• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.11
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• pp.747-754
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• 2019

The incidence of atherosclerosis is higher among patients with several autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It is well documented that innate immune cells including macrophages and dendritic cells sense lipid species such as saturated fatty acids and oxidized low-density lipoprotein and produce pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. However, whether a hyperlipidemic environment also impacts autoimmune T cell responses has been unclear. Among $CD4^+$ T cells, Th17 and follicular helper T (Tfh) cells are known to play pathogenic roles in the development of hyperlipidemia-associated autoimmune diseases. This review gives an overview of the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which dysregulated lipid metabolism impacts the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, with specific emphasis on Th17 and Tfh cells.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.80-87
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• 1999

Purposes : Renal involvement is a potentially serious complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). There have been only few studies of lupus nephritis in pediatric age. In this study, the clinical manifestations, pathologic findings, response to treatment, and clinical course of lupus nephritis in children were analyzed. And the results will provide basic data for future nation-wide prospective multi-center study. Methods . The medical records of 46 children clinically and pathologically diagnosed to have lupus nephritis at Seoul National University Children's Hospital during 1986 to 1997 were analyzed retrospectively. Results : 1) The median age of diagnosis of lupus nephritis was 12.8 years ($2\;years\~\;15year$ 8months), and the sex ratio was 1:2.5. 2) FANA($85.7\%$), anti-ds-DNA antibody ($78.0\%$), and malar rash ($60.8\%$) were the most common findings among the classification criteria by ARA Decreased C3 was detected in $88.9\%$ of patients. 3) Hematuria ($87.0\%$) was the most common renal symptom, and WHO class IV lupus nephritis was identified in 41 cases by renal biopsy. 4) In most of patients, the disease activity was controlled relatively well with a single or combined therapy of prednisolone, azathioprine, or cyclophosphamide. The response revealed no difference according to the mode of treatment. 5) Infection, especially of Varicella-Zoster virus and candida, was the most common complication during the disease course. Conclusion : The renal involvement was noted in $87.0\%$ of childhood SLE, and $89.1\%$ of renal lesions was WHO class IV lupus nephritis known to associated with poor long-term prognosis. So, aggressive treatment using immunosuppressants in the early disease course may be helpful to increase long-term prognosis of lupus nephritis. A prospective multi-center study is necessary to analyze the therapeutic efficacy of various treatment modalities.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.443-449
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• 2000

A three-year-old male jindo with generalized skin lesions (including seborrhea, hyperk- eratosis, alopecia, papules, and ecchymoses), pruritus lymph node enlargement, and fever was brought to Veterinary Teaching Hospital, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chungbuk National Uni- versity. There were no laboratory findings for parasites and fungi in the hair and skin But, the com- plete blood counts (CBC) showed leukocytosis and severe cosinophilia, It was suspected to be an inflammatory and allergic dermatitis. Thus, prednisoIone (0.5 mg/kg PO, BID for 1 week) and ampi- cillin (10 mg/kg PO, BID for 1 week given. One week later, pruritus and ecchymoses were reduced. These treatments were repeated for 7 day again. Three months later, the dog was presented again due to the relapse and exacerbation of the clinical signs. The signs were as follows; severe pru- ritus, vesicobullous skin lesions, anorexia, emaciation, lameness, and welling of carpal joints that showed inflammatory skin lesion and draining of synovia-like fluid. The values of WBC counts were returned to normal ranges. In contrast, eosinophilia was still observed. Coombs test for patient RBC and serum were negative. Hypoalbuminemia (2.5g/dl) was shown by serum chemistry. The uri- nalysis revealed and presence of leukocytes. Luxation finding of right radial carpal joint by polyarthritis was shown in radiography of affected joints.Lupus eryhematosus(LE) cells also appeared in peripheral blood and synovial fluid of affected joints. Definitely, antinuclear antibody (ANA) of patient serum using feline peripheral blood mononuclear cells was detected by all immu- nofluorescence. Based on these findings such as sedum ANA-Positive. major signs (skin disease, non- erosive polyarthritis with soft tissue swelling. and proteinuria), minor signs (fever), and LE cell-pos- itive, a diagnosis of systemic lupus crythematosus (SLE) was mad\ulcorner in this dog. The dog with SLE was administered with Pre(2.0 mg/kg PO, BID for first 4 week and then QOD) to inhibit the production of autoantibodies and with ampicillin (10 mg/kg PO, BID for first 4 weeks and then QOD) to prevent the secondary infection. The condition of this dog was monitored every 2 weeks by physical examinations, radiography, CBC, serum chemistry and urinalyais. At 8th week of treat- ment, the state of SLE evaluated by physical examinations and laboratory findings was markedly improved except for proteinura.

