• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.8
• /
• pp.3395-3402
• /
• 2015

Background: Preoperative 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemoradiotherapy is a standard treatment for locally advanced colorectal cancer (CRC). However, CRC cells often develop chemoradiation resistance (CRR). Recent studies have shown that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) plays critical roles in a myriad of biological processes and human diseases, as well as chemotherapy resistance. Since the roles of lncRNAs in 5-FU-based CRR in human CRC cells remain unknown, they were investigated in this study. Materials and Methods: A 5-FU-based concurrent CRR cell model was established using human CRC cell line HCT116. Microarray expression profiling of lncRNAs and mRNAs was undertaken in parental HCT116 and 5-FU-based CRR cell lines. Results: In total, 2,662 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 2,398 mRNAs were identified in 5-FU-based CRR HCT116 cells when compared with those in parental HCT116. Moreover, 6 lncRNAs and 6 mRNAs found to be differentially expressed were validated by quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR). Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis for the differentially expressed mRNAs indicated involvement of many, such as Jak-STAT, PI3K-Akt and NF-kappa B signaling pathways. To better understand the molecular basis of 5-FU-based CRR in CRC cells, correlated expression networks were constructed based on 8 intergenic lncRNAs and their nearby coding genes. Conclusions: Changes in lncRNA expression are involved in 5-FU-based CRR in CRC cells. These findings may provide novel insight for the prognosis and prediction of response to therapy in CRC patients.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.359-366
• /
• 2016

Tradescantia is a perennial plant in the family of Commelinaceae. It is known to be sensitive to radiation. In this study, Tradescantia BNL 4430 was irradiated with gamma radiation at doses of 50 to 1,000 mGy in a phytotron equipped with a $^{60}Co$ radiation source at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Korea. At 13 days after irradiation, we extracted RNA from irradiated floral tissues for RNA-seq. Transcriptome assembly produced a total of 77, 326 unique transcripts. In plantlets exposed to 50, 250, 500, and 1000 mGy, the numbers of up-regulated genes with more than 2-fold of expression compared that in the control were 116, 222, 246, and 308, respectively. Most of the up-regulated genes induced by 50 mGy were heat shock proteins (HSPs) such as HSP 70, indicating that protein misfolding, aggregation, and translocation might have occurred during radiation stress. Similarly, highly up-regulated transcripts of the IQ-domain 6 were induced by 250 mGy, KAR-UP oxidoreductase 1 was induced by 500 mGy, and zinc transporter 1 precursor was induced by 1000 mGy. Reverse transcriptase (RT) PCR and quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) further validated the increased mRNA expression levels of selected genes, consistent with DEG analysis results. However, 2.3 to 97- fold higher expression activities were induced by different doses of radiation based on qRT-PCR results. Results on the transcriptome of Tradescantia in response to radiation might provide unique identifiers to develop in situ monitoring kit for measuring radiation exposure around radiation facilities.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.319-325
• /
• 2006

[ $\beta$ ]-Glucans (AG) were prepared from Agaricus blazei cultured in the medium fortified with the roots of Pueraria spp. by repeated extraction with hot water, gel filtration chromatography and DEAE ion exchange chromatography. Oligosaccharides (AO) were derived from the hydrolysis of AG by an endo-$\beta$-(1$\rightarrow$6)-glucanase from Bacillus megaterium. The anti-HT-29 human colon cancer activity of AG or AO was investigated using MTT assay, apoptosis assay, cell cycle analysis, and cDNA microairay. AG and AO both inhibited proliferation and growth of HT-29 cells, and stimulated apoptosis of the cells in a dose-dependent manner. In cell cycle analysis, treating HT-29 cells with AG or AO resulted in the increase of cells in the G0 (sub-G1) and G1 phase. Especially, AO was more effective in inducing G0/G1 cell cycle arrest than AG. To screen the genes involved in the increase of apoptosis, the gene expression profile of the HT-29 cells treated with AO was examined by cDNA microarray. While several genes involved in cell cycle progression (CCND2 and CDK2) were down-regulated, many genes involved in apoptosis (TNFSF9, TNFRSF9, FADD, CASP8, BAD, CRADD, CASP9 etc), cell cycle inhibitor (CDKN2A), immune response (IL6, IL18, IL6R etc), and tumor suppressor (CEACAM1, TP53BP2, IRF1, and PHB) were up-regulated. These results suggest that AO could inhibit the proliferation and growth of HT-29 cells by G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and induction of apoptosis.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.132-142
• /
• 2009

