• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.196-202
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• 2011

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate levels of matrix metalloproteinase-8 (MMP-8) and substance P (SP) in root canal exudates during root canal treatment (RCT) of nonvital, painful teeth. Materials and Methods: Patients scheduled for nonsurgical RCT were prospectively selected; the study was performed after obtaining informed consent from the patients and was approved by the Institutional Review Board for Clinical Research of Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University (3-2008-0118). Canal exudates samples were collected using sterilized paper points from teeth scheduled for RCT across three different time periods. MMP-8 and SP levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Data were analyzed using a mixed model analysis and the Pearson correlation analysis (p < 0.05). Results: MMP-8 and SP levels in GCF were decreased during RCT (p < 0.0001), and they showed a weak positive correlation to each other (p < 0.05). Patients' subjective pain levels and the response from percussion test were significantly related to SP level. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that periradicular inflammation endodontic origin can elevate SP and MMP-8 levels in root canal exudates. Interestingly, SP level of canal exudates showed a possibility of being used as an indicator of pain due to periapical pathosis.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.50-55
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the usefulness of arterial embolization on sacral and pelvic giant cell tumor (GCT). Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 9 patients who had undergone serial arterial embolization between December 1996 and May 2008. We analyzed the clinical outcomes and therapeutic responsiveness of arterial embolization on sacral and pelvic GCT. Results: Six of 9 cases showed progression of disease (PD) status, even if 5 cases showed PD status despite of additional treatments including surgery and radiation, implying that serial arterial embolization on sacral and pelvic GCT is not effective. Three of 9 cases showed stable disease (SD) or continuous disease free (CDF) status and we analyzed associated factors with these good responses for embolization by ${\chi}^2$ test. The number of feeding vessels under six (p=0.048) and the number of collateral arterial supply under three (p=0.048) in the first angiogram showed significant relationships with good response for embolization, while remaining tumor staining by contrast after the first embolization and repeated embolization times were not significant. Conclusion: Although serial arterial embolization is not an effective modality on sacral and pelvic giant cell tumors, it may be a pilot modality under narrow indication of tumors with poor vascularity at first angiogram.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.36-39
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• 2015

In June 2012 and 2013, a destructive stem rot symptoms of Ligularia fischeri occurred sporadically in Hoengseong-gun and Pyeongchang-gun Gangwon-do, Korea. The typical symptom included water-soaking on the main stem, rotting, wilting and blighting, which eventually leads to death of the plant. White mycelial mats were spread over lesions and brown sclerotia were formed on stems and near soil surface. The sclerotia were white to brown, spherical or irregular, 1-3 mm in size on potato dextrose agar (PDA), The optimum temperature range of hyphal growth was $25-30^{\circ}C$ and the hyphal diameter was $4-10{\mu}m$. The typical clamp connections were observed in the hyphae of the fungus grown on PDA. The resulting sequence of 695 bp was deposited in GenBank. A BLAST search revealed that sequences of the this isolates showed >99% identity with those of Sclerotium rolfsii. On the basis of the morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses of molecular markers ITS rDNA, the fungi were identified as S. rolfsii. A pathogenicity test was carried out to fulfill Koch's postulates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of S. rolfsii on Ligularia fischeri in Korea.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.236-239
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• 2012

In July, 2009, proso millet (Panicum miliaceum), which showing the bacterial brown stripes on leaf sheaths, was collected in Miryang in Korea. Symptoms were systemic brown necrotic stripe lesions on the leaf sheaths and stems, and these symptoms were found in the entire field. The causal agent isolated from symptomatic plants was identified as an Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae, based on its biochemical and physiological characteristics and also confirmed by the Biolog data and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Also it caused hypersensitive response (HR) when it was inoculated onto the tobacco and tomato. It caused similar symptoms when inoculated onto proso millet. This is the first report of A. avenae subsp. avenae, the causal agent of bacterial brown stripe of the proso millet in Korea.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.7-27
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• 2003

Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate acute and subacute toxicity and sarcoma-180 anti-cancer effects of herbal acupuncture with cultivated wild ginseng (distilled) in mice and rats. Method : Balb/c mice were injected intravenous with cultivated wild ginseng herbal acupuncture for $LD_{50}$ and acute toxicity test. Sprague-Dawley rats were injected intravenous with cultivated wild ginseng herbal acupuncture for subacute toxicity test. The cultivated wild ginseng herbal-acupuncture was injected at the tail vein of mice. Results : 1. In acute $LD_{50}$ toxicity test, there was no mortality thus unable to attain the value. 2. Examining the toxic response in the acute toxicity test, there was no sign of toxication. 3. In acute toxic test, running biochemical serum test couldn't yield any differences between the control and experiment groups. 4. In subacute toxicity test, there was no sign of toxication in the experimental groups and didn't show any changes in weight compared to the normal group. 5. In subacute toxicity test, biochemical serum test showed significant increase of Total albumin, Albumin, and Glucose in the experimental group I compared with the control group. Significant decrease of GOT, ALP, GPT, and Triglyceride were shown. In experiment group II, only Glucose showed significant increase compared with the control group. 6. Measuring survival rate for anti-cancer effects of Sarcoma-180 cancer cell line, all the experimental groups showed significant increase in survival rate. 7. Measuring NK cell activity rate, no significant difference was shown throughout the groups. 8. Measuring Interleukin-2 productivity rate, all the experimental groups didn't show significant difference. 9. For manifestation of cytokine mRNA, significant decrease of interleukin-10 was witnessed in the experimental group compared to the control group. Conclusion : According to the results, we can conclude cultivated wild ginseng herbal acupuncture caused negligible toxicity, and had anti-tumor effects in mice.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.23
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• pp.10187-10192
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• 2015

Cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes are a large family of constitutive and inducible mono-oxygenase enzymes that play a central role in the oxidative metabolism of both xenobiotic and endogenous compounds. Several CYPs are involved in metabolism of oxysterols, which are cholesterol oxidation products whose expression may be dysregulated in inflammation-related diseases including cancer. This study focused on CYP39A1, which can metabolize 24-hydroxycholesterol (24-OH) that plays important roles in the inflammatory response and oxidative stress. We aimed to investigate the expression status of CYP39A1 and its transcription factor (RUNX2) in relation to clinical significance in cholangiocarcinoma (CCAs) and to determine whether 24-OH could induce oxidative stress in CCA cell lines. Immunohistochemistry showed that 70% and 30% of CCA patients had low and high expression of CYP39A1, respectively. Low expression of CYP39A1 demonstrated a significant correlation with metastasis. Our results also revealed that the expression of RUNX2 had a positive correlation with CYP39A1. Low expression of both CYP39A1 (70%) and RUNX2 (37%) was significantly related with poor prognosis of CCA patients. Interestingly, oxidized alpha-1 antitrypsin (ox-A1AT), an oxidative stress marker, was significantly increased in CCA tissues in which CYP39A1 and RUNX2 were down regulated. Additionally, immunocytochemistry showed that 24-OH could induce ox-A1AT in CCA cell lines. In conclusion, our study revealed putative roles of the CYP39A1 enzyme in prognostic determination of CCAs.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.405-413
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• 2011

This study was designed to elucidate high-$K^+$ induced response of circular and longitudinal smooth muscle from human gastric corpus using isometric contraction. Contraction from circular and longitudinal muscle stripes of gastric corpus greater curvature and lesser curvature were compared. Circular smooth muscle from corpus greater curvature showed high $K^+$ (50 mM)-induced tonic contraction. On the contrary, however, longitudinal smooth muscle strips showed high $K^+$ (50 mM)-induced sustained relaxation. To find out the reason for the discrepancy we tested several relaxation mechanisms. Protein kinase blockers like KT5720, PKA inhibitor, and KT5823, PKG inhibitor, did not affect high $K^+$-induced relaxation. $K^+$ channel blockers like tetraethylammonium (TEA), apamin (APA), glibenclamide (Glib) and barium ($Ba^{2+}$) also had no effect. However, N(G)-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA) and 1H-(1,2,4) oxadiazolo (4,3-A) quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ), an inhibitor of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) and 4-AP (4-aminopyridine), voltage-dependent $K^+$ channel (KV) blocker, inhibited high $K^+$ -induced relaxation, hence reversing to tonic contraction. High $K^+$-induced relaxation was observed in gastric corpus of human stomach, but only in the longitudinal muscles from greater curvature not lesser curvature. L-NNA, ODQ and KV channel blocker sensitive high $K^+$-induced relaxation in longitudinal muscle of higher portion of corpus was also observed. These results suggest that longitudinal smooth muscle from greater curvature of gastric corpus produced high $K^+$-induced relaxation which was activated by NO/sGC pathway and by $K_V$ channel dependent mechanism.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 2011

