• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.389-398
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• 2013

Platycodin D is a major constituent of triterpene saponins, which is found in the root of Platycodon grandiflorum, Platycodi Radix, which is widely used in traditional Oriental medicine for the treatment of many chronic inflammatory diseases. Several pharmacological effects of this compound have been reported recently, such as anti-inflammation, immunogenicity, anti-adipogenesis, lowered cholesterol, and anti-cancer activity. However, the mechanism by which this action occurs is poorly understood. In this study, we found that platycodin D greatly increased the potential of the anti-proliferative effect in various cancer cell lines. Our data revealed that platycodin D treatment resulted in a time- and concentration-response growth inhibition of U937 cells by inducing apoptosis, as evidenced by the formation of apoptotic bodies, chromatin condensation, and the accumulation of cells in the sub-G1 phase. Apoptosis induction of U937 cells by platycodin D correlated with an increase in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and caused the down-regulation of IAP family members. In addition, platycodin D treatment resulted in proteolytic activation of caspase-3, the concomitant degradation of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases, and the collapse of the mitochondria membrane potential (${\Delta}{\Psi}_m$). However, the cytotoxic effects induced by platycodin D treatment were significantly inhibited by z-DEVD-fmk, a caspase-3 inhibitor, which demonstrated the important role that caspase-3 played in the observed cytotoxic effect. These findings suggest that platycodin D may be a potential chemotherapeutic agent for use in the control of human leukemia U937 cells. These findings also provided important new insights into possible molecular mechanisms of the anti-cancer activity of platycodin D.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.567-587
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• 2018

A severe haze event occurred in October 2015 in Gwangju, Korea. In this study, the driving chemical species and the formation mechanisms of $PM_{2.5}$ pollution were investigated to better understand the haze event. Hourly concentrations of $PM_{2.5}$, organic and elemental carbon, water-soluble ions, and elemental constituents were measured at the air quality intensive monitoring station in Gwangju. The haze event occurred was attributed to a significant contribution (72.3%) of secondary inorganic species concentration to the $PM_{2.5}$, along with the contribution of organic aerosols that were strongly attributed to traffic emissions over the study site. MODIS images, weather charts, and air mass backward trajectories supported the significant impact of long-range transportation (LTP) of aerosol particles from northeastern China on haze formation over Gwangju in October 2015. The driving factor for the haze formation was stagnant atmospheric flows around the Korean peninsula, and high relative humidity (RH) promoted the haze formation at the site. Under the high RH conditions, $SO{_4}^{2-}$ and $NO_3{^-}$ were mainly produced through the heterogenous aqueous-phase reactions of $SO_2$ and $NO_2$, respectively. Moreover, hourly $O_3$ concentration during the study period was highly elevated, with hourly peaks ranging from 79 to 95ppb, suggesting that photochemical reaction was a possible formation process of secondary aerosols. Over the $PM_{2.5}$ pollution, behavior and formation of secondary ionic species varied with the difference in the impact of LTP. Prior to October 19 when the influence of LTP was low, increasing rate in $NO_3{^-}$ was greater than that in $NO_2$, but both $SO_2$ and $SO{_4}^{2-}$ had similar increasing rates. While, after October 20 when the impact of haze by LTP was significant, $SO{_4}^{2-}$ and $NO_3{^-}$ concentrations increased significantly more than their gaseous precursors, but with greater increasing rate of $NO_3{^-}$. These results suggest the enhanced secondary transformation of $SO_2$ and $NO_2$ during the haze event. Overall, the result from the study suggests that control of anthropogenic combustion sources including vehicle emissions is needed to reduce the high levels of nitrogen oxide and $NO_3{^-}$ and the high $PM_{2.5}$ pollution occurred over fall season in Gwangju.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.448-468
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• 1996

