• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1313-1319
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• 2016

Cancer is a complex disease heterogeneously composed of various types of cells including cancer stem-like cells responsible for relapse and chemoresistance in the tumor microenvironment. The conventional two-dimensional cell culture-based platform has critical limitations for representing the heterogeneity of cancer cells in the three-dimensional tumor niche in vivo. To overcome this insufficiency, three-dimensional cell culture methods in a scaffold-dependent or -free physical environment have been developed. In this study, we improved and simplified the HCT-8 colon cancer cell-based spheroid culture protocol and evaluated the relationship between cancer stemness and responses of chemosensitivity to 5- Fluorouracil (5-FU), a representative anticancer agent against colon cancer. Supplementation with defined growth factors in the medium and the culture dish of the regular surface with low attachment were required for the formation of constant-sized spheroids containing $CD44^+$ and $CD133^+$ colon cancer stem cells. The chemo-sensitivities of $CD44^+$ cancer stem cells in the spheroids were much lower than those of $CD44^-$ non-stem-like cancer cells, indicating that the chemoresistance to 5-FU is due to the stemness of colon cancer cells. Taken together, the inflammation and oncogenic gut environment-sensitive HCT-8 cell-based colon cancer spheroid culture and comparative evaluation using the simplified model would be an efficient and applicable way to estimate colon cancer stemness and pharmaceutical response to anticancer drugs in the realistic tumor niche.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.253-259
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• 2004

in this study, we developed a Monte Carlo imaging simulation code written by the visual C$\^$++/ programing language for design optimization of a digital X-ray imaging system. As a digital X-ray imaging system, we considered a Gd$_2$O$_2$S(Tb) scintillator and a photosensor array, and included a 2D parallel grid to simulate general test renditions. The interactions between X-ray beams and the system structure, the behavior of lights generated in the scintillator, and their collection in the photosensor array were simulated by using the Monte Carlo method. The scintillator thickness and the photosensor array pitch were assumed to 66$\mu\textrm{m}$ and 48$\mu\textrm{m}$, respertively, and the pixel format was set to 256 x 256. Using the code, we obtained X-ray images under various simulation conditions, and evaluated their image qualities through the calculations of SNR (signal-to-noise ratio), MTF (modulation transfer function), NPS (noise power spectrum), DQE (detective quantum efficiency). The image simulation code developed in this study can be applied effectively for a variety of digital X-ray imaging systems for their design optimization on various design parameters.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.541-549
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• 2020

The Drug Delivery System (DDS) is defined as a technology for designing existing or new drug formulations and optimizing drug treatment. DDS is designed to efficiently deliver drugs for the care of diseases, minimize the side effects of drug, and maximize drug efficacy. In this study, the optimization of tripolyphosphate (TPP) concentration on the size of Chitosan nanoparticles (CNPs) produced by crosslinking with chitosan was measured. In addition, the characteristics of Fe₃O₄-CNPs according to the amount of iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) were measured, and it was confirmed that the higher the amount of Fe₃O₄, the better the characteristics as a magnetic drug carrier were displayed. Through the ninhydrin reaction, a calibration curve was obtained according to the concentration of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) of Y = 0.00373exp(179.729X)-0.0114 (R² = 0.989) in the low concentration (0.004 to 0.02 wt%) and Y = 21.680X-0.290 (R² = 0.999) in the high concentration (0.02 to 0.1 wt%). Absorption was constant at about 62.5% above 0.04 g of initial GABA. In addition, the amount of GABA released from GABA-Fe₃O₄-CNPs over time was measured to confirm that drug release was terminated after about 24 hr. Finally, GABA-Fe₃O₄-CNPs performed under the optimal conditions were spherical particles of about 150 nm, and it was confirmed that the properties of the particles appear well, indicating that GABA-Fe₃O₄-CNPs were suitable as drug carriers.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 2007

Natural gases generally consist of mainly $^{12}C$ and about 1.1% of $^{13}C$. It is well known that a stable carbon isotope, $^{13}C$, has been widely used for the applications of medical, pharmaceutical, and agricultural tracers. As a result, the development of the separation and concentrating technology of $^{13}C$ can cause of high value-added products and the possibility of the generation of new carbon materials, In general, there are two kinds of approaches to obtain a stable $^{13}C$ isotope by the separation of cryogenic distillation. One is to obtain a concentrated $^{13}CH_4$ isotope from natural gas. Another approach is to get concentrated $^{13}CO$ by distillation followed by a chemical reaction of $CH_4$ and $H_2O$. In this study, rigorous process simulations of the cryogenic distillation have been performed and analyzed for the concentrated separation of $^{13}C$ isotopes from LNG and NG by using commercial process simulator. Due to the very small differences of relative volatilities and separabilities of $^{12}C$ and $^{13}C$, the process design and operation of effective separation and concentration of $^{13}C$ need special strategies and feasibility studies. Utilization of vapor pressure data to acentric factor in SRK equation of state and optimized process conditions have been able to predict for the effective of the separation yield and concentration of $^{13}C$ for the cryogenic distillation. The various operation strategies for both batch and continuous cryogenic distillation are also studied and suggested for the basic design of the process. Development of this study can provide a tool for the effective design and operation of the cryogenic separation of $^{13}C$.