• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.251-257
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• 2024

Background Plastic surgery has developed to benefit in a variety of challenging areas formerly handled by other disciplines. Medical students do not have a clear picture of plastic surgery as a career due to lacking scope, clinical practice, and understanding of plastic surgery as a clinical area of expertise, including general practitioners, nursing staff, medical trainees, and the general public, and misconceptions about the extent of reconstructive and plastic surgery. Methods A cross-sectional observational study was conducted on Kuwait University Medical students (2nd-7th Years) over a period of 1 month. A questionnaire and a consent form were provided to eligible students. The inclusion criteria were Kuwait University Medical students from 2nd to 7th Years with signed consent form. The response was collected via email sent in coordination with the Vice Dean of Student Affairs in the Faculty of Medicine. Using statistical package for the social sciences, responses were statistically analyzed. Pearson's chi-square test was used to calculate p-values, where p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results A total of 244 eligible medical students, 121 males and 123 females, were included in the study, with a mean age of 21 (±2) years. Similarly, 126 (51.6%) were preclinical students (2nd-4th-year students), while 118 (48.4%) were clinical students (5th-7th-year students). About 79.8% of medical students believed that plastic surgery plays an essential role in trauma management, whereas 9.2% did not consider plastic surgery significant for trauma management. This study found that only 15.5% of medical students were interested in enrolling in plastic surgery residency after graduation, while 47.1% of students did not consider plastic surgery residency after graduation. However, 37.4% were uncertain. The two most driving factors in deciding on plastic surgery residency were expected income (61.8%) and lifestyle (14.3%). Conclusion Improving medical students' education quality can enhance their perception and awareness of plastic surgery. Students should be taught the broader scope of plastic surgery. The inclusion of formal training during undergraduation is the essence of time and should be added to or improved during plastic surgery rotations with more emphasis on reconstructive and hand/peripheral nerve surgery. Student-led interest groups can be a useful tool for educating students about their specialty.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.819-826
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• 2018

Orostachys japonicus (OJ) is a medicinal herb with immunoregulatory, anti-aging, anti-oxidative, and many other therapeutic properties. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the anti-cancer property of cultivated OJ. SW480 cell viability was significantly reduced by cumulative exposure to OJ extract. We also observed inhibitory effects of OJ after 72 hr through the growth and migration of SW480 cells using scratch assay. SW480 cells in OJ-free medium began to move into the scratch site at 24 hr; however, cells in medium containing OJ did not migrate into the scratch site until 48 hr. Male C57BL/6 mice (4 weeks old) were orally administered OJ extract for 31 days before injection of SW480 cells. At 7, 14, and 28 days after subcutaneous injection of SW480 cells, tumor weight and volume were analyzed. The body weight of the OJ-treated group was continuously increased during administration of the OJ extract relative to the control group. Injection of SW480 cells caused a reduction in body weight in all groups; however, the OJ-treated group exhibited a significant increase in body weight after 14 days. Tumor weight and volume were lower in the OJ-treated group than in the control group after 28 days. Although these results suggest that OJ suppresses the proliferation and migration of human colon cancer cells, additional studies are required to provide preclinical evidence before launching clinical trials evaluating OJ as an anti-cancer biohealth product.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.391-401
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• 2008

Probiotics have emerged as a potential treatment modality for numerous gastrointestinal disorders, including IBD. However, few probiotics have undergone appropriate preclinical screening in vivo. Kefir is considered a probiotic, benefiting the host through its effects in the intestinal tract. Despite numerous studies examining the action of probiotics on the host organism, few have analyzed the effects on intestinal environment. We assessed the protective effect of kefir for three weeks before inducing colitis with 2% dextran sodium sulfate for five days. The DSS loads were similar in all DSS treatment group. The results of the experiment are as follows. Food intake and FER of experimental groups were not significantly different each other, but water consumption tended to be higher in all DSS treatment groups as compared with the normal control. And visual inspection of feces revealed mild diarrhea in rat given 2% DSS. The anti-inflammatory activity of kefir was determined by myeloperoxidase activity during the DSS treatment, and there was no significant difference in any group. The levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) as a colonic lipid peroxidation were significantly lower in the kefir intake groups than in rats treated with 2% DSS alone. The DNA % in tail and tail moment values as a DNA damage level of the blood lymphocytes in kefir intake groups tended to be lower than 2% DSS treatment alone, especially tail lengths were significantly diminished. According to the colonic histopathological assay, there were a severe inflammation of lamina propria and submucosa and mild edema in mucosa and sub mucosa in DSS alone treated group. We found a slight regenerative change in kefir treatment groups. In our experiments, this means that ulcerative colitis related to oxidative injury might be prevented by kefir as a probiotic. Further studies of the potential benefits of kefir as a probiotic in inflammatory condition are encouraged.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.93-98
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• 2012

