• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.30 no.7
• /
• pp.640-650
• /
• 2020

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is an atypical member of the FGF protein family which is highly synthesized in the liver, pancreas, and adipose tissue. Depending on the expression tissue, FGF21 uses endo- or paracrine features to regulate several metabolic pathways including glucose metabolism and energy homeostasis. Different physiologically stressful conditions such as starvation, a ketogenic diet, extreme cold, and mitochondrial dysfunction are known to induce FGF21 synthesis in various tissues to exert either adaptive or defensive mechanisms. More specifically, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha control FGF21 expression in adipose tissue and liver, respectively. In addition, the pharmacologic administration of FGF21 has been reported to decrease the body weight and improve the insulin sensitivity and lipoprotein profiles of obese mice and type 2 diabetes patients meaning that FGF21 has attracted huge interest as a therapeutic agent for type 2 diabetes, obesity, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. However, understanding FGF21 remains complicated due to the paradoxical condition of its tissue-dependent expression. For example, nutrient deprivation largely increases hepatic FGF21 levels whereas adipose tissue-derived FGF21 is increased under feeding condition. This review discusses the issues of interest that have arisen from existing publications, including the tissue-specific function of FGF21 and its action mechanism. We also summarize the current stage of a clinical trial using several FGF21 analogs.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.62 no.1
• /
• pp.291-316
• /
• 2010

This study aimed to look for the possibility of dissolving social exclusion about the social vulnerable classes through the culture welfare programs. For this purpose, we analyzed interview records focused on the culture welfare practitioners applying the Modified Grounded Theory Approach worked out by Kinosita. The results showed that the culture welfare programs functionated of dissolving social exclusion about the social weaks by enhancing latent faculties and the sense of self-respect of them through providing various opportunities of culture fruition. It was appeared that the culture welfare programs promoted creative competence and the sense of self-respect, and strengthened the sense of solidarity of the participants by using the approaching strategies of offering various opportunities of creational experience, atypical operating programs centered on the process, establishing of the participants' subjecthood, and communal activities. That is, it was proved that actually the social weaks experienced the change of life with feeling emotional satisfaction, promoting family and human relationship, establishing positive identity, empowerment, participating communal activities, and so on, through the culture welfare programs. From these results we can know that if we provide the programs mixing the culture welfare programs with social welfare services which traditionally reinforced social exclusion about the social vulnerable classes by stigma, the social exclusion about them can be dissolved.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.54 no.4
• /
• pp.459-466
• /
• 2003

Mycobacterium kansasii is the second most common cause of nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease in Western countries and Japan. The clinical and radiological features of pulmonary disease caused by M. kansasii usually resemble those of pulmonary tuberculosis including cavitary infiltrates with an upper lobe predilection. It is also now apparent that patients with M. kansasii pulmonary disease can present with noncavitary nodular bronchiectatic infiltrates similar to lung diseases of M. avium complex. With rifampin-containing regimens, treatment success rates are almost 100%. Timely diagnosis before the development of extensive disease and effective overall treatment strategies are very important to ensure that patients receive the appropriate medications for a sufficiently long period of time. To our knowledge, there has been no Korean case report of M. kansasii pulmonary disease in the immunocompetent patient until now. We report three cases of M. kansasii pulmonary disease in immunocompetent adult patients.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.102-106
• /
• 2010

A 5-year-old castrated male Cocker Spaniel was referred to Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital of Seoul National University with a history of chronic conjunctival hyperemia and a fleshy corneal mass in the right eye. On ophthalmic examinations, it was observed that a well-vascularized fleshy mass at the dorsolateral limbus extended into the clear cornea. The lesion regressed by initial medications, including both topical and systemic corticosteroids, and topical cyclosporine A. However, the lesion relapsed and grossly infiltrated to cornea in a short period of time without improvement in spite of the immunosuppressive therapy, leading to the vision loss. The eye was enucleated and nodular granulomatous episclerokeratitis was confirmed on histopathological examination.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.388-393
• /
• 2000

Cleft lip and palate is one of the most common congenital defects in oro-maxillo-facial region. Because most patients undergo surgical repair in early life, the sagittal jaw relationships used to be deteriorated gradually from palate surgery up to adulthood. Also, the maxillary lateral incisor may be absent or atypical-shaped in the cleft site and may not erupt or erupt ectopically, so multidisciplinary dental cares are needed for cleft lip and palate patients. The effects of the cleft lip and alveolus seem to be limited to that part of the dentofacial complex that surrounds the cleft area. In the maxillary arch, the anterior part of the non cleft segment has a tendency to be rotated forward. On the other hand, the cleft segment has a tendency to rotated slightly medially ; hence, the tendency for canines to be edge-to-edge and sometimes in crossbite. Lip and alveolus surgery adequetely correct these problems, with little untoward effect on the skeletal maxillary-mandible relationships. In this report, the patient has a repaired lip and cleft alveolus on the left side with congenital missing on '62, '22, oronasal fistula, and skeletal class III malocclusion which is not affected by lip surgery. Dental treatments for this patient including orthodontic(space supervision, functional regulator in mixed dentition, fixed therapy in permanent dentition) and prosthodontic(removable obturator with key and keyway attachment and Konus crown) therapy were performed to improve the patient's functions and esthetics.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.46-51
• /
• 1999

