• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 2001

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease characterized by a chronic inflammatory process, primarily involving the synovial membrane of peripheral j oints, where T cell activation is found. To address the superantigen stimulation in rheumatoid arthritis, T cell clonality and the expression of activation markers were analyzed. Methods: To detect TCRB V usage, inverse PCR and sequencing were done. Monoclonal antibodies were used for flow cytometric analysis of TCRBV8 or TCRBV5. As results, a restricted usage of TCRBV3 gene was detected in synovial lymphocytes from one rheumatoid arthritis patient. However, preferential usage for TCRB V8, which may be one indicator for stimulation by staphylococcal superantigen, was not obvious although general activation of T cells was found as high DR+ percentage in synovial T cells. These data show specific antigen rather than superantigen might involve the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.390-394
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• 2001

Lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia(LIP) is characterized by a massive infiltration of the interstitium of the lung by mature lymphocytes, plasma cells and reticuloendothelial cells. LIP may be associated with autoimmune diseases including Sj$\check{o}$grens syndrome, SLE, myasthenia gravis, pernicious anemia, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, and HIV or an EB virus infection. There is a possibility of LIP progressing to a pulmonary or systemic lymphoma. The therapeutic response to corticosteroids and/or immunosuppressive drugs varies. Here we report a case of LIP that was diagnosed by an open lung biopsy and clonality study. The patient was a 36 year-old man without autoimmune disease or HIV infection. He was admitted as a result of severe hypoxemia showing $PaO_2$ of 48.3mmHg. The patient was treated with corticosteroids after the diagnosis and had fully recovered without a sequalae or relapse.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.350-354
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• 2020

Feline chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a rare disease. Its diagnosis is not simple because of the absence of clinical signs and the presence of mature lymphocytosis. An 11-year-old female spayed Russian Blue cat was referred to the veterinary medical teaching hospital for lethargy, diarrhea, weight loss, and inappetence. Marked lymphocytic leukocytosis and a significantly increased number of small-to-intermediate-sized lymphocytes in the peripheral blood were found on hematological examination. The results of the feline leukemia virus and immunodeficiency virus test were negative. Further, mild splenomegaly was detected. Bone marrow aspirate analysis revealed mature lymphocytosis and a clonally rearranged T cell receptor gene with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for antigen receptor rearrangement assay. Flow cytometric immunophenotyping showed a homogeneous population of CD5+/CD21-T-cells in the peripheral blood and bone marrow. According to the results of the aforementioned examinations, CLL was diagnosed. Treatment was not initiated at the time of diagnosis because the clinical signs were mild and did not affect the quality of life. This report describes the clinical findings and use of advanced diagnostic tools such as molecular clonality analysis and immunophenotyping for the diagnosis of feline CLL.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.77-86
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• 2003

Pullorum disease due to Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica bioserovar Pullorum (S. pullorum) is reported to be an endemic disease in domestic poultry flocks. The pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) subtyping method was used to assess the extent of genetic diversity and clonality of most of salmonella serotypes and other diverse bacterial species from animals and environmental samples in worldwide. Nowadays, PFGE has already been evaluated as a gold standards for molecular subtyping of salmonella serotypes compared with other molecular analysis methods. PFGE of XbaI digested chromosomal DNA from 23 strains of S. pullorum gave 5 distinctive pulsotypes (from SXPI to SXPV) with 5% confidence range of Dice coefficients, indicating that PFGE is very discriminative and that multiple clones of S. pullorum have been existed and diffused all of domestic poultry flocks industries since 1995. Two dominant pulsogroups (SXA & SXB) appeared as a major clones in this country, because they had consistently been recovered from diverse sources including both chicken organs and raw feed materials between 1995 and 1998. In addition, the matching percentage of PFGE profiles (PFP) among strains from both chickens and feed ingredients provides indirect evidence of the possible transmission of pullorum disease from contaminated raw feed ingredients for chicken production. In calculating of discrimination index (DI) for PFGE method by Simpson's index, DI was appeared as 0.917. Therefore, this index suggested that the present PFGE would seem to be a desirable and confident molecular typing method for S. pullorum strains. To our knowledge for pullorum disease, this is the first study to compare S. pullorum strains from chicken organs and feed samples using the PFGE.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.157-162
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• 1999

Primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the lung is rare among extranodal lymphomas. The most common form is low grade B-cell type originated from the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) of the lung and primary peripheral T cell lymphoma of the lung is extremely rare. We recently experienced a case of fine needle aspiration cytology of primary peripheral T cell lymphoma of the lung in a 39-year-old male patient. The cytologic smears revealed some sheets of reactive epithelial cells, epithelioid histiocytes, and numerous polymorphous population of lymphoid cells composed of small and intermediate sized lymphoid cells and mature lymphocytes. Lymphoid cells were slightly larger than normal mature lymphocytes and showed significant irregularity of nuclear membrane. The internal nuclear structure was marked by chromatin clumping, clear parachromatin areas, and inconspicuous nucleoli. Histopathologically, atypical small lymphocytes infiltrated in the interstitium and alveolar sac. By the immunohistochemical study and molecular biologic study of gene rearrangement, the T cell clonality of atypical lymphoid cells was confirmed.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.215-224
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• 2000