The Tamar rift valley runs through the City of Launceston, Tasmania. Damage has occurred to city buildings due to earthquake activity in Bass Strait. The presence of the ancient valley, the Tamar valley, in-filled with soft sediments that vary rapidly in thickness from 0 to 250mover a few hundreds metres, is thought to induce a 2D resonance pattern, amplifying the surface motions over the valley and in Launceston. Spatially averaged coherency (SPAC), frequency-wavenumber (FK) and horizontal to vertical spectrum ratio (HVSR) microtremor survey methods are combined to identify and characterise site effects over the Tamar valley. Passive seismic array measurements acquired at seven selected sites were analysed with SPAC to estimate shear wave velocity (slowness) depth profiles. SPAC was then combined with HVSR to improve the resolution of these profiles in the sediments to an approximate depth of 125 m. Results show that sediments thicknesses vary significantly throughout Launceston. The top layer is composed of as much as 20m of very soft Quaternary alluvial sediments with a velocity from 50 m/s to 125 m/s. Shear-wave velocities in the deeper Tertiary sediment fill of the Tamar valley, with thicknesses from 0 to 250m vary from 400 m/s to 750 m/s. Results obtained using SPAC are presented at two selected sites (GUN and KPK) that agree well with dispersion curves interpreted with FK analysis. FK interpretation is, however, limited to a narrower range of frequencies than SPAC and seems to overestimate the shear wave velocity at lower frequencies. Observed HVSR are also compared with the results obtained by SPAC, assuming a layered earth model, and provide additional constraints on the shear wave slowness profiles at these sites. The combined SPAC and HVSR analysis confirms the hypothesis of a layered geology at the GUN site and indicates the presence of a 2D resonance pattern across the Tamar valley at the KPK site.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.308-315
• /
• 2006

Since sewage characteristics are the most important factors that can affect the biological reactions in wastewater treatment plants, a detailed understanding on the characteristics and on-line measurement techniques of the influent sewage would play an important role in determining the appropriate control strategies. In this study, samples were taken at two hour intervals during 51 days from $1^{st}$ October to $21^{st}$ November 2005 from the influent gate of sewage treatment plant. Then the characteristics of sewage were investigated. It was found that the daily values of flow rate and concentrations of sewage components showed a defined profile. The highest and lowest peak values were observed during $11:00{\sim}13:00$ hours and $05:00{\sim}07:00$ hours, respectively. Also, it was shown that the concentrations of sewage components were strongly correlated with the absorbance measured at 300 nm of UV. Therefore, the objective of the paper is to develop on-line estimation technique of the concentration of each component in the sewage using accumulated profiles of sewage, absorbance, and flow rate which can be measured in real time. As a first step, regression analysis was performed using the absorbance and component concentration data. Then a neural network trained with the input of influent flow rate, absorbance, and inflow duration was used. Both methods showed remarkable accuracy in predicting the resulting concentrations of the individual components of the sewage. In case of using the neural network, the predicted value md of the measurement were 19.3 and 14.4 for TSS, 26.7 and 25.1 for TCOD, 5.4 and 4.1 for TN, and for TP, 0.45 to 0.39, respectively.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.45-56
• /
• 1998

