• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.227-234
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• 1996

This study was designed to characterize endotoxin-induced prostaglandin production in primary cultured rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). The time course for prostaglandin synthesis in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated VSMC showed that the maximum production was reached in 12 hours. LPS induced prostaglandin H2 synthase (PGHS) activity in VSMC and the time course profile in the changes of PGHS activity paralleled that of total prostaglandin production. Differential treatment showed that 4 hours' exposure to LPS was enough for the maximum effect on the prostaglandin production and this effect was completely inhibited by the co-treatment of actinomycin D, a transcription inhibitor. These results suggest that LPS effect might be determined within 4 hours. Actinomycin D increased PGHS activity without affecting prostaglandin production if added 4 hours after LPS treatment. On the other hand, cyclogeximide, a translation inhibitor, augmented LPS-induced prostaglandin production if treated during first four hours, but it inhibited LPS-induced PGHS activity regardless of treatment schedule. These results suggest the existence of multiple regulating mechanisms in the LPS-induced prostaglandin synthesis.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.271-274
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• 1996

The antihepatotoxic activity of Bezoar Bovis and Moschus was investigated by in vitro assay method using galactosamine and carbon tetrachloride-induced cytotoxicity in primary-cultured rat hepatocytes. The antihepatotoxic activity was evaluated by measuring the level of glutamate pyruvate transaminase and sorbitol dehydrogenase which were released from the necrotic hepatocytes to the culture medium. In galactosamine-intoxicated hepatocytes, the chloroform fraction of Bezoar Bovis reduced the level of glutamate pyruvate transaminase and sorbitol dehydrogenase resulting in 65% and 59% protection, respectively. The n-Hexane fraction of Moschus resulted in 45% and 40% protection, respectively in this system. In the case of carbon tetrachloride-intoxicated rat hepatocytes, Bezoar Bovis did not have significant effect and only the aqueous fraction of Moschus showed 42% and 40% protection, respectively.

• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.60-63
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• 2020

Primary aldosteronism has been found more often among patients with hypertension. Primary aldosteronism can be caused by an aldosterone-producing adenoma, bilateral adrenal hyperplasia, or rarely by an adrenal carcinoma. An initial diagnostic test for aldosteronism is a measurement of the plasma renin activity and aldosterone concentration. For example, up to 20% of patients with hypertension showed increased plasma aldosterone concentration/renin activity ratio. If surgery is planned, an adrenal vein sampling is necessary for exact localization. Spironolactone, an aldosterone antagonist, is the drug of choice for patients with an aldosterone-producing adenoma or hyperplasia. It can control elevated blood pressure in most primary aldosteronism patients. However, unilateral laparoscopic adrenalectomy is the best treatment for aldosterone-producing adenoma or asymmetrical aldosterone production in patients with uncontrolled hypertension. Here we report a patient with primary aldosteronism caused by unilateral adrenal hyperplasia and a contralateral adrenal adenoma who required as many as five different kinds of antihypertensive medications for controlling elevated blood pressure. The adrenal adenoma was successfully removed by unilateral adrenalectomy and the blood pressure had been controlled well after the surgery.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.29-44
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• 2022

Background: This study was conducted to analyze the impact of having a usual source of care on health behaviors of the middle aged and the elderly, in order to investigate the potential effect of enhancing primary health care in a Korean context. Methods: This study constructed a balanced panel of middle-aged and elderly samples using the Korea Health Panel 2016-2018, and fixed-effect models were used to analyze the data. Results: Among three sets of dependent variables (physical activity, smoking, drinking), statistically significant results were found only in physical activity. Subgroup analysis showed that this effect was not observed in the late elderly (aged 75 and older) and those without chronic diseases. Conclusion: Results of the study implied that enhancing primary health care among middle age and the elderly may have an effect on improving health behaviors. Moving forward to person-centered primary health care from disease-focused primary health care should be considered in high-risk groups such as the middle aged and the elderly with chronic diseases.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.69-80
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• 1995