To maintain its functional integrity, bone is continuously remodelled by a process involving resorption by osteoeclasts and formation by osteoblasts, In order to respond to changes in the physical environment or to trauma with the relevant action, this process is strictly regulated by locally synthesized or systemic fators, Prostaglandin $E_2(PGE_2$) is perhaps one of the best studied factors, having been known to affect bone cell function for several decades.$PGE_2$ has both anabolic and catabolic activities. Excess of $PGE_2$ has been implicated in a number of pathological states associated with bone loss in a number of chronic inflammatory conditions such as periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis. $PGE_2$ and other arachidonic acid metabolites have been shown to be potent stimulators of osteoclastic bone resorption in organ culture. The anabolic effects of $PGE_2$ were first noticed when an increase in periosteal woven bone formation was seen after the infusion of $PGE_2$ into infants in order to prevent closure of the ductus arteriosus. The cellular basis for the catabolic actions of $PGE_2$ has been well characterized. $PGE_2$increases osteoclast recruitment in bone marrow cell cultures. Also $PGE_2$ has a direct action on osteoclast serving to inhibit activity and can also indirectly activate osteoclast via other cells in the vicinity, presumably osteoblast. The cellular mechanisms for the anabolic actions of $PGE_2$ are not nearly so well understood. The purpose of this paper was to study the effects of $PGE_2$ and dibutyl(DB)cAMP on osteoblastic clone MC3T3El cells and on the generation of osteoclasts from their precursor cells. The effect of $PGE_2$ and DBcAMP on the induction of alkaline phoaphatase(AlP) was investigated in osteoblastic clone MC3T3El cells cultured in medium containing 0.4% fetal bovine serum. $PGE_2$ and DBcAMP stimulated ALP activity and MTT assay in the cells in a dose-dependent manner at concentrations of lO-SOOng/ml. Cycloheximide, protein synthesis inhibitor, inhibited the stimulative effect of $PGE_2$ and DBcAMP on ALP activity in the cells. $PGE_2$also increased the intracellular cAMP content in a dose-dependent fashion with a maximal effect at 500ng/ml. The effect of $PGE_2$ on the generation of osteoclasts was investigated in a coculture system of mouse bone marrow cells with primary osteoblastic cells cultured in media containing 10% fetal bovine serum.After cultures, staining for tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase(TRAP)-marker enzyme of osteoclast was performed. The TRAP(+) multinucleated cells(MNCs), which have 3 or more nuclei, were counted. More TRAP(+) MNCs were formed in coculture system than in control group. $PGE_2(10^{-5}10^{-6}M)$ stimulated the formation of osteoclast cells from mouse bone marrow cells in culture. $PGE_2(10^{-6}M)$ stimulated the formation of osteoclast cells from mouse bone marrow cells in coculture of osteoblastic clone MC3T3E1 cells This results suggest that $PGE_2$ stimulates the differentiation of osteoblasts and generation of osteoclast, and are involved in bone formation, as well as in bone resorption.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.705-713
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• 1998

Background: An association between diabetes and tuberculosis has long been implied. The severity of diabetes appears to correlate with the degree of tuberculous activity. Methods: A retrospective chart review of 82 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis in diabetics (DMTB) and 83 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis in nondiabetics (Non-DMTB) admitted to the Kyung Hee Medical Center between January 1995 and December 1996 was underiaken. Results: The sex ratio of DMTB was 58 : 24, and that of Non-DMTB was 62 : 21. Male patients predominated in both groups. The highest incidence of DMTB was 6th and 7th decades and that of Non-DMTB was 3rd and 4th decades. In case which the tuberculosis developed after diagnosis of diabetes, the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis was the highest in diabetes for 5-10 years. On chest X-ray findings, the moderate advanced tuberculosis cases were the most common (60.9% in DMTTB and 50.6% in Non-DMTB). There was no relation between the degree of tuberculosis activity on chest x-ray(minimal, moderate, and far advanced tuberculosis) and presence of diabetes. The incidence of lower lung field tuberculosis in DMTB was significantly higher than Non-DMTB(p<0.05). The multiple lobe involvement was the predominant chest roentgenographic finding in both groups. There was no significant difference of treatment response between DMTB and Non-DMTB. There was no relationship between initial HbA1c and the severity of pulmonary tuberculosis on chest X-ray. During treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in excellently and well controlled diabetes, the cure rate of pulmonary tuberculosis was significantly higher than the poorly controlled diabetes and the rate of treatment failure was significantly lower than poorly controlled diabetes. (p<0.05). Conclusion: Poor control of blood glucose is related with increased rate of treatment failure in pulmonary tuberculosis with diabetes mellitus. Further investigation will be needed to study the mechanisms of treatment failure in poorly controlled diabetics with pulmonary tuberculosis.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.251-263
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• 1997

