• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.539-544
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• 2005

Purpose : The aim of this study was to investigate the pathophysiologic role of serum E-selectin, vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)-induced cell adhesion mollecule in Kawasaki disease(KD) and to look for the evidence of direct relationship between the plasma levels of soluble E-selectin and the incidence of coronary artery lesion(CAL). Methods : Changes in plasma levels of sE-selectin(n=98) over time were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) in 23 patients with acute KD and 25 age-matched febrile children. Results : Compared with control values, the peak levels of plasma sE-selectin were significantly elevated($mean{\pm}S.E$. : $22.89{\pm}12.53ng/mL$ vs $10.65{\pm}3.42ng/mL$, P=0.01) in KD. 5 patients with CAL, plasma sE-selectin levels before treatment were higher than in 18 patients without CAL($mean{\pm}S.E$. : $39.43{\pm}15.08ng/mL$ and $19.00{\pm}8.32ng/mL$, respectively; P=0.01). Plasma sE-selectin declined rapidly in the majority of KD patients regardless of the presence of CAL. Plasma sE-selectin levels after treatment and convalesent period were similar in KD patients with and without CAL. The plasma levels sE-selectin were correlated with those of white blood cell count(r=0.299, P<0.05), CRP(r=0.430, P<0.05), serum albumin(r=-0.483, P<0.05), serum protein(r=-0.502, P<0.05) and hemoglobin(r=-0.372, P<0.05) not with those of ESR, platelet, or duration of fever. There were significant differences in the initial level of serum sE-selectin between KD with and without CAL($mean{\pm}S.E$. : $39.44{\pm}15.08ng/mL$ vs. $19.00{\pm}17.18ng/mL$) in multivariated linear tests. Conclusion : Plasma sE-selectin levels were significantly higher in KD than in other febrile illness. Higher plamsa levels of sE-selectin may have potential as a predictor of CAL in patients with KD.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.50 no.9
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• pp.891-895
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• 2007

Purpose : Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system and mostly develops after viral illness or vaccinations. We investigated the clinical differences and neurologic outcomes according to the distribution of the lesions on brain MRI. Methods : The study group was composed of 21 patients from January 1995 to August 2003 in Kyunghee University hospital. We grouped the patients according to the MRI findings as follows. Group I (14 cases): Multi- or unifocal lesions only in the cerebral white matter. Group II (7 cases): lesions in the gray matter with or without white matter involvement. Results : 1. Preceding events were as follows: no defined prodrome (38.1%), upper respiratory tract infection (28.6%), nonspecific febrile illness (19.0%), gastointestinal disturbance and vaccination. 2. Presenting symptoms were as follows: seizures (76.2%), headache/vomiting (47.6%), altered consciousness (38.1%), hemiparesis, cerebellar ataxia, visual disturbance and facial nerve palsy. 3. Laboratory findings were as follows: CSF pleocytosis (76.2%), leucocytosis (38.1%) and elevated CSF protein (28.6%). 4. Fifteen patients were recovered completely without neurological sequelae. Three patients in group I and 1 patient in group II had intractable seizures. Two patients in group I and 2 patients in group II had motor disturbance. Conclusion : There were no statistically significant differences in preceding events, presenting symptoms, and neurological outcomes according to the distribution of the lesions on brain MRI. However, the ADEM have quite diverse clinical manifestations and neuroimage findings. MRI plays an important role in making diagnosis of the patients who are suspected of ADEM.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.251-264
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• 2003

This study was conducted to make on-site survey on the output pattern and utilization situation of 19 by-products selected, to evaluate their nutritional characteristics, to find out a reliable index with which digestion of by-products can be predicted on the basis of chemical compositions analyzed and to diagnose the risk of using book values in the absence of the actual values analyzed for diet formulation. Production and utilization situations of by-products were quite various. Nutritionally, fruit processing by-products such as apple pomace (AP), pear pomace (PP), grape pomace (GP), and persimmon peel (PSP), and bakery by-products (BB) were classified as energy feeds. Soybean curd meal (SCM), animal by- products such as blood (BD), feather meal (FM) and poultry by-products (PB), and activated milk processing sludge (AMS) were classified as protein feeds. Soy hulls (SH), spent mushroom compost (SMC), barley malt hulls (BMH), waste paper (WP) and broiler litter (BL) were classified as roughage. Rumen contents (RC) and restaurant food waste (FW) were nutritionally analogous to complete diets for cattle and swine, respectively. Compared to soybean meal (SBM), BD and FM contained high (P<0.05) levels of amino acids and barley malt sprouts (BMS), AMS and FW contained low (P<0.05) levels of amino acids. Enzymatic (pepsin) digestibilities of proteinaceous feeds ranged between 99 and 66%. In vitro DM digestibility was high (P<0.05) in the order of FW, BB, AP, SH, PP, PSP, BMH, BMS, SCM, GP, RC, PB, BL, WP, SMC, AMS, FM and BD. In vitro DM digestibility had the highest correlation (r=0.68) with nonfibrous carbohydrate among chemical components. Differences between analyzed values of chemical components and book values were considerable. Caution is required in using book values when large amount of by-products are used in diets.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.137-142
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• 2000

