• Molecules and Cells
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• 제38권2호
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• pp.145-150
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• 2015

Continuous intra- and extracellular stresses induce disorder of $Ca^{2+}$ homeostasis and accumulation of unfolded protein in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which results in ER stress. Severe long-term ER stress triggers apoptosis signaling pathways, resulting in cell death. Neural epidermal growth factor-like like protein 2 (NELL2) has been reported to be important in protection of cells from cell death-inducing environments. In this study, we investigated the cytoprotective effect of NELL2 in the context of ER stress induced by thapsigargin, a strong ER stress inducer, in Cos7 cells. Overexpression of NELL2 prevented ER stress-mediated apoptosis by decreasing expression of ER stress-induced C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) and increasing ER chaperones. In this context, expression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-xL was increased by NELL2, whereas NELL2 decreased expression of pro-apoptotic proteins, such as cleaved caspases 3 and 7. This anti-apoptotic effect of NELL2 is likely mediated by extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling, because its inhibitor, U0126, inhibited effects of NELL2 on the expression of anti- and pro-apoptotic proteins and on the protection from ER stress-induced cell death.

• 생약학회지
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• 제43권1호
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• pp.72-78
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• 2012

Alnus japonica Steud (A. japonica) have long been used in the traditional medicine for gastric disorder, hepatitis and fatty liver in Korea. Antiulcer effects of A. japonica hot water extract (AJ ext) were evaluated by in vitro antibacterial activity against H. pylori, by the inhibitory action against the in vitro gastric $H^+/K^+$-ATPase and using rat models of gastric mucosal damage and gastric ulcer induced by HCl-ethanol, indomethacin, and restraint and water-immersion stress. For the determination of antibacterial activity of AJ ext against H. pylori, the activity of urease which released from H. pylori was measured in culture. AJ ext showed weak antibacterial activity against H. pylori with the growth inhibitions of 37% and 61% by adding final concentrations of 500 and $1000{\mu}g/ml$ culture, respectively at 24 h. To observe the inhibitory activity of AJ ext against the $H^+/K^+$-ATPase in hog gastric membrane vesicle, $IC_{50}$ value of AJ ext was $806.3{\mu}g/ml$. Pretreatment of AJ ext (200, 500 mg/kg, p.o.) prevented in a dose-dependent manner the acute gastritis in HCl-ethanol model and the formation of gastric ulcer in indomethacin model and restraint and water-immersion stress model. These results suggest that the AJ ext can be used for prevention and treatment of gastric mucosal damage and ulcers induced by various stress.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제18권10호
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• pp.564-570
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• 2008

Nanostructured carbon materials have been found to have applications in fuel cell electrodes, field emitters, electronic devices, sensors and electromagnetic absorbers, etc. Especially, the CNF (carbon nanofiber) can be expected to play an important role in catalyst supporters for fuel cell electrodes and chemical reactions. In this study, we synthesized CNF from a liquid phase carbon source by a solvothermal method. In addition, we studied the parameters for the preparation of CNF by controlling heating and cooling rates, synthesis temperature and time. We characterized the CNF by SEM/TEM, XRD, Raman spectroscopy and EDS. We found that the heating and cooling rate have strong effects on the CNF formation and growth. We were able to prepare the best CNF at the heating rate of $10^{\circ}$/min, at $450^{\circ}$ for 60 minutes, and at the cooling rate of $4^{\circ}$/min. As a result of Raman spectra, we found that the sample showed two characteristic Raman bands at ${\sim}1350cm^{-1}$ (D band) and ${\sim}1600cm^{-1}$ (G band). The G band indicates the original graphite feature, but the D band has been explained as a disorder feature of the carbon structure. The diameter and length of the CNF was about $15{\sim}20nm$, and over $1{\mu}$, respectively.

