• Proceedings of the KSAR Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.47-47
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• 2001

The neuropeptide vasopressin (VP) is a nine- amino acid hormone synthesized as preprohormone in the cell bodies of hypothalamic magnocellular neurons. The tumor in magnocellular neurons of the hypothalamus is associated with disfunctions of the cell bodies, leading to the diabetes insipidus. In order to study with the diabetes insipidus caused by a defect in VP synthesis and its secretion, we have produced the transgenic mice regulated by vasopressin promoter inserted to SV40 T antigen coding sequence (pVPSV.IGR2.1). One transgenic line expressing high levels of SV40 T antigen was propagated. The founder and all transgene positive adult animals have appeared with shorten mortality or apparent phenotypic abnormalities, including immune complex disease, and eventually die between 4 and 8 months of age. The mRNA and protein of SV40T antigen transgene were detected in brain of fetus as well as in brain, spleen, lung and lymph node in moribund at the age of 20 weeks. Histological analysis of transgenic mice showed that tumor developed in brain similar to primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET) in man. We also detected lymphomas in spleen and lymph node, and consequent tumor formation in various tissues of the transgenic mice. In pVPSV.IGR2.1, 21% mice showed brain tumor (PNET) at 5 weeks and 100% mice showed brain tumor after 15 weeks. In addition, Expression of apoptosis related genes (Bcl-28 & Bax) was increased over their age in mice with PNET as compared to control mice. Apoptosis related gene expression might be deregulated in mice with brain tumor. However, transgenic mice were not developed with the diabetes insipidus. These mice represent the first disease model to exhibit primitive neuroectodermal tumor in brain, as well as a unique model system for exploring the cellular pathogenesis of lymphomas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.47-62
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• 2007

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.53-56
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• 2009

We applied an ellipsometric technique to get quantitative information about the thickness and refractive index of human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hMSCs). The images of ellipsometric constants $\Delta$, $\Psi$ for the nucleus region and for the cell body region of hMSCs were obtained by using an Imaging Ellipsomter (IE) for their in vitro state. A numerical inversion method was applied to deduce the refractive index and the thickness of hMSCs from the measured $\Delta$, $\Psi$. Thus the images of the refractive index and those of the thickness of hMSCs for the nucleus region and for the cell body region are reported.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.89-97
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• 2013

Developing an animal model for a specific disease is very important in the understanding of the underlying mechanism of the disease and allows testing of newly developed new drugs before human application. However, which of the plethora of experimental animal species to use in model development can be perplexing. Administration of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) is a very well known method to induce the symptoms of Parkinson's disease in mice. But, there is very limited information about the different sensitivities to MPTP among mouse strains. Here, we tested three different mouse strains (C57BL/6, Balb-C, and ICR) as a Parkinsonian model by repeated MPTP injections. In addition to behavioral analysis, endogenous levels of dopamine and tetrahydrobiopterin in mice brain regions, such as striatum, substantia nigra, and hippocampus were directly quantified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Repeated administrations of MPTP significantly affected the moving distances and rearing frequencies in all three mouse strains. The endogenous dopamine concentrations and expression levels of tyrosine hydroxylase were significantly decreased after the repeated injections, but tetrahydrobiopterin did not change in analyzed brain regions. However, susceptibilities of the mice to MPTP were differed based on the degree of behavioral change, dopamine concentration in brain regions, and expression levels of tyrosine hydroxylase, with C57BL/6 and Balb-C mice being more sensitive to the dopaminergic neuronal toxicity of MPTP than ICR mice.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.66-70
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• 1998

Apoptosis is a form of cell death in which the cells shrink and exhibit nuclear chromatin condensation and DNA fragmentation, and yet maintain membrane integrity. Many lines of evidence have shown that brain neurons are vulnerable to degeneration by apoptosis. Also it has been suggested that apoptosis is one of the mechanism contributing neuronal loss in Alzheimer's disease(AD), since the conditions in the disease($A{\beta}$ peptide, oxidative stress, low energy metabolism) are the inducers that activate apoptosis. Indeed some neurons in vulnerable regions of the AD brain show DNA damage, chromatin condensation, and apoptic bodies. Consistently, mutations in AD causative genes(Amyloid precursor protein, Presenilin-1 and Presenilin- 2) increase $A{\beta}$ $peptide_{1-42}(A{\beta}_{1-42})$ and sensitize neuronal cell to apoposis. However, several lines of evidence have shown that the location of neuronal loss and $A{\beta}$ peptide deposition is not correlated in AD brain and transgenic mice brain over-expressing $A{\beta}_{1-42}$. Taken together, these data may indicated that $A{\beta}$ peptide(and other causative factors of AD) can interact with other cellular insults or risk factors to exacerbate pathological mechansim of AD through apoptosis. Thus, this review discusses possible role and mechanism of apoptosis in AD.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.212-218
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• 2005

Cigarette smoking has been known to have a few beneficial effects on some neuronal diseases such as Alzheimer's disease(AD), Parkinson's disease(PD) and prion disease by scrapie agent shows many similar properties with AD. In this respect, we investigated what biological effects are exerted by cigarette smoke exposure(CSE) in the brain of mouse infected by 87V scrapie. The scrapie agent was inoculated through stereotaxic microinjection of the homogenates of the scrapie agent infected brain into the intracerebral system in the 1M mice. The inoculation into mice typically exhibits neurochemical, physiological and histopathological characteristics of prion disease: loss of neurotransmitters and induction of astrocytosis and vacuolation in brain as well as reduction of spatial movement and loss of body weight. CSE led to alleviated the loss of body weight and also improved spatial movement of the infected mice. Most interestingly, CSE attenuated astrocytosis and vacuolation caused by scrapie infection in the brain. In addition, decreased levels of dopamine in striatal and hypothalamic regions as well as serotonin level in hippocampus caused by scrapie infection were also attenuated by exposure to cigarette smoke. These findings suggest that cigarette smoke, by its inhibition of astrocytosis and vacuolation followed by its restoration of levels of some neurotransmitters, may partly contribute to suppression in the progress of neurodegeneration caused by scrapie infection.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.71-88
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• 2010