Cultured juvenile black rockfish, Sebastes schiegeli as a seed for sen ranching project were compared with the similar size of wild fish. Wild fish were analyzed and compared with cultured fish in body indices, and moisture, crude protein, lipid, ash, many kinds of amino acids and various minerals in the whole-body of juvenile rockfish from three different populations. There were significant (P<0.05) differences in the moisture, crude lipid, and ash in the whole-body of fish among three different populations; the moisture content of wild fish was higher than that of both cultured fish. The lipid content in wild and tank cultured fish was lowest and highest, respectively; The lipid content of fish cultured in embanked system was intermediate values. The condition factor (CE), hepatosomatic index (HSI), and intraperitoneal fat (IPE) of fish cultured in tank system and embanked system were significantly (P<0.05) higher than those of wild fish. But fish cultured in tank system produced similar intestinosomatic index (ISI) and muscle ratio (MR) values as the wild fish. There were significant differences in asparatic acid, glutamic acid, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, phenylalanine, threonine, valine of whole-body fish cultured by different methods; the wild fish was highest in these amino acids, followed by fish cultured in embanked system and then fish cultured in tank system. There were also significant differences in Ca, P, Mg, Mn, Zn of whole-body fish cultured by different methods: wild fish and fish cultured in tank system produced highest in Ca, P, Mg, Zn and lowest in Mn, respectively. There were significant differences in moisture, crude lipid, ash, many kinds of amino acids, several minerals, CE, HSI, UE, and ISI among the three juvenile populations; whole-body of wild fish showed higher in moisture, ash, asparatic acid, glutamic acid, isoleucine, leucine, Iysine, phenylalanine, threonine, valine, Ca, P, Mg, and Zn than fish cultured in embanked system, while they showed lower in the rest of the nutritious parameters studied.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.23
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• pp.10407-10412
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• 2015

Background: ${\beta}$-elemene, extracted from herb medicine Curcuma wenyujin has potent anti-tumor effects in various cancer cell lines. However, the activity of ${\beta}$-elemene against glioma cells remains unclear. In the present study, we assessed effects of ${\beta}$-elemene on human glioma cells and explored the underlying mechanism. Materials and Methods: Human glioma U87 cells were used. Cell proliferation was determined with MTT assay and colony formation assay to detect the effect of ${\beta}$-elemene at different doses and times. Fluorescence microscopy was used to observe cell apoptosis with Hoechst 33258 staining and change of glioma apoptosis and cell cycling were analyzed by flow cytometry. Real-time quantitative PCR and Western-blotting assay were performed to investigated the influence of ${\beta}$-elemene on expression levels of Fas/FasL, caspase-3, Bcl-2 and Bax. The experiment was divided into two groups: the blank control group and ${\beta}$-elemne treatment group. Results: With increase in the concentration of ${\beta}$-elemene, cytotoxic effects were enhanced in the glioma cell line and the concentration of inhibited cell viability ($IC_{50}$) was $48.5{\mu}g/mL$ for 24h. ${\beta}$-elemene could induce cell cycle arrest in the G0/G1 phase. With Hoechst 33258 staining, apoptotic nuclear morphological changes were observed. Activation of caspase-3,-8 and -9 was increased and the pro-apoptotic factors Fas/FasL and Bax were upregulated, while the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 was downregulated after treatment with ${\beta}$-elemene at both mRNA and protein levels. Furthermore, proliferation and colony formation by U87 cells were inhibited by ${\beta}$-elemene in a time and does-dependent manner. Conclusions: Our results indicate that ${\beta}$-elemene inhibits growth and induces apoptosis of human glioma cells in vitro. The induction of apoptosis appears to be related with the upregulation of Fas/FasL and Bax, activation of caspase-3,-8 and -9 and downregulation of Bcl-2, which then trigger major apoptotic cascades.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.93-98
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• 2006

