• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.32-41
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• 2010

Purpose : Glomerulonephropathy (GN) often manifests as proteinuria and progresses to chronic renal failure without specific therapy. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) has been tried as a therapeutic agent in experimental GN, and previous studies showed that administration of MSC concomitantly to the insult inducing GN or via intra-renal administration ameliorated proteinuria. The purpose of this study was to test the therapeutic potential of MSC administered via intravenous route at the time of clinically evident proteinuria. Methods : MSCs were administered intravenously via tail vain into the mice with adriamycin (ADR) induced nephropathy (ADR-GN), two weeks after ADR injection when massive proteinuria was evident. To test the capacity of MSC modulate the cytokine production in the inflammatory milieu, the concentrations of IFN-$\gamma$ and IL-10 were measured in the supernatant of in vitro mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC) with or without additional MSC. Results : MSCs administered intravenously into the proteinuric mice with ADR-GN accelerated the recovery of this experimental GN with disappearance of proteinuria in two weeks when the saline treated (control) mice still showed significant proteinuria. The mice treated with MSC also had a tendency of better survival. Addition of MSC decreased IFN-$\gamma$ and increased IL-10 in the supernatant of MLC. Conclusion : This study showed that MSC had a therapeutic potential even when administered in a more clinically relevant setting into a proteinuric glomerulonephropathy model. Further study to verify the mechanism and long-term safety of this phenomenon is required.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.1395-1399
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• 2008

국내 토층 사면을 대상으로 강우에 의해 발생되는 침투수 거동 특성을 분석함으로써 지속적인 토층의 물성 변화 계측을 통해 산사태 예 경보시스템을 구축이 가능하다. 본 연구에서는 산사태 예 경보시스템 구축의 사전 단계로써, 국내 대표적인 지질 매질인 화강암 풍화토, 편마암 풍화토와 주문진 표준사에 대해 공극률과 체적함수비 등의 토질 물성 변화를 고려한 실내 보정실험을 수행하였다. 실험조건은 공극률, 체적함수비 변화에 대한 측정센서의 측정 정밀도 향상과 이를 통해 국내 현장토에 대한 고유 보정기법을 제시하기 위함이다. 측정센서는 각 실험 조건별 물성 변화에 따라 전압을 측정함으로써 현장토에 대한 물성치와 상호 분석이 가능하도록 하였다. 주문진 표준사 뿐만 아니라 국내 현장토인 화강암 풍화토와 편마암 풍화토에 대한 체적함수비에 대한 보정식도 함께 제시하였다.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.197-203
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• 2005

Purpose : Changes in metalloproteinases(MMP) activity have been demonstrated in several disease states, including rheumatoid arthritis and tumor metastasis. More importantly, increased myocardial MMP activity has been reported to occur in both clinical and experimental forms of dilated cardiomyopathy. There was no report about MMP in adriamycin(ADR)-induced cardiomyopathy. The purpose of this study was to investigate gene expression of MMP and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases(TIMP) in ADR-induced cardiomyopathy and clarify the relationship between MMP and cytokines. Methods : Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into two groups. The first group was control. The second group was given intraperitoneal injections of ADR(5 mg/kg) twice a week over two weeks. Serum concentrations of MMP, TIMP, interleukin(IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-${\alpha}$ were measured. RNA extraction was performed from frozen rat hearts. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) was employed. cDNA Microarray analysis was performed by using a set of 5,184 sequence-verified rat cDNA clones. Results : Serum MMP and TIMP levels were not significantly different between the two groups. IL-6 was $36.8{\pm}2.8pg/mL$ and TNF-${\alpha}$ $2.2{\pm}2.7pg/mL$ in the ADR group. They were significantly higher than in the control group. Serum MMP correlated significantly with TNF-${\alpha}$(r=0.41, P<0.05). There was no gene expression of MMP, IL-6 or TNF-${\alpha}$ in the hearts of both groups. Gene expression of TIMP was significantly depressed in the hearts of the ADR group. Conclusion : These results suggested a potential role for TNF-${\alpha}$ in the regulation of extracellular matrix remodeling in ADR induced cardiomyopathy. Rapid screening of multiple decreased gene expression by DNA chip may be a useful diagnostic test to detect early cardiac injury before developing ADR induced cardiomyopathy.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.325-329
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• 2004

