• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.60-66
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• 2012

Human skin is the first line of defense for the protection of the internal organs of the body from different stimuli. Ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiation induces skin damage and inflammation through the secretion of various cytokines, which are immune regulators produced by cells. To prevent the initiation of skin inflammation, keratinocytes that have been irreversibly damaged by radiation must be removed through the apoptotic mechanism. Ixeris dentata (family: Asteraceae) is a perennial medicinal herb indigenous to Korea. It has been used in Korea, China, and Japan to treat in digestion, pneumonia, diabetes, hepatitis, and tumors. To gain insight into the anti-inflammatory effects of I. dentata, we examined its influence on UVB-induced pro-inflammatory cytokine production in human keratinocytes (HaCaT cells), by observing cells that were stimulated with UVB in the presence or absence of I. dentata. In the present study, pro-inflammatory cytokine production was determined by performing enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and western blot analysis to measure the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPKs). I. dentata inhibited UVBinduced production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-6 in a dose-dependent manner. Further, I. dentata inhibited the UVB-induced expression of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2. Furthermore, I. dentata inhibited the phosphorylation of c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase and p38 MAPKs, suggesting that it inhibits the secretion of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-8, and COX-2 expression, by blocking MAPK phosphorylation. These results suggest that I. dentate can potentially protect against UVB-induced skin inflammation.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.3419-3424
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• 2013

Diverse immunoassays including a chemiluminescent immunoassay (CIA) are used to detect hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibody (anti-HBs). Recently, an increasing number of institutions have been utilizing an immunochromatography assay (ICA), which is easy to use. In this study, We evaluated ICA kits for the rapid detection of HBsAg and anti-HBs by comparing them with a CIA. A total of 120 serum hospital samples, were collected for the whole month, were assayed using ICA kit. The Concordance rate, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the ICA for HBsAg based on CIA results were 97%, 97%, 100%, 100%, and 96.8%, respectively. The diagnostic performances of the ICA for Anti-HBs were 90%, 90%, 93.3%, 93.1%, and 90.3%, respectively. The ICA kit failed to detect HBsAg and anti-HBs in low reactive samples. The ICA kits for the rapid detection of HBsAg might be recommended for interpreted with caution and dual analysis in the clinical laboratory.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5759-5762
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• 2012

The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of a health check-up program among Thai people at the National Cancer Institute in the years 2008-2009. The program included history taking, physical examination, chest X-ray, EKG, and laboratory tests. A total of 28,240 women and 9,665 men were included in the study, with mean ages of 44.5 and 46.9 years, respectively. The study showed that obesity, as assessed by a BMI over 25.0 kg/m2, in men and women was present in 41.4% and 30%, respectively. Biochemical study revealed that anemia was prevalent in 21.6% of men and 20.1% of women. High plasma glucose level (>115 mg/dL), cholesterol level (>200 mg/dL), triglyceride level (>190 mg/dL) in men was 13.8%, 63.8%, 22.6% and 7.7%, 61.1%, 8.9% in women. Hepatitis B virus infection was found 7.5% in men and 4.1% in women. In this study, 177 new cancer cases were detected, of which 35 were breast, 19 were cervical and 26 were colorectal, most of these cancers being detected at early stage. In addition, precancerous states was also found including 718 cases of benign and 99 cases of adenoma in situ. In conclusion, an annual check up may detect abnormalities that have no obvious clinical symptoms of disease. Early detection of asymptomatic neoplasms and precursor lesions should contribute to a prompt provision of treatment and further decline of death from cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.731-736
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• 2012

