• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.355-366
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• 1997

Although cerebellar Purkinje cells display spontaneous electrical activity in vivo and in slice experiments, the mechanism of the spontaneous activity generation has not been clearly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate whether cerebellar Purkinje cells of postnatal rats generate spontaneous electrical activity without synaptic inputs. Dissociated cerebellar Purkinje cells were used for reducing synaptic inputs in the present study. Cerebellar Purkinje cells with dendrites were dissociated from postnatal rats using enzymatic treatment followed by mechanical trituration. Spontaneous electrical activities were recorded from dissociated cells without any stimulus using whole-cell patch clamp configuration. Two types, spontaneously firing or quiescent, of dissociated Purkinje cells were observed in postnatal rats. Both types of cells were identified as Purkinje cells using immunocytochemical staining technique with anti-calbindin after recording. Spontaneously active cells displayed two patterns of firing, repetitive and burst firings. Two thirds of dissociated Purkinje cells displayed repetitive firing and the rest of them did burst firing under same recording condition. Repetitive firing activities were maintained even after further isolation using either physical or pharmacological techniques. Neither high magnessium solution nor excitatory synaptic blockers, AP-5 and DNQX, block the spontaneous activity. These results demonstrate that spontaneous electrical activity of isolated cerebellar Purkinje cells in postnatal rats is generated by intrinsic membrane properties rather than synaptic inputs.

• BMB Reports
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.380-388
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• 2022

The B cell translocation gene 1 (BTG1) and BTG2 play a key role in a wide range of cellular activities including proliferation, apoptosis, and cell growth via modulating a variety of central biological steps such as transcription, post-transcriptional, and translation. BTG1 and BTG2 have been identified by genomic profiling of B-cell leukemia and diverse lymphoma types where both genes are commonly mutated, implying that they serve as tumor suppressors. Furthermore, a low expression level of BTG1 or BTG2 in solid tumors is frequently associated with malignant progression and poor treatment outcomes. As physiological aspects, BTG1 and BTG2 have been discovered to play a critical function in regulating quiescence in hematopoietic lineage such as Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and naive and memory T cells, highlighting their novel role in maintaining the quiescent state. Taken together, emerging evidence from the recent studies suggests that BTG1 and BTG2 play a central anti-proliferative role in various tissues and cells, indicating their potential as targets for innovative therapeutics.

• Clinical Endoscopy
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.563-577
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• 2023

In inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), chronic inflammation leads to unfavorable clinical outcomes and increases the risk of developing colorectal neoplasm (CRN); thereby highlighting the importance of endoscopically evaluating disease activity as well as detecting and characterizing CRN in patients with IBD. With recent advances in image-enhanced endoscopic (IEE) technologies, especially virtual chromoendoscopy (VCE) platforms, this review discusses state-of-the-art IEE techniques and their applicability in assessing disease activity and surveillance colonoscopy in patients with IBD. Among various IEE, VCE demonstrated the capacity to identify quiescent disease activity. And endoscopic remission defined by the new scoring system using VCE platform better predicted clinical outcomes, which may benefit the tailoring of therapeutic strategies in patients with IBD. High-definition dye-chromoendoscopy (HD-DCE) is numerically superior to high-definition white light endoscopy (HD-WLE) in detecting CRN in IBD; however, discrepancy is observed in the statistical significance. VCE showed comparable performance in detecting dysplasia to HD-WLE or DCE and potential for optical diagnosis to differentiate neoplastic from nonneoplastic lesions during surveillance colonoscopy. Applying these novel advanced IEE technologies would provide opportunities for personalized medicine in IBD and optimal treatment of CRN in patients with IBD.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.418-425
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• 2024