Micro-computed tomography (microCT) is an important tool for preclinical vascular imaging, with micron-level resolution. This non-destructive means of imaging allows for rapid collection of 2D and 3D reconstructions to visualize specimens prior to destructive analysis such as pathological analysis. Objectives. The aim of this study was to suggest a method for ex vivo, postmortem examination of stented arterial segments with microCT. And ex vivo evaluation of stents such as bare metal or drug eluting stents on in-stent restenosis (ISR) in rabbit model was performed. The bare metal stent (BMS) and drug eluting stent (DES, paclitaxel) were implanted in the left or right iliac arteries alternatively in eight New Zealand white rabbits. After 4 weeks of post-implantation, the part of iliac arteries surrounding the stent were removed carefully and processed for microCT. Prior to microCT analysis, a contrast medium was loaded to lumen of stents. All samples were subjected to an X-ray source operating at 50 kV and 200 ${\mu}A$ by using a 3D isotropic resolution. The region of interest was traced and measured by CTAN analytical software. Objects being exposed to radiation had different Hounsfield unit each other with values of approximately 1.2 at stent area, 0.12 ~ 0.17 at a contrast medium and 0 ~ 0.06 at outer area of stent. Based on above, further analyses were performed. As a result, the difference of lengths and volumes between expanded stents, which may relate to injury score in pathological analysis, was not different significantly. Moreover, ISR area of BMS was 1.6 times higher than that of DES, indicating that paclitaxel has inhibitory effect on cell proliferation and prevent infiltration of restenosis into lumen of stent. And ISR area of BMS was higher ($1.52{\pm}0.48mm^2$) than that of DES ($0.94{\pm}0.42mm^2$), indicating that paclitaxel has inhibitory effect on cell proliferation and prevent infiltration of restenosis into lumen of stent. Though it was not statistically significant, it showed that the extent of neointema of mid-region of stents was relatively higher than that of anterior and posterior region in parts of BMS as showing cross-sectional 2-D image. suggest that microCT can be utilized as an accessorial tool for pathological analysis.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.179-188
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• 2007

Objectives: Many neurological diseases are known to be caused by expansion of trinucleotide repeats (TNRs). It is hard to diagnose the alteration of TNRs with single cell level for preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). In this study, we describe methods optimized for PGD of TNRs related diseases such as Huntington's disease (HD), spinocerebellar ataxia 3 (SCA3) and fragile X syndrome (FXS). Methods: We performed the preclinical assays with heterozygous patient's lymphocytes by single cell PCR strategy. Fluorescent semi-nested PCR and fragment analysis using automatic genetic analyzer were applied for HD and SCA 3. Whole genome amplification with multiple displacement amplification (MDA) method and fluorescent PCR were carried out for FXS. Amplification and allele drop-out (ADO) rate were evaluated in each case. Results: The fluorescent semi-nested PCR of single lymphocyte showed 100.0% of amplification and 14.0% of ADO rate in HD, and 94.7% of amplification and 5.6% of ADO rate in SCA3, respectively. We could not detect the PCR product of CGG repeats in FXS using the fluorescent semi-nested PCR alone. After applying the MDA method in FXS, 84.2% of amplification and 31.3% of ADO rate were achieved. Conclusions: Fluorescent semi-nested PCR is a reliable method for PGD of HD and SCA3. The advanced MDA method overcomes the problem of amplification failure in CGG repeats of FXS case. Optimization of methods for single cell analysis could improve the sensitivity and reliability of PGD for complicated single gene disorders of TNRs.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2010

Inveon PET is a recently developed preclinical PET system for small animal. This study was conducted to measure the performance of Inveon PET as recommended by the NEMA NU 4-2008. We measured the spatial resolution, the sensitivity, the scatter fraction and the NECR using a F-18 source. A 3.432 ns coincidence window was used. A $1\;mm^3$ sized F-18 point source was used for the measurement of spatial resolution within an energy window of 350~625 keV. PET acquisition was performed to obtain the spatial resolution from the center to the 5 cm offset toward the edge of the transverse FOV. Sensitivity, scatter fraction, and NECR were measured within an energy window of 350~750 keV. For measuring the sensitivity, a F-18 line source (length: 12.7 cm) was used with concentric 5 aluminum tubes. For the acquisition of the scatter fraction and the NECR, two NEMA scatter phantoms (rat: 50 mm in diameter, 150 mm in length; mouse: 25 mm in diameter, 70 mm in length) were used and the data for 14 half-lives (25.6 hr) was obtained using the F-18 line source (rat: 316 MBq, mouse: 206 MBq). The spatial resolution of the F-18 point source was 1.53, 1.50 and 2.33 mm in the radial, tangential and axial directions, respectively. The volumetric resolution was $5.43\;mm^3$ in the center. The absolute sensitivity was 6.61%. The peak NECR was 486 kcps @121 MBq (rat phantom), and 1056 kcps @128 MBq (mouse phantom). The values of the scatter fraction were 20.59% and 7.93% in the rat and mouse phantoms, respectively. The performances of the Inveon animal PET scanner were measured in this study. This scanner will be useful for animal imaging.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.410-417
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• 2010

