjected to the acqueous solution of 100 us of the substance per liter of water. Generally, the substance was toxic to most fish, but Macropodus chinenes and Misgurnus mizolepis are resistant to the substance than Gobius similis and Pseudorasbora parva. The substance was stable at pH range, 3.0 to 7.0, but labile at alkaline pH, and to heat as well. Succinic dehydrogenase on most of tissue cell of Cyprinus carpio was inhibited by this substance strongly, but spinal cord was not inhibited. By addition of Cu and Pb salts to the culture medium, piscicidal substance producibility was activated.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.94-99
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• 2000

Purpose : With the use of localized, water-suppressed in vivo $^1H$ magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), we evaluated the proton metabolic alterations in patients with chronic alcoholism and healthy normal controls. Material and Methods : Patients with chronic alcoholism (N = 10) and normal control subjects (N = 10) underwent MRS examinations using a stimulated echo acquisition mode (STEAM) pulse sequence with $2{\times}2{\times}2{\;}\textrm{cm}^3$ volume of interest (VOI) in the left cerebellum and basal ganglia. Proton metabolite ratios relative to creative (Cr) were obtained using a Marquart algorithm. Results : The specific feature in patients with chronic alcoholism was a significant decrease of N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/Cr ratio in the left cerebellum, compared with normal controls. No clear correlation of other metabolite ratios such as choline (Cho)/Cr and inositols (Ins)/Cr was established. Conclusion : Our preliminary study suggests that the reduction of NAA/Cr ratio may indicate neuronal loss in patients with chronic alcoholism. Thus, in vivo 1H MRS may be a useful modality in the clinical evaluation of patients with chronic alcoholism based on the proton metabolite ratios.

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 1991

There are some rather conflicting reports correlating ECS-induced changes of brain acetylcholine, and recently, Zawia and Bondy(1990) proposed the biological role of polyamine system in the long-term adaptive responses of brain to electrical stimulation. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of a single or repeated ECS(10mA, 100cps, 1sec; 5 ECS spread out over 9 days) on the brain acetylcholine(ACh) and polyamine contents of male mice. The ACh contents of temporal cortex(TCx) and decorticated cerebrum(dc-CB) were markedly increased by 79.9% and 49.4%, respectively, 10 and 30 min after ECS, and the increases were significantly attenuated with repeated 5 ECS, particularly in dc-CB. The putrescine concentrations of both TCx and dc-CB were little different and not affected by 1 ECS or 5 ECS. But the spermidine(Sd) concentration was higher in dc-CB and spermine(Sm) higher in TCx. While they were moderately decreased after 1 ECS, and their decreases were accentuated after 5 ECS, particularly in dc-CB.Sm(30mg/kg, i.p. inject. 30min before ECS) did not affect the ECS-induced increase of ACh content. Thease results suggest that both of brain ACh and polyamine may be implicated with the long-term adaptive responses to electrical stimulation

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.1163-1167
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• 2011

Excessive alcohol consumption causes various degenerative brain diseases including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Absorbed ethanol is metabolized to acetaldehyde and acetic acid by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH). Acetaldehyde is well known as a toxicant through generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Therefore, ALDH2 activity may play important roles in the pathogenesis of alcohol-induced brain diseases. In this study, we demonstrated the effects of ALDH2 enzyme activity on lipid peroxidation in brain tissues and urine of mice exposed to ethanol for 8 weeks. Five male, 8-week old Aldh2 (+/+) and Aldh2 (-/-) mice (C57BL/6J strain) in each group were exposed to ethanol for 8 weeks (2 g/kg wt./day) using gavage, and those in the control group received 0.9% saline alone. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) level, a marker for lipid peroxidation, was measured in whole brain tissue and urine by high performance liquid chromatography. As a result, chronic ethanol treatment did not show any statistical change on the TBARS level of brain tissue in both Aldh2 (+/+) mice and in Aldh2 (-/-) mice. However, following ethanol exposure for 8 weeks in Aldh2 (-/-) mice, the urinary TBARS levels were significantly increased to more than double compared to the pretreatment group. This result was not observed in Aldh2 (+/+) mice. These results suggest that although ALDH2 enzyme activity plays a role in the generation of ROS in the whole body, it does not seem to be important in the pathogenesis of alcohol induced degenerative brain diseases.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2008