Renal proximal tubular hypertrophy and hyperfunction are known to be early manifestations of experimental and human diabetes. As the hypertrophy and hyperfunction have been suggested to be central components in the progression to renal failure, an understanding of their underlying causes is potentially important for the development of therapy. A primary rabbit kidney proximal tubule cell culture system was utilized to evaluate the possibility that the renal proximal tubular hypertrophy and hyperfunction observed in vivo in diabetes mellitus, can be attributed to effects of elevated glucose levels on membrane transport systems. Primary cultures of rabbit proximal tubules, which achieved confluence at 10 days, exhibited brush-border characteristics typical of proximal tubular cells. Northern analysis indicated $2.2{\sim}2.3$ and 2.0 kb Na/glucose cotransporter RNA species appeared in fresh and cultured proximal tubule cells after confluence, repectively. The cultured cells showed reduced Na/glucose cotransporter activity compared to fresh proximal tubules. Primary cultured proximal tubule cells incubated in medium containing 20 mM glucose have reduced ${\alpha}-MG$ transport compared to cells grown in 5 mM glucose. In the proximal tubule cultures incubated in medium containing 5 mM or 20 mM glucose, phlorizin at 0.5 mM inhibited 0.5 mM ${\alpha}-MG$ uptake by 84.35% or 91.85%, respectively. The uptake of 0.5 mM ${\alpha}-MG$ was similarly inhibited by 0.1 mM ouabain (41.97% or 48.03% inhibition was observed, respectively). In addition, ${\alpha}-MG$ uptake was inhibited to a greater extent when $Na^{+}$ was omitted from the uptake buffer (81.86% or 86.73% inhibition was observed, respectively). In cell homogenates derived from the primary cells grown in 5 mM glucose medium, the specific activity of the Na/K-ATPase $(6.17{\pm}1.27\;{\mu}mole\;Pi/mg\;protein/hr)$ was 1.56 fold lower than the values in cell homogenates treated with 360 mg/dl D-glucose, 20 mM $(9.67{\pm}1.22\;{\mu}mole\;Pi/mg\;protein/hr)$. Total $Rb^{+}$ uptake occurred at a significantly higher rate (1.60 fold increase) in primary cultured rabbit kidney proximal tubule cell monolayers incubated in 20 mM glucose medium $(10.48{\pm}2.45\;nM/mg\;protein/min)$ as compared with parallel cultures in 5 mM glucose medium. $Rb^{+}$ uptake rate in 5 mM glucose medium was reduced by 28% when the cultures were incubated with 1 mM ouabain. The increase of the $Rb^{+}$ uptake by rabbit kidney proximal tubule cells in 20 mM glucose could be attributed primarily to an increase in the rate of ouabain-sensitive $Rb^{+}$ uptake $(5\;mM\;to\;20\;mM;\;4.68{\pm}0.85\;to\;8.38{\pm}1.37\;nM/mg\;protein/min)$. In conclusion, the activity of the renal proximal tubular Na,K-ATPase is elevated in high glucose concentration. In contrast, the activity of the Nafglucose cotransport system is inhibited.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.1-13
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• 2009

Objectives : The glial cell, located in between the blood vessel and nerve cell, takes charge of the cell support, nutrition supply, elimination of body waste, and cell action. GagamSohabhwangwon(GGSH), a chinese traditional medicinal prescription has been used orally for the treatment of seizures, infantile, convulsion, stroke and so forth. This paper examines the effect of the GagamSohabhwangwon(GGSH) essential oil on cell activity and anti oxidation. Methods : MTT assay methods were employed to measure the cell activity based on the amount of the GagamSohabhwangwon(GGSH) essential oil by using primarily cultivated glial cell. In addition, this paper measured a viability of the glial cell after a protein active retarder control to confirm the multiplication of the cell and examined the cell extinction by the active oxygen, an extinction shielding effect with different amount of the GagamSohabhwangwon(GGSH) essential oil to observe anti oxidation. Furthermore, this paper measured a viability of the cell and phosphorylation(phosphorylation) of the protein which affects the multiplication of the glial cell. Results : When controlling the amount of the GagamSohabhwangwon(GGSH), there was a multiplication effect of the primary glial cell, the multiplication of the cell was dependent on the density of the GagamSohabhwangwon. The multiplication power of the primary glial cell was suppressed by PKA inhibiter (H89). In compliance with the active oxygen the extinction of the primary glial cell was dependent on the density of the GagamSohabhwangwon, there was a shielding effect of the cell extinction when GagamSohabhwangwon(GGSH) was preprocessed. When inducing the multiplication of the primary glial cell, phosphorylation of the Akt, BDNF, CREB, ERK and ERM were increased. Conclusions: Based on the results, GagamSohabhwangwon essential oil will have the effect which activates the nervous system cell and protects the cell through anti oxidation.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.24-38
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• 1997