Various functional foods, marketing health and functional effects, have been distributed in the market. These products, being in forms of foods, tablets, and capsules, are likely to be mistaken as drugs. In addition, non-experts may sell these as foods, or use these for therapy. Efforts for creating health food regulations or building regulatory system for improving the current status of functional foods have been made, but these have not been communicated to consumers yet. As a result, problems of circulating functional foods for therapy or adding illegal medical to such products have persisted, which has become worse by internet media. The cause of this problem can be categorized into (1) product itself and (2) its use, but in either case, one possible cause is lack of communications with consumers. Potential problems that can be caused by functional foods include illegal substances, hazardous substances, allergic reactions, considerations when administered to patients, drug interactions, ingredients with purity or concentrations too low to be detected, products with metabolic activations, health risks from over- or under-dose of vitamin and minerals, and products with alkaloids. (Journal of Health Science, 56, Supplement (2010)). The reason why side effects related to functional foods have been increasing is that under-qualified functional food companies are exaggerating the functionality for marketing purposes. KFDA has been informing consumers, through its web pages, to address the above mentioned issues related to functional foods, but there still is room for improvement, to promote proper use of functional foods and avoid drug interactions. Specifically, to address these issues, institutionalizing to collect information on approved products and their side effects, settling reevaluation systems, and standardizing preclinical tests and clinical tests are becoming urgent. Also to provide crucial information, unified database systems, seamlessly aggregating heterogeneous data in different domains, with user interfaces enabling effective one-stop search, are crucial.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.83-95
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• 2005

Arriving in the '90s, the worldwide trend of longing for naturalism and popularity of complementary and alternative medicine in America has caused traditional Oriental Medicine and medicinal plants markets to develop rapidly. And China has been pursuing the globalization policy of Chinese medicine by the initiation of the society of traditional Chinese medicine. Under this situation, it is a time for us to think about in a serious manner whether existing organization and system of Oriental medicine and the department of Oriental medicine at the schools in Korea reflects reality or whether we should turn it to some different direction. The purpose of this research is to compare the educational systems in relation to the traditional medicine between Korea and China, and to seek and look into its implication, and also to make a contribution to further developments and changes of direction for Oriental medicine education in Korea. 1. I investigated carefully the educational system of the colleges of traditional Chinese medicine, and results from this survey revealed that the academic institutions for the medicinal training in China consists of varied systems, such as 7-year program for medicinal training linking with master degree course, 6-year program, 5-year program (more than 90%), 4-year program, and so on, so then China has been raising the specialists in their traditional medicine arena through those varied academic programs. Such an educational system as the department of Chinese medicine in order to educate and produce specialists or pharmacists specializing in traditional Chinese medicine is operated only by Beijing University of Chinese Medicine in terms of 7-year academic program for medicinal major that linked with master degree course, and the rest of schools run 5-year program or 4-year program (more than 90%). And other human resources required for cultivation of medicinal plants and manufacturing herbal medicines are mostly trained at 3-year course colleges or 2-year course vocational schools. 2. In connection with traditional Chinese medicine, there are a variety of departments in the schools in China other than Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology: i.e. Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Tuina, Preclinical Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, Materials of Medicine, Phrenology and Law, Languages and Literature, etc. Therefore, these programs constitute multi academic system and also an appropriate educational base that fits in varied needs of market. Particularly, the university having 7-year program emphasize, English proficiency so that it can be considered that this academic program is a specialized course in order to achieve globalization of Chinese medicine. 3. In Korea, there are only 11 Oriental medicine schools with 6-year program which have been established by the private foundations and 3 departments of Oriental medicine at 4-year university. Therefore, we need to establish varied departments related to branches of our traditional medicine like China. 4. It is necessary to establish varied new departments related to Oriental Medicine that will be able to take a professional role in the course of pursuing the strategic goals such as scientification, globalization, standardization of Oriental Medicine, also that will meet needs of the world alternative and complementary medicine and herbal medicine markets. In order to achieve such strategic goals, we need to organize an academic system that will be different from existing systems and programs, also we are required to research further on the educational and training programs.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.281-292
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• 1997

