• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.75-79
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• 2007

Background: Defective or immature antibody responses to pathogens in children may explain the increased susceptibility to acute otitis media. However, there is no study in Korea patients whether a correlation exists between otitis media with effusion and the levels of serum immunoglobulins, IgG subclasses, IgA, IgM and IgE. Methods: 45 children with otitis media with effusion more than 4 episodes in 12 months or 3 episodes in 6 months, 62 children with otitis media with effusion less than 3 episodes in 12 months and 102 children for control group took part in the study at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of the KyungHee University from May 2004 to Feburary 2007. Serum immunoglobulin levels were determined by nephelometry. And then the relationship between otitis media with effusion and serum immunoglobulin level was evaluated. Results: In otitis media prone group, serum IgG1, IgG2, IgG4, and IgA level was lower than those level of control group, it was significantly decreased (p<0.05). In otitis media group, serum IgA, IgE, and IgG4 level was lower than those level of control. But it was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Conclusion: Lower immunoglobulins in children with otitis media with effusion suggest a generalized decreased antibody responses. Lower levels of serum IgG1, IgG2, IgG4, and IgA may be related with chronicity or intractability of otitis media with effusion.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.365-372
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• 2008

Objectives : There are very few researches on North Korea's academic activities. Furthermore, it is doubtful that the available data are reliable. This study investigated research activities and knowledge structure in the field of Preventive Medicine in North Korea with a network analysis using co-authors and keywords. Methods : The data was composed of the North Korean Journal of preventive medicine ranged from Vol. 1 of 1997 to Vol. 4 of 2006. It was the matrix of 1,172 articles by 1,567 co-authors. We applied R procedure for keywords abstraction, and then sought for the outcome of network forms by spring-KK and shrinking network. Results : To comprehend the whole networks explicitly demonstrated that the academic activities in North Korea s preventive medicine were predisposed to centralization as similar as South Korea's, but on the other aspect they were prone to one-off intermittent segmentation. The principal co-author networks were formulated around some outstanding medical universities seemingly in addition to possible intervention by major researchers. The knowledge structure of network was based on experimentation judging from keywords such as drug, immunity, virus detection, infection, bacteria, anti-inflammation, etc. Conclusions : Though North Korea is a socialist regime, there were network of academic activities, which were deemed the existence of inducive mechanism affordable for free research. Article keywords has laid greater emphasis on experiment-based bacterial defection, sustainable immune system and prevention of infection. The kind of trend was a consistent characteristic in preventive medicine of North Korea haying close correlation with Koryo medical science.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2009

Atopic dermatitis, caused by immune hyper-responsiveness, is wide spread in humans as well as in the dogs, especially in industrialized condition. Pet dogs are generally exposed to the same environment as their owners, and a significant portion of these animals are also known to suffer from this allergic disease. However, diagnosis and treatment methods of atopic dermatitis in animals have not been well established. We explored the possibility of using recently developed PG102 for the treatment of atopic dermatitis in the canine population. PG102 is a water soluble extract prepared from Actinidia arguta, and has been shown to produce significant therapeutic effect in variable allergy animal models. After oral administration of PG102 at a dose of 12.5 mg/kg daily for 4 weeks, severity of disease was greatly improved. IgE is one of representative members used to diagnose allergic diseases in humans. However, it is not well established whether there is any correlation between the serum level of IgE and atopic dermatitis. Our data indicated that dogs diagnosed to have atopic dermatitis contained higher level of serum IgE than the normal dogs and that treatment of dogs with PG102 significantly lowered the serum level of IgE. Taken together, this study demonstrated that PG102 treatment yielded significant amelioration of canine atopic dermatitis and down-regulation of serum IgE and that the serum level of IgE can be used as a convenient member for diagnosis of atopic dermatitis in dogs.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.547-555
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• 1997