Background and Aims: The National Cancer Screening Program (NCSP) for liver cancer was initiated in 2003 in Korea. The objective of this study was to evaluate the participation rate of the program and to provide preliminary information on its results based on data collected by the NCSP in 2009. Methods: The target population of the NCSP for liver cancer in 2009 was comprised of 373,590 adults aged ${\geq}40$ years at high risk for liver cancer. Participation rates and positivity rates were assessed in this population. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the factors associated with participation in the NCSP for liver cancer. Results: The overall participation rate was 37.9% and 1,126 participants were positive at screening. The highest participation rates were observed in women, those in their 60s, National Health Insurance beneficiaries, and individuals positive for hepatitis B surface antigen. Positivity rates for men, those in their 70s, Medical Aid Program recipients and individuals with liver cirrhosis were the highest in the respective categories of gender, age, health insurance type, and risk factor for liver cancer. Conclusions: The participation rates of the NCSP for liver cancer are still low, despite the fact that the program targets a high-risk group much smaller than the general population. Efforts to facilitate participation and to reduce disparities in liver cancer screening among Korean men and women are needed. These results provide essential data for evidence-based strategies for liver cancer control in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.696-704
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to investigate the dietary behavior, dietary intakes and internet searches regarding diseas by college students participating in a nutrition education web class. The study subject were 1184 college students and crosssectional survey was conducted by a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire deal with anthropometric data, diseas, dietary behaviors, dietary intakes, and the use of nutrition information via the internet. The data was analyzed using a SPSS PC program. Disease group was 19.6% (male: 17.1%, female: 21.9%) and non-disease group was 80.4% (male: 82.9%, female: 78.1%) of subjects. As for the kinds of diseas, the male disease group had stomach diseas (15.7%), ozena (15.7%), hepatitis (10.8%) and allergic disease (7.8%), etc, and the female disease group had stomach diseas (32.8%), allergic diseas (12.0%), bronchitis and bronchial asthma (10.4%), anemia (7.2%), and constipation (1.6%), etc. Non-disease group showed significantly higher irregularity of meal time compared to disease group. Also, Disease group showed significantly higher concern about nutrition and health, worse recognition of theirown nutrition and health satus, and made greater efforts to prevention diseas compared to the non-diseas group. In the male subjects, the average intake of Calories, Vitamin $B_2$ and calcium was lower than the Korean RDA and in the female subjects, those of Calories, calcium and Fe were lower than the Korean RDA. Most of the diseas (97%) and the non-disease (98.2%) groups had positive attituds toward the usefulness of internet nutrition information. The disease group showed a higher confidence in the internet nutrition information and recognition of internet information on poisons compared to the non-diseas group. However, this difference was not significant. Therefore. it is necessary to provide sientifically proven nutrition of information via the internet for college students in order to promote healthful lifestyles and to prevent diseas.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.224-227
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• 2011

Entecavir is a potent and selective guanosine analogue that has demonstrated a significant antiviral efficacy against hepatitis B virus (HBV). The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetic profile after a single dose of entecavir 1 mg administration in Korean healthy male subjects. Eight volunteers were enrolled. After a single dose of 1 mg entecavir was orally administered, blood samples were collected at specific time intervals from 0-168 hours. The plasma concentrations of entecavir were determined by LC-MS/MS. The pharmacokinetic parameters were determined from the plasma concentration-time profiles. The mean values for $AUC_{last}$ and $AUC_{inf}$ were $14.84{\pm}7.81ng{\cdot}hr/mL$ and $20.71{\pm}8.80ng{\cdot}hr/mL$, respectively. The mean value for $C_{max}$ was $9.19{\pm}4.91ng/ml$ and median value for $t_{max}$ was 0.58 hr. No adverse events were reported by subjects or found on analysis of vital signs or laboratory tests. The results are suggested to be useful in clinical trials of entecavir in Korean subject including bioequivalence study.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.271-279
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• 2000

