• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.126-140
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• 2006

Purpose: Contrary to the human study, it has rarely investigated metabolic alterations in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of depressed rats versus age and sex-matched controls using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Thus, the purpose of this research was to verify the feasibility of metabolic differences between the normal rat and the depression model rat. Materials and Methods: A homogeneous group of 20 SD male rats was used for MRI and in vivo 1H MRS. To induce a depressed status in SD rats, we performed the forced swimming test (FST). Using image-guide, water suppressed in vivo 1H MRS with 4.7 T MRI/MRS system, NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratios were mainly measured between depressed rats and normal subjects. Results: In depressed rats, increased Cho/Cr ratio was measured versus control subjects. However, no significant group effect for NAA/Cr was observed between case-control pairs. Discussion and Conclusions: The present 1H MRS study shows significant brain metabolic alterations of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with experimental depressed status of SD rat induced by FST compared to normal subjects. This result provides new evidence that in vivo 1 H MRS may be a useful modality for detecting localized functional neurochemical markers alterations in left DLPFC in SD rats.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.138-146
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• 2015

Purpose: If early diagnosis is not made, patients with metabolic disorders as homocystinemia rapidly progress to physical defect or mental retardation resulted in storage of the toxic material into the brain. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an analytical method for a rapid screening and/or correct confirmation diagnosis. Methods: The standard solution of sulfur amino acids spiked plasma was subjected to protein precipitation with methanol, and then consecutively derivatized with trimethylsilyl (TMS) and trifluoroacyl (TFA) and determined by GC-MS. The formation of TMS derivative of the hydroxyl and TFA derivative of amino functional group was performed by BSTFA and MBTFA, respectively. Selective ion monitoring (SIM) mode was used for quantification with selected specific ions. Results: A calibration curve on standard spiked pooled plasma showed a linear relationship with correlation coefficient of 0.9936-0.9992 for all compounds over the range of 0.1-300 ng. The precision and accuracy were within S.D. of 1-15% and RSD of 1-15% for intra-day assay at 2 ng/mL, 15 ng/mL and 30 ng/mL. LOD and LOQ was 0.4 ng/mL and 4 ng/mL respectively. Conclusion: A rapid analytical method was developed to quantify sulfur amino acids and methyl malonic acid, after two-step derivatization procedure with good sensitivity and specificity on human plasma. Advantages of a new method are simplicity and rapidity. The method could be useful for routine analysis, diagnosis of homocysteinemia.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.133-138
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• 2022

Taurine is a type of sulfur-containing amino acid having a sulfate functional group, that is biosynthesized from cysteine. It is mainly distributed in high concentrations in animal tissues and is known to have various effects such as osmotic pressure control, calcium control, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and hepatocellular protection. Also, taurine deficiency causes a variety of symptoms, including visual impairment. In particular, in the case of cats, taurine is not biosynthesized and must be supplied through food, so it is classified as an essential amino acid. In this study, an analysis method using mass spectrometry was developed instead of the commonly used derivatization method to quickly, environmentally, and precisely analyze taurine in various animal feeds. The developed analytical method showed good linearity (R² > 0.99), accuracy (81.97-105.78%), and precision (0.07-12.37%). In addition, the developed method was further verified through quantitative comparison with the derivatization method. This developed method was used in the determination of taurine in 20 animal feed samples obtained from South Korea. The levels of taurine found ranged from 81.53 to 6,743.53 mg/kg. The developed analysis method will be used for the detection and quantification of taurine in domestic feed.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.29-36
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• 1982