Purpose: Usefulness of mouse liver S9 fraction was evaluated for the measurement of the metabolites in the in vitro metabolism study of $^{18}F$-labeled radiotracers. Materials and Methods: Mouse liver S9 fraction was isolated at au early step in the course of microsome preparation. The in vitro metabolism studies were tarried out by incubating a mixture containing the radiotracer, S9 fraction and NADPH at $37^{\ciirc}C$, and an aliquot of the mixture was analyzed at the indicated time points by radio-TLC. Metabolic defluorination was further confirmed by the incubation with calcium phosphate, a bone mimic. Results: The radiotracer $[^{18}F]1$ underwent metabolic defluorination within 15 min, which was consistent with the results of the in vivo method and the in vitro method using microsome. Radiotracer $[^{18}F]2$ was metabolized to three metabolites including $4-[^{18}F]fluorobenzoic$ acid within 60 min. It is likely that the one of these metabolites at the origin of radio-TLC was identical with the one that obtained from the in vivo and in vitro (microsome) method. Compared with the in vitro method using microsome, the method using S9 fraction gave a similar pattern of the metabolites but with a different ratio, which can be explained by the presence of cytosol in the S9 fraction. Conclusion: These results suggest that the findings of the in vitro metabolism studies using S9 fraction can reflect the in vivo metabolism of novel radiotracers in the liver. Moreover, this method can be used as a tool to determine metabolic defluorination along with calcium phosphate absorption method.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.338-343
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• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a small animal PET using dual layer phoswich detector to minimize parallax error that degrades spatial resolution at the outer part of field-of-view (FOV). Materials and Methods: A simulation tool GATE (Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission) was used to derive optimal parameters of small PET, and PET was developed employing the parameters. Lutetium Oxyorthosilicate (LSO) and Lutetium-Yttrium Aluminate-Perovskite(LuYAP) was used to construct dual layer phoswitch crystal. $8{\times}8$ arrays of LSO and LuYAP pixels, $2mm{\times}2mm{\times}8mm$ in size, were coupled to a 64-channel position sensitive photomultiplier tube. The system consisted of 16 detector modules arranged to one ring configuration (ring inner diameter 10 cm, FOV of 8 cm). The data from phoswich detector modules were fed into an ADC board in the data acquisition and preprocessing PC via sockets, decoder block, FPGA board, and bus board. These were linked to the master PC that stored the events data on hard disk. Results: In a preliminary test of the system, reconstructed images were obtained by using a pair of detectors and sensitivity and spatial resolution were measured. Spatial resolution was 2.3 mm FWHM and sensitivity was 10.9 $cps/{\mu}Ci$ at the center of FOV. Conclusion: The radioactivity distribution patterns were accurately represented in sinograms and images obtained by PET with a pair of detectors. These preliminary results indicate that it is promising to develop a high performance small animal PET.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.121-125
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• 2011

