• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.27-37
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• 2016

Objectives: This study investigated the relationship between adolescents' suicidal ideation and their physical health conditions to contribute to lower suicide rates among adolescents. Methods: Secondary analysis of 2108 high school students of $10^{th}$ grade was conducted using the Korean Child and Youth Panel survey in 2013. The association between suicidal ideation and socio-demographic and health characteristics were analyzed using Chi-square tests and regression models. Results: Adolescents' physical health conditions were significantly related to suicidal ideation. In particular, rhinitis and various symptoms such as feeling feverish, low appetite, feeling of nausea, stomachache while studying, and sleeping problem showed statistically significant relationships with suicidal ideation (P < .05). Furthermore, the higher frequency of diseases and body symptoms increases the rate of suicidal ideation. Considering socio-economic characteristics, family structure was also important. Conclusions: Physical health condition is a major contributor to adolescent's suicidal ideation. results suggest that improving social support system for adolescents' physical health conditions across family and school may be important in suicide prevention efforts.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.89-99
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• 2008

GPCRs are large families of cell surface receptors that transmit signals through conformational changes upon ligand activation and an interaction with the heterotrimeric G-proteins. GPCRs regulate the cell-signaling pathways and participate in the regulation of physiological processes through the G-proteins defined by their ${\alpha}$ subunits. A family of 20 G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that provide a large class of tractable drug targets for new anti-inflammatory drugs and, in certain instances, for the treatment of the inflammatory indications such as atherosclerosis, rhinitis, asthma, pulmonary disease and arthritis. In view of the important findings showing that $G{\alpha}_{12}/G{\alpha}_{13}$ regulate the various cellular processes such as actin-stress fiber formation, neurite retraction, platelet aggregation, gene induction, and apoptosis, we became interested in whether, after coupling to the activated GPCRs, the G-proteins and their downstream molecules might be involved in the pathologic processes of chronic inflammatory diseases (e.g., liver fibrosis). In this symposium, the possible link of the G-proteins with the pathophysiology will be discussed with the aim of finding potential new drug targets.

• Korean Parent-Child Health Journal
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.13-24
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• 2007

Purpose: To investigate the health status such as growth, nutrition, disease, vaccination in child day care centers. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 280 children at 6 day care centers in Seoul. Parent completed a structured questionnaire and illness-logs from day-care staff were gathered for a month, June 2006. Body weight, height were measured and BMI was calculated. Results: Failure of growth was found in 2.2% of the children. Also there was 5.4% of the children who were under 5% and 8.6% were above 95% on BMI chart. For 4.3% of the children diseases were asthma, chronic rhinitis, sinusitis and so on. About six percent of the children missed vaccination such as Japanese encephalitis, DTaP and polio. Incidence rates of respiratory infection was 1.45 and gastroenteritis was .28. As a result, 22.5 % of the day care children had these kinds of health rick factors stated above and results showed statistical difference between health-groups and health-risk groups in age, duration of day care center, family structure, marital status of parent. Conclusion: A considerable number of the children at child daycare centers had the health risk factors. These results shows there is a need to develop and make provisions for health service programs by health experts in child day care centers.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.1646-1654
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• 2007

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of several herbal prescriptions in patients with allergy or atopic disease, such as atopic dermatitis, asthma and allergy rhinitis and others, on the blood immunological parameters and to verify the safety of long-term use of herbal medicine. Eighty one patients with allergy or atopy disease who taken herbal medicine at least for 2 months were compared with patients who taken same medicine with no allergy & atopy disease (n=14) and normal healthy subjects (n=22). According to the comparison of immunological parameters change, the data showed that herbal medicine decreased IgE (P=0.003), Eosinophil ratio (P<0.001) and count (P<0.001) of White Blood Cell (WBC) and did not affect to the liver cell enzymes in blood. This results indicated that herbal medicine decreased immune hypersensitivity and improved chronic inflammation related to blood immunological parameters of allergy or atopy diseases. In addition, herbal medicine seemed to be safe to the liver function for long-term use.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare the health status of residents who were exposed to the Iksan industrial area in the living environment and those who were not exposed to such a source of industrial activity through a questionnaire survey designed to appraise the residents' health levels. Method: The authors conducted a health questionnaire survey of 1,012 residents around Iksan regarding their personal information, physician-diagnosed disease history, odors experienced, and more. Logistic regression was performed to identify the associations between hazardous chemical exposure and physician-diagnosed diseases. Result: Logistic regression shows significant differences in allergic rhinitis, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, dyslipidemia, liver disease, and osteoporosis. Odors were experienced by 88.0% of the survey group. The seasons were summer (71%) and spring (24.9%). Conclusion: For allergic rhinitis, cerebral cardiovascular disease, and hypertension, which were significantly higher in the case group than in the control group in the disease diagnosis and disease treatment history of physicians, it was difficult to completely eliminate the association with odor exposure in the Iksan Industrial Complex. It is considered that it has affected nearby residents. This study means that a correlation between chronic diseases has been found through regression analysis, and furthermore, this result can be used as a basis for sampling for secondary epidemiological surveys.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2011

