• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.157-166
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• 1984

These biologic test procedures are designed to test the suitability of P.V.C. made in Korea intended for parenteral preparation, which were based on the U.S. Pharmacopeia XIX "Biologic Test-Plastic Container", Official from July 1, 1975. Healthy adult human blood and rabbits weighing 2\ulcorner.2Kg were used for test materials. Sample P.V.C. were sampled from the medical equipments made in Korea randomly and Control P.V.C. were sampled from the standardized Cobe and Polystan P.V.C. tubes. P.V.C. extract was prepared from a homogeneous P.V.C. samples by incubating 60 square centimeters of the sample per 20 millimeters of sterile pyrogen-free saline at 70\ulcorner for 72 hours or autoclaving at 120\ulcorner for 1 hour. The Implantation Test was designed to evaluate the reaction of living tissue to the plastic by the method of the implantation of the Sample itself into animal tissue. The Systemic Injection Test, the Intracutaneous Test, and the remainders were designed to determine the biological response of animals to plastics by the single-dose injection of specific extracts prepared from a Sample. The results are as follows; 1.Implantation Test - No significant difference for reactions was noted between the Sample treated animal and the Control after 72 hours of implantation. 2.Systemic Toxicity Injection Test - No sign of toxicity and/or death immediately after injection and at 4, 24, 48 hours respectfully after injection. 3.Intracutaneous Test - None of the animals treated with the Sample showed a significantly greater reaction than the observed in the animals treated with Blank. 4.Pyrogen Assay-Only one animal treated with the Sample showed the maximal rise of rectal temperature about 0.2\ulcorner after 3 hours of injection, but remainders showed no change. 5.Hemolytic Index - The positive Control tube of distilled water exhibited complete hemolysis while the negative Control tube and P.V.C. extract were negative demonstrating no hemolysis. 6.Cell Morphology of Erythrocytes and Leukocytes on Stored, Heparinized Human Blood -- There was no significant difference in the morphology of either the Control or Sample extract. 7.Clotting Mechanism of Human Blood in vitro - After allowing to the P.V.C. extract at room temperature for 5 Hours and at 10\ulcorner for 24 hours, there was no appreciable difference in Prothrombin Time under these conditions. 8.Clotting Mechanism of Rabbit in vivo - At the termination of 5 days after intraperitoneal injection of the P.V.C. extract, no significant changes in Clotting Time were observed. According to the above results, it could be concluded that the P.V.C. made in Korea was acceptable for parenteral preparation, especially treated with physiologic saline and/or human blood.man blood.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.221-229
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• 2018

Tenofovir nanoparticles are novel therapeutic intervention in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection reaching the virus in their sanctuary sites. However, there has been no systemic toxicity testing of this formulation despite global concerns on the safety of nano drugs. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the toxicity of Tenofovir nanoparticle (NTDF) on the liver and kidney using an animal model. Fifteen adult male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats maintained at the animal house of the biomedical resources unit of the University of KwaZulu-Natal were weighed and divided into three groups. Control animals (A) were administered with normal saline (NS). The therapeutic doses of Tenofovir (TDF) and nanoparticles of Tenofovir (NTDF) were administered to group B and C and observed for signs of stress for four weeks after which animals were weighed and sacrificed. Liver and kidney were removed and fixed in formal saline, processed and stained using H/E, PAS and MT stains for light microscopy. Serum was obtained for renal function test (RFT) and liver function test (LFT). Cellular measurements and capturing were done using ImageJ and Leica software 2.0. Data were analysed using graph pad 6, p values < 0.05 were significant. We observed no signs of behavioural toxicity and no mortality during this study, however, in the kidneys, we reported mild morphological perturbations widening of Bowman's space, and vacuolations in glomerulus and tubules of TDF and NTDF animals. Also, there was a significant elevation of glycogen deposition in NTDF and TDF animals when compared with control. In the liver, there were mild histological changes with widening of sinusoidal spaces, vacuolations in hepatocytes and elevation of glycogen deposition in TDF and NTDF administered animals. In addition to this, there were no significant differences in stereological measurements and cell count, LFT, RFT, weight changes and organo-somatic index between treatment groups and control. In conclusion, NTDF and TDF in therapeutic doses can lead to mild hepatic and renal histological damage. Further studies are needed to understand the precise genetic mechanism.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.114-123
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• 2014

