• Applied Microscopy
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.86-107
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• 1991

An experimental study was performed to observe the early effects of monocrotaline on pulmonary vascular system by means of light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, attempting to expore the mechanism behind the process of pulmonary hypertension. Experimental animal(Sprague-Dawley male rats ; 150-200g B. W.) were intra-peritoneal administered with 100mg/kg B. W. monocrotaline. Authors observed light microscopically various gradational increase of wall thickness in pulmonary muscular and non-muscular arteries in duration from 2 weeks to 5 weeks after monocrotaline administration and the changes were more sever in the latter than the former. The scanning electron microscopy shows severe and diffuse endothelical cell swelling, microvilli and microbleb formation since 1 hour after monocrotaline administration and during the course, after 5 hours the severity of endothelial cell damage was prominent with presence of fibrin, webs, platelet thrombi and white cell adherence. It was concluded that the monocrotaline primarily induced severe and diffuse endothelial cell damage of pulmonary arteries and laterly added the participation of platelets, which attributed to the pathogenesis of monocrotaline induced pulmonary vascular lesions in relation to pulmonary hypertension.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.196-201
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• 2014

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease characterized by the vascular remodeling of the pulmonary arterioles, including formation of plexiform and concentric lesions comprised of proliferative vascular cells. Clinically, PAH leads to increased pulmonary arterial pressure and subsequent right ventricular failure. Existing therapies have improved the outcome but mortality still remains exceedingly high. There is emerging evidence that the seven-transmembrane G-protein coupled receptor APJ and its cognate endogenous ligand apelin are important in the maintenance of pulmonary vascular homeostasis through the targeting of critical mediators, such as Kr$\ddot{u}$ppel-like factor 2 (KLF2), endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and microRNAs (miRNAs). Disruption of this pathway plays a major part in the pathogenesis of PAH. Given its role in the maintenance of pulmonary vascular homeostasis, the apelin-APJ pathway is a potential target for PAH therapy. This review highlights the current state in the understanding of the apelin-APJ axis related to PAH and discusses the therapeutic potential of this signaling pathway as a novel paradigm of PAH therapy.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.255-259
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• 2006

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) is one of the main pathological factors in endothelial disorder. For example, an atherosclerosis is induced by the dysfunction of vascular endothelial cells. The dysfunction of vascular endothelial cells cascades to secrete intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-l substance by ROS. Therefore, The ROS is regraded as an important factor of the injury of vascular endothelial cells and inducement of atherosclerosis. Oxygen radical scavengers playa key role to prevention of many diseases mediated by oxidative stress of ROS. In this study, the toxic effect of ROS on vascular endothelial cells and the effect of antioxidant, vitamin E on bovine pulmonary vascular endothelial cell line (BPVEC) treated with hydrogen peroxide were examined by the colorimetric assay. ROS decreased remarkably cell viability according to the dose- and time-dependent manners. In protective effect of vitamin E on BPVEC treated with hydrogen peroxide, vitamin E increased remarkably cell viability compared with control after BPVEC were treated with $15{\mu}M$ hydrogen peroxide for 6 hours. From these results, it is suggested that ROS has cytotoxicity on cultured BPVEC and oxygen radical scavenger such as vitamin E is very effective in prevention of oxidative stress-induced cytotoxicity.

• BMB Reports
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.311-317
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• 2014

microRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small, non-coding RNAs that play critical posttranscriptional regulatory roles typically through targeting of the 3'-untranslated region of messenger RNA (mRNA). Mature miRNAs are known to be involved in global cellular processes, such as differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis, and organogenesis, due to their capacity to target multiple mRNAs. Thus, imbalances in the expression and/or activity of miRNAs are involved in the pathogenesis of numerous diseases, including pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). PAH is a progressive disease characterized by vascular remodeling due to excessive proliferation of pulmonary artery endothelial cells (PAECs) and pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs). Recently, studies have evaluated the roles of miRNAs involved in the pathogenesis of PAH in these pulmonary vascular cells. This review provides an overview of recent discoveries on the role of miRNAs in the pathogenesis of PAH and discusses the potential for miRNAs as therapeutic targets and biomarkers of PAH.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.549-552
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• 2003

To investigate the protective effect of Sophorae Radix (SR) on the damage by pulmonary vascular endothelial cells by xanthine oxidase (XO)/hypoxanthine (HX)-induced oxygen tree radical, Neutral Red (NR) and c-fos immunopositive cell assay were used. The results were obtained as follows ; The viability of vascular endothelial cells treated with XO/HX was decreased. And c-fos immunopositive cells represented a maximal increase in group treated with XO/HX for 2 hour in pulmonary vasvular endothelial cells. But pretreated groups with SR extracts were not inhibited the increase of c-fos immunopositive cells by XO/HX in a dose-dependent manner. These results show that XO/HX elicits toxic effects in cultured pulmonary vascular endothelial cells, and suggest that SR extract is very effective in the prevention of XO/HX-induced increase of c-fos immunopositive cells.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.323-325
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• 2012