Background: Type I allergy is involved in allergic asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis which are accompanied by an acute and chronic allergic inflammatory responses. Rehmannia glutinosa is a traditional medicine in the East Asian region. This study examined whether a Rehmannia Glutinosa pharmacopuncture solution (RGPS) had anti-allergic or anti-inflammatory effects in antigen-stimulated-RBL-2H3 cells. Methods: We determined the effect of RGPS on cell viability using the 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazolyl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. We also examined the effect of RGPS on the release of ${\beta}$-hexosaminidase and the secretion of IL-4 and TNF-${\alpha}$ using ELISA. In addition, we evaluated the effect of RGPS on the mRNA expression of various cytokines; IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-13 and TNF-${\alpha}$ using RT-PCR. Furthermore, we assessed the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and nuclear factor (NF)-${\kappa}$B using Western blotting after RGPS treatment. Results: We found that RGPS ($10^{-4}$ to $10^{-1}$ dilution) did not cause any cytotoxicity. We observed significant inhibition of ${\beta}$-hexosaminidase release and suppression of the protein secretion of IL-4 and TNF-${\alpha}$ and mRNA expression of multiple cytokines in antigen-stimulated-RBL-2H3 cells after RGPS treatment. Additionally, RGPS suppressed not only the phosphorylation of MAPKs, but also the transcriptional activation of NF-${\kappa}$B in antigen-stimulated-RBL-2H3 cells. Conclusions: These results suggest that RGPS inhibits degranulation and expression of cytokines including IL-4 and TNF-${\alpha}$ via down-regulation of MAPKs and NF-${\kappa}$B activation in antigen-stimulated-RBL-2H3 cells. In conclusion, RGPS may have beneficial effects in the exerting anti-allergic or anti-inflammatory activities.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.36-45
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• 2012

Objectives Perillae Folium (PF) has been widely used in Korean herbal medicines used for treatment of acute and chronic inflammatory diseases, such as rhinitis, asthma, and enteritis. In this study, to investigate the protective effect of PF on type 1 allergic response, we determined whether PF inhibits early or late allergic responses. Methods The effect of PF was analyzed by ELISA,. RT-PCR and Western blot in RBL-2H3 cells. Levels of ${\beta}$-hexosaminidase, interleukin (IL)-4 and TNF-${\alpha}$ were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). mRNA levels of cytokines and enzymes were analyzed with RT-PCR. Signal transduction was analyzed with Western blot. Results We found that PF suppressed ${\beta}$-hexosaminidase release in RBL-2H3 by the IgE-DNP-HSA stimulation. PF also significantly inhibited enzymes level, such as COX-1, COX-2, iNOS, and HDC2, along with reduced cytokine levels, such as IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-6, IL-13, and TNF-${\alpha}$ in RBL-2H3. In addition, PF suppressed the phospholyation of ERK1/2, JNK1/2, and $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$. Conclusions Our results indicate that PF protects against type 1 allergic response and exert an anti-inflammatory effect through the inhibition of degranulation and expression of cytokines and enzymes via the suppression of signal transduction.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.580-585
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• 2004