Purpose : Ghrelin stimulates the secretion of growth hormone and other pituitary hormones, and has orexigenic effects. It may have a physiologic role in fetal and neonatal growth. Leptin secreted by the adipocytes reflects fat mass in infants as well as adults. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation of cord blood ghrelin and leptin levels to body weight(BW), body mass index(BMI), insulin-like growth factor-I(IGF-I) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3(IGFBP-3) levels in appropriate for gestational age(AGA) newborns. Methods : Sixty healthy AGA newborns(31 males and 29 females, gestational age[GA] 34-42 weeks) were included in this study, whose BW and BMI were measured at delivery. Umbilical cord venous blood samples were withdrawn, and ghrelin and leptin were measured by radioimmunoassay. Cord blood IGF-I and IGFBP-3 were determined by immunoradiometric assay. Results : The mean levels of ghrelin were inversely correlated with BW(r=-0.29, P<0.05) and GA (r=-0.28, P<0.05), but were not affected by gender. The mean levels of leptin levels showed positive correlation with BW(r=0.44, P<0.01), GA(r=0.36, P<0.01), and BMI(r=0.28, P<0.05). The leptin levels of females were higher than those of males. There was no gender difference in leptin levels in neonates under GA 37 weeks. However, the leptin levels of females were higher than those of males (P<0.01) in newborns with GA 37 weeks or over. There was no correlation between ghrelin and leptin levels. Ghrelin and leptin levels showed no relations to cord blood IGF-I and IGFBP-3 levels. Conclusion : These data suggest that cord blood ghrelin may have an inverse correlation with BW in AGA newborns, and leptin levels are positively correlated with BW and fat mass. Further study of ghrelin concentrations in cord blood is necessary to elucidate the physiological and pathological roles of ghrelin during the fetal and neonatal periods.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.548-553
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• 2003

Purpose : Matrix metalloproteinase(MMP)-9 is known to breakdown the blood-brain barrier by degrading the extracellular matrix of the subendothelial basement membrane in meningitis. Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase(TIMP)-1, a known inhibitor of MMP-9, has been postulated to inhibit the proteolytic activity of MMP-9 by bindng to MMP-9, but their interaction has not been fully understood yet. So far, there have been some reports on the relationship of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in bacterial meningitis, but few reports in viral meningitis. Furthermore, there has been no report on this in Korea. We investigated the concentrations of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum of patients with viral meningitis and control subjects, and evaluated their relationship with other clinical parameters of meningitis. Methods : CSF and blood were obtained from 25 subjects with viral meningitis and 14 control subjects. After centrifugation, supernatants were stored at $-20^{\circ}C$ and we assayed concentrations of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 by the sandwich ELISA method. Results : Concentrations of CSF MMP-9 and TIMP-1 were significantly elevated in patients with viral meningitis, when compared with those in control subjects. Their serum levels showed no differences between the two groups. MMP-9 levels were closely correlated with TIMP-1 levels in the CSF($r_s=0.42$, P<0.05). CSF MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratios were significantly higher in patients with viral meningitis than those in the control subjects(P<0.05). Both CSF MMP-9 and TIMP-1 levels positively correlated with CSF total leukocyte counts($r_s=0.43$, P<0.05, $r_s=0.48$, P<0.05). TIMP-1 levels positively correlated with total protein concentrations in the CSF($r_s=0.43$, P<0.05). Conclusion : MMP-9 and TIMP-1 may play an important role in the breakdown and maintenance of BBB in viral meningitis, respectively.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.10
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• pp.1109-1118
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• 2009