Purpose: Although the role of squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-Ag) as a predictive and prognostic factor for uterine cervical cancer has been identified in previous studies, 1) the effective patient group of screening for recurrence with SCC-Ag, 2) the relationship between SCC-Ag and recurrence site, and 3) the relationship between the change of SCC-Ag and treatment outcome or recurrence have not been described. Materials and Methods: The study included 506 patients with histologically proven uterine cervical cancer between January 1994 and December 2010. We determining the serum SCC-Ag level before treatment and after treatment, and conducted a retrospective review of the patients' records. We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of SCC-Ag for the detection of tumor recurrence by comparing biochemical recurrence with clinical recurrence. Results: The pretreatment SCC-Ag level and the proportion of patients over 1.5 ng/mL were higher in poor prognostic patient group. In the univariate and multivariate analysis, pretreatment SCC-Ag showed a statistically significant correlation with tumor size, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage, pathology. In patients with biochemical recurrence vs. those without, 5-year DFS and OS were 27.6 vs. 92.7% (p ${\leq}$ 0.001) and 53.7 vs. 92.5% (p ${\leq}$ 0.001), respectively. Conclusion: Our study reconfirmed the known function of pretreatment SCC-Ag, but could not confirm the function of biochemical response as a predictive factor for treatment and as a prognostic factor. There was no statistically significant relationship between SCC-Ag level and recurrence site. We confirmed the role of SCC-Ag as a follow-up tool for recurrence of disease and which patient groups SCC-Ag was more useful for.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.75 no.2
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• pp.59-66
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• 2013

Background: This study was conducted in order to elucidate the effects of docetaxel on the growth of peroxiredoxin 1 (Prx1) knockdown A549 xenograft tumors and further tested the role of Prx1 as a predictor for how a patient would respond to docetaxel treatment. Methods: Effects of docetaxel on the growth of scrambled- and shPrx1-infected A549 xenograft tumors in nude mice were measured. Moreover, immunohistochemical expression of Prx1 was evaluated in paraffin-embedded tissues from 24 non-small cell lung cancer patients who had received docetaxel-cisplatin regimens as a first-line treatment. Results: Docetaxel treatment in Prx1 knockdown xenograft tumor resulted in reduced tumors growth compared with other groups. Prx1 knockdown increased the production of cleaved caspases-8 and -9 in the control itself compared to scramble tumors. Moreover, docetaxel treatment in Prx1 knockdown tissue led to an increased protein band. Phosphorylated Akt was found in Prx1 scramble tissues. Phosphorylated FOXO1 was detected in the docetaxel treatment group. On the other hand, Prx1 knockdown completely suppressed the Akt-FOXO1 axis. The median progression-free survival (PFS) of patients with low Prx1 expression was 7 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 6.0-7.7), whereas the median progression-free survival of patients with high Prx1 expression was 4 months (95% CI, 4.0-5.0). However, high Prx1 expression was not associated with decreased PFS (p=0.114). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that elevated Prx1 provides resistance to docetaxel treatment through suppression of FOXO1-induced apoptosis in A549 xenograft tumors, but may not be related with the predictive significance for response to docetaxel treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the tissue response in applying of various bone substitutes included toothash-plaster mixture, resorbable hydroxylapatite (HA) and demineralized freeze-dried bone and to show the clinical usefulness of toothash-plaster mixture for the repair of craniomaxillofacial bone defect. For this experiment, 100 Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 200gm or more were used. There were four experimental groups: group I, toothash-plaster mixture; group II, demineralized freeze-dried bone; group III, resorbable HA; and group IV, control group. A full thickness, round bone defect measuring 10mm in diameter was created in the midcranium, and the substitutes cited above were embedded in the experimental rats based on their group assignment. Blood clot was filled in the rats assigned to the control group. Experimental rats were sacrificed on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 8th, 12th and 24th week after implantation and stained with the hematoxylineosin, Masson's Trichrome, using Van Gieson's stain method, and were examined under light microscope. The results were as follows: 1. In all the groups, prominent inflammatory reaction and the infiltration of multinucleated giant cells were noted during the early stage. Gradual healing decreased this reaction. 2. Among the rats in the experimental group II, which were given demineralized freeze-dried bone implants, active formation of new bone traveculae manifested. Chondroid tissues appeared, and it was suggested that the defect was filled with newly formed bone by virtue of osteoinductive activity. On the 12th week after the experiments, most of the defect was filled with newly formed bone trabeculae. 3. In experimental groups I and III, it was noted that HA manifested a healing process similar to that characterized by the toothash-plaster mixture, but inflammatory reaction was more prominent in experimental group I. Active osteoblasts were observed along the periphery of osteoid tissues, while newly formed bone trabeculae appeared adjacent to the implanted materials three weeks later. Formation increased to the extent that newly formed bone trabeculae fused directly with the host bone. Increase in new bone ingrowth into the filling materials was revealed by both experimental groups. 4. In the control group, new bone formation adjacent to the host bone was observed, but most of the defect was filled with mature connective tissue 24 weeks after the experiments.