• The Korean journal of internal medicine
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.347-359
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• 2024

Background/Aims: Renal relapse has known to be a poor prognostic factor in patients with lupus nephritis (LN), but there were few studies that identified the risk factors of renal relapse in real world. We conducted this study based on 35-years of experience at a single center to find out predictors of renal relapse in Korean patients with LN after achieving complete response (CR). Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical, laboratory, pathologic and therapeutic parameters in 296 patients of LN who reached CR. The cumulative risk and the independent risk factors for renal relapse were examined by Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox proportional hazards regression analyses, respectively. Results: The median follow-up period from CR was 123 months. Renal relapse had occurred in 157 patients. Renal relapse occurred in 38.2%, 57.6% and 67.9% of patients within 5-, 10-, and 20-year, respectively. The age at diagnosis of SLE and LN were significantly younger, and the proportions of severe proteinuria and serum hypoalbuminemia were higher in patients with renal relapse. Interestingly, the proportion of receiving cytotoxic maintenance treatment was higher in patients with renal relapse. In Cox proportional hazards regression analyses, only young-age onset of LN (by 10 years, HR = 0.779, p = 0.007) was identified to independent predictor of renal relapse. Conclusions: Young-age onset of LN was only independent predictor and the patients with severe proteinuria and serum hypoalbuminemia also tended to relapse more, despite of sufficient maintenance treatment. Studies on more effective maintenance treatment regimens and duration are needed to reduce renal relapse.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.63-69
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• 2017

Transmembrane protein 39A (TMEM39A) belongs to the TMEM39 family. TMEM39A gene is a susceptibility locus for multiple sclerosis. In addition, TMEM39A seems to be implicated in systemic lupus erythematosus. However, any possible involvement of TMEM39A in cancer remains largely unknown. In the present report, we provide evidence that TMEM39A may play a role in brain tumors. Western blotting using an anti-TMEM39A antibody indicated that TMEM39A was overexpressed in glioblastoma cell lines, including U87-MG and U251-MG. Deep-sequencing transcriptomic profiling of U87-MG and U251-MG cells revealed that TMEM39A transcripts were upregulated in such cells compared with those of the cerebral cortex. Confocal microscopic analysis of U251-MG cells stained with anti-TMEM39A antibody showed that TMEM39A was located in dot-like structures lying close to the nucleus. TMEM39A probably located to mitochondria or to endosomes. Immunohistochemical analysis of glioma tissue specimens indicated that TMEM39A was markedly upregulated in such samples. Bioinformatic analysis of the Rembrandt knowledge base also supported upregulation of TMEM39A mRNA levels in glioma patients. Together, the results afford strong evidence that TMEM39A is upregulated in glioma cell lines and glioma tissue specimens. Therefore, TMEM39A may serve as a novel diagnostic marker of, and a therapeutic target for, gliomas and other cancers.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.227-234
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• 2003

Background: Immunoglobulin (Ig) light chain repertoire has been implicated as a critical determinant in regulation of autoreactive B cells and production of pathogenic anti-DNA antibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We analyzed the impact of Ig ${\lambda}$ chain repertoire on development of autoimmunity in patients with SLE. Methods: We obtained genomic DNA from individual peripheral CD19+ B cells of 3 untreated active SLE patients, and amplified $V{\lambda}$ rearrangements from each single cell by polymerase chain reaction. Results: A total number of 208 $V{\lambda}J{\lambda}$ rearrangements were analyzed. Analyzed sequences included 158 productive rearrangements and 50 nonproductive rearrangements. The differences in $V{\lambda}$ gene usage in the productive and nonproductive repertoire of SLE patients were found compared to the non-autoimmune individuals. $V{\lambda}$ gene, 9A was significantly overrepresented in nonproducative repertoire of SLE patients (P=0.016). In the productive repertoire, $V{\lambda}$ genes, 3L and 1E were found more often in the SLE patients (P=0.001, P=0.043). When the productive and the nonproductive repertoires were compared, 9A was found significantly less in the productive repertoire in the SLE patients (P=0.000). There were no significant differences in the $J{\lambda}$ gene usage between SLE patients and non-autoimmune individuals, but $J{\lambda}2/3$ gene was the most frequently used in SLE, whereas $J{\lambda}7$ gene was the most frequently used in the normal subjects. In the productive SLE $V{\lambda}$ repertoire, 9.4% of the total sequences employed identical CDR3. It was particularly striking to find 7 identical versions of the 1G-$J{\lambda}2/3$ $V{\lambda}J{\lambda}$ rearrangements from one patient and 3 of the same sequence from another patient. Notably, identical $V{\lambda}$ junctions in the SLE patients utilized significantly more homologous joining compared to $V{\lambda}$ junctions of the normal adults (P=0.044). Conclusion: These data demonstrate regulation of ${\lambda}$ light chain expression in the SLE patients by selection of unique $V{\lambda}$ genes. Also, biased selection and clonal expansion of particular $V{\lambda}$ rearrangements are apparent in the SLE ${\lambda}$ repertoire.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.227-232
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• 2002