Purpose : Metabolic syndrome (MS), characterized by obesity and insulin resistance, elicits risk factors such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and glucose intolerance with additive effects on atherosclerosis, leading to cardiovascular diseases. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of MS among overweight and obese adolescents and to investigate the impact of obesity on the cardiovascular system. Methods : In all, 684 adolescents were included in the study. Blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density-lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, high-density-lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were measured in the patients with a BMI of >85 percentile. Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (BaPWV) and ankle brachial index were measured using Vascular Profiler (VP)-1000. Results : MS was confirmed in 19.5% of the overweight and obese adolescents and 50.8% of the obese adolescents. The systolic and diastolic blood pressure, height, weight, fat mass, %fat, BMI, obesity index, and waist circumference were higher in the overweight and obese adolescents with MS. Moreover, the triglyceride, AST, ALT, and hs-CRP levels were higher, whereas HDL-cholesterol level was significantly lower in this group. The overweight and obese adolescents with MS showed shorter diastolic and systolic times, higher heart rate and BaPWV, and longer E-wave deceleration time by echocardiography. Conclusion : Overweight and obese adolescents showed characteristic MS features such as hypertension and hyperlipidemia. Thus, obese adolescents predisposed to MS should be provided early treatment for obesity.

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.33-44
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• 1982

The binding in vitro of an opiate agonist, $(^3H)-morphine$, was studied using rat brain slices which were incubated in the modified Krebs-Henseleit bicarbonate buffer solution containing various concentrations of electrolytes with or without morphine, naloxone or morphine+naloxone at $4^{\circ}C$ for 24 hours. The binding of $(^3H)-morphine$ may be seperated into two component; one a saturable binding and the other nonsaturable. The saturable binding may be calculated from the differences in binding observed in the absence and presence of high concentration of morphine. The maximal saturable binding and $K_D$ value in the naive preparations were $0.32{\pm}0.02\;pmole/mg$ protein and $0.75{\pm}0.07\;nM$ respectively. The saturable binding of $(^3H)-morphine$ was significantly increased by low temperature-treatment, while $K_D$ value was not changed. Morphine in the incubation media significantly increased the saturable binding of $(^3H)-morphine$ and $K_D$ value. Naloxone also increased the maximal saturable binding of $(^3H)-morphine$ and $K_D$ value of the drug. Decrease of $K^+\;and\;Mg^{++}$, and addition of $Mn^{++}$ in the incubation media significantly increased the saturable binding of $(^3H)-morphine$, but decrease of $Na^+$and increase of $Ca^{++}$ in the incubation media did not influence the binding. The increment of the saturable binding of $(^3H)-morphine$ by nonlabeled morphine in the incubation media was notaffected by decrease of $Na^+,\;K^+\;or\;Mg^{++}$, or addition of $Mn^{++}$ into the incubation media, but was inhibited by increase of $Ca^{++}$ in the incubation media, while the increment of the saturable binding of $(^3H)-morphine$ was net observed by decrease of $Na^+,\;K^+\;or\;Mg^{++}$, or increase of $Ca^{++}$ in the incubation media. The above results indicate that change of opiate binding sites in quality, i.e. affinity, and quantity, i.e. number of binding sites, may occur by low temperature-treatment in the absence and presence of morphine or naloxone and that electrolytes play role of the changes of opiate binding sites.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.603-614
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• 2017

Purpose: This study was performed to identify the health and nutritional status of Korean adults according to food security by age group. Methods: The subjects were 20~79 year old adults (n = 16,595) who participated in the fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010~2012). Subjects were divided into three groups based on food security such as secure, mildly insecure, and moderately/severely insecure groups. Dietary intake was estimated by 24-hour dietary recall. As for mental health status, the data on mental stress, sleep hours, depression symptoms, and suicide ideation were used. Results: Korean adults who were exposed to high food insecurity typically had low income levels, lived alone, and were recipients of basic welfare. In the 20~39y group, people with higher food insecurity had lower concentrations of hemoglobin and higher iron-binding capacity. In the 40~59y group, people with higher food insecurity had lower HDL-cholesterol. In the 60~79y group, people with higher food insecurity had higher total cholesterol levels, more stress, more experiences of depression symptoms, and were more suicidal. Mean intakes of energy, protein, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin A, carotene, vitamin $B_1$, vitamin $B_2$, niacin, and vitamin C were lower in the food insecure groups. Amounts of vegetables, fruits, and seasoning intakes tended to be lower in people with higher food insecurity. The effects of food security on nutrition intake were greater in the 40~59y and 60~79y groups than the 20-39y group. Conclusion: Food insecurity was related to certain health indicators such as anemia and cholesterol levels and affected mental health. The effects of food insecurity on health and nutritional status were different by age group.