Pulmonary tumor embolism can be a cause of respiratory failure in patients with cancer even though it occurs rarely. We describe a 56-year-old man who underwent a pulmonary tumor embolectomy using cardiopulmonary bypass on beating heart combined with inferior vena cava embolectomy and right radical nephrectomy. Aggressive surgical treatment in this severe case is necessary not only to reduce the fatal outcome of pulmonary embolism in the short run, but also to improve the oncological prognosis in the long term.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.685-689
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• 2006

In order to examine the injury of vascular endothelial cells related with oxidative stress of reactive oxygen species(ROS), mophological changes of vascular endothelial cells were observed by light microscope after bovine pulmonary vascular endothelial cell line (BPVEC) was treated with 15 uM of hydrogen peroxide. In addition, the effect of vitamin E against ROS-induced oxidative stress was examined by light microscope. In this study, the cell number of BPVEC treated with ROS has significantly decreased than that of control, and the loss of cytoplasmic processes and cell swelling were observed in BPVEC treated with ROS. Whereas, cell number of BPVEC treated with vitamin E has significantly increased than that of BPVEC treated with ROS and also, cytoplasmic processes of BPVEC treated with vitamin E were preserved as control. These findings suggested that not only did ROS induce damage of BPVES by decrease of cell number, loss of cytoplasmic processes and cell swelling, but vitamin E also has protective effect against ROS-induced oxidative stress in cultures of BPVEC.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.980-984
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• 2006

In order to examine the effect of oxygen free radicals on the vascular endothelial cells, cell viability was measured by XTT assay after bovine pulmonary vascular endothelial cell line(BPVEC) was treated only with hydrogen peroxide. In addition, the antioxidant effect of allopurinol on cells treated with hydrogen peroxide was examined by colormetric assay. in this study, the BPVEC treated with hydrogen peroxide showed the significantly decreased cell viability compared with control. Whereas, the viability of cells treated with hydrogen peroxide and allopurinol has significantly increased when compared with that of cells treated only with hydrogen peroxide. These results suggested that hydrogen peroxide, one of the oxygen free radicals showed cytotoxic effect and allopurinol has protective effect on oxygen free radical-induced cytotoxicity.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.80-85
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• 1993

Synthetic and biosynthetic vascular grafts of small diameter have long been considered to be prone to thrombosis, ultimately leading to the complete graft occlusion. Endothelial cell seeding onto synthetic blood-contacting surfaces has been suggested to be an ideal means to solve this problem. This study described a culture method of bovine endothelial cells and evaluated blood-compatibility and seeding efficiency of cultured endothelial cells. Bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells were harvested enzymatically and grown to confluence on polystyrene culture flask surfaces using established techniques. The identification of endothelial cells was made through the demonstration of expression of factor VIII R:Ag by immunofluorescent technique. To quantitate the effect of improvement in blood-compatibility of viable endothelial cells, endothelial monolayers were exposed to blood containing $\^$111/In-oxine labeled platelets. Viable endothelial monolayers retained less labeled platelets than control surfaces. The Indium-labeled endothelial cells were seeded onto three different blood-contacting surfaces of Dacron vascular graft immobilized in specially equipped wells and incubated for specific time intervals (t=15, 30, 60, 120 minutes). Longer incubation times showed improved cell adherence in collagen-coated and fibrin-coated Dacron vascular graft groups. However in untreated Dacron grafts, no direct relationship was observed between incubation time and endothelial cell seeding efficiency. This may be due to leakage of endothelial cells through porosity of Dacron grafts in this in-vitro experimental condition.

• BMB Reports
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• v.46 no.11
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• pp.550-554
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• 2013

The platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) signaling pathway is essential for inducing a dedifferentiated state of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Activation of PDGF inhibits smooth muscle cell (SMC)-specific gene expression and increases the rate of proliferation and migration, leading to dedifferentiation of VSMCs. Recently, microRNAs have been shown to play a critical role in the modulation of the VSMC phenotype in response to extracellular signals. However, little is known about microRNAs regulated by PDGF in VSMCs. Herein, we identify microRNA- 15b (miR-15b) as a mediator of VSMC phenotype regulation upon PDGF signaling. We demonstrate that miR-15b is induced by PDGF in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells and is critical for PDGF-mediated repression of SMC-specific genes. In addition, we show that miR-15b promotes cell proliferation. These results indicate that PDGF signaling regulates SMC-specific gene expression and cell proliferation by modulating the expression of miR-15b to induce a dedifferentiated state in the VSMCs.