Background : The emergence of multidrug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis presents a significant challange to the treatment and control of tuberculosis, and there is an urgent need to understand the mechanisms by which strains acquire multidrug resistance. Recent advances in molecular methods for the detection of M. tuberculosis genetic targets have approached the sensitivity of culture. Furthermore the prospect of determining resistance in mycobacteria at the nucleic acid level particulary to first-line drugs like rifampin, isoniazid has provided a glimps of the next generation of sensitivity test for M. tuberculosis. Previous studies in RMP resistant M. tuberculosis have shown that mutation in $\beta$subunit of RNA polymerase is main mechanism of resistance. Method : In this study, rpoB gene for the $\beta$subunit of RNA polymerase from M. tuberculosis of 42 cultured samples (32 were RMP resistant and 10 were sensitive cases) were isolated and characterised the mutations. Direct sequencing data were compared with the results of INNO-LiPA Line Probe Assay (LiPA, Innogenetics, Belgium), commercial RMP resistance detecting kit using reverse hybridization method. Results : All of the RMP resistant samples were revealed the presence of mutation by LiPA. In 22 samples (68.8%) out of 32 RMP resistant cases, the mutation types were confirmed by the positive signal at one of 4 mutation bands in the strip. The most frequent type was R5 (S531L) which were 17 cases (77.3%). Results of direct sequencing were identified the exact characteristics of 8 mutations which were not confirmed by LiPA. S522W type point mutation and 9 base pair deletion at codon 513~515 were new identified mutations for the first time. Conclusion : Mutations in rpoB gene is the main mechanism of RMP resistance in M. tuberculosis and LiPA is a very useful diagnostic tool for the early diagnosis of RMP resistance in M. tuberculosis.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.317-326
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• 1999

Background: Neural control of airway function is through parasympathetic, sympathetic and non-adrenergic, non-cholinergic mechanisms. The autonomic nervous system controls the airway smooth muscle tone, mucociliary system, permeability and blood flow in the bronchial circulation and release of mediators from the mast cells and other inflammatory cells. The cardiovascular and respiratory autonomic efferent fibers have a common central origin, so altered cardiovascular autonomic reflexes could reflect the altered respiratory autonomic status. Therefore, we performed this study to assess the autonomic abnormality and determine the correlating factors of severity of autonomic neuropathy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) using easily reproducible cardiovascular autonomic reflex function test. Method: The study included 20 patients with COPD and 20 healthy persons obtained on Health Promotion Center in Yeungnam university hospital. All the patients had history and clinical features of COPD as defined by the American Thoracic Society. Any patients with myocardial ischemia, cardiac arrythmia, hypertension, central or peripheral nervous system disease, diabetes mellitus, or any other diseases known to produce autonomic neuropathy, has excluded. The autonomic nervous system function tests included three tests evaluating the parasympathetic system and two tests evaluating the sympathetic system. And also all subjects were subjected to pulmonary function test and arterial blood gas analysis. Results: Autonomic dysfunction was more commonly associated with patients with COPD than healthy person The parasympathetic dysfunction was frequent in patient with COPD, but sympathetic dysfunction seemed preserved. The severity of parasympathetic dysfunction in patients with COPD was correlated with the degree of duration of disease, smoking, reductions in the value of $FEV_1$ and FVC, and arterial hypoxemia but no such correlation existed for age, type of COPD, $FEV_1$/FVC, or $PaCO_s$. Conclusion: There is high frequency of parasympathetic dysfunction associated with COPD and the parasympathetic abnormality in COPD is increased in proportion to severity of airway disease. In COPD, parasympathetic dysfunction probably does not the cause of disease, but it may be an effect of disease progression.