In this study, the distribution of the mec regulator genes and the presence of the mutation in mecI gene and mec promoter region among 50 MRSA clinical isolates derived from a single university hospital in Korea were analyzed. Among 50 MRSA strains, 13 strains had a deletion of mecI gene, and 37 strains were found to have mutations in mecI gene or mecA promoter region corresponding to a presumptive operator of mecA, i.e., the binding site of the repressor protein. Furthermore, in order to track the evolution of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) distributed in Korea, we determined the MRSA clonotype by combined use of genetic organization patterns of mec regulator genes, ribotype, and coagulase type. As the result, 48 of 50 MRSA strains could be classified into four distinct clones. Clonotype I is characterized by the coagulase type 3, deletion of mecI gene, and ribotype 1 shared by NCTC10442, the first reported MRSA isolate in England (9 strains). Clonotype II is characterized by the coagulase type 4, C to T substitution at position 202 of mecI gene, and ribotypes 2, 3 and 4 shared by 85/3619 strain isolated in Austria (10 strains). Clonotype III is characterized by the coagulase type 2, mutations of mecA promoter region and/or mecI, and ribotypes 4, 5, and 6 shared by N315 strain isolated in Japan (25 strains). Clonotype IV is characterized by the coagulase type 4, deletion of mecI gene, and ribotype 7 (4 strains). The clonality of two strains could not be determined due to their undefined ribotype.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.2385-2392
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• 2012

The lack of effective treatment targets for triple-negative breast cancers make them unfitted for endocrine or HER2 targeted therapy, and their prognosis is poor. Transcription factor ER81, a downstream gene of the HER2, is highly expressed in breast cancer lines, breast atypical hyperplasia and primary breast cancers including triple-negative examples. However, whether and how ER81 affects breast cancer carcinogenesis have remained elusive. We here assessed influence on a triple-negative cell line. ER81-shRNA was employed to silence ER81 expression in the MDA-MB-231 cell line, and MTT, colony-forming assays, and flow cytometry were used to detect cell proliferation, colony-forming capability, cell cycle distribution, and cell apoptosis in vitro. MDA-MB-231 cells stably transfected with ER81-shRNA were inoculated into nude mice, and growth inhibition of the cells was observed in vivo. We found that ER81 mRNA and protein expression in MDA-MB-231 cells was noticeably reduced by ER81-shRNA, and that cell proliferation and clonality were decreased significantly. ER81-shRNA further increased cell apoptosis and the residence time in $G_0/G_1$ phase, while delaying tumor-formation and growth rate in nude mice. It is concluded that ER81 may play an important role in the progression of breast cancer and may be a potentially valuable target for therapy, especially for triple negative breast cancer.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.2052-2059
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• 2017

The emergence and dissemination of Salmonella genomic island 1 (SGI1) are strongly associated with the occurrence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) enterobacteria in humans and animals. Diverse SGI1s have been reported among Salmonella enterica and Proteus mirabilis in several countries. We aimed to characterize SGI1 in P. mirabilis isolates from humans and chickens in Chungcheong Province, Korea. A total of 44 P. mirabilis isolates were recovered from humans (n = 20) and chickens (n = 24). Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by disk diffusion assay. To detect and characterize SGI1s, PCR amplification and PCR mapping experiments were performed. Repetitive extragenic palindromic-PCR (REP-PCR) was performed to assess the clonality of the isolates. The four P. mirabilis strains (16.7%) from chicken harbored a SGI1, whereas none of the isolates from clinical specimens contained SGI1. The SGI1s detected in our study were all confirmed as SGI1-PmABB harboring aminoglycoside-resistant genes (aacCA5 and aadA7). In P. mirabilis isolates, the presence of SGI1-PmABB was significantly correlated with high resistance rates of the isolates to antimicrobial agents, such as gentamicin, streptomycin, and spectinomycin. Moreover, the four SGI1-bearing isolates showed the same REP-PCR patterns and that suggested both horizontal and clonal spread of the isolates. This study is the first attempt to determine SGI1s in P. mirabilis isolates in Korea. We confirmed that P. mirabilis isolates carrying SGI1-PmABB were distributed at poultry farms in Korea. The present study emphasizes the need for continuous monitoring of SGI1s to prevent spreading of the MDR genomic islands among P. mirabilis isolates from humans and animals.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.45 no.2
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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.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.50-58
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• 2011

Background: Epstein-Barr virus associated gastric lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LELC) is characterized by the intensive infiltration of lymphoid cells, the presence of EBV, and the better prognosis over typical adenocarcinoma. Thus, it was assumable that viral latent proteins may be responsible for the recruitment of a certain T cell repertoire to EBV-associated gastric carcinoma. Methods: To examine above possibility, EBV gene expression in gastric carcinoma tissues and usage of TCR among the tumor infiltrating lymphocytes were analyzed. Results: EBV specific DNA and EBERs RNA were detected in 4 out of 30 patients. RT-PCR analysis revealed that all 4 of EBV-positive tumor tissues expressed EBNA1 mRNA and BARTs and LMP2a was detected only one sample out of 4. However, the EBNA2 and LMP-1 transcripts were not detected in these tissues. $CD8^+$ T cells were the predominant population of infiltrating lymphocytes in the EBV-positive gastric carcinoma. According to spectra type analysis of infiltrating T cells, 10 predominant bands were detected by TCR $V{\beta}$ CDR3 specific RT-PCR from 4 EBV-positive tumor tissues. Sequence analysis of these bands revealed oligoclonal expansion of T cells. Conclusion: These findings suggest that clonally expanded T cells in vivo might be a population of cytotoxic T cells reactive to EBV-associated gastric carcinoma.