• Neonatal Medicine
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.89-93
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• 2008

염색체 12번 단완의 중복(첨가)는 매우 드문 질환이며 선천성 기형과 발육 장애를 동반하는 것으로 생각된다. 저자들이 경험한 증례는 다발성 이형성 특색과 선천성 기형을 가지고 태어난 남아로 핵형은 46,XY,add(12) (p13.3)이었다. 출생 시 자궁내 성장부진과 소두증, 소하악증, 구개열, 낮은 변형 귀와 같은 비정상 두개 안면소견을 보였으며, 소음경증, 양발의 rocker bottom 변형 소견을 보였다. 추후 확인한 검사에서 심장 및 신장기형, 신경성 난청 등의 다발성 기형을 보였으며 이후 경련성 질환과 발달 지연 소견으로 외래에서 추적 관찰중이다. 염색체 12번의 첨가에 관련된 증례를 경험하였기에 저자들은 문헌고찰과 함께 보고하는 바이다.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.111-115
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• 2019

Vitamin D dependent rickets type 1A (VDDR1A) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in CYP27B1. Clinical findings are growth retardation, hypotonia, muscle weakness, hypocalcemic seizures, and radiological features of rickets. We aimed to present the VDDR1A case with a genetic study of CYP27B1. The 14-month-old boy was admitted to the hospital due to a seizure. Serum calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, parathyroid hormone (PTH), 25(OH) vitamin D, and 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D values were 5.1 mg/dL, 3.7 mg/dL, 705 IU/L, 429 pg/mL, 24.9 ng/mL, and 8.8 pg/mL, respectively. Radiological study showed cupping and fraying of the distal ulna and radius. The molecular genetic study revealed that the patient had a compound heterozygous mutation, $Phe443Profs^*24$ and c.589+1G>A, in CYP27B1. Genetic analysis of the family members presented that the mother was heterozygous for the mutation c.589+1G>A, and that the father was heterozygous for $Phe443Profs^*24$. The patient was treated with calcium lactate and calcitriol. Until now, six Korean patients with VDDR1A have been studied. Including this case, Korean patients with VDDR1A were found to have only three different mutations in 14 alleles, indicating that the mutation in the CYP27B1 gene is homogeneous in the Korean population.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.73-90
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• 2019

The growth in the number of single-member households is a critical issue worldwide, especially among the elderly. For those living alone, who may be unaware of their health status or routines that could improve their health, a continuous healthcare monitoring system could provide valuable feedback. Assessing the performance adequacy of activities of daily living (ADL) can serve as a measure of an individual's health status; previous research has focused on determining a person's daily activities and extracting the most frequently performed behavioral patterns using camera recordings or wearable sensing techniques. However, existing methods used to extract common patterns of an occupant's activities in the home fail to address the spatio-temporal dimensions of human activities simultaneously. Though multiple sequence alignment (MSA) offers some advantages - such as inherent containment of the spatio-temporal data in sequence format, and rapid identification of hidden patterns - MSA has rarely been used to extract in-home ADL routines. This research proposes a method to extract a household occupant's ADL routines from a cumulative spatio-temporal data log of occupancy collected using a non-intrusive method (i.e., a tomographic motion detection system). The findings from an occupant's 28-day spatio-temporal activity log demonstrate the capacity of the proposed approach to identify routine patterns of an occupant's daily activities and to reveal the order, duration, and frequency of routine activities. Routine ADL patterns identified from the proposed approach are expected to provide a basis for detecting/evaluating abrupt or gradual changes of an occupant's ADL patterns that result from a physical or mental disorder, and can offer valuable information for home automation applications by enabling the prediction of ADL patterns.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• 제30권1호
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• pp.34-41
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• 2019

Objectives: We aimed to compare preterm, neurodevelopmentally disordered and healthy full-term children. Methods: We enrolled 47 children who were born preterm, 40 neurodevelopmentally disordered children, and 80 healthy children as control participants, in order to assess the cognitive functioning and the risk of behavioral problems at the age of 5. Children were assessed using the Korean Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-4th edition (K-WPPSI-IV), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Results: The mean K-WPPSI-IV score of the preterm group was $87.19{\pm}17.36$, which was significantly higher than that of the neurodevelopmental disorder group ($69.98{\pm}28.63$; p<0.001) but lower than that of the control group ($107.74{\pm}14.21$; p<0.001). The cumulative CBCL scores of the preterm children were not significantly different from those of the control group. Additionally, the TCI scores for reward dependence of the preterm children were higher than those of the control group. Conclusion: The cognitive performance of preterm infants was lower than that of healthy full-term infants at the age of 5, and there was an association between slower growth and decreased cognitive ability.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제64권7호
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• pp.355-363
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• 2021