Solid tumors are heterogeneous populations of multiple cell types. While the majority of the cells that comprise cancer are unable to divide, cancer stem cells have self-renewal and differentiation properties. Normal stem cell pathways that control self-renewal are overactivated in cancer stem cells, making cancer stem cells important for cancer cell expansion and progression. Dick first proposed the definition of cancer stem cells in acute myeloid leukemia, according to which cancer stem cells can be classified based on the expression of cell surface markers. Cancer stem cells maintain their potential in the tumor microenvironment. Multiple cell types in the tumor microenvironment maintain quiescent cancer stem cells and serve as regulators of cancer growth. Since current cancer treatments target proliferative cells, quiescent state cancer stem cells that are resistant to treatment increase the risk of recurrence or metastasis. Various signals of the tumor microenvironment induce changes to become a tumor-supportive environment by remodeling the vasculature and extracellular matrix. To effectively treat cancer, cancer stem cells and the tumor microenvironment must be targeted. Therefore, it is important to understand how the tumor microenvironment induces reprogramming of the immune response to promote cancer growth, immune resistance, and metastasis. In this review, we discuss the cellular and molecular mechanisms that can enhance immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.35-42
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• 2008

Purpose: Alterations in the structure and function of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are important in cardiovascular disease and maintaining chronic hypertension. Chronic hypertension is associated with changes in vascular smooth muscle tone. The spontaneous or myogenic tone of a blood vessel reflects the ability to adapt smooth muscle tone to changes in transmural pressure. However, the intracellular signaling mechanisms involved in myogenic tone are not fully understood. Methods: Here, we investigated the relationship between mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) in isometric contraction and enzymatic activity using muscle strips from rats made hypertensive with aldosterone-analogue deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA) salts. Results: Changes in myogenic tone and intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ concentration ($[Ca^{2+}]_i$) were different after physiological salt solution (PSS) in normotensive and hypertensive rats. The myogenic tone and quiescent phosphorylation induced by the PSS treatment were inhibited by 10 ${\mu}$M PD098059, an extracellular-regulated protein kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) inhibitor, and 10 ${\mu}$M wortmannin, an inhibitor of PI3K, in hypertensive rats. Conclusion: The development of DOCA-induced hypertension is associated with altered isometric contractions and $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ via changes in activation of ERK1/2 and PI3K after DOCA-salt treatment. Therefore, ERK1/2 and PI3K activity affect hypertension and may be suitable targets for physical therapy in cardiovascular disease.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1993.11a
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• pp.17-20
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• 1993

As a step toward a more complete understanding of the molecular actions of TNF, we prepared a cDNA library from TNF-treated human FS-4 fibroblasts and used differential hybridization to identify cDNA clones corresponding to mRNAs enriched in TNF-treated eells. In Quiescent FS-4 cells n induces an increase in the level of some mRNAs within 20 to 30 min. Some of these immediate-early response mRNAs are elevated only transiently for about 30 to 120 min, e. g., c-fos and c-myc (Lin and Vilcek,1987) or the transcription factor IRF-1 (Fujita et al.1989). Such immediate-early gene products may be important for the activation of other genes, but their transient induction suggests that they are not the actual effector molecules responsible for the phenotypic changes induced by TNF. We chose a 3-h incubation with W because we were seeking cDNAs corresponding to messages that are more stably elevated after TNF treatment. Indeed, the results shown in Figure 8 and 9 indicate that all of the mRNAs corresponding to the eight TSG cDNAs isolated remained significantly elevated after 16h of continuous treatment with TNF, and their kinetics of induction were clearly different from those of the immediate-early response mRNAs such as c-fos, c-myc or IRF-1. Nevertheless, only the induction of TSG-21 (collagenase) and TSG-27 (stromelysin) nNAs was completely inhibited by cycloheximide and the induction of TSG-37 (metallothionein-II) was reduced in the presence of this inhibitor of protein synthesis. Induction of the other five TSG mRNAs by TNF was completelyresistant to cycloheximide, suggest ins that no protein intermediate is needed for the upregulation of these mRNAs.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.317-322
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• 2006

Dental caries in children has declined over the past few decades. However, Certain populations of children experience high levels of dental disease. To perform the highest quality dental care for the pediatric patient, the practitioner may need to use pharmacological means to obtain a quiescent, cooperative patient. Furthermore, complex treatment can impose high demands on the very young, making use of general anesthesia the preferred approach for some patients. General anesthesia is widely used to provide comprehensive dental treatment for children in USA and Europe and Scandinavia etc. Parental and patient satisfaction following completion of dental care under general anesthesia is reportedly high. Dental general anesthesia has disadvantage that it is expansive and carries a small but significant risk of mortality. However, It has the advantage of permitting treatment at a single visit, allowing immediate relief of pain and requiring little or no cooperation from the child. Rampant caries was the major indication for use of general anesthesia in the youngest age group or medically compromised patients. This study describe the characteristics of patient receiving comprehensive dental treatment under general anesthesia at the pediatric dentistry of Chonbuk National University Hospital in Jeonju, Korea in the 4year period between December 2001 and April 2005.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.2027-2032
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• 2007