Background: Lung cancer continues to increase worldwide. Also, the proportion of female patients incease and adenocarcinoma is the predominant histological type among lung cancer in many western countries. So, we studied these current trends of lung cancer by clinical approach of recent patients from our department Method: We conducted a retrospective analysis on 212 subjects who were diagnosed with lung cancer at the department of chest medicine in National Medical Center between January 1990 and July 1996. The contents of analysis were patient's profile, clinical manifestation, smoking habits, accuracy of diagnostic methods, histological cell type, staging and treatment, etc. Results: The results were as follows. 1) The ratio of male to female was 5.2 : 1. The peak incidence of age was 7th decade(35.4%). 2) Chief complaints were cough, dyspnea and chest pain, etc. The most common duration of symptoms before the first admission was less than 3 months(57.7%). On the other side, duration more than 1 year represented 6.5%. The early diagnosed patients has been increased from the 1980s. 3) Smokers among the total patients were 77.2%. The proportion of smokers in sqamous cell carcinoma, small cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma were 88.4%, 85.7% and 55.7%, respectively. Smoking history and histological cell type were correlated in squamous and small cell carcinoma. 4) Squamous cell carcinoma is still the predominant histological type (44.8%), but, adenocarcinoma increased more than the previous study(30.7%). The other histological types were small cell carcinoma(17.0%) and large cell carcinoma(3.8%) in order of their proportions. 5) The accuracy of diagnostic methods were as follows: sputum cytology 75.3%, bronchoscopic biopsy 65.7%, lymph node aspiration cytology 95.8%, percutaneous lung aspiration cytology 94.6% and open lung biopsy 100%. The general accuracies of diagnostic methods were improved than previous studies. 6) Performance status scales on admission were relatively good. After diagnosis, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy were undertaken in 69.3% of the patients, and only 7.5% of the patients were operated. Conclusion: In our study, squamous cell carcinoma is still the predominant histological cell type, but, adenocarcinoma continues to increase. Because adenocarcinoma is less correlated with smoking habits, further evaluation of other carcinogens than smoking is requested. Screening and early diagnosis of lung cancer is important for good performance status scales in spite of advanced stages. But, we think that the prevention, for example, stop smokings is more important as because of no perfect treatment for lung cancer.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.50 no.4
• /
• pp.285-295
• /
• 2014

This study was conducted to survey the epidemiological characteristics and the isolated strains for pathogenic E. coli which was the major causative organisms for food poisoning occurred at school food services in the Gyeonggi-do area during the past three years. We investigated 19 accidents of food-borne disease outbreaks by pathogenic E. coli at school food services from 2010 to 2012. Food-borne disease outbreaks by pathogenic E. coli were usually occurred at direct management type (18 accidents, 95%) and high schools. For the seasonal factors, 13 accidents (65%) were occurred in June to September, especially the end of August and September after the summer holidays. The first patients were occurred on Wednesday (7 accidents, 37%) and Thursday (7 accidents, 37%), and they were mainly reported on Thursday (7 accidents, 37%) and Friday (5 accidents, 26%). The exposure of risk was estimated in Monday (4 accidents, 21%), Tuesday (7 accidents, 37%) and Wednesday (4 accidents, 21%), and kimchi (5 accidents, 50%) was estimated as the food of the high risk responsible for the outbreaks. 98 isolates of pathogenic E. coli consisted of PEC (50%), ETEC (34%), EAEC (15%), and EHEC (1%). The antibiotic resistance of pathogenic E. coli showed in the descending order of ampicilline (40%), nalidixic acid (37%), trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (24%), and tetracycline (19%). The antibiotics of second and third generation cephalosporins, cabarpenem, aminoglycosides, and second generation quinolones had antimicrobial susceptibilities and cefalotin, ampicillin/sulbactam and chloramphenicol showed medium resistance at 29%, 25%, and 6% respectively, and 70% of isolates were resistant to more than one antibiotic. By the PFGE analysis, they were classified into nine major groups and 31 profiles with 57% pattern similarity. It was very difficult to find the correlation of antimicrobial susceptibilities and genotype in the small scale-food poisoning, but the similarity of antimicrobial resistance and PFGE patterns in the large scale-food poisoning enabled the outbreaks to estimate the same pathotype of E. coli derived from identical origins.

