• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.518-526
• /
• 2013

Gut-derived lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are critical to the development and progression of chronic low-grade inflammation and metabolic diseases. In this study, the effects of probiotics Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium on gut-derived lipopolysaccharide and inflammatory cytokine concentrations were evaluated using a human colonic microbiota model. Lactobacillus reuteri, L. rhamnosus, L. plantarum, Bifidobacterium animalis, B. bifidum, B. longum, and B. longum subsp. infantis were identified from the literature for their anti-inflammatory potential. Each bacterial culture was administered daily to a human colonic microbiota model during 14 days. Colonic lipopolysaccharides, and Gram-positive and negative bacteria were quantified. RAW 264.7 macrophage cells were stimulated with supernatant from the human colonic microbiota model. Concentrations of TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-$1{\beta}$, and IL-4 cytokines were measured. Lipopolysaccharide concentrations were significantly reduced with the administration of B. bifidum ($-46.45{\pm}5.65%$), L. rhamnosus ($-30.40{\pm}5.08%$), B. longum ($-42.50{\pm}1.28%$), and B. longum subsp. infantis ($-68.85{\pm}5.32%$) (p < 0.05). Cell counts of Gram-negative and positive bacteria were distinctly affected by the probiotic administered. There was a probiotic strain-specific effect on immunomodulatory responses of RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. B. longum subsp. infantis demonstrated higher capacities to reduce TNF-${\alpha}$ concentrations ($-69.41{\pm}2.78%$; p < 0.05) and to increase IL-4 concentrations ($+16.50{\pm}0.59%$; p < 0.05). Colonic lipopolysaccharides were significantly correlated with TNF-${\alpha}$ and IL-$1{\beta}$ concentrations (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that specific probiotic bacteria, such as B. longum subsp. infantis, might decrease colonic lipopolysaccharide concentrations, which might reduce the proinflammatory tone. This study has noteworthy applications in the field of biotherapeutics for the prevention and/or treatment of inflammatory and metabolic diseases.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.22 no.7
• /
• pp.670-675
• /
• 2022

In the era of the 4th industrial revolution, everything is data-centric. The type and amount of data may be central, and new data may be required in special circumstances. As 3D printers are used in various fields, there are fields that are newly challenged. In particular, in the medical field, new attempts that have not been considered before are taking place. This paper is a study to enable research in fields that require physical properties of the human body. In the meantime, research using human organs has mainly used the materials made of silicon. We measure the physical properties of the human body from cadavers, apply these characteristics to develop new materials, and develop artificial organs with 3D printers. Using the artificial organs made in this way, you can practice surgery with a robot that removes kidney stones. In this paper, we would like to introduce a series of research processes to develop advanced materials similar to human organs.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.141-146
• /
• 2004

Shear-induced damage of Red Blood Cell (RBC) is an imminent problem to be solved for the practical application of artificial organs in extra corporeal circulation, as it often happens and affects physiological homeostasis of a patient. To design and operate artificial organs in a safe mode, many investigations have been set up to correlate shear and shear-induced cell damage. Most studies were focused on hemolysis i.e. the extreme case, however, it is important as well to obtain a clear understanding of pre-hemolytic mechanical damage. In this study, the change in deformability of RBC was measured by ektacytometry to investigate the damage of RBC caused by shear. To a small magnitude of pre-shear, there is little difference, but to a large magnitude of pre-shear, cell damage occurs and the effect of shear becomes significant depending on both the magnitude and imposed time of shearing. The threshold stress for cell damage was found to be approximately 30 Pa, which is much less than the threshold of mechanical hemolysis but is large enough to occur in vitro as in the extra corporeal circulation during open-heart surgery or artificial heart. In conclusion, it was found and suggested that the decrease of deformability can be used as an early indication of cell damage, in contrast to measuring plasma hemoglobin. As cell damage always occurs during flow in artificial organs, the results as well as the approach adopted here will be helpful in the design and operation of artificial organs.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
• /
• v.20 no.8
• /
• pp.1118-1124
• /
• 2006

Recently, cavitation on the surface of mechanical heart valve has been studied as a cause of fractures occurring in implanted Mechanical Heart Valves (MHVs). It has been conceived that the MHVs mounted in an artificial heart close much faster than in vivo sue, resulting in cavitation bubbles formation. In this study, six different kinds of mono leaflet and bileaflet valves were mounted in the mitral position in an Electro-Hydraulic Total Artificial Heart (EHTAH), and we investigated the mechanisms for MHV cavitation. The valve closing velocity and a high speed video camera were employed to investigate the mechanism for MHV cavitation. The closing velocity of the bileaflet valves was slower than that of the mono leaflet valves. Cavitation bubbles were concentrated on the edge of the valve stop and along the leaflet tip. It was established that squeeze flow holds the key to MHV cavitation in our study. Cavitation intensity increased with an increase in the valve closing velocity and the valve stop area. With regard to squeeze flow, the bileaflet valve with slow valve-closing velocity and small valve stop areas is better able to prevent blood cell damage than the monoleaflet valves.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.61-69
• /
• 2023

The technical importance of membrane-based artificial lung technology has been re-emphasized after the recent breakout of COVID-19 to treat acute lung-failure patients. The world population, particularly in Korea, is aging at an unprecedented rate, which can increase the demand for better artificial organs (AO) in the near future. Membrane technology plays a key role in artificial organ markets. Among them, membrane-based artificial lung (AL) technology has improved significantly in the past 50 years, but the survival rate of lung-failure patients is still very low. Most AL works focus on the clinical application of the AL device, not on the development of the AL membrane itself. This review summarizes the challenges and recent progress of membrane-based AL technology.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.653-660
• /
• 2016