Objectives: Evidence-based medicine(EBM) advocates the use of up-to-date "best" scientific evidence from health care research as the basis for making medical decisions. EBM also has been applied to traditional Korean medicine(TKM), especially in the field of safety. Recently, the standard prescription for TKM by Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine was published based on toxic index from various toxicity tests. However, there are some limitations when the results from the study based on EBM are applied in clinics. To overcome these imitations, the term "evidence-based practical medicine" was developed and defined as clinically applicable results from the study based on EBM. And safety classification for TKM was suggested as an example of evidence-based practical medicine. Methods: For safety classification for TKM, the data for $LD_{50}$(50% lethal dose), which was transformed to theoretical $LD_1$(1% lethal dose), was analyzed as one of tools for EMB study and divided by maximum dose used in clinics. Results and Conclusions: As a result, human equivalent dose(HED)-based MOS(margin of safety) for korean traditional medicine was calculated and used for safety classification with 5 categories. These categories would be helpful for oriental medicine clinicians to decide the increase and decrease of dosage according to various factors such as patient's sensitivity, potential toxicity of herbal medicines, clinician's experience for better cure. Thus, this safety classification provides some evidences enough that evidence-based practical medicine should be not the same with EBM and defined differently from EBM.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.245-251
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• 2013

BACKGROUND: The objectives of this study are to investigate the contamination levels of heavy metals in soil, ground water, and agricultural product near the abandoned Boeun and Sanggok mine areas in Korea and to assess the health risk for these local residents exposed to the toxic heavy metals based on analytical data. METHODS AND RESULTS: By the results of human health risk assessment for local residents around Boeun and Sanggok, human exposure to cadmium, copper, arsenic from soil and to lead, cadmium, and arsenic from rice grain were higher in Sanggok, but human exposure to zinc and arsenic from ground water was higher in Boeun. By the results of hazard index (HI) evaluation for arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc, HI values in both areas were higher than 1.0. This result indicated that the toxicity hazard through the continuous exposure to lead, cadmium, arsenic from rice, ground water, and soil would be likely to occur to the residents in the areas. Cancer risk assessment for arsenic, risks from the rice were exposed to one to two out of 10,000 people in Boeun and one of 1,000 people in Sanggok. These results showed that the cancer risks of arsenic in both areas were 10~100 times greater than the acceptable cancer risk range of US EPA ($1{\times}10^{-6}{\sim}1{\times}10^{-5}$). CONCLUSION(S): Therefore, if these two local residents consume continuously with arsenic contaminated soil, ground water, and rice, the adverse health effects (carcinogenic potential) would be more increased.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.381-386
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• 2008

Lipophilic ammonia is toxic gas and can easily diffuse across cell membranes. Excess ammonia is implicated in the pathogenesis of several metabolic disorders including hepatic encephalopathy and may result in the death. The purpose of this study was to clarify the inhibition effect of metronidazole on liver cell damage due to ammonia in human Hep G2 cell and rat hepatocytes. The effects of metronidazole were studied in ammonium chloride treated human Hep G2 cell (75 mM) and rat hepatocyte (100 mM) following $0.1{\mu}M$ metronidazole treatment. In MTZ+AC group, cell viabilities increased prominently and LDH activities decreased over 25% than AC group. Furthermore, ammonia level according to ammonium chloride treatment reduced over 30% and lipid peroxidation as an index of cell membrane damage decreased more than twice. By comparison with control, catalase activity showed more than 30% reduction in AC group while less than 10% reduction in MTZ+AC group, respectively. In addition, MTZ+AC group showed the similar cell structure as control in cell morphology study by using light microscope, and represented fluorescent intensity decrement compared with AC group in fluorescent microscopic study with avidin-TRITC fluorescent dye. And cleaved PARP expression due to ammonia reduced twofold or more in MTZ+AC group. As the results suggest, metronidazole may protect the liver cell by inhibiting cell damages due to ammonia and be used for an effective antagonist of ammonia in hyperammonemia.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.230-238
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• 2004