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease characterized by diverse clinical manifestations and autoantibody production, which is known to be strongly influenced by genetic factors. Previous studies have revealed the associations of SLE with HLA class II alleles and antiphospholipid antibody system (anticardiolipin antibody (aCL) and anti-${\beta}_2$ glycoprotein I antibody (anti-${\beta}_2$ GPI)). Therefore, we studied the associations of HLA class II alleles with SLE and antiphospholipid antibody system. Methods: The genotyping for HLA-DRB1 and DQB1 alleles were performed in 61 SLE patients and 100 controls by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-sequence specific oligonucleotide probe method. ELISA tests for aCL and anti-${\beta}_2$ GPI were performed in 39 of the 61 SLE patients. The results were evaluated statistically by Chi-square test. Results: The frequencies of the HLA-$DRB1^*15$ and $DQB1^*06$ in SLE patients were significantly higher than those in controls. HLA-$DRB1^*12$ was significantly lower in SLE patients than controls. Nine of 39 patients were positive for aCL (IgG) and three were positive for aCL (IgM). One of 39 patients were positive for anti-${\beta}_2$ GPI (IgG) and none of them positive for anti-${\beta}_2$ GPI (IgM). Association of aCL with HLA class II alleles was not observed in our study. Conclusion: According to our results, it was found that HLA-$DRB1^*15$ and $DQB1^*06$ were associated with genetic susceptiblility and $DRB1^*12$ was associated with resistance to SLE in Korean population. No Association of aCL with HLA class II alleles was observed and the positive rate for anti-${\beta}_2$ GPI was very low.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.89-96
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• 1997

This study was designed to determine whether cognitive impairment was evident in patients with SLE. Also, it aimed to examine the association of cognitive impairment with other clinical variables. The subjects consisted of 20 patients with mildly active SLE and 20 healthy controls. Methods : A total of 20 SLE patients and 20 normal controls completed a computerized neuropsychological test battery using Vienna Test System. These included Cognitrone test, Continuous attention test, Corsi block tapping test, Standard progressive matrices. Also, neuro-behavioral cognitive status examination was done. The symptom severity of depression was measured with Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, and current medications were documented. Disease activity was rated using the SLE diasease activity index (SLEDAI). Results : SLE patients had poorer performance than normal controls on the tests of Cognitrone, attention, nonverbal IQ and memory, independent of age, education, disease activity, steroid use and depression status. Conclusion : Cognitive dysfunction was not uncommon in ambulatory SLE patients as measured by standardized neuropsychological tests. It seemed to occur independently of various clinical variables. These findings would suggest that cognitive dysfunction in SLE may be explained by reflecting subclinical central nervous system(CNS) involvement, rather than coexisting psychological distress due to chronic illness or side effect of medication.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.120-124
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• 2016

Subcutaneous tissue calcification in rheumatic diseases usually occurs in connective tissue diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, and dermatomyositis. Domestic cases of calcification in rheumatoid arthritis have not been reported. The mechanism of subcutaneous tissue calcification may differ depending on the cause and it can develop on all parts of the body. Calcification occurring in rheumatic diseases is a major mechanism of tissue damage caused by chronic inflammation. No standard therapy for calcification has been established; however, many studies have reported on medical and surgical treatment. We report on subcutaneous tissue calcification in a rheumatoid arthritis patient tissue calcification on both sides of the buttocks, the upper limbs, and the lower limbs.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2014

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been emerging out of the efforts to research human diseases and ethnic disparities. A semantic network is needed for in-depth understanding of the impacts of SNPs, because phenotypes are modulated by complex networks, including biochemical and physiological pathways. We identified ethnicity-specific SNPs by eliminating overlapped SNPs from HapMap samples, and the ethnicity-specific SNPs were mapped to the UCSC RefGene lists. Ethnicity-specific genes were identified as follows: 22 genes in the USA (CEU) individuals, 25 genes in the Japanese (JPT) individuals, and 332 genes in the African (YRI) individuals. To analyze the biologically functional implications for ethnicity-specific SNPs, we focused on constructing a semantic network model. Entities for the network represented by "Gene," "Pathway," "Disease," "Chemical," "Drug," "ClinicalTrials," "SNP," and relationships between entity-entity were obtained through curation. Our semantic modeling for ethnicity-specific SNPs showed interesting results in the three categories, including three diseases ("AIDS-associated nephropathy," "Hypertension," and "Pelvic infection"), one drug ("Methylphenidate"), and five pathways ("Hemostasis," "Systemic lupus erythematosus," "Prostate cancer," "Hepatitis C virus," and "Rheumatoid arthritis"). We found ethnicity-specific genes using the semantic modeling, and the majority of our findings was consistent with the previous studies - that an understanding of genetic variability explained ethnicity-specific disparities.