Objectives: Patients with premenstrual dysphoric disorder(or PMDD) have impairments of the social, occupational or academic function due to psychological or somatic symptoms, which have the characteristic pattern of symptom exacerbation in the week before menses begin and remission shortly after the onset of menses. In the chronobiological view, many researchers have assumed that the etiology of PMDD is the advanced circadian rhythm. It has been suggested that light has a therapeutic effect on PMDD, because evening light results in phase delay of circadian rhythm through the biochemical changes including melatonin. Methods: The authors investigated the therapeutic effect of light therapy on four patients with prospectively diagnosed PMDD by DSM-IV criteria using clinical psychiatric interview, Premenstrual Assessment Form(PAF) and Daily Rating Form(or DRF). In the evening(6:30pm-8:00pm), the 2,500 lux light administered for seven consecutive days during the symptomatic late luteal phase of menstrual cycle. Beck Depression Inventory(or BDI), Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression(or HAM-D), Spielberg State Anxiety Inventory(or SA), and DRF were evaluated before and after seven days of light therapy. Results: Premenstrual symptoms of PMDD could be effectively treated with the evening bright light therapy, especially in PMDD patients with atypical symptoms. In addition, the light therapy seemed to more effective on the psychologic symptoms than the somatic symptoms of PMDD. There was no significant side-effect of light therapy, except the transient and mild eye-strain in one case. Conclusions: In spite of the results of limited data from our clinical trial, the authors suggest that the potential use of light therapy as an alternative to the pharmacological management of patients with PMDD.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.67 no.3
• /
• pp.199-204
• /
• 2009

Background: To examine the recovery rate of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) from respiratory specimens and the clinical course of NTM pulmonary disease at a 700-bed secondary hospital. Methods: This study analyzed the results of 843 acid-fast bacilli (AFB) culture-positive respiratory specimens from 650 subjects collected between May 2003 and April 2008. In addition, the clinical course of NTM pulmonary disease, diagnosed using criteria established by the American Thoracic Society, was examined. Results: There were 67 (7.9%) NTM isolates recovered from 52 (8.0%) subjects. Among the 535 AFB smear-positive specimens, 34 (6.3%) NTM isolates were recovered. There were 33 (10.7%) NTM isolates were recovered from 308 AFB smear-negative specimens. Of 52 subjects with isolated NTM, M. intracellulare was the most common species at 73.1% (n=33), followed by M. kansassi (n=7), M. abscessus (n=2), M. fortuitum (n=2), and M. avium (n=1). Sixteen (30.8%) patients had NTM pulmonary disease and the most common causative organism was M. intracellulare (n=14, 87.5%). Of these, 6 cases attained negative conversion in culture, 4 cases failed to attain negative conversion because of poor cooperation or expiration from complicated underlying lung disease, and 5 cases were transferred to a higher-grade hospital. Conclusion: The recovery rate of NTM from respiratory specimens was relatively low and the most common species was M. intracellulare. Patients with NTM pulmonary disease showed variable clinical outcomes.

• KSBB Journal
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.138-142
• /
• 2004

Cigarette smoke causes atypical structure of pulmonary (cell structural) and oxidative damage. Therefore, we carried out to determine if exposure to cigarette smoke alters pulmonary structure and anti-oxidant related enzyme in a ICR mice model, when natural product extracts using by manual sprayer. The mice were divided into five groups, control group, sham-treated group (Sham), natural product extracts-treated group (NPE), natural product extracts-treated with smoke-exposed group (NPE-SM) and smoke-exposed (SM) group. All groups are similar to control group in weight, but SM group is lower than the other groups. Microscopic image of the pulmonary structure in SM group showed deleterious alterations in the morphology, but the other groups are maintained in original structure. In anti-oxidant related enzyme, SOD (superoxide dismutase) and catalase, SM group represents the lowest enzyme activity among all groups. These results indicate that the natural product extracts is an efficient tissue protective agent against smoke-induced lung injury.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.111-115
• /
• 2014

Purpose: This study evaluated powdered burn wound dressing materials from wild silkworm fibroin in an animal model. Methods: Fifteen rats were used in this experiment. Full-thickness $2{\times}2cm$ burn wounds were created on the back of rats under anesthesia. In the two experimental groups, the wounds were treated with two different dressing materials made from silkworm fibroin. In the Control Group, natural healing without any dressing material was set as control. The wound surface area was measured at five days, seven days and 14 days. Wound healing was evaluated by histologic analysis. Results: By gross observation, there were no infections or severe inflammations through 14 days post-injury. The differences among groups were statistically significant at seven days and 14 days, postoperatively (P<0.037 and 0.001, respectively). By post hoc test, the defect size was significantly smaller in experimental Group 1 compared with the Control Group and experimental Group 2 at seven days postoperatively (P=0.022 and 0.029, respectively). The difference between Group 1 and Group 2 was statistically significant at 14 days postoperatively (P<0.001). Group 1 and control also differed significantly (P=0.002). Group 1 showed a smaller residual scar than the Control Group and Group 2 at 14 days post-injury. Histologic analysis showed more re-epithelization in Groups 1 and 2 than in the Control Groups. Conclusion: Burn wound healing was accelerated with silk fibroin spun by wild silkworm Antheraea pernyi. There was no atypical inflammation with silk dressing materials. In conclusion, silk dressing materials can be used for treatment of burn wound.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.141-155
• /
• 2017

As the use of SNS becomes more active, many people are posting their thoughts about specific events in their SNS in the form of text. As a result, SNS is used in various fields such as finance and distribution to conduct service satisfaction surveys and consumer monitoring. However, in the transportation area, there are not enough cases to utilize unstructured data analysis such as emotional analysis. In this study, we developed an emotional analysis methodology that can be used in transportation by using highway VOC data, which is atypical data collected by Korea Expressway Corporation. The developed methodology consists of morpheme analysis, emotional dictionary construction, and emotional discrimination of the collected unstructured data. The developed methodology was verified using highway related tweet data. As a result of the analysis, it can be guessed that many information and information about the construction and the accident were related to the highway during the analysis period. Also, it seems that users complain about the delay caused by construction and accident.