The adverse health effects of a number of environment pollutions are related to the formation of free radicals. Induction of antioxidant defensive system in the response to an oxidative attack is an essential element of the cell to survive. CYP2E1 is easily induced by organic solvents and induces continuous formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ${\gamma}$-Glutamyltranspeptidase (${\gamma}$GT) plays an important role in glutathione metabolism and xenobiotic detoxification. To evaluate the characteristic of oxidative stress which induces GGT expression and to understand human antioxidant defensive response against oxidative stress induced by CYP2E1, we studied regulation of ${\gamma}$GT enzyme expression in response to various oxidative stresses in human HepG2 cells. The ${\gamma}$GT activity was not modified after exposure of acute oxidative stress inducing agents (ferric nitrilotriacetate, cumene hydroperoxide, ADP-Fe, O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate, tumor necrosis factor-alpha). To induce continuous exposure of cells to ROS, HepG2 cells were transfected by human CYP2E1 gene transiently. The CYP2E1 activity was verified with chlorzoxazone hydroxylation. Transfection of CYP2E1 showed continuous 60% increase in intracellular ROS and 240 % increase in microsomal ROS. CYP2E1 overexpressing cells showed increased ${\gamma}$GT activity (2.5-fold). The observed enhancement of ${\gamma}$GT activity correlated with a significant increase of ${\gamma}$GT mRNA (2.1-fold). Treatment with antioxidant strongly prevented the increase in ${\gamma}$GT activity. The CYP2E1 overexpression did not modify toxicity index and increased glutathione levels. These results show that continuous exposure of cells to ROS produced by CYP2E1 up-regulates ${\gamma}$GT; This may be one of the adaptive antioxidant responses of cells to oxidative insult. Present study also suggests that the induction of ${\gamma}$GT could be used as a marker of oxidative stress induced by exposure to organic solvents.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.64-80
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• 1991

The SKINTEX Method is based on a two-compartment physico-chemical model which includes a Biomembrane Barrier in compartment one and an organized macromolecular matrix in compartment two. Test samples absorb onto or permeate through the keratin/collagen Biomembrane Barrier and then can interact with the organized macromolecular matrix. Changes in the integrity of the barrier release a dye indicator: Changes in the matrix can alter its transparency. The sum of these two responses is read spectrophotometrically at 470nm. An early investigation of 950 chemicals and formulations in the SKINTEX System produced results which were 89% concordance to in vivo Draize dermal irritation results obtained with 24-hour occluded application of test samples with-out abrasion and standard scoring. Alkaline materials were analyzed in a specialized SKINTEX AMA Protocol. In this early study, the model did not distinguish nonirritant test materials and formulation with PDII(Primary Dermal Irritation Index)in the range from 0 to 1.2, A High Sensitivity Assay Protocol(HSA)was developed to amplify the changes in both compartments of this model and provide more accurate calibration of these changes. A study of 60 low irritation test samples including cosmetics, household products, chemicals and petro-chemicals distinguished nonirritants with PDII $\leq$ 0.7 for 26 of 30 nonirritants. A second protocol was developed to evaluate the SKINTEX model predictability with respect to human irritation. The Human Response Assay (HRA )has been optimized based on differences in penetration and irritation responses in humans and rabbits. An additional 32 test materials with different mechanisms and degrees of dermal toxicity were evaluated by the HRA. These in vitro results were 86% concordant to human patch test results. In order to further evaluate this model, a Standard Chemical Labelling (SCL) Protocol was developed to optimize this system to predict Draize dermal irritation results after a 4-hour application of the test material. In a study of 52 chemicals including acids, bases, solvents, salts, surfactants and preservatives, the SCL results demonstrated 85% concordance to Draize results for a 4-hour application of test samples on non-abraded rabbit skin. The SKINTEX System, including three specialized protocols, provided results which demonstrated good correlation to the endpoint of dermal irritation in man and rabbits at different application times.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5855-5860
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• 2013