Purpose: The DNA-type virus HBV, discovered by D. Dane and others in 1976, is approximately 42nm big and known as the main cause of liver-related diseases around the world. HBsAg has 4 kinds of subtypes including adw, adr, ayw and ayr and besides common antigen factor a, there are d, y, r, w. From the methods of serologically testing HBV, IRMA, EIA and CLIa were developed for testing HBsAg and are being used in examining the surface antigen of HBV. In this study, among the methods for testing HBV, the recently developed RIAKEY Ultrasensitive HBsAg IRMA kit's sensitivity level and performance in detection of mutant forms were measured and compared with CLIA. Materials and methods: Two certified reference materials, which are WHO 1st International Standard 1985(80/549) and WHO 2nd International Standard 2003(00/588. subtype adw2, genotypeA), were used in the examination and the sensitivity level was measured by diluting these materials from 0.08 IU/ml to 0.005 IU/ml. The materials for examining the detection of mutant forms included 9 kinds of subtype 'ad' and one kind of subtype 'ay' purchased from DSI company. Also, with the use of positive and negative samples, they was compared with CLIA. Result: Ultrasensitive HBsAg kit based on IRMA method showed the detection of up to 0.01 IU/ml not only for WHO 1st International Standard 1985(80/549) but also for WHO 2nd International Standard 2003(00/588. subtype adw2, genotypeA) and the sensitivity level was measured as 0.01 IU/ml by WHO standard. In testing the performance for detection of mutant forms, the 9 kinds of subtype 'ad' and one kind of subtype 'ay' mutant materials were detected, demonstrating the capacity of detecting various types of mutant forms. Conclusions: With the clinical importance of sensitivity level and performance in detection of mutant forms increasing in the field of HBsAg diagnosis, the examination of IRMA's effectiveness using RIA method in the aspects of the sensitivity level and performance in detection of mutant forms was carried out and its result is as follows. The sensitivity level was measured as 0.01 IU/ml by WHO standard and it was possible to measure various types of mutant forms with high sensitivity. Thus it is suggested that more speedy and accurate reports could be produced from a nuclear medicine laboratory for clinical practitioners requiring results of various situations.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.219-228
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• 2003

Purpose: The amount of salvaged myocardium is an important prognostic factor in patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI). We investigated if early Tl-201 SPECT imaging could be used to predict the salvaged myocardium and functional recovery in acute MI after primary PTCA. Materials and Methods: In 36 patients with first acute MI treated with primary PTCA, serial echocardiography and Tl-201 SPECT imaging ($5.8{\pm}2.1$ days after PTDA) were performed. Regional wall motion and perfusion were quantified with on 16-segment myocardial model with 5-point and 4-point scaling system, respectively. Results: Wall motion was improved in 78 of the 212 dyssynergic segments on 1 month follow-up echocardiography and 97 on 7 months follow-up echocardiography, which were proved to be salvaged myocardium. The areas under receiver operating characteristic curves of Tl-201 perfusion score for detecting salvaged myocardial segments were 0.79 for 1 month follow-up and 0.83 for 7 months follow-up. The sensitivity and specificity of Tl-201 redistribution images with optimum cutoff of 40% of peak thallium activity for detecting salvaged myocardium were 84.6% and 55.2% for 1 month follow-up, and 87.6% and 64.3% for 7 months follow-up, respectively. There was a linear relationship between the percentage of peak thallium activity on early redistribution imaging and the likelihood of segmental functional improvement 7 months after reperfusion. Conclusion: Tl-201 myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging performed early within 10 days after reperfusion can be used to predict the salvaged myocardium and functional recovery with high sensitivity during the 7 months following primary PTCA in patients with acute MI.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.288-293
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• 2004

Purpose: increased uptake of wrist and hand joints in three phase bone scintigraphy (TPBS) have been used in the detection of reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome (RSDS). TPBS frequently shows increased shoulder uptake in the hemiplegic RSDS patients. We investigated the significance of the shoulder uptake in the detection of these patients. Materials and Methods: Twenty three patients who had hemiplegia due to brain stroke and diagnosed as RSD were enrolled in this study (M:F=16:7, R:L=11:12). The mean age was $63{\pm}10$ yrs. Ter normal volunteer (mean age: $60{\pm}5$, M:F=1:9) data was used as control group. TPBS was performed $59{\pm}32$ days after stoke (acute stage). We obtained the count ratios of bilateral hands by drawing a region of interest (ROI) in three phase images and compared to the count ratios of shoulders in the delayed image. Hand ROI included an ipsilateral wrist. Sensitivity of detecting the affected limb was defined using the right/left count ratio of normal control. Results: Sensitivities using count ratios of hand blood flow, blood pool and delayed image were 45%, 76% and 78%, respectively. Sensitivity of shoulder count ratio was 74%. Log of right/left counts of hand delayed image and that of shoulder delayed image were correlated well with statistical significance (Spearman's R=0.824, p<0.001). Conclusion: Shoulder uptake showed good correlation with hand uptake in the delayed image of TPBS. Shoulder uptake maybe helpful in the diagnosis of reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome in patients with hemiplegia.