Objectives: This research investigates the effect of the DHJHT extract on Alzheimer's disease. Specifically, the effects of the DHJHT extract on (1) the behavior (2) the infarction area of the hippocampus, and brain tissue injury in AD mice induced with ${\beta}A$ were investigated. Methods: The effects of the DHJHT extract on the proinflammation cytokines mRNA expression and production of BACE, APP and ${\beta}A$ in in BV2 microglial cell line treated by lipopolysacchaide(LPS) plus ${\beta}A$ were investigated. The effects of the DHJHT extract on the behavior of the memory deficit mice induced by scopolamine were investigated. Results: 1. The DHJHT extract suppressed the expression of IL-$1{\beta}$, IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$, COX-2, and NOS-II, BACE and APP mRNA in BV2 microglial cell line treated by LPS plus ${\beta}A$. 2. The DHJHT extract suppressed the expression of ${\beta}A$ production in BV2 microglial cell line treated with LPS plus ${\beta}A$. 3. The DHJHT extract showed significantly inhibitory effect on the scopolamine-induced impairment of memory in the experiment of Morris water maze. 4. The DHJHT group suppressed the expression of IL-$1{\beta}$, TNF-$\alpha$, MDA, and CD68+/CD11b+ in the brain tissue of the mice with AD induced by ${\beta}A$. 5. The DHJHT group reduced the infarction area of hippocampus, and controlled the injury of the brain tissue in the mice with AD induced by ${\beta}A$. 6. The DHJHT group reduced tau protein, and GFAP in the brain tissue of the mice with AD induced by ${\beta}A$. Conclusions: These results suggest that the DHJHT group may be effective for the treatment of AD. Thus, DHJHT could be considered among the future therapeutic drugs indicated for the treatment of AD.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.157-162
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• 2007

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) has been regarded as a useful microorganism and tried to manipulate plasmid DNA for increasing the usefulness. Although several methods have been developed to isolate plasmid DNA from Escherichia coli (E. coli), these methods were not sufficient to apply to LAB with exception of O'Sullivan's lysis method. So, we evaluated plasmid DNA extraction from LAB using general E. coli preparation methods and tried to improve the extraction yield and DNA purity by modifying O'Sullivan's alkaline lysis method. To improve the extraction yield, salt and carrier were added to precipitant and those were incubated at $-70{^{\circ}C}$. Only incubation at $-70{^{\circ}C}$ was the effective method of those modifications. Purity of plasmid DNA was improved by two times of each centrifugation and phenol/chloroform extraction. However, DNA was damaged by twice extraction with phenol/chloroform. Also, exclusion of ethidium bromide showed negative effect to purity. Additionally, it was recommended that improvement of the extraction yield may be due to centrifugation at high speed for more time and to dissolving complete DNA pellet before addition of 7.5 M ammonium acetate. Extraction using this modification produced higher quality of plasmid DNA.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.697-701
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to fine proteins, which have significantly different level in plasma between Qi-deficiency and Fire-heat group of Korean Oriental Stroke pattern identification (PI) among Korean stroke patients. Eighteen stroke patients with Qi-deficiency and forty nine patients with Fire-heat, which had critical syndrome of each PI, were participated in this study. Plasma protein pattern were analyzed by SELDI-TOF MS using Q10 strong anion exchange chip and Mass spectral data (m/z) statistically determined. The expression level of proteins, which were different between Qi-deficiency and Fire-heat in the results by SELDI-TOF MS, were confirmed by western blot. As a result of analyzing plasma protein by SELDI-TOF MS, six protein peaks were significantly higher in Fire-heat group than Qi-deficiency group. Two peaks among of them, M15003 and M15745, were respectively identified as hemoglobin alpha and beta in previous study. Expression level of plasma free hemoglobin of Fire-heat group was also confirmed higher in Fire-heat group than in Qi-deficiency group. These findings suggest that plasma free hemoglobin is a candidate for discriminating Qi-deficiency and Fire-heat group according to pattern identification (PI) of stroke.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.117-157
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• 2012

This paper investigated the biomedical medicalization of "depression"which is growing fast in Korea in terms of the treatment mechanism. Depression has been regarded as a mental disease that occurs with mixing various causations because what was the cause of this disease was not clarified until a recent date. Thus, as depression treatment, the medicine and the psycho-socio therapy have been used. However, from 1990s, as the brain science was introduced in the western society, and the high-tech diagnostic equipment of the brain disease and new drugs for the mental disease were developed, depression was rapidly redefined as 'the brain nerve system illness'that is easy to be taken and is able to obtain the permanent relief with the regular care. Under the influence of the redefinition of depression and the new treatment of it, recently, 8% of depression patients per year emerge as the aggressive cure subjects in the Korean psychiatric circle. However, according to the Korean psychiatric circle's unofficial calculation, it is estimated that only 10% of depression patients are receiving the accurate treatment but over 80% of the patients are not. If so, what does this estimation mean? Based on this question, this paper critically investigated the biomedical medicalization of depression.