• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.199-206
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• 2014

Purpose: There has been little research regarding the effectiveness of oseltamivir for influenza B infections. We sought to identify the different clinical manifestations between patients treated with and without oseltamivir. Methods: We retrospectively studied the medical records of 72 inpatients or outpatients from two medical centers diagnosed with influenza B infections by either a rapid antigen test or multiplex reverse transcriptase PCR between January 2012 and July 2012. We compared gender, age, past medical history, admission period, total fever duration, fever duration after hospitalization, post-oseltamivir medication peak temperature, laboratory test, chest X-ray, antibiotic medication, and the presence of concomitant viral or bacterial infections. Results: The number of subjects in our study was 72 who were diagnosed with influenza B pneumonia, acute bronchitis, acute bronchiolitis, croup, and mean age was $3.6{\pm}2.8$ year old. The demographic characteristics and clinical manifestations of oseltamivir and the non-oseltamivir groups, including hospitalization period ($4.18{\pm}2.10$ vs $4.79{\pm}1.49$ days, P=.17) and total fever duration ($5.32{\pm}2.07$ vs $6.41{\pm}3.25$ days, P =.09), demonstrated no significant differences. Notably, the oseltamivir group did have significantly reduced usage of antibiotic treatment than the non-oseltamivir group (P=.04). When we limited our patient group to patients under the age of three, similar results were seen. The group prescribed oseltamivir within 48 hours of fever onset had less antibiotic usage, in addition to a shorter fever duration. Conclusion: Oseltamivir appeared to have no benefit in improving the clinical course. However, if it is prescribed within the first 48 hours of symptoms, it may be more effective.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.32-38
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• 2010

Purpose: Although radiation-induced fibrosis is one of the common sequelae occurring after irradiation of skin and soft tissues, the treatment methods are not well standardized. This study aimed to establish the skin fibrosis mouse model by fractionated radiation for the further mechanism studies or testing the efficacy of therapeutic candidates. Materials and Methods: The right hind limbs of BALB/c mice received two fractions of 20 Gy using a therapeutic linear accelerator. Early skin damages were scored and tissue fibrosis was assessed by the measurement of a leg extension. Morphological changes were assessed by H&E staining and by Masson's Trichrome staining. TGF-${\beta}1$ expression from soft tissues was also detected by immunohistochemistry and PCR. Results: Two fractions of 20 Gy irradiation were demonstrated as being enough to induce early skin damage effects such as erythema, mild skin dryness, dry and wet desquamation within several weeks of radiation. After 13 weeks of irradiation, the average radiation-induced leg contraction was $11.1{\pm}6.2mm$. Morphologic changes in irradiated skin biopsies exhibited disorganized collagen and extracellular matrix fibers, as well as the accumulation of myofibroblasts compared to the non-irradiated skin. Moreover, TGF-${\beta}1$ expression in tissue was increased by radiation. Conclusion: These results show that two fractions of 20 Gy irradiation can induce skin fibrosis in BALB/c mice accompanied by other common characteristics of skin damages. This animal model can be a useful tool for studying skin fibrosis induced by radiation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.631-646
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• 2011

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are multipotent and can be isolated from diverse human tissues including bone marrow, fat, placenta, dental pulp, synovium, tonsil, and the thymus. They function as regulators of tissue homeostasis. Because of their various advantages such as plasticity, easy isolation and manipulation, chemotaxis to cancer, and immune regulatory function, MSCs have been considered to be a potent cell source for regenerative medicine, cancer treatment and other cell based therapy such as GVHD. However, relating to its supportive feature for surrounding cell and tissue, it has been frequently reported that MSCs accelerate tumor growth by modulating cancer microenvironment through promoting angiogenesis, secreting growth factors, and suppressing anti-tumorigenic immune reaction. Thus, clinical application of MSCs has been limited. To understand the underlying mechanism which modulates MSCs to function as tumor supportive cells, we co-cultured human adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASC) with cancer cell lines H460 and U87MG. Then, expression data of ASCs co-cultured with cancer cells and cultured alone were obtained via microarray. Comparative expression analysis was carried out using DAVID (Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery) and PANTHER (Protein ANalysis THrough Evolutionary Relationships) in divers aspects including biological process, molecular function, cellular component, protein class, disease, tissue expression, and signal pathway. We found that cancer cells alter the expression profile of MSCs to cancer associated fibroblast like cells by modulating its energy metabolism, stemness, cell structure components, and paracrine effect in a variety of levels. These findings will improve the clinical efficacy and safety of MSCs based cell therapy.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 2011