This study was conducted to assess the nutritional status of the elderly from low income areas and its relationship with the indices of immunity. Ninety nine(male : 28, female : 71) healthy, subjects aged over 65 years staying in homes in Seoul were assessed with regard to their dietary intake and biochemical measurements. Their mean daily energy intakes were 1256kcal and 109kcal for males and females respectively. Mean serum IgG were 2356mg/dl in men and 2161mg/dl for women, higher than the normal range. Mean serum $C_3$ were 120.9mg/dl and 130.6mg/dl for males and females respectively and mean $C_4$ were 30.6mg/dl and 31.9mg/dl. The mean $C_3$ and $C_4$ were within the normal range and the proportion of subjects whose $C_3$ and $C_4$ were at a higher level than the upper limit were 15.4$\%$ and 16.3$\%$ respectively. Complement $C_3$ showed significant correlation with serum albumin(p〈0.01), serum cholesterol(p〈0.00l, serum TG(p〈0.05), LDL-C(p$\ll$$\ll$$\ll$$\ll$$\ll$$\ll$$\ll$$\ll$$\ll$$\ll$$\ll$$\ll$$\ll$q0.001), VLDL-C(p$\ll$0.05), serum copper(p$\ll$0.05) and serum Ca(p$\ll$0.01). (Korean J Community Nutrition 2(4) : 547-555, 1997)

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2017

Background: Periodontitis is generally a chronic disorder characterized by the breakdown of tooth-supporting tissues. P. gingivalis, a Gram-negative anaerobic rod, is one of the major pathogens associated with periodontitis. Frequently, P. gingivalis infection leads to cell death. However, the correlation between P. gingivalis-induced cell death and periodontal inflammation remains to be elucidated. Among cell deaths, the death of immune cells appears to play a significant role in inflammatory response. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine P. gingivalis-induced cell death, focusing on autophagy and apoptosis in THP-1 cells. Methods: Human acute monocytic leukemia cell line (THP-1) was used for all experiments. Autophagy induced by P. gingivalis in THP-1 cells was examined by Cyto ID staining. Intracellular autophagic vacuoles were observed by fluorescence microscopy using staining Acridine orange (AO); and 3-methyladenine (3-MA) was used to inhibit autophagy. Total cell death was measured by LDH assay. Cytokine production was measured by an ELISA method. Results: P. gingivalis induced autophagy in an MOI-dependent manner in THP-1 cells, but 3-MA treatment decreased autophagy and increased the apoptotic blebs. P. gingivalis infection did not increase apoptosis compared to the control cells, whereas inhibition of autophagy by 3-MA significantly increased apoptosis in P. gingivalis-infected THP-1 cells. Inhibition of autophagy by 3-MA also increased total cell deaths and inflammatory cytokine production, including $IL-1{\beta}$ and $TNF-{\alpha}$. Conclusion: P. gingivalis induced autophagy in THP-1 cells, but the inhibition of autophagy by 3-MA stimulated apoptosis, leading to increased cell deaths and pro-inflammatory cytokines production. Hence, the modulation of cell deaths may provide a mechanism to fight against invading microorganisms in host cells and could be a promising way to control inflammation.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.353-363
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• 2012

Methylmercury is a hazardous substance that is of interest with regard to environmental health, as inorganic mercury circulating in the general environment is dissolved into freshwater and seawater, condensed through the food chain, ingested by humans, and consequently affects human health. Recently, there has been much interest and discussion regarding the toxicity of methylmercury, the correlation with fish and shellfish intake, and methods of long-term management of the human health effects of methylmercury. What effects chronic exposure to a low concentration of methylmercury has on human health remains controversial. Although the possibility of methylmercury poisoning the heart and blood vessel system, the reproductive system, and the immune system is continuously raised and discussed, and the carcinogenicity of methylmercury is also under discussion, a clear conclusion regarding the human health effects according to exposure level has not yet been drawn. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives proposed to prepare additional fish and shellfish intake recommendations for consumers based on the quantified evaluation of the hazardousness of methylmercury contained in fish and shellfish, methylmercury management in the Korea has not yet caught up with this international trend. Currently, the methylmercury exposure level of Koreans is known to be very high. The starting point of methylmercury exposure management is inorganic mercury in the general environment, but food intake through methylation is the main exposure source. Along with efforts to reduce mercury in the general environment, food intake management should be undertaken to reduce the human exposure to methylmercury in Korea.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.368-375
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• 2011