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.25-41
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• 1973

Ultrastructural changes in the cells of the corpora allata of the pine moth, Dendrolimus spectabilis Butler, were studied by electron microscope to know the structural correlates of hormone production by the gland during the larval-pupal-adult transformations. Mitochondria are in active phases from the overwintered to the last instar larvae and from the pupae just after pupation to the 20-day old pupae, while they are in inactive phases from the making cocoon stage to the prepupae just before pupation. The peripheral allatum cells have electron dense granules in the intracellular vacuoles of smooth-surfaced endoplasmic reticulum in the larval life, particularly in the overwintered larvae and in the early adults but the swollen smooth-surfaced intracytoplasmic vacuoles made by expansion of an end of the tubular rough endoplasmic reticulum, some of which contain fibrous proteins, are observed in addition to the vacuoles in the intercellular spaces in which the vacuoles grow by fusing each other from the mature larvae to the prepupae, both of them disappearing during just before pupation. After pupation the cytolasmic vacuoles develop again in the allatum cells so that they seem to begin the secretory activity. The fact that the neurosecretory granules stored within the axons terminated in the corpus allatum are visible only from the 20-day old pupa about two days before abult emergence to the 5-day old adult means that the secretion from the allatum cells is under the control of the brain from the late pupal stage, while the secretion during from the larval to the early pupal life has no relation with the brain, because such granules are not observed within the axons. It is, therefore, suggested that at least two kinds of hormone are released with the ages as far as concerned with the production and secretion mechanisms of the allatum hormone: juvenile hormone is released until the last instar larvae without any direct stimlation of the brain and gonadotropic hormone is secreted from the late pupa to the adult by getting brain's stimulation and that the secretory phases observed from the mature larvae to prepupae are presumably concerned with the biosynthesis of protein owing to the ecdysone and those from the early pupal stage in uncontrolled condition of the brain with the prothoracotropic activity.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.73-94
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• 2010

The attending system is a medical system that allows doctors in clinics to use the extra equipment in hospitals-beds, laboratory, operating room, etc-for their patient's care under a contract between the doctors and hospitals. Therefore, the system is very beneficial in terms of the efficiency of the usage of medical resources. However, it is necessary to develop a strong support system to strengthen its weaknesses and supplement its merits. If doctors use hospital beds under the attending system of hospitals, they would be able to check a patient's condition often and provide them with nursing care services. However, the current attending system lacks delivery and assistance support. Thus, for the successful performance of the attending system, a networking system should be developed to facilitate communication between the doctors and nurses. In particular, the nursing records in the attending system could help doctors monitor the patient's condition and provision of nursing care services. A nursing record is the formal documentation associated with nursing care. It is merely a data repository that helps nurses to track their activities; nursing records thus represent a resource of primary information that can be reused. In order to maximize their usefulness, nursing records have been introduced as part of computerized patient records. However, nursing records are internal data that are not disclosed by hospitals. Moreover, the lack of standardization of the record list makes it difficult to share nursing records. Under the attending system, nurses would want to minimize the amount of effort they have to put in for the maintenance of additional records. Hence, they would try to maintain the current level of nursing records in the form of record lists and record attributes, while doctors would require more detailed and real-time information about their patients in order to monitor their condition. Therefore, this study developed a system for assisting in the maintenance and sharing of the nursing records under the attending system. In contrast to previous research on the functionality of computer-based nursing records, we have emphasized the practical usefulness of nursing records from the viewpoint of the actual implementation of the attending system. We suggested that nurses could design a nursing record dictionary for their convenience, and that doctors and nurses could confirm the definitions that they looked up in the dictionary through negotiations with intelligent agents. Such an agent-based system could facilitate networking among medical institutes. Multi-agent systems are a widely accepted paradigm for the distribution and sharing of computation workloads in the scientific community. Agent-based systems have been developed with differences in functional cooperation, coordination, and negotiation. To increase such communication, a framework for a multi-agent based system is proposed in this study. The agent-based approach is useful for developing a system that promotes trade-offs between transactions involving multiple attributes. A brief summary of our contributions follows. First, we propose an efficient and accurate utility representation and acquisition mechanism based on a preference scale while minimizing user interactions with the agent. Trade-offs between various transaction attributes can also be easily computed. Second, by providing a multi-attribute negotiation framework based on the attribute utility evaluation mechanism, we allow both the doctors in charge and nurses to negotiate over various transaction attributes in the nursing record lists that are defined by the latter. Third, we have designed the architecture of the nursing record management server and a system of agents that provides support to the doctors and nurses with regard to the framework and mechanisms proposed above. A formal protocol has also been developed to create and control the communication required for negotiations. We verified the realization of the system by developing a web-based prototype. The system was implemented using ASP and IIS5.1.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.685-695
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• 2009