The objective of this study was to compare retrospectively the survival and pregnancy rates(PR) of cryopresered-thawed embryos obtained from intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) or conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF). Ninety-six cycles of cryopresered-thawed embryo transfer (ET) were performed in 79 patients from June, 1996 to September, 1997 and grouped as followings: 20 cycles (16 patients) inseminated by ICSI (ICSI Group) and 76 cycles (63 patients) by conventional IVF (IVF Group). Slow-freezing and rapid-thawing protocol was used with 1.5M propanediol (PROH) and 0.1M sucrose as cryoprotectant. All embryos were frozen-thawed at the two pronuclear (2 PN) stage excluding four cycles in which the early cleavage stage embryos were frozen, and allowed to cleave in vitro for one day before ET. The duration from freezing to thawing was comparable in both groups ($mean{\pm}SD$, $112.1{\pm}80.0$ vs. $124.8{\pm}140.1$ days). The age of female ($31.2{\pm}3.4$ vs. $32.6{\pm}3.3$ years) and the endometrial thickness prior to progesterone injection ($9.4{\pm}2.0$ vs. $9.3{\pm}1.8$ mm) were also comparable in both groups. There was no significant difference in the outcomes of cryopreserved-thawed ET between two groups: survival rate ($85.2{\pm}16.1%$ vs. $82.2{\pm}19.7%$), cleavage rate ($96.9{\pm}6.7%$ vs. $94.7{\pm}13.0%$), cumulative embryo score (CES, $54.5{\pm}31.1$ vs. $49.0{\pm}20.0$), preclinical loss rate (5.0% vs. 5.3%), clinical miscarriage rate (0% vs 29.4%), clinical PR per transfer (35.0% vs. 22.4%), implantation rate (9.9% vs. 5.6%), and multifetal PR (42.9% vs. 17.6%). In conclusion, human embryos resulting from ICSI can be cryopreserved-thawed and transferred successfully, and the survival rate and PR are comparable to conventional IVF.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 1998

Taxol, the extract from the Taxus brevifolia which is a Pacific yew tree has aroused the interest of the tumor investigators since the 1960s. As well, it is shown to have broad antitumor activity in preclinical experimental models. Its action mechanism is an anti-microtubule effect by duplication of tubulin. The most impressive antitumor activity of taxol has been observed in advanced ovarian cancer and metastatic breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine how taxol acts on malignant bone tumor cell lines, to compare its cytotoxic effect with those of other chemotherapeutic agents, and to ascertain the its combination effect with adriamycin. Cell lines used in this study were G-292(osteosarcoma, human), SaOS-2(osteosarcoma, primary, human), and HT-1080(fibrosarcoma, human). Methotrexate, adriamycin, cisplatinum, ifosfamide and taxol were used as testing chemotherapeutic agents and their maximum test concentration were $500{\mu}g/ml$, $200{\mu}g/ml$, $500{\mu}g/ml$, $1000{\mu}g/ml$, and $600{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. The media for cell culture was RPMI-1640 with 10% fetal bovine serum and gentamycin. The results were as follows. The $IC_{50}$ of methotrexate, ifosfamide, cisplatinum, adriamycin and Taxol in G-292 were $2.3{\times}10^{-1}{\mu}g/ml$, $8.0{\times}10^0{\mu}g/ml$, $3.5{\times}10^0{\mu}g/ml$, $9.8{\times}10^{-1}{\mu}g/ml$, $2.7{\times}10^{-2}{\mu}g/ml$ respectively, in SaOS-2 $3.5{\times}10^{-1}{\mu}g/ml$, $1.5{\times}10^1{\mu}g/ml$, $2.8{\times}10^0{\mu}g/ml$, $9.9{\times}10^{-2}{\mu}g/ml$, $1.0{\times}10^{-2}{\mu}g/ml$, respectively, in HT-1080 $4.2{\times}10^{-2}{\mu}g/ml$, $5.4{\times}10^1{\mu}g/ml$, $3.8{\times}10^0{\mu}g/ml$, $5.5{\times}10^{-3}{\mu}g/ml$, $1.1{\times}10^{-3}{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. In conclusion, taxol had very potent cytotoxic effect on the malignant bone tumor cell lines with adriamycin, and was more potent than methotrexate, cisplatinum and ifosfamide. There were synergistic antitumor effects on G-292 and SaOS-2 cell lines in combination test of taxol and adriamycin. From the above results, it would be estimated that taxol could be a new antitumor drug for the malignant bone tumors, providing measures against the side effects and followed by the clinical tests.