Quantification of the regurgitation amount is important before and after valvular replacement surgery. Until now cardiac catheterization with cineventriculography, echocardiography have been used to measure the regurgitation amount, but also have many limitations. EKG gated cardiac blood pool scan provides a simple, non-invasive -method for quantify the regurgitation amount. By calculating the ratio of left ventricular to right ventricular stroke counts (stroke volume ratio) in gated bood pool scan, we measured the left ventricular regurgitation amount in 28 cases of valvular regurgitation and 25 cases of normal group. 1. Stroke volume ratio was higher in cases of valvular regurgitation $(2.11{\pm}0.58)$ than in cases of normal control $(1.15{\pm}0.31)$. (p<0.01). 2. Stroke volume ratio was classified by regurgitation grade using X-ray cineventriculography. In grades of mild regurgitation $(Grade\;I{\sim}II)$, stroke volume ratio was $2.02{\pm}0.29$, and in grades of severe regurgitation $(Grade\;III{\sim}IV)$, stroke volume ratio was $2.55{\pm}0.34$, so stroke volume ratio was well correlated with the grade of X-ray cineventriculography. 3. Stroke volume ratio was classfied by functional class made in New York Heart Association. In classes of mild regurgitation $(class\;I{\sim}II)$, stroke volume ratio was $2.08{\pm}0.26$, and in classes of severe regurgitation $(class\;III{\sim}IV)$, stroke volume ratio was $2.55{\pm}0.38$, Stroke volume ratio well represented the functional class. 4. After aortic and mitral valve replacement in 28 patients, the stroke volume ratio, decreased from $2.11{\pm}0.58\;to\;1.06{\pm}0.26$. Gated blood pool scan provides a noninvasive method of qnantifying valvular regurgitation and assessing the result of surgical interventions.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.220-237
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• 2021

Since the functional importance of marine phytoplankton was firstly advocated from early 1880s massive data on the species composition and abundance were produced by classical microscopic observation and the advanced auto-imaging technologies. Recently, pigment composition resulted from direct chemical analysis of phytoplankton samples or indirect remote sensing could be used for the group-specific quantification, which leads us to more diversified data production methods and for more improved spatiotemporal accessibilities to the target data-gathering points. In quite a few cases of many long-term marine ecosystem monitoring programs the phytoplankton species composition and abundance was included as a basic monitoring item. The phytoplankton data could be utilized as a crucial evidence for the long-term change in phytoplankton community structure and ecological functioning at the monitoring stations. Usability of the phytoplankton data sometimes is restricted by the differences in data producers throughout the whole monitoring period. Methods for sample treatments, analyses, and species identification of the phytoplankton species could be inconsistent among the different data producers and the monitoring years. In-depth study to determine the precise quantitative values of the phytoplankton species composition and abundance might be begun by Victor Hensen in late 1880s. International discussion on the quality assurance of the marine phytoplankton data began in 1969 by the SCOR Working Group 33 of ICSU. Final report of the Working group in 1974 (UNESCO Technical Papers in Marine Science 18) was later revised and published as the UNESCO Monographs on oceanographic methodology 6. The BEQUALM project, the former body of IPI (International Phytoplankton Intercomparison) for marine phytoplankton data QA/QC under ISO standard, was initiated in late 1990. The IPI is promoting international collaboration for all the participating countries to apply the QA/QC standard established from the 20 years long experience and practices. In Korea, however, such a QA/QC standard for marine phytoplankton species composition and abundance data is not well established by law, whereas that for marine chemical data from measurements and analysis has been already set up and managed. The first priority might be to establish a QA/QC standard system for species composition and abundance data of marine phytoplankton, then to be extended to other functional groups at the higher consumer level of marine food webs.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2005

Tidal flats have been regarded to carry out transformation and removal of land-derived organic matter, and this purifying capability of organic matter by tidal flats is one of very important reasons for their conservation. However, integral biogeochemical studies on production and decomposition of organic matter by benthic microbes in tidal flats have been absent in Korea, although the information is indispensable to quantification of the purifying capability. Our major goals in this multidisciplinary research were to understand major biogeochemical processes and rates mediated by diverse groups of microbes dominating material cycles in the tidal flats, and to assess the contribution of benthic microbes to removal of organic matter and nutrients in the tidal flats. Our study sites were Ganghwa and Incheon north-port tidal flats that had been regarded as naturally well reserved and organically polluted, respectively. Our research group measured over 3 years primary production, biomass and community structure of primary producers, abundance and production of bacteria, enzyme activities, distribution of protozoa and protozoan grazing rates, rates of denitrification and sulfate reduction, early sediment diagenesis, primary production and respiration based on oxygen microelectrode. We analyzed major features of each biogeochemical process and their interactions. The results are compiled in the following articles in this special issue: An (2005), Hwang and Cho (2005), Mok et at. (2005), Na and Lee (2005), Yang et at. (2005), and Yoo and Choi (2005).

