• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.98-104
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• 2012

Objectives: A positive association between serum albumin levels and metabolic syndrome has been reported in observation studies, but it has not been established in the Korean population. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between serum albumin levels and the presence of metabolic syndrome among a sample of apparently healthy Korean adults. Methods: This cross-sectional study analyzed data of 3189 community-dwelling people (1189 men and 2000 women) who were aged 40 to 87 years and were living in a rural area in Korea. Serum albumin levels were classified into quartile groups for each sex. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines with an adjusted waist circumference cut-off value ${\geq}90\;cm$ for men and${\geq}85\;cm$ for women). An independent association between serum albumin levels and metabolic syndrome was assessed by multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: Higher serum albumin levels were associated with increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome. The odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of the prevalence of metabolic syndrome for the highest versus the lowest serum albumin quartiles was 2.81 (1.91 to 4.14) in men and 1.96 (1.52 to 2.52) in women, after adjusting for age, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and physical activity. When each metabolic abnormality was analyzed separately, higher serum albumin levels were significantly associated with hypertriglyceridemia and hyperglycemia in both sexes, and with abdominal obesity in men. Conclusions: These results suggest that higher serum albumin levels are positively associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome in Korean adults.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.131-137
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• 2010

Objectives: Bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE) is a liquid compound obtained by condensation of two molecules of epichlorohydrin with one molecule of bisphenol A. General and reproductive toxicity with BADGE has been reported higher than 1000 mg/kg/day. This study was performed to show the effects of acute exposure to BADGE below 1000 mg/kg/day on the testis in adult male rats. Methods: BADGE was administered by gastric lavage in a single dose of 500, 750, 1000, and 2000 mg/kg/day in 8-week old male SPF Sprague-Dawley rats. The right testis was processed for light microscopic analysis. The left testis was homogenized and spermatids were counted to determine the daily sperm production and daily abnormal sperm production. The sperm count, sperm motility, and incidence of abnormal sperm were estimated in the epididymis. In testicular sections, the seminiferous tubules were observed for qualitative changes. The progression of spermatogenesis was arbitrarily classified as full-matured, maturing, and immature. The specimen slide was observed at 3 points and 10 seminiferous tubules were evaluated at each point. Results: The male rats exposed to single oral dose of BADGE at 750, 1000, and 2000 mg/kg/day were significantly increased the number of immature and maturing sperm on the testis. There were no significant differences with respect to sperm head count, sperm motility, and sperm abnormality in the BADGE treatment groups. Conclusions: These results suggest that single oral exposure of BADGE 750 mg/kg/day can affect adult male testis development.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.73-81
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• 1998

Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were administered with Q-35 at the dose levels of 0, 30, 100 and 300 mg/kg/day by oral gavage from gestation day 17 to lactation period. Effects of the test chemical on general findings, reproductive performance of dams and development of Fl generation were examined. There were no treatment related changes in physical signs, body weight, necropsy findings, organ weights, delivery and nursing behavior. In 100 and 300 mg/fg/day treated groups, the food consumption of dams was decreased significantly during gestational day 19~21. The gestation length of 300 mg/tg/day treated group was increased significantly compared to the control group (22.3 $\pm$0.48 vs 22.0$\pm$0.39). Although the gestational length of all groups were in normal range of the rat, potential effect of the drug could not be ruled out. External anomaly of Fl fetus induced by Q-35 was not detected in any groups. There were no treaoent related changes in physical development, reflex functions, sensory functions, locomotor activity and motor coordinating activity. Estrus cycle, fertility and reproductive performance of Fl were not changed in all treated groups. There was no external abnormality related to the drug administration on the examination of F2. These results suggest that Q-35 has no adverse effect on the peri- and postnatal period in rats except the reduction of food consumption at the beginning of drug administration and the potential effect on the elongation of gestation length.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.87-93
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• 2006