Objectives : To assess the seroprevalence and risk factors of toxoplasmosis in high school students in Cheju Province, Korea. Methods : A total of 4,570 high school students from 18 schools in Cheju Province were investigated for Toxoplasma gondii antibodies(IgG) by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Risk factors for toxoplasmosis, such as place of residence, type of house, contact with cats and other pets, and rare meat consumption, were examined by questionnaire. Results . The overall antibody positive rate was 5.5% and ranged from 2.6 to 11.5% by school. There was no significant difference between males and females. Statistical analyses of the questionnaire data indicated that the risk factors for seropositivity were: (1) birth place (Cheju/others), (2) place of residence (rural/urban), (3) dietary habits (vegetarian/non vegetarian), (4) eating rare meat, (5) exposure to pets and (6) hepatitis B. Conclusion : We confirmed that the prevalence of the anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibody in a population of high school students in Cheju Province was to the previously reported prevalence.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.229-233
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• 2010

Pluripotency and self-renewal capacity of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are retained by hESCs related genes as OCT4, SOX2 and NANOG. These genes are shown high expression level in diverse cancer cells and have potential role in the carcinogenesis. On the contrary to this, several genes which are up-regulated in the differentiated hESCs are involved to suppress the carcinogenesis or proliferation of cells. We discovered several genes in immortalized lung fibroblast (WI-38 VA13) by suppression subtractive hybridization. Among them, we focused chromosome 6 open reading frame 62 (C6orf62) which is uncharacterized, mapped to 6p22.3 and generated to Hepatitis B virus X-transactivated proteins (HBVx-transactivated proteins, XTP). Aim of this study was to characterize C6orf62 through analyzing of expression pattern in various cell lines. Expression of C6orf62 was significantly upregulated in diverse normal cell lines than cancer cell lines. And C6orf62 was up-regulated in differentiated hESCs (endothelial cells, neural cells) compared to those of undifferentiated hESCs. Also, C6orf62 in WI-38 cells was highly up-regulated during G1/S transition of the cell cycle. Taken together, C6orf62 is shown expression pattern similar to differentiated hESCs-associated genes which down-regulated in cancer cells. Therefore, we assume that C6orf62 may participate to suppress the proliferation and to induce differentiation through regulating the cell cycle.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.45-58
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the recognition level related to the infection prevention in dental medical institute in dental hygienists and to offer basic data of enhancing the knowledge education in dental hygienists on the infection prevention according to it. As a result of collecting and analyzing data by using the self-administered questionnaire on April 27, 2008 targeting 230 dental hygienists who are working at hospitals and clinics in P,K region, the following conclusions were obtained. 1. Dental hygienists' recognition on hospital-virus treatment method was indicated to be averagely 1.20 out of 3-point perfection. 2. The recognition on infection was indicated to be averagely 2.64 out of 4-point perfection. The statistically significant difference was shown with the appearance of periodical health examination(t=-2.42, p<.05) and by infection-education experience(t=2.28, p<0.05). 3. The recognition on an infection disease was indicated to be averagely 4.38 out of 8-point perfection. The significant difference(t=3.52, p<0.05) was shown depending on task in charge. 4. The recognition on the infection prevention in dental treatment institute was indicated to be averagely 4.89 out of 7-point perfection. The recognition on the infection prevention of dental treatment institute in dental hygienists, who work for general hospital, was indicated to be the highest. Accordingly, it was considered to be required an effort for dental hygienists, other dental-medical practitioners, and patients to be able to treated safely by enhancing the recognition level on infection prevention in dental hygienists and by maximally reducing exposure to infection in dental medical institute.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.191-196
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• 2004

In this study, to construct more effective retrovirus system, we compared four internal promoters (RSV: Rous sarcoma virus, UbC: Ubiquitin C, β-actin, CMV: human cytomegalovirus) in the retrovirus vector by measuring GFP (green fluorescent protein) expression. The effect of WPRE (woodchuck hepatitis virus posttrans-criptional regulatory element) sequence on transgene expression was also investigated. Experiments were conducted with cells derived from three different species (human, pig and chicken) and evaluated the activity of each promoter and the effect of WPRE sequence by fluorometry and Western blotting. In all cells tested, RSV and CMV promoters were superior to UbC and β-actin promoters, and RSV promoter was the best one in chicken cells. The boosting effect of WPRE sequence on GFP expression was evident in human and porcine cells but not in chicken cells.