Domestic dairy industry is now standing at the crossroad for planning next fifty years, mainly because economic and environmental situations surrounding Korean peninsula are fast changing. For the aspects of dairy consumption, fresh milk consumed less, while consumption of the other milk and dairy products is slightly increasing every year. In 2010, it is approximately estimated that 1,939,000 tons of raw milk was used and the supply would be short by about 35,000 tons, based on the amounts in the previous year. Currently, multilateral negotiations against US and EU are underway. When it will be in effect in the future, significant damage would be expected in the dairy and livestock sectors, leading to cut domestic milk supply. Quality of farm-gate milk is graded as 1A on average 90% or more, loaded with very low in microbial and somatic cell counts. Therefore, policy implications have to be placed toward switch currently the UHT processing method to Pasteurization or the LTLT technology, by which natural flavors and nutrients in milk mostly remain after heat treatment. Domestic cheese products comprise only 10% and the rest is occupied by the various kinds of imported natural products. The market size keeps increasing up to 65,423,000 tons last year. When it comes to vitalization of our natural cheese industry, cheese whey, which is a main by-product in cheese manufacture, is a critical issue to be solved and also "On-Farm Processing" would be combined with a growth of big dairy companies when few immediate issues among the relevant regulations will be eased and alleviated in the near future. Fermented milk market is recorded as a single area of gradual increase in the past 10 years, Korea. Fermented yogurts with health claims targeted stomach, liver, and intestine are popular and has grown fast in sales amounts. In this context, researches on beneficial probiotic lactic acid bacteria are one of the important projects for domestic milk and dairy industries. Labelling regulations on efficacy or health-promoting effects of functional dairy products, which is the most important issue facing domestic dairy processors, should be urgently examined toward commercial expression of the functionality by lawful means. Colostrum, a nutrition-rich yellowish fluid, is roaded with immune, growth and tissue repair factors. Bovine colostrum, a raw material for immune milk preparations and infant formula, can be used to treat or prevent infections of the gastrointestinal tract. Nanotechnology can be applied to develop new milk and dairy products such as micro-encapsulated lactase milk for consumers suffering lactose intolerance. Raw milk is suggested to be managed by its usage in the processing line because imbalance of supply and demand is structural problem in every country and thus the usage systems as in the advanced dairy countries is worth of bench-marking to stabilize milk supply and demand. Raw milk produced is desirable to divide into the three parts; domestic, import, and buffering purposes. It is strongly recommended that a domestic dairy control center as an institutional framework should be urgently established as is Dairy Board in New Zealand and Australia. Lastly, government policy should be directed to foster the highly-educated people who are majoring in Dairy Sciences or working in the dairy industry by means of financial support in studying and training abroad as well.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.178-186
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• 1991

This study was conducted to evaluate the major weeds occurred in direct seeded rice and their compition with rice, and to establish the effective weed control method. The important weeds occurring in dry direct seeded rice were Echinochloa crusgalli, Cyperus amuricus, Rorippa islandica, etc. Among them, Echinochloa crusgalli was the most dominant weed species. In view of the Simpson's dominance index, the maximum number of the weeds was observed at 30 days after seeding, showing 0.26, but decreased as the time passed. In other hand, Simpson's dominance index of weed dry weight increased from 0.09 at 15DAS(days after seeding) to 0.28 at 60DAS indicating that particular weed such as barnyardgrass was dominating the fields. The plant height and the tiller number of rice in the dry direct seeded rice were not greatly affected by the time and duration of competition with weeds, but rice yield was greatly influenced by them. The yield reduction was observed when compition between rice and weeds were initiated at 20 to 40 DAS till the harvesting time. The highest weed control efficacy was observed at the treatment of systematic herbicide application such as soil applied Butachlor followed by Mefenacet/Bensulfuron-methyl/Dymron at 30 DAS after seeding, and soil applied Dimepiperate/Bensulfuron-methyl mixture as a preemergence type gave also an excellent control.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.26 no.2 s.62
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• pp.95-104
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• 2005