BJYGC is often clinically used as a treatment of allergic rhinitis. This study was aimed to find out the effect BJYGC would have on the helper T cell, and how it can promote the subsets of helper T cells to regain their balance that they lost due to immunological diseases. Splenocytes were prepared from BALB/c mice was cultured without stimulation in the presence of BJYGC for 48 hr. The viability of CD4 T cells from Balb/c mouse were measured at various concentrations of BJYGC using the MTS assay. It was somewhat increased up to concentration of 400 ㎍/ml, but did not show any significant difference. Proliferation was measured using the MTS assay, CD4 Th cells were stimulated with anti-CD3/28 in the presence of BJYGC for 48 hr. As evidence for rapid T cell activation, CD25 expression by flow cytometry was evaluated at 10, 50, 100 and 200 ㎍/㎖ of BJYGC. Th cell differentiation experiments were performed to examine whether BJYGC can affect the Th polarization process. CD4 T cells were activated in culture under neutral, Th1-polarized or Th2-polarized conditions in the presence of BJYGC at 10, 100 and 200 ㎍/㎖. Cytokine production was measured by ELISA. This experiment proved that BJYGC could inhibit the secretion of both IL-4 and IFN-γ in neutral condition and polarized condition, too. Considering that BJYGC shows an excellent effect on treating allergies, the author can conclude that its pharmacological action may be associated with decreased IL-4 and, it may also regulate IFN-γ depending the host's need. Also, it was discovered that Th1 cell was pathologic in chronic inflammatory tissue specific diseases, such as insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, multiple sclerosis, RA, and uveitis. We are counting on the BJYGC to be able to control the tendency of Th1 cell predominancy in an immune reaction.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.153-166
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• 2013

Yang deficiency pattern is a representative syndrome differentiation. This article is a study on to which categories of modern diseases yang deficiency is assigned by reference to modern clinical papers and the meaning of yang deficiency interpreted with a perspective of Korean Medicine and a modern perspective. Yang deficiency, yang qi deficiency, lack of yang qi and yang qi debilitation are the words found in "Nei Ching" and yang qi can be interpreted as something to warm, drive and arouse. Zhangzhongjing considered recovery or loss of Yang as the key to life in "Shanghanlun". Danxi proposed "Yang being liable to hyperactivity, Yin being insufficient" and emphasized pathological ministerial fire of Yang exuberance rather than physiological ministerial fire of Yang deficiency. Zhangjingyue proposed "Yang not being in excess, Yin being often deficient" and understood growth and decline of yin qi are all led by yang qi and put emphasis on true yin in addition to yang qi. Diseases of yang deficiency pattern are related with decline of metabolic level, hypofunction of internal secretion, disorder of immune function, disorder of automatic nerve system, sympathetic nerve inhibition, metabolic disorder of microelements, increase of cGMP, change of microcirculation, low speed of blood stream, kidney malfunction. Diseases related with kidney are sterility, polycystic ovary syndrome, spinal stenosis, edema, renal failure, IgA nephropathy, erectile dysfunction, nephritis, prostatitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia, decrease of adrenal cortical hormone by nephrotic syndrome, myelodysplastic syndrome. Disease related with heart are heart failure, arrhythmia, cardiomyopathy, atherosclerosis heart disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, pulmonary heart disease. Diseases related with spleen are irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis. Diseases related with liver are hypothyroidism, liver cirrhosis ascites, hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis, hepatic diabetes. Diseases related with lung are allergic rhinitis, cough variant asthma, bronchial asthma, pulmonary emphysema. And diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, aplastic anemia, headache, encephalatrophy, Alzheimer's disease are also related with yang deficiency.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.365-370
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• 2016

Atopic dermatitis refers to a chronic, recurrent, skin condition, typically typified by itching, inflamed skin. It precedes other allergic diseases, such as asthma, food allergies, and allergic rhinitis, and is usually accompanied by various other immune disorders and secondary symptoms. In this study, we discovered that when treating TNF-${\alpha}$ and IFN-${\gamma}$-stimulated HaCaT cells with various concentrations of Picea wilsonii Mast (PwM) extracts, the cell viability was excellent. In addition, we measured the inflammatory cytokines associated with atopic dermatitis, including IL-6, IL-8, IL-13, and MCP-1. The production of IL-6, IL-13, and MCP-1 decreased in the presence of PwM extracts, whereas there was no significant difference in the production of IL-8. Further studies are necessary to develop an effective cure for atopic dermatitis and inflammation using foreign plant extracts, and PwM efficacy should be determined with an in-depth, objective verification process using protein and mechanism analysis.