Background: Nephrotic syndrome (NS) is a common renal disorder in children attributed to podocyte injury. However, children with the same diagnosis have markedly variable treatment responses, clinical courses, and outcomes, suggesting molecular heterogeneity. Purpose: This study aimed to explore the molecular responses of podocytes to nephrotic plasma to identify specific genes and signaling pathways differentiating various clinical NS groups as well as biological processes that drive injury in normal podocytes. Methods: Transcriptome profiles from immortalized human podocyte cell line exposed to the plasma of 8 subjects (steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome [SSNS], n=4; steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome [SRNS], n=2; and healthy adult individuals [control], n=2) were generated using microarray analysis. Results: Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of global gene expression data was broadly correlated with the clinical classification of NS. Differential gene expression (DGE) analysis of diseased groups (SSNS or SRNS) versus healthy controls identified 105 genes (58 up-regulated, 47 down-regulated) in SSNS and 139 genes (78 up-regulated, 61 down-regulated) in SRNS with 55 common to SSNS and SRNS, while the rest were unique (50 in SSNS, 84 genes in SRNS). Pathway analysis of the significant (P≤0.05, -1≤ log2 FC ≥1) differentially expressed genes identified the transforming growth factor-β and Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription pathways to be involved in both SSNS and SRNS. DGE analysis of SSNS versus SRNS identified 2,350 genes with values of P≤0.05, and a heatmap of corresponding expression values of these genes in each subject showed clear differences in SSNS and SRNS. Conclusion: Our study observations indicate that, although podocyte injury follows similar pathways in different clinical subgroups, the pathways are modulated differently as evidenced by the heatmap. Such transcriptome profiling with a larger cohort can stratify patients into intrinsic subtypes and provide insight into the molecular mechanisms of podocyte injury.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• 제38권1호
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• pp.34-38
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• 2021

Background: We aimed to determine whether routine second trimester complete blood cell (CBC) count parameters, including neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR), and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), could predict obstetric outcomes. Methods: We included singleton pregnancies for which the 50-g oral glucose tolerance test and CBC were routinely performed between 24 and 28 weeks of gestation in our outpatient clinic from January 2015 to December 2017. The subjects were divided into three groups according to their pregnancy outcomes as follows: group 1, spontaneous preterm births, including preterm labor and preterm premature rupture of membranes; group 2, indicated preterm birth due to maternal, fetal, or placental causes (hypertensive disorder, fetal growth restriction, or placental abruption); and group 3, term deliveries, regardless of the indication of delivery. We compared the CBC parameters using a bivariate correlation test. Results: The study included 356 pregnancies. Twenty-eight subjects were in group 1, 20 in group 2, and 308 in group 3. There were no significant differences between the three groups in neutrophil, monocyte, lymphocyte, and platelet counts. Although there was no significant difference in NLR, LMR, and PLR between the three groups, LMR showed a negative correlation with gestational age at delivery (r =-0.126, p =0.016). Conclusion: We found that a higher LMR in the second trimester was associated with decreased gestational age at delivery. CBC parameters in the second trimester of pregnancy could be used to predict adverse obstetric outcomes.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• 제46권1호
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• pp.23-29
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• 2021

Demethoxycurcumin (DMC), which is a curcuminoid found in turmeric, has anti-proliferative effects on cancer cells. However, the effect of DMC on osteosarcoma has not been established. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of DMC on cell growth and apoptosis induction in MG-63 human osteosarcoma cells. This study was investigated using 3-[4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2, 5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromid assay, Live/Dead cell assay, 4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole staining, and immunoblotting in MG-63 cells. DMC induced MG-63 cell death in a dose-dependent manner, with an estimated IC50 value of 54.4 µM. DMC treatment resulted in nuclear condensation in MG-63 cells. DMC-induced apoptosis in MG-63 cells was mediated by the expression of Fas and activation of caspase-8, caspase-3, and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase. Immunoblotting results showed that Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL were downregulated, while Bax and Bad were upregulated by DMC in MG-63 cells. These results indicated that DMC inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptotic cell death in MG-63 human osteosarcoma cells via the death receptor-mediated extrinsic apoptotic pathway and mitochondria-mediated intrinsic apoptotic pathway.