[ ${\alpha}$ ]-Synuclein is the major component of Lewy bodies and responsible for the amyloid deposits observed in Parkinson's disease. Ordered filamentous aggregate formation of the natively unfolded ${\alpha}$-synuclein was investigated in vitro with the periodic ultrasonication. The ultrasonication induced the fibrillation of ${\alpha}$-synuclein, as the random structure gradually converted into a ${\beta}$-sheet structure. The resulting fibrils obtained at the stationary phase appeared heterogeneous in their size distribution, with the average length and height of $0.28\;{\mu}m{\pm}0.21\;{\mu}m$ and $5.6\;nm{\pm}1.9\;nm$, respectively. After additional extensive ultrasonication in the absence of monomeric ${\alpha}$-synuclein, the equilibrium between the fibril formation and its breakdown shifted to the disintegration of the preexisting fibrils. The resulting fragments served as nucleation centers for the subsequent seed-dependent accelerated fibrillation under a quiescent incubation condition. This self-seeding amplification process depended on the seed formation and subsequent alterations in their properties by the ultrasonication to a state that accretes the monomeric soluble protein more effectively than their reassociation of the seeds back to the original fibrils. Since many neurodegenerative disorders have been considered to be propagated via the seed-dependent amyloidosis, this study would provide a novel aspect of the significance of the seed structure and its properties leading to the acce]erated amyloid formation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.4699-4711
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• 2016

Background: In the last decade, it has become clear that change of gene expression may alter the hematopoietic cell quiescent state and consequently play a major role in leukemogenesis. WT1 is known to be a player in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and FOXP3 has a crucial role in regulating the immune response. Objectives: To evaluate the impact of overexpression of WT1and FOXP3 genes on clinical course in adult and pediatric AML patients in Egypt. Patients and methods: Bone marrow and peripheral blood samples were obtained from 97 de novo non M3 AML patients (63 adult and 34 pediatric). Real-time quantitative PCR was used to detect overexpression WT1 and FOXP3 genes. Patient follow up ranged from 0.2 to 39.0 months with a median of 5 months. Results: In the pediatric group; WT1 was significantly expressed with a high total leukocyte count median 50X109/L (p=0.018). In the adult group, WT1 had an adverse impact on complete remission induction, disease-free survival and overall survival (p=0.02, p=0.035, p=0.019 respectively). FOXP3 overexpression was associated with FAB subtypes AML M0 +M1 vs. M2, M4+M5 (p =0.039) and the presence of hepatomegaly (p=0.005). Conclusions: WT1 and FOXP3 overexpression has an adverse impact on clinical presentation, treatment response and survival of pediatric and adult Egyptian AML patients.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2000

This study was conducted to investigate the developmental potential of cloned embryos derived from bovine fetal fibroblast cells, and the effect of quiescent treatment, passage number and origin of donor cells on in vitro development of cloned embryos. Fetal skin and liver-derived fibroblast cells were transferred to enucleated oocytes after serum starvation or nontreatment (cycling). After electrofusion. reconstituted embryos were activated with $Ca^{＋＋}$-ionophore and cycloheximide, and cocultured for 7~9 days with BRL cells. Some blastocysts were transferred to recipient cows 7~8 days post estrus. The development rate to the blastocyst stage of serum starved cell-derived embryos was higher (25.3%) than that of actively dividing cells-derived embryos (15.9%), The rates of blastocyst formation were 23.1~25.0% after transfer of cell passaged 4 to 6 times, and 23.8 and 25.2% after transfer of fetal skin and liver cells, respectively. After embryo transfer, 34.4% and 15.6% of recipient cows were pregnant on Day 60 and 120, respectively, and one male calf was produced from skin-derived vitrified blastocyst. The result of this study showed that the development of cloned embryos. was enhanced by quiescent treatment, but did not different among the cells passaged 4 to 6 times, and between skin and liver cells. This result also confirms that offspring can be obtained from the vitrified clone embryo derived from fetal skin cell.