• Korean Security Journal
• /
• no.43
• /
• pp.205-230
• /
• 2015

This study aims to compare the differences of crucial factors that are associated with probation warning tickets between sex offenders and non-sex offenders in South Korea. Serious high-profile cases have occurred in recent years which resulted in public and political conners for successful sex offender management and monitoring strategy through community corrections. The official response has been to initiate a series of legislative probation and parole measures by using GPS electronic monitoring system, chemical castration, and sex offender registry and notification. In this context, the current study is designed to explore the major factors that could affect the failure of probation by comparing the differences between sex offenders and non-sex offenders in terms of their major factors which are related to the failure of probation. The failure of probation is measured by the number of warning tickets which would be issued when there is the violation of probation conditions. The data is obtained from Seoul Probation office from January, 29, 2014 to February, 28, 2014. The sample number of sex offenders is 144 and the number of non-sex offenders is 1,460. The data includes the information regarding the offenders who completed their probation order after they were assigned to Seoul Probation in 2013. Furthermore, this study uses the chi-square and logistic regression analysis by using SPSS statistical package program. The result demonstrated that only prior criminal history was statistically significant factor that was related to the number of warning tickets in the sex offender group when other variables were controlled($X^2=25.15$, p<0.05, Nagelkerke $R^2=0.23$)(b=0.19, SE=0.08, p<0.05). By contrast, there were various factors that were associated with the number of warning tickets in non-sex offender group. Specifically, the logistic regression analysis for the non-sex offenders showed that demographic variable(marital status and employment type), offender-victim relationships, alcohol addiction, violent behavior, prior criminal history, community service order, and attendance order were statistically significant factors that were associated with the odds of warning tickets. Further policy implication will be discussed.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.283-293
• /
• 2002

Purpose : A PC based brachytherapy planning system was developed to display dose distributions on simulation images by 2D isodose curve including the dose profiles, dose-volume histogram and 30 dose distributions. Materials and Methods : Brachytherapy dose planning software was developed especially for the Ir-192 source, which had been developed by KAERI as a substitute for the Co-60 source. The dose computation was achieved by searching for a pre-computed dose matrix which was tabulated as a function of radial and axial distance from a source. In the computation process, the effects of the tissue scattering correction factor and anisotropic dose distributions were included. The computed dose distributions were displayed in 2D film image including the profile dose, 3D isodose curves with wire frame forms and dosevolume histogram. Results : The brachytherapy dose plan was initiated by obtaining source positions on the principal plane of the source axis. The dose distributions in tissue were computed on a $200\times200\;(mm^2)$ plane on which the source axis was located at the center of the plane. The point doses along the longitudinal axis of the source were $4.5\~9.0\%$ smaller than those on the radial axis of the plane, due to the anisotropy created by the cylindrical shape of the source. When compared to manual calculation, the point doses showed $1\~5\%$ discrepancies from the benchmarking plan. The 2D dose distributions of different planes were matched to the same administered isodose level in order to analyze the shape of the optimized dose level. The accumulated dose-volume histogram, displayed as a function of the percentage volume of administered minimum dose level, was used to guide the volume analysis. Conclusion : This study evaluated the developed computerized dose planning system of brachytherapy. The dose distribution was displayed on the coronal, sagittal and axial planes with the dose histogram. The accumulated DVH and 3D dose distributions provided by the developed system may be useful tools for dose analysis in comparison with orthogonal dose planning.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.57 no.2
• /
• pp.110-115
• /
• 2024

Alterations in DNA methylation play an important pathophysiological role in the development and progression of colorectal cancer. We comprehensively profiled DNA methylation alterations in 165 Korean patients with colorectal cancer (CRC), and conducted an in-depth investigation of cancer-specific methylation patterns. Our analysis of the tumor samples revealed a significant presence of hypomethylated probes, primarily within the gene body regions; few hypermethylated sites were observed, which were mostly enriched in promoter-like and CpG island regions. The CpG Island Methylator Phenotype-High (CIMP-H) exhibited notable enrichment of microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H). Additionally, our findings indicated a significant correlation between methylation of the MLH1 gene and MSI-H status. Furthermore, we found that the CIMP-H had a higher tendency to affect the right-side of the colon tissues and was slightly more prevalent among older patients. Through our methylome profile analysis, we successfully verified the methylation patterns and clinical characteristics of Korean patients with CRC. This valuable dataset lays a strong foundation for exploring novel molecular insights and potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of CRC.