Objectives: This was a double blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical study for evaluation of safety and effective dose finding of Cardiotonic Pills$^{(R)}$ in patients with chest pain and discomfort. Cardiotonic Pills$^{(R)}$ are composed of Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix (丹蔘), Notoginseng Radix (三七根) and Borneolum (龍腦). Major effects of Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix and Notoginseng Radix are vasodilatation, sedation and analgesic action. Borneolum has an antibacterial effect, and can stimulate the central nervous system. All of these substances are oriental herbs that have been used for a long time in east Asia. Cardiotonic Pills fi received Investigational New Drug (IND) approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA and 40 million people in the world take this pill. We performed a phase IV clinical study to confirm its efficacy and safety in patients who have probable cardiogenic or psychogenic chest pain or chest stifling. Methods: This study was planned for a multi-center clinical trial including four university hospitals of oriental medicine in Korea. This was the first time to evaluate the 'planning treatment according to diagnosis (辨證施治)' of chest pain or chest discomfort according to oriental medical guidelines. The patients who were included in this trial were adult volunteers from 20 to 70 years old who had chest pain or chest discomfort more than twice during a recent month, and we received written consent to participate in this study from all of them. After administration of Cardiotonic Pills$^{(R)}$ for 8 weeks, number of occurrences, duration, appearance and degree of chest pain or chest discomfort was observed and degree of symptoms (severity of illness, global improvement) were measured using a patient's global assessment composite scale. Results: In the patient's global assessment scale, the severity of illness of the Cardiotonic Pills$^{(R)}$ group (n=25) was 14/25=0.56 but of the placebo group (n=25) was 7/25=0.28 (p-value=0.0449). This result indicates Cardiotonic Pills$^{(R)}$have a positive effect on the symptoms of chest pain and discomfort. However, the global improvement of the Cardiotonic Pills$^{(R)}$group was 23/25=0.92, and of the placebo group was 22/25=0.88 (p-value=0.6374). The total symptom score of the Cardiotonic Pills$^{(R)}$ group was $1.68\pm20.06$, and of the placebo group was $16.76\pm72.l4$(p-value=0.2285). The number of symptom events of the Cardiotonic Pills$^{(R)}$ group was $72\pm29.78$, and of the placebo group (n=25) was $10.80\pm38.42$ (p­value=0.3660). We could not find any effects on the other factors examined besides the severity of illness, beyond the difference of standard deviations. Conclusions: Cardiotonic Pills$^{(R)}$ significantly reduced chest pain and chest discomfort in patients. Therefore, we expect that Cardiotonic Pills$^{(R)}$ will be helpful for patients with chest pain and chest discomfort not only caused by heart disease but also by other diseases.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.949-960
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• 1997

Background. Limited ischemic tolerance of the lung has remained one of the factors that limits the expansion of pulmonary transplantation as a treatment for end-stage pulmonary disease. Numerous studies on safe long term preservation for lung transplantation has been performed for the purpose of developing ideal preservation solution with extracellular type or intracellular type solutions. In this. study, we examined the efficacy of L DG solution in lung preservation longer than 20 hours by comparison with modified Euro-Collins solution. Iwethods. Thirty-(our adult mongrel dogs were divided into two groups. Donor lungs were flushed with LPDG solution(n=9) or modified Euro-Collins(MEC) solution(n=8) and stored for 24 hours at 1$0^{\circ}C$. All donor lungs were perfused through the pulmonary arteries with solutions containing prostaglandin El and verapamil. Left canine lung allotransplantations wereperformed. Assessment(hemodynamic indices and arterial blood gas analysis) of left implanted lung was made by occluding the right pulmonary artery for ten minutes using pulmonary artery Cuff. Assessment was repeated at the interval of 30 minutes, one hour, and two hours later after reperfusion and then chest X-ray, computed tomogram and lung perfusion scan were obtained. In survival dogs follow-up studies were done with assessment with chest X-ray, computed tomogram of the chest and lung perfusion scan on 7th day postoperatively. After preservation above 20 hours, pathological examinations for ultrastructural findings on right lung were performed in each group. Results. With respect to arterial oxygen tension, LPDG group was superior to MEC but there was no statistical significance for 2 hours after reperfusion. Mean pulmonary artery pressure was less increased(p < 0.05) and cardiac output higher(p <0.05) than MEC group until 2 hours after reperfusion. After 2 hours of reperfusion, both groups showed transplanted lung function deteriorated gradually. Perfusion scan of the transplanted lung in LPDG group showed better perfusion rate in immediate post-reperfusion, 3 days and 7 days later respectively but there was no statistical significance and corelation with PaO2 and computed tomoRravhic views. In scanning electron microscopy of pulmonary artery after preservation, LPDG group relatively shows less irregular protrusion of the inner surface of endothelial cell of poulmonary artery than MEC group. Conclusions, e concluded that LPDG solution can offer safe lung preservation above 20 hours with adequate immunosuppressive therapy and prevention of the infection.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.571-576
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• 2016

