• 대한의생명과학회지
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.153-157
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• 2013

Although culture is the gold standard method to identify mycobacteria, its use in tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBL) is limited due to formalin fixation of the submitted specimens. We evaluated the performance of quantitative real-time PCR (q-PCR) for Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (MTB) in granulomatous lymphadenitis using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues. From 2000 to 2010, a total number of 117 cases of lymph node samples with granulomatous inflammation which were surgically removed and fixed in formalin were studied. Hematoxylin & Eosin (H&E) and Ziehl-Neelsen-stained (ZN) slides were reviewed. qPCR using Real TB-Taq$^{(R)}$ was performed for all cases to identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Thirteen non-tuberculous lymphadenopathy cases were used as negative control. Cervical lymph nodes were more frequently affected (60%, 70/117) than other sites. ZN stain for acid fast bacilli was positive in 19 (16.24%) cases. qPCR for tuberculosis was positive in 92 (78.63%) cases. Caseous necrosis was found in 103 (88.03%) cases. While the ZN stain and qPCR were both negative in all control cases, the qPCR showed a significantly higher positive rate (78.63% vs. 16.24%) compared to ZN stain in histologically diagnosed TBL. Quantitative real-time PCR proves to be more sensitive than ZN stain for diagnosis of tuberculous lymphadenitis.

• 대한의생명과학회지
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.179-185
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• 2010

Benzene is known as a ubiquitous air pollutant and has a carcinogenic influence on the human body. Benzene is also metabolized to other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the body such as phenol and hydroquinone (HQ). The metabolites are accumulated and further oxidized by myeloperoxidase in bone marrow. They act as toxic agents and cause a variety of diseases, including cancer, atopic dermatitis and asthma. In this study, we examined the effects of benzene and its metabolites on proliferation, differentiation and chemotaxis of EoL-1 cells, the human eosinophilic leukemia cell line. These chemicals had no effect on the proliferation of EoL-1 cells. Benzene decreased the differentiation of EoL-1 cells induced by butyric acid. HQ was induced the cell death during butyric acid-induced EoL-1 cell differentiation. In a chemotaxis experiment, benzene, phenol and HQ enhanced the cell migration induced by Lkn-1 but not by MCP-1, eotaxin, MIP-$1{\alpha}$ and RANTES. These findings provide the effect of VOCs on the regulation of eosinophil-involved immune response.

• 대한의생명과학회지
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.362-368
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• 2012

Enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) is an intestinal commensal bacterium implicated as a risk factor for colon cancer. The key virulence factor is a secreted toxin called B. fragilis toxin (BFT). In this study we used an in vitro bioassay to examine the prevalence of ETBF in colonic washings from patients with colorectal polyps and normal control patients. We found that 9.3% of polyp patients and 10.9% of non-polyp patients harbored ETBF, respectively. A total of nine ETBF clinical isolates were isolated and confirmed to be positive for the BFT gene by PCR analysis and the ability to induce IL-8 secretion in the colonic epithelial cell line HT29/c1. Two of the ETBF clinical strains were characterized further in vitro and in vivo. We found that the two ETBF clinical isolates induced E-cadherin cleavage in HT29/c1 cells and promoted colonic inflammation in C57BL/6 mice. Our results indicate that the prevalence of ETBF in polyp patients were similar in non-polyp patients suggesting that ETBF carriage does not positively correlate to polyp incidence.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제25권8호
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• pp.1227-1233
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• 2015

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays a key role in angiogenesis through binding to its specific receptors, which mainly occurs to VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR-2), a kinase insert domain-containing receptor. Therefore, the disruption of VEGFR-2 signaling provides a promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of cancer by inhibiting abnormal or tumorinduced angiogenesis. To explore this potential, we expressed the catalytic domain of VEGFR-2 (VEGFR-2-CD) as a soluble active kinase in Escherichia coli. The recombinant protein was purified and the VEGFR-2-CD activity was investigated. The obtained VEGFR-2-CD showed autophosphorylation activity and phosphate transfer activity comparable to the commercial enzyme. Furthermore, the IC₅₀ value of known VEGFR-2 inhibitor was determined using the purified VEGFR-2-CD. These results indicated a possibility for functional and economical VEGFR-2-CD expression in E. coli to use for inhibitor screening.

• Clinical and Experimental Emergency Medicine
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.264-271
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• 2018

Objective For patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), symptoms assessed by emergency medical services (EMS) providers have a critical role in prehospital treatment decisions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of EMS provider-assessed cardiac symptoms of AMI. Methods Patients transported by EMS to 4 study hospitals from 2008 to 2012 were included. Using EMS and administrative emergency department databases, patients were stratified according to the presence of EMS-assessed cardiac symptoms and emergency department diagnosis of AMI. Cardiac symptoms were defined as chest pain, dyspnea, palpitations, and syncope. Disproportionate stratified sampling was used, and medical records of sampled patients were reviewed to identify an actual diagnosis of AMI. Using inverse probability weighting, verification bias-corrected diagnostic performance was estimated. Results Overall, 92,353 patients were enrolled in the study. Of these, 13,971 (15.1%) complained of cardiac symptoms to EMS providers. A total of 775 patients were sampled for hospital record review. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of EMS provider-assessed cardiac symptoms for the final diagnosis of AMI was 73.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 70.8 to 75.7), 85.3% (95% CI, 85.3 to 85.4), 3.9% (95% CI, 3.6 to 4.2), and 99.7% (95% CI, 99.7 to 99.8), respectively. Conclusion We found that EMS provider-assessed cardiac symptoms had moderate sensitivity and high specificity for diagnosis of AMI. EMS policymakers can use these data to evaluate the pertinence of specific prehospital treatment of AMI.