Snakehead, Channa argus were intraperitoneally infected with Nocardia seriolae. at the concentrations of $1.5{\times}10^7cfu/m{\ell}$ or $1.5{\times}10^8cfu/m{\ell}$. The infected fish were kept in aquaria at $25^{\circ}C$ and $30^{\circ}C$ for 3 weeks. Clinical signs and mortality were monitored daily to evaluate the virulence. All artificially infected fish showed the same clinical sign found in naturally infected fish. All the fish infected with $1.5{\times}10^8cfu/m{\ell}$ of N. seriolae died within 24days. N. seriolae showed higher virulence to snakehead at the temperature $30^{\circ}C$. Internal lesions such as whitish nodules in the infected internal organs were not correlated with mortality but some degenerative changes were observed in all the infected organs within a week. Whitish nodules in the infected organs which are the typical character in nocardial infection was initially found at two weeks after the artificial infection in snakehead.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.128-137
• /
• 1999

Plasma progesterone (P$_4$) concentrations were measured for confirming the estrus observation and for the early pregnancy diagnosis in 130 cows of small farmers. Ultrasonographic examinations were performed from day 30 after artificial insemination to establish the characteristic ultrasonographic appearances of gestational structures in each pregnant stages. Of the 130 cows inseminated, 111 cows (85.4%) were an ovulatory estrus, 12 cows (9.2%) were an unovulatory estrus, and 7 cows (5.4%) were the error of estrus detection, respectively. The accuracy for early pregnancy diagnosis in 111 ovulatory estrus cows achieved when the discriminatory concentration at day 21 after artificial insemination was placed at 3.0 ng-/ml in plasma, was 86.7 % for positive diagnosis and 100% for negative diagnosis, respectively. Pregnancy diagnosis by ultrasonography were performed to evaluate gestational structures from day 30 after artificial insemination in 83 cows. Pregnant cows were 72 of 83 cows. The characteristic ultrasonography of gestational structures in each gestational stages was as follows. The embryo proper was observed within anechoic fetal fluid between 28 and 40 days after insemination, and amnion and embryonic heartbeat was also detected in this period. Between days 41 and 50, embryo proper was detected as an discriminated from head and body, and forelimb buds and hindlimb buds were also observed in this period. Between days 51 and 60, an embryo proper was clearly discriminated from head and body, and fetal movement, forelimb buds and hindlimb buds were observed in this period. Between days 61 and 70, fetus was completely developed, and fetal skeleton, organs and cotyledon were observed. After day 71, each organs of fetus were rapidly developed and a fetus was partially observed in screen because fetus was too big and larger, These results indicate that plasma P$_4$ determination at days 0,6 and 21 after artificial insemination can be utilized for confirming the estrus observation and for early pregnancy diagnosis. Also, ultrasonography was reliable method for early pregnancy diagnosis at day 30 after artificial insemination.

• The Magazine of the IEIE
• /
• v.24 no.10
• /
• pp.63-72
• /
• 1997

Application of MEMS to biologic system mainly categorized into bio-electronics and micro-medical systems, Bio-electronics concerns on the biocompatible electronic device, in-vivo sensors, the sensors based on biological materials, biological materials for electronics and optics, the concepts and materials Inspired by biology and useful for electronics, the algorithm inspired by biology, artificial sense, and the biologic-inorganic hybrids. Micro-medical systems are utilited into the drug delivery systems, micro patient monitoring systems, micro prosthesis and artificial organs, cardiology related prothesis, analysis systems, and the minimal invasive surgery tools based on the m icrom achining technology.

• Polymer Science and Technology
• /
• v.5 no.6
• /
• pp.537-543
• /
• 1994

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
• /
• 1994.04a
• /
• pp.129-130
• /
• 1994

The science of toxicology is the understanding of the mechanisms by which exogenous agents produce deleterious effects in biological systems. The actions of chemicals such as drugs are ultimately exerted at the cellular and gene levels. Over the past decade. several in vitro alternative methods such as cultured cells for assessing the toxicity of various xenobiotics have been proposed to reduce the use of animals. In this workshop three advanced methods will be presented. These methods are novel important models for toxicologic studies. Dr. Tabuchis group has establishcd two immortalized gastric surface mucosa cell lines from the pminary cultore of gastric fundic mucosal cells of adult transgenic mice harboring a temperature sensitive simian virus 40 large T-anugen gene. As the immortalized cell lines of various tissues possess unique characteristics to maintain their normal functions for several months, these cell lines are extremely useful for not only toxicity testing but also pharmacological screening in new drug development. Professor Funatsu have studied the formation of spherical multicelluar aggregates of adult rat hepatocytes(spheroid) having tissue like structure. The sphcroid shown thre is a prototype module of an artificial liver support system. Thus, the urea synthesis activity of the artificial liver was maintained at least to days in 100％ rat blood plasma. Dr. Takezawa and his coworkers have developed a novel culture system of multicellular spheroids considered 〃organoids〃 by utilizing a thermo-responsive polymer as a substratum of anchorage dependent cells. His final goal is to reconstitute the organoids of various normal organs, e.g., liver, skin etc. and also abnormal deseased organs such as tumor.