Phytochemicals are among the natural chemopreventive agents with most potential for delaying, blocking or reversing the initiation and promotional events of carcinogenesis. They therefore offer cancer treatment strategies to reduce cancer related death. One such promising chemopreventive agent which has attracted considerable attention is sulforaphane (SFN), which exhibits anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, and anti-microbial properties. The present study was undertaken to assess effect of SFN alone and in combination with a chemotherapeutic agent, gemcitabine, on the proliferative potential of MCF-7 cells by cell viability assay and authenticated the results by nuclear morphological examination. Further we analyzed the modulation of expression of Bcl-2 and COX-2 on treatment of these cells with SFN by RT-PCR. SFN showed cytotoxic effects on MCF-7 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner via an apoptotic mode of cell death. In addition, a combinational treatment of SFN and gemcitabine on MCF-7 cells resulted in growth inhibition in a synergistic manner with a combination index (CI)<1. Notably, SFN was found to significantly downregulate the expression of Bcl-2, an anti-apoptotic gene, and COX-2, a gene involved in inflammation, in a time-dependent manner. These results indicate that SFN induces apoptosis and anti-inflammatory effects on MCF-7 cells via downregulation of Bcl-2 and COX-2 respectively. The combination of SFN and gemcitabine may potentiate the efficacy of gemcitabine and minimize the toxicity to normal cells. Taken together, SFN may be a potent anti-cancer agent for breast cancer treatment.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.173-179
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• 2004

Amyloid ${\beta}-peptide\;(A{\beta})$ contributes to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), causing neuronal death through apoptosis. In this study, the neuroprotective role of BF-7, extracted form sericultural product, was examined against $A{\beta}-induced$ toxicity in cultured human neuronal cell SKN-SH. In order to know if the BF-7 has positive role on the cognition and memory in human, the mixture of BF-7, DHA and EPA (BDE) was examined using Rey Kim and K-WAIS test with 50 healthy high school student. We report here that BDE significantly attenuated $A{\beta}-induced$ apoptosis through the reduction of ROS accumulation, and diminished caspase-like protease activity. Moreover, the memory index and memory preservation, and attentative concentration of BDE treated group for 1 month were significantly improved, in contrast to the case of placebo control treated with DHA and EPA. This result represent that the BF-7 play significant positive role on learning memory. Taken together, our result suggested the natural product BF-7 is a good substance for the brain functionally and physiologically.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.361-371
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• 2000

It has been recently reported that 2-bromopropane (2-BP) induces male reproductive toxicity in both human and experimental animals. However, delayed effects of 2-BP on male reproductive system have not been investigated in detail. The present study was conducted to investigate the testicular toxicity of 2-BP and to determine the recovery of normal spermatogenesis in Sprague-Dawley rats. Male rats aged 5 weeks were administered 1,000mg/kg 2-BP by gavage daily for 4 weeks and sacrificed sequentially at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 12 weeks after initiation of 2-BP treatment. Testicular toxicity was evaluated qualitatively by histopathological examinations and quantitatively by reproductive organ weights, spermatid head count, and repopulation index. In the 2-BP treated rats, the body weights was significantly suppressed and the weights of testes and epididymides were also decreased in a time-dependent manner. On histopathological examination, spermatogonia in stages I-VI and preleptotene and leptotene spermatocytes in stages VII-IX were strongly depleted at 1 week of dosing. Spermatogonia were depleted extensively in all spermatogenic stages at 2 weeks. Continuing with the evolution of spermatogenic cycle, zygotene spermatocytes, pachytene spermatocytes, and round spermatids were sequentially depleted at 2, 3, and 4 weeks of dosing due to the depletion of their precursor cells. Vacuolization of Sertoli cells and spermatid retention were also observed at all time points, suggesting that 2-BP induced Sertoli cell dysfunction. At 12 weeks, after 8 weeks recovery, most of the tubules appeared severely atrophic and were lined by Sertoli cells only. Leydig cell hyperplasia in the interstitial tissue was also found. In addition, dramatic reductions in the number of spermatid heads and repopulation index were observed, indicating that 2-BP-induced testicular injury is irreversible. These results indicate that 4 weeks repeated-dose of 1,000mg/kg 2-BP results in a progressive germ cell loss due to the depletion of spermatogonia followed by long-term testicular atrophy in SD rats.