In this study, the anti-inflammatory activities of the 80% ethanol extract of Dystaenia takeshimana (DT) were investigated using Raw 264.7 cells treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The effect of DT extract on the production of pro-inflammatory factors (iNOS, COX-2) in LPS-stimulated Raw 264.7 macrophages was examined. The cytotoxic effect of DT extract on macrophage cells (Raw 264.7) was examined by the 3-[4, 5-dimethyl-thiazol-2-yl]-2, 5-diphenyl-tetrazoliumbromide (MTT) assay. Treatment with DT extract showed 100% or more cell viability at the concentration $1,000{\mu}g/ml$. The inhibitory effect of DT extract on protein expression of inducible NOS (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) was measured by western blotting using the concentrations 50, 100, and $500{\mu}g/ml$, with ${\beta}-actin$ used as the positive control. Consequently, the protein expression of iNOS, and COX-2 as observed by western blotting, was decreased by 56%, 61.6%, respectively with $500{\mu}g/ml$ DT extract. Inhibition of iNOS and COX-2 mRNA expression was measured by reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using DT extract concentrations 50, 100, and $500{\mu}g/ml$, with GAPDH used as a positive control. Consequently, the mRNA expression of iNOS and COX-2 as observed by reverse-transcription-PCR was decreased by 77.9% and 83.3%, respectively at $500{\mu}g/ml$ concentration of DT extract. In conclusion, DT extract may affect inflammatory factors as a potential anti-inflammatory agent.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2018

Objectives : We aimed to investigate the discontinuation rate and reasons of doxepin base prescription pattern in insomnia outpatients of psychiatry department of a university hospital. Methods : 534 patients prescribed doxepin were screened. 201 patients were included and reviewed for their medical records retrospectively. The discontinuation rate and reasons of doxepin after 2 months of prescription were investigated. Patients were divided into three groups according to the prescription patterns. The initial group, prescribed doxepin as the first hypnotic, the add-on group, prescribed doxepin while maintaining existing hypnotics, and the switching group, prescribed doxepin after discontinuation of existing hypnotics. Results : The discontinuation rate after 2 months of prescription of doxepin was 56.2%. There were significant differences in the discontinuation rate among three groups. The initial group had the highest while the add-on group had the lowest (p=0.018). In reasons for discontinuation of doxepin among three groups, lack of efficacy (p<0.001) and adverse events (p<0.001) were significantly higher in the add-on group. In the initial group, patient's refusal (p=0.022) and unknown or loss to follow up (p<0.001) were significantly higher. Conclusions : The results of this study suggested that add-on is superior than switching method and gradual reduction of existing hypnotics is necessary to maintain doxepin treatment and prevent adverse events. Additional large scale prospective studies are needed to evaluate various factors and risks of discontinuation of doxepin.

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.81-89
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• 1992

Enuresis is a common voiding disorder among children. There are several therapeutic regimens for the disorder available today; behavioral therapies, psychotherapy, bladder training, sleep interruption, hypnosis and drug therapy. Recently, the efficacy of drug therapy has been acknowledged, particularly of antidepressants. Among the tricyclic antidepressants, imipramine is most frequently employed for the treatment of enuresis. Present study was undertaken to investigate the mechanism of imipramine on the contractility of urinary bladder in relation to the calcium modulation using isolated strips of rat detrusor urinae. 1. The electric fileld stimulation-induced contraction was abolished by imipramine, but partially inhibited by atropine. 2. Imipramine reduced the basal tone and diminished the phasic activity of detrusor muscle concentration-dependently, which was similar to that of diltiazem, a calcium channel blocker. 3. Imipramine suppressed the maximal responses and shifted the concentration-response curves of bethanechol and ATP to right. 4. Imipramine inhibited the calcium-induced recovery of tension in calcium-free physiologic salt solution (PSS) with a mode of action similar to that of diltizaem. 5. A23187, a calcium ionophore recovered the basal tone which had been reduced by imipramine in normal PSS. 6. In calcium-free PSS, A23187 could recover the abolished basal tone with the pretreatment of imipramine, but it exerted a partial recovery with the pretreatment of TMB-8, an inhibitor of intracellular calcium release. Based on these results, it is suggested that the inhibitory action of imipramine on the detrusor muscle exerted in part by blockade of the muscarinic and purinergic receptors, and interference with the influx of extracellular calcium, but not with the release of intracellular stored calcium, is involved in its mechanism of action.