The KFDA (Korea Food & Drug Administration) has performed a collaborative toxico-genomics project since 2003. Its aim is to construct a toxicologenomic database of 12 hepatotoxic compounds from mice livers. Phenylbutazone which is non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug was assigned. It was administered at low (0.0238 mg/kg) and at high (0.238 mg/kg) dose (5 mice per group) orally to the postnatal 6 weeks ICR mice, then the serum and liver were collected at the indicated time (6, 24 and 72 h) after administration. Serum biochemical markers for liver toxicity were measured and histopathologic studies also were carried out. The gene expression profiling was carried out by using Applied Biosystems 1700 Full Genome Expression Mouse. The 2-way ANOVA was used to find genes that reflected phenylbutazone-induced acute toxicity or dose-dependant changes. By self-organization maps (SOM), we identified groups with unique gene expression patterns, some of them are supposed to be related to phenylbutazone induced toxicity, including lipid metabolism abnormality, oxidative stress, cell death and cytoskeleton destruction.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.4843-4846
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• 2014

Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is most common in childhood. Inhibin (a non-steroidal glycoprotein hormone of gonadal origin) can be used as marker of fertility. The current study was conducted to evaluate inhibin levels in ALL patients and to estimate its correlation with some antioxidants in these in comparison with control subjects. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on sixty patients with ALL and thirty children as controls. Fasting blood samples were taken from each subject and analyzed for haemoglobin, serum protein, vitamin E and C, in addition to glutathione and inhibin. Results: The results of the study showed highly significant decreases (p<0.001) in haemoglobin, glutathione and inhibin levels with significant decreases (p<0.05) in serum protein and vitamin E levels for patients group in comparison with controls while there was no significant differences in vitamin C. Moreover, there were significant correlations between inhibin levels and serum protein, glutathione and both vitamins (E and C) in the ALL patient group (r= 0.81, 0.80, 0.77 and 0.69, respectively). Conclusions: The present results indicated infertility in patients with ALL demonstrated by low inhibin level as a consequence of abnormality in anti-oxidative metabolism due to the cancer process. So, it can be suggested the need for routine measurement of inhibin for leukemic patients to estimate the action of hormones of gonadal origin.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.21 no.2 s.53
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• pp.115-126
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• 2006

This study was conducted to find out survival rate, activity, growth and change of the organ structure of bivalves exposed to heavy metal. The results of the study confirmed that zinc (Zn) induces reduction of survival rate and activity, abnormality of organ structure of the equilateral venus, Gomphina veneriformis. Experimental groups were composed of one control condition and three Zn exposure conditions ($0.64mg\;Zn{\iota}^{1},\;1.07mg\;Zn{\iota}^{-1},\;1.79mg\;Zn{\iota}^{-1}$). As the concentration of zinc increased the accumulation of lipofucin increased in the digestive gland. Survival rate was the lowest in the lowest Zn exposure group at $0.64mg;Zn{\iota}^{-1}$. Growth was not significantly different between the control and exposure group. Activity. with the exception of the lowest Zn exposure group at $0.64mg\;Zn{\iota}^{-1}$, was similar between the control and exposure group. Histological analysis of organ system illustrated expansion of hemolymph sinus, loss of striated border of inner epidermis, increase in the number of mucous cell in the mantle. Also, histological degenerations as epithelial necrosis and hyperplasia of mucous cells are recognized in the gill and foot.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.73-77
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• 2005

Nickel is the one of potent environmental, the occupational pollutants and the classified human carcinogens. It is a serious hazard to human health, when the metal exposure. To prevent human diseases from the heavy metals, it is seemingly important that understanding of how nickel exerts their toxicity and carcinogenic effect at a molecular and a genomic level. The process of nickel absorption has been demonstrated as phagocytosis, iron channel and diffusion. Uptaked nickel has been suggested to induce carcinogenesis via two pathways, a direct DNA damaging pathway and an indirect DNA damaging pathway. The former was originated from the ability of metal to generate Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and the reactive intermediates to interact with DNA directly. Ni-generated ROS or Nickel itself, interacts with DNAs and histones to cause DNA damage and chromosomal abnormality. The latter was originated from an indirect DNA damage via inhibition of DNA repair, or condensation and methylation of DNA. Cells have ability to protect from the genotoxic stresses by changing gene expression. Microarray analysis of the cells treated with nickel or nickel compounds, show the specific altered gene expression profile. For example, HIF-I (Hypoxia-Inducible Factor I) and p53 were well known as transcription factors, which are upregulated in response to stress and activated by both soluble and insoluble nickel compounds. The induction of these important transcription factors exert potent selective pressure and leading to cell transformation. Genes of metallothionein and family of heat shock proteins which have been known to play role in protection and damage control, were also induced by nickel treatment. These gene expressions may give us a clue to understand of the carcinogenesis mechanism of nickel. Further discussions on molecular and genomic, are need in order to understand the specific mechanism of nickel toxicity and carcinogenicity.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1755-1758
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• 2016