The efficient strategies to cope with unpredictable and/or harmful environmental changes have been developed by every organism in order to ensure its survival and continuity of it's own species. As a results, all living things on earth maintain dynamically internal stability via a process termed 'homeostasis' among physiological parameters despite of external environment changes. Stress is an emotional and physical response to threat homeostasis. Stress may have not only transient but rather permanent effect on the organism; recent evidence clearly show that prenatal stress could organize or imprint permanently physiological systems without any change in genetic codes, a process known as 'epigenetic programming'. In this review, a series of reproduction-associated events occurred in prenatally stressed male rats such as alteration in the structure of sexually dimorphic brain regions, modification of neurotransmitter metabolism, changes in reproductive endocrine status, and finally, disorders of sexual behavior will be introduced. The fetal brain is highly sensitive to prenatal programming and glucocorticoids in particular have powerful brain-programming properties. The chronic hyperactivation of fetal brain by maternal stress-induced glucocorticoid input will provide new program via increasing the neuroplasticities. This 'increased neuroplasticities' will be the basis for the 'increased phenotypic plasticities' rendering the organism's better adaptation to environmental challenges. In conclusion, organism who experienced 'harsh' environment in his fetal life seems to give up a certain portion of reproductive competence to make good chance of survival in his future life by epigenetic (re)programming.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.199-209
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• 1984

Pregnant rats were fed a pyridoxine deficient diet during the gestation and lactation. DEF I group received the deficient diet from delivery ; DEF II group, from the 15 th day of gestation. Body and brain weights, brain protein, DNA, RNA, plasma GOT and GPT, and catecholamines were measured. Effect of MAO inhibiting drug, pargyline, was determined. Brain protein, DNA, and RNA of offsprings of deficient groups were significantly lower than the control group, but RNA/ DNA, brain weight/DNA, and protein/DNA show that cell number were more affected than cell size by the pyridoxine deficiency during the 3rd week of gestation and lactation. Plasma GOT activities were more significantly different than plasma GPT between the control and deficient group. Brain norepinephrine of offsprings of deficient group were significantly lower than the control, but brain dopamine content was not significantly different from the control. At 2nd and 3rd week, norepinephrine was significantly depressed in deficient groups. Pargyline treatment affected a 1.2 fold increase in catecholamines in 3hr while the control had a 1.5 fold increase. Thus norepinephrine and dopamine synthesis was depressed in the deficient groups. Dopaminergic neurons may be less dependent on pyridoxine level than neurons from norepinephrine. Pyridoxine deficiency in maternal diet is not so critical to brain catecholamines of offspring except to the neonatal rats.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1998 no.11
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• pp.121-122
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• 1998

To induce perturbed magnetic field variations in the range of auto prescans permitted, we chose artificially shim values and applied manualy as DC offsets to X, Y, Z gradient amplifiers. The STEAM spectra were obtained from a localized region (8ml) of phantom's center and a Marquart Algorithm is employed to quantify MRS spectra. Results indicated that Creatine (Cr) which had a good correlation between a signal intensity and an area, changed little bit and showed extremly a stabilized state in perturbed magnetic field variations. Therefore, during the MRS experiments, to minimize the SNR reduction by means of unavoidable inhomogeneous magnetic fields, the present study suggested that the quantification method of relative ratios produced by replacing Cr concentration with standard quantify was most desirable.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.95-101
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• 2008

In this study, we observed the alteration of choline signal intensity in hippocampus region of the depressive rat model induced by forced swimming test (FST). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antidepressant efficacy in the depressive animal model using MR spectroscopy. Fourteen experimentally naive male Sprague-Dawley rats weighting $160{\sim}180\;g$ were used as subjects. Drug injection group was exposed to the FST except for control group. The drugs were administered subcutaneously (SC) in a volume equivalent to 2ml/kg. And three injections were administered 23, 5, and 1h before beginning the given test. 1H MR spectra were obtained with use of a point resolved spectroscopy (PRESS) localization sequence performed according to the following parameters: repetition time, 2500 ms; echo time, 144 ms; 512 average; 2048 complex data points; voxel dimensions, $1.5{\times}2.5{\times}2.5\;mm^3$ ; acquisition time, 25min. There were no differences in NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratio between the right and the left hippocampus both normal control rats and antidepressant-injected rats. Also, no differences were observed in NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratio between the normal control rats and the antidepressant-injected rats both the right and the left hippocampus. In this study, we found the recovery of choline signals in the depressive animal model similar to normal control groups as injecting desipramine-HCl which was antidepressant causing anti-immobility effects. Thus, we demonstrated that MR spectroscopy was able to aid in evaluating the antidepressant effect of desipramine-HCl.