Using the all-trans-retinol which is double-capsulated with matrix, we investigated its stability and the change of the epidermal thickness. The proprietary MDC comprise two steps of capsulation of retinol, i.e., primary microcapsulation with collagen and then secondary capsulation with gellan gum. We compared the activity of all-trans-retinol in various forms such as (1) simply in O/W, (2) in W/O emulsion, (3) in primary capsulted form in O/W emulsion, or (4) in MDC in O/W emulsion. After storage at 45$^{\circ}C$ for 4 weeks, retinol in MDC in O/W emulsion retained 92% of the activity compared to the standard material upon HPLC analysis, whereas the primary capsule gave 70%, the O/W emulsion form 47% and the W/O emulsion 78%. The retinol in MDC in O/W induced the siginificant increase in epidermal thickness compared to the vehicle.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.490-495
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• 2016

Brefeldin A (BFA), a lactone antibiotic isolated from the fungus Eupenicillium brefeldianum, inhibits the transport of secreted and membrane proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the Golgi apparatus. BFA disrupts Golgi function, the accumulation of unfolded proteins in ER, and the induction of ER stress. Prolonged ER stress induces apoptosis at least in part through the transcription factor C/EBP (CCAAT/enhancer binding protein) homologous protein (CHOP),which is activated by the unfolded protein response (UPR). In this paper, we demonstrate that BFA-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress leads to different CHOP expression in primary astrocyte cells and C6 glioma cells. BFA induced lower CHOP expression levels in primary astrocyte cells than in C6 glioma cells; however, other ER stress inducers (thapsigargin and tunicamycin) resulted in similar expression patterns in these two cell types. Interestingly, the three different ER stress inducers (BFA, thapsigargin, and tunicamycin) induced similar levels of CHOP mRNA expression in primary astrocyte cells. The ubiquitin-proteasome inhibitor MG132 also markedly up-regulated the BFA-mediated CHOP protein expression in primary astrocyte cells. BFA also induced higher proteasome activity in primary astrocyte cells than in C6 glioma cells. Taken together, our results suggest that higher proteasomal activity might down-regulate BFA-induced CHOP expression in primary astrocyte cells.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.241-246
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• 2008

Purpose: To study of difference among primary aldosteronism patients and normal groups and essential hypertension patients and to confirm aldosterone/plasma renin activity ratio increase in secondary hypertension group which was diagnosed as primary aldosteronism. Materials and method: 1. Period: from April 2006 to March 2008. 2.Targets: 901 patients who visited seoul national university bundang hospital. 3. Groups: we divided by three groups. (normal group (n=147), essential hypertension (n=709), primary aldosteronism (n=45)) 4. Then calculated aldosterone/plasma renin activity ratio. 5. We used ROC curve to measure sensitivity and specificity. Results: 1. normal groups aldosterone/plasma renin activity ratio: $52.8{\pm}52.46$ essential hypertension patients aldosterone/plasma renin activity ratio: $171.04{\pm}291.56$ primary aldosteronism patients aldosterone/plasma renin activity ratio: $2325{\pm}2200$. 2. Aldosterone/renin ratio was significant in comparing each groups (p<0.001). 3. The sensitivity was 91.1% and the specificity was 92.4% when cut off of aldosterone/renin ratio was 485. Conclusion: It was confirmed that aldosterone/plasma renin activity ratio in primary aldosteronism was higher than normal group. According to this result, we can tell that aldosterone/ plasma renin activity ratio is very useful in diagnosis of primary aldosteronism.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.507-521
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• 2014

A phase variation has been reported in an entomopathogenic bacterium, Xenorhabdus nematophila. Compared with a wild-type primary form, a secondary form usually loses several physiological and biochemical characters. This study showed that the phase variation of X. nematophila caused a significant alteration in its immunosuppressive activity and subsequent entomopathogenicity. A secondary form of X. nematophila was detected in laboratory colonies and exhibited significant differences in dye absorption and entomopathogenicity. In addition, the secondary form was different in its production of eicosanoid-biosynthesis inhibitors (EBIs) compared with the primary form of X. nematophila. Production of oxindole and p-hydroxypropionic acid was significantly reduced in the culture broth of the secondary form of X. nematophila. The reduced EBI production resulted in significant suppression in the inhibitory effects on cellular nodule formation and phenoloxidase activity. Culture broth of the primary form of X. nematophila enhanced the pathogenicity of Bacillus thuringiensis ( Bt) significantly more than the culture broth of the secondary form. Furthermore, this study developed a highly efficient "Dual Bt-Plus: to control both lepidopteran insect pests Plutella xylostella and Spodoptera exigua, by mixing two effective Bt strains along with the addition of potent bacterial metabolites or 100-fold concentrated X. nematophila culture broth.