Background: Calcification is the most frequent cause of clinical failure of bioprosthetic tissues that are fabricated from Glutaraldehyde (GA)-fixed porcine valve or bovine pericardium. We recently used a multi-factorial approach of employing different mechanisms to investigate how to reduce the calcification of bioprosthetic tissues. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the synchronized synergism using ethanol, L-lysine and $NaBH_4$ in glutaraldehyde treated porcine pericardium from the standpoint of calcification and tissue elasticity. Material and Method: Porcine pericardium was fixed with 0.625% GA (commercial fixation). An interim step of ethanol (80%; 1 day at room temperature) or L-lysine (0.1 M; 2 days at $37^{\circ}C$) or $NaBH_4$ (0.1 M; 2 days at room temperature) was followed by completion of the GA fixation (2 days at $4^{\circ}C$ and 7 days at room temperature). The tensile strength and thickness of the samples were measured. The treated pericardiums were implanted subcutaneously into three-week old Sprague-Dawley rats for 8 weeks. The calcium content was assessed by atomic absorption spectroscopy and the histology of the samples. Result: The amount of calcium in the pericardium pretreated with ethanol (13.6${\pm}$10.0 ug/mg, p=0.008), L-lysine (15.3${\pm}$1.0 ug/mg, p=0.002) and both (16.1${\pm}$11.1 ug/mg, p=0.012) was significantly reduced compared with the control (51.2${\pm}$8.5 ug/mg). However, $NaBH_4$ pretreatment (65.7${\pm}$61.8 ug/mg, p=0.653) and combined pretreatment that including ethanol, L-lysine and $NaBH_4$ (92.9${\pm}$58.3 ug/mg, p=0.288) were not significantly different from the controls(51.2${\pm}$8.5 ug/mg). Both the combined pretreatment using ethanol and L-lysine (7.60${\pm}$1.55, p=0.76) and the combined pretreatment that included ethanol, L-lysine and $NaBH_4$ (7.47${\pm}$1.85, p=0.33) increased the tensile strength/thickness ratio compared with that of the controls (4.75${\pm}$1.88). Conclusion: The combined pretreatment using ethanol and L-lysine seemed to decrease the calcification of porcine pericardium fixed with glutaraldehyde, as compared to single pretreatment, and it increase the tissue elasticity, but to the degree that showed synchronized synergism. $NaBH_4$ pretreatment seemed to increase the calcification of porcine pericardium, irrespective of whether single or combined pretreatment was used.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.245-254
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• 2010

Effects of heavy metal ions on the gene expression of cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A) were examined in cultured eel hepatocytes. When the expression of CYP1A mRNA was measured by RT-PCR after incubation of eel hepatocytes with benzo[$\alpha$]pyrene (B[$\alpha$]P) at concentrations of 10-8~10-5 M, the CYP1A expression increased with B[$\alpha$]P treatment in a dose dependent manner, showing significant increase at concentrations more than 10-7 M. When the eel hepatocyte was treated with cadmium (10-6 and 10-5 M), the expression of CYP1A was inhibited and especially at higher concentration (10-5 M). The inhibition of CYP1A expression by cadmium was also observed in cells treated with B[$\alpha$]P. In another study, effects of heavy metal ions on the expression of CYP1A were examined in cultured hepatocytes isolated from eel which was treated previously with B[$\alpha$]P in vivo. Hepatocytes isolated from the liver of eel taken at 48 hours after injection of B[$\alpha$]P (10 mg/kg) were cultured for 2 days with cadmium, copper, lead or zinc (10-6 and 10-5 M). The expression of CYP1A was found to be suppressed by the metal ions compared with the control in which CYP1A was induced with previous treatment of B[$\alpha$]P in vivo. The present results may provide an important basic information for studying the effects of heavy metal ions on CYP1A expression in other species of fish and studying toxicological mechanisms of heavy metal ions in aquatic livings.