• 대한의생명과학회지
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.377-380
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• 2010

In this study, we investigated the effect of egg yolk lipids (EYL) on collagen ($10\;{\mu}g/ml$)-stimulated platelet aggregation in vivo. Dietary EYL significantly inhibited collagen-induced platelet aggregation, in addition, increased the formation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), intracellular $Ca^{2+}$-antagonist as aggregation-inhibiting molecules, in collagen-stimulated platelets. These results suggest that EYL inhibits the collagen-induced platelet aggregation by up-regulating the cAMP and cGMP production. On the other hands, prothrombin time (PT) on extrinsic pathway of blood coagulation was potently prolonged by dietary EYL in vivo. These findings suggest that EYL prolongs the internal time between the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin. Accordingly, our data demonstrate that EYL may be a crucial tool for a negative regulator during platelet activation and blood coagulation on thrombotic diseases.

• 대한임상검사과학회지
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• 제44권4호
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• pp.210-215
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• 2012

Hepatitis virus infection is one of the major problems in Korea. To establish preventive measures for hepatitis A and B virus infection, study on sero-positivity of serum anti-HAV (aHAV) and anti-HBs (aHBs) is needed. The aim of this study was to analyze the sero-positivity and related factors of aHAV and aHBs. We analysed the sero-positivity of serum aHAV and aHBs using ICA (Immunochromatography Assay) method from 102 university students and employees and questionnaire survey was obtained characteristics, vaccination history, past history test, knowledge and information sources of the study subjects. Overall sero-positivity rates of serum aHAV and aHBs were 20.6% and 52.9%, respectively. The sero-positivity rate of aHBs was significantly different by gender (M, 34.9%; F,66.1%) and that of aHAV was significantly different by age (20 age group, 2.7%; 30 age group, 14.3%; 40 age group, 70%; 50 age group, 91.7%). Overall sero-positivity rates of serum aHAV and aHBs by vaccination history rates were 4.9% and 43.1%, respectively. Overall sero-positivity rates of serum aHAV and aHBs by past history test were 10.8% and 52.9%, respectively. Sero-positivity rates of serum aHAV was low in university students. The results of this study could be used effectively as a basic data for establishing effective preventive measures for hepatitis A including vaccination.

• 대한임상검사과학회지
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• 제45권2호
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• pp.43-47
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• 2013

This study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of ESBL genes and monitor antimicrobial resistance pattern in Escherichia coli, isolated from a hospital and a community. We tested 200 E. coli strains isolated in the hospitals and community in Chungcheong area from January to March 2012. Antimicrobial susceptibilities were tested by using the disk diffusion method. A search for ESBL genes was conducted by PCR amplification, and the genotypes were determined by direct nucleotide sequence analysis of the amplified products. An Epidemiologic study was performed by repetitive extragenic palindromic sequence-based PCR (REP-PCR). The percentage of ESBL-producing isolates was 17% for hospital associated E. coli and 11% for community associated E. coli. The ESBL gene sequencing results showed that the most common ESBL in E. coli was CTX-M-14 (19/28), followed by CTX-M-15 (9/28). The REP-PCR study also showed the genetic diversity, but there was no difference between the hospital and community associated E. coli. In this study, the most common types of class A ESBLs identified were CTX-M in the hospital and the community in Chungcheong area. ESBL-producing E. coli isolates showed diverse clonality.

• 고려인삼학회:학술대회논문집
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• 고려인삼학회 2007년도 춘계 학술대회
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• pp.7-7
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• 2007

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.394-400
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• 2014

Avascular necrosis of the femoral head (ANFH) is commonly observed in patients treated with excessive glucocorticoid (GC). Single administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) has shown to induce immune stimulatory factors. However, the effect of repeated administration of LPS on GC-induced ANFH has not been studied. Thus, the purpose of this study was (i) to examine the cytokine profile induced by repeated LPS administrations and (ii) to test the effect of repeated LPS treatments on GC-induced ANFH. A mouse necrosis model of ANFH was designed by chronic GC administration with co-treatment of LPS. Mice body weights in the LPS/prednisolone (PDN) co-treated group were lower than that of the untreated control group, but spleen weights were greater than the control group. The levels of IL-6, $TNF{\alpha}$, and IL-33 in the liver and spleen of the LPS/PDN group were lower than the untreated control group, whereas $TNF{\alpha}$ level in the femoral head of the LPS/PDN group increased. Collectively, the effect of repeated LPS on the pathogenesis of GC-induced ANFH was associated with the $TNF{\alpha}$ level in the femoral head, but the pathogenesis did not correspond to cytokine levels in immune tissues.