Background: Anemia is the most common hematologic abnormality in bladder cancer (BC) patients. We evaluated the impact of preoperative anemia on oncologic outcomes in BC undergoing transurethral resection of a bladder tumor (TURBT) for the first time diagnosis. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the data collected from 639 patients who underwent TURBT between January 2006 and September 2014 in our department. Of these patients, 320 qualified for inclusion in the study. The primary efficacy endpoint was the effect of preoperative anemia status on cancer-specific and overall survival. Independent t-test and chi-square analyses were performed to assess the effects of anemia on oncologic outcomes. Survival was estimated by using the Kaplan-Meier test. Results: There were 118 (36.9%) and 202 (63.1%) patients in the anemia (Group-1) and non-anemia groups (Group-2), respectively. The median follow-up duration was 68 months. Anemia was associated with decreased overall survival (p<0.001). Comparison between cancer-specific survival of two groups did not show any statistically significant difference (p=0.17). Conclusions: Preoperative anemia status of BC patients according to World Health Organization classification is associated with decreased overall survival, but not with cancer-specific survival. We think that preoperative hemoglobin levels should be considered in patient counseling and decision-making for additional therapy.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.399-405
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• 2012

The brain is the body's most organized and controlled organ, and it governs various psychological and mental functions. A brain abnormality could greatly affect one's physical and mental abilities, and consequently one's social life. Brain disorders can be broadly categorized into three main afflictions: stroke, brain tumor, and dementia. Among these, stroke is a common disease that occurs owing to a disorder in blood flow, and it is accompanied by a sudden loss of consciousness and motor paralysis. The main types of strokes are infarction and hemorrhage. The exact diagnosis and early treatment of an infarction are very important for the patient's prognosis and for the determination of the treatment direction. In this study, texture features were analyzed in order to develop a prototype auto-diagnostic system for infarction using computer auto-diagnostic software. The analysis results indicate that of the six parameters measured, the average brightness, average contrast, flatness, and uniformity show a high cognition rate whereas the degree of skewness and entropy show a low cognition rate. On the basis of these results, it was suggested that a digital CT image obtained using the computer auto-diagnostic software can be used to provide valuable information for general CT image auto-detection and diagnosis for pre-reading. This system is highly advantageous because it can achieve early diagnosis of the disease and it can be used as supplementary data in image reading. Further, it is expected to enable accurate medical image detection and reduced diagnostic time in final-reading.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.385-394
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• 2002

This study was constructed the correlations of the embryonic developmental rates and the frequency of chromosome aberration using ear-skin-fibroblast cell in nuclear transfer (NT) derived embryos. Karyoplast-oocyte complexes were fused and activated simultaneously, then cultured for seven days to assess development. The developmental rates of NT and in vitro fertilization (IVF) embryos were 55.4% vs 63.5%, 31.7% vs 33% and 13.4% vs 16.8% in 2 cell, 8 cell and blastocyst, respectively. Firstly, the frequency of chromosome aberrations were evaluated using fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) technique with porcine chromosome 1 submetacentric specific probe. Chromosome aberration was detected at day 3 on the embryo culture, the percentages of chromosomal aneuploidy in NT and IVF embryos at 4-cell stage were 40%, 31.3%, respectively. Secondly, embryonic fragmentation was evaluated at 4-cell stage embryo. Frequency of embryonic fragmentations was in 51.3% of NT, 61.3% of IVF, 28.9% of parthenogenetic activation at 4-cell stage. The proportion of fragmentation in NT embryos was higher than activation embryos. This result indicates that chromosomal abnormalities and embryonic fragments are associated with low developmental rate in porcine NT embryo. It is also suggest that abnormal porcine embryos produced by NT related with lower implantation rate, increased abortion rate and production of abnormal fetuses.