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.133-144
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• 1986

This study was undertaken to assess the effect of ginseng administration on T lymphocyte induced local xenogenic graft-versus-host(GVM) reactions which were induced with thymocyte, spleen cell and lymph node cell of ICR mice. Mice received daily 10mg of 70% alcohol ginseng extract oral1y for 100days and control mice remained untreated for the same period of time. The cells from donor mice were injected intradermally into the closely shaven abdominal skin of Sprague-Dawley rats for GVH tests. The thymocyte from control(ginseng-untreated) mice showed a negative local GVH reaction, whereas thymocyte from experimental(ginseng-treated) mice showed a positive reaction with the rate of 17.4%. When spleen cells were injected, the incidence of positive local GVH reaction was 66.7% among ginseng-treated mice, as opposed to incidence of 45.5% of positive local GVH reaction among control mice. The incidence of positive local GVH reaction of the lymph node cells when injected into a recipient was 71.4% among ginseng-treated mice as compared with that of 18.9% among control mice. The relationship between spleen cell inoculum and intensity of the local GVH reaction was assessed in ginseng-untreated mice. The intensity of GVH reaction clearly appears to be dose related. In ginseng-treated mice, a minimum of $1{\times}10^7$ spleen cell was required for production of positive local GVH reaction with almost linear relationship up to an inoculum of $5{\times}10^8$ cells. In control mice, however, a minimum of $1{\times}10^8$ spleen cells was required for positive GVH reaction. These results strongly suggest that the ginseng administration augments significantly the local xenogenic GVH reaction which was used to assess T lymphocyte function and immunocompetence of mice and in addition to this, these results appear to support previous suggestions that the local GVH reaction consitutes a qualitative test of the functional activity of T lymphocytes. These results may be the first to induce local GVH reaction, employing rats as recipient and mice as donor. This study was also desingned to investigate some of the effects of ginseng extract on lymphocyte-macrophage interactions. This was accomplished by in vitro quantification of 1) migratory inhibitory factor(MIF) synthetic capacity of splenic lymphocytes in mice previously primed with ginseng 2) MIF responsiveness of mouse peritoneal macrophages or chicken peripheral leucocytes under the presence of ginseng extract 3) migration ability of chicken peripheral leucocytes by direct stimulation of ginseng extract or ginseng saponin and 4) immunosuppressive effects of immunosuppressants such as cyclophosphamide, cyclosporin A or dexamethasone. Mice divided equally into the ginseng and the saline groups, which received intraperitoneally daily 0.2ml of ginseng absolute alcohol-extract(5mg/ml) and same amount of saline for 15 days, respectively. The cellular immune responsiveness of these mice was assayed 15 days after ginseng pretreatment. Splenic lymphocytes of mice treated with ginseng, when stimulated with sensitized specific-antigen such as sheep red blood cells or toxoplasmin, or with polyclonal activator concanavalin A, produced significantly more MIF than those of control saline group. MIF responsiveness of normal mouse macrophages was significantly augmented when assayed under the presence of ginseng extract (1mg/ml). The migratory ability of normal chicken leucocytes in the absence of MIF was significantly decreased by the stimulation of ginseng extract alone. MIF response was significantly decreased by immunosuppressants and this impaired response was not restored by ginseng pretreatment. This study was additionally performed to evaluate the effect of ginseng on the expulsion of adult Trichinella spiralis in mice. ICR mice were infected experimentally by esophageal incubation of 300 T. spiralis infective muscle larvae prepared by acid-pepsin digestion of infected mice. and received oral administration of 70% alcohol ginseng extract(10mg/mouse/day) for the indicated days plus 4 days before infection. At various times after infection, the number of adult T. spiralis worms in small intestines was determined. Interestingly, ginseng-treatment was accompanied by accelerated expulson of T. spiralis. These results led to the conclusion that Panax ginseng caused some enhancing effect on GVH reaction, macrophage migration inhibition reaction and expulsion of T. spiralis. In addition these results suggested that the mechanisms responsible for this enhancement of ginseng may be chiefly or partially due to nonspecific stimulation of cell-mediated immune response.