Background: Recent clinical observation reported that there was a significant correlation between change in circulating vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels and the occurrence of severe acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), but the action mechanisms of VEGF in GVHD have not been demonstrated. Methods: This study investigated whether or not blockade of VEGF has an effect on acute GVHD in a lethally irradiated murine allo-HSCT model of $B6\;(H-2^b)\;{\rightarrow}B6D2F1\;(H-2^{b/d})$. Syngeneic or allogeneic recipient mice were injected subcutaneously with anti-VEGF peptides, dRK6 ($50{\mu}g/dose$) or control diluent every other day for 2 weeks (total 7 doses). Results: Administration of the dRK6 peptide after allo-HSCT significantly reduced survival with greaterclinical GVHD scores and body weight loss. Allogeneic recipients injected with the dRK6 peptide exhibited significantly increased circulating levels of VEGF and expansion of donor $CD3^+$ T cells on day +7 compared to control treated animals. The donor $CD4^+$ and $CD8^+$ T-cell subsets have differential expansion caused by the dRK6 injection. The circulating VEGF levels were reduced on day +14 regardless of blockade of VEGF. Conclusion: Together these findings demonstrate that the allo-reactive responses after allo-HSCT are exaggerated by the blockade of VEGF. VEGF seems to be consumed during the progression of acute GVHD in this murine allo-HSCT model.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.198-204
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• 2008

Uroflowmetry is a non-invasive clinical test useful for screening benign prostatic hyperplasia(BPH) common in the aged men. The current standard way to obtain the urinary flow rate is to continuously acquire the urine weight signal proportional to volume over time. The present study proposed an alternative technique measuring pressure to overcome noise problems present in the standard weight measuring technique. Experiments were performed to simultaneously acquire both weight and pressure changes during urination of 9 normal men. Noise components were separated from volume signals converted from both weight and pressure signals based on the polynomial signal model. Signal-to-noise ratio was defined as the ratio of the energies between signal and noise components of the measured volume changes, which was 8.5 times larger in the pressure measuring technique, implying that cleaner signal could be obtained, more immune to noisy environments. When four important diagnostic parameters were estimated, excellent correlation coefficients higher than 0.99 were resulted with mean relative errors less than 5%. Therefore, the present pressure measurement seemed valid as an alternative technique for uroflowmetry.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.975-988
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• 2022

Objective: In this study, we aimed to identify long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) that play important roles in starvation stress, analyze their functions, and discover potential molecular targets to alleviate starvation stress to provide a theoretical reference for subsequent in-depth research. Methods: We generated a piglet starvation stress animal model. Nine Yorkshire weaned piglets were randomly divided into a long-term starvation stress group (starved for 72 h), short-term starvation stress group (starved for 48 h), and the control group. LncRNA libraries were constructed using high-throughput sequencing of piglet ileums. Results: We obtained 11,792 lncRNAs, among which, 2,500 lncRNAs were novel. In total, 509 differentially expressed (DE)lncRNAs were identified in this study. Target genes of DElncRNAs were predicted via cis and trans interactions, and functional and pathway analyses were performed. Gene ontology functions and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes analysis revealed that lncRNA-targeted genes mainly participated in metabolic pathways, cellular processes, immune system processes, digestive systems, and transport activities. To reveal the mechanism underlying starvation stress, the interaction network between lncRNAs and their targets was constructed based on 26 DElncRNAs and 72 DEmRNAs. We performed an interaction network analysis of 121 DElncRNA-DEmRNA pairs with a Pearson correlation coefficient greater than 0.99. Conclusion: We found that MSTRG.19894.13, MSTRG.16726.3, and MSTRG.12176.1 might play important roles in starvation stress. This study not only generated a library of enriched lncRNAs in piglets, but its outcomes also provide a strong foundation to screen key lncRNAs involved in starvation stress and a reference for subsequent in-depth research.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.861-867
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• 2022

Objective : High-dose radiation is well known to induce and modulate the immune system. This study was performed to evaluate the correlation between clinical outcomes and changes in natural killer cell activity (NKA) after Gamma Knife Radiosurgery (GKS) in patients with brain cancer. Methods : We performed an open-label, prospective, cross-sectional study of 38 patients who were treated with GKS for brain tumors, including metastatic and benign brain tumors. All of the patients underwent GKS, and blood samples were collected before and after GKS. NKA was measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit, to measure interferon-gamma (IFNγ) secreted by ex vivo-stimulated NK cells from whole blood. We explored the correlations between NK cell-produced IFNγ (NKA-IFNγ) levels and clinical parameters of patients who were treated with GKS for brain tumors. Results : NKA-IFNγ levels were decreased in metastatic brain tumor patients compared to those with benign brain tumors (p<0.0001). All the patients who used steroid treatment to reduce brain swelling after GKS had an NKA-IFNγ level of zero except one patient. High NKA-IFNγ levels were not associated with a rapid decrease in brain metastasis and did not increase after GKS. Conclusion : The activity of NK cells in metastatic brain tumors decreased more than that in benign brain tumors after GKS.