• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.10 no.5
• /
• pp.660-665
• /
• 1999

Structure of water soluble chitosan (WSC) was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), X-ray diffractometer and thermal analyser. The viscosity average molecular weight of WSC ranged from $3.0{\times}10^{4}$ to $4.5{\times}10^{4}$. Using the WSC having viscosity average molecular weight of $3.0{\times}10^{4}$, the antimicrobacterial effects against microorganism and oral microorganism showed 81.7% and 80.6% for Staphyloccus aureus and Bacillus subtilis, respectively, while the anitmicrobacterial effect exhibited 100% and 73.8% against Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sanguis, respectively. Therefore it is concluded that WSC is more effective against oral microorganism that microorganism in terms of antimicrobacterial effects. WSC sample with the viscosity average molecular weight of $4.5{\times}10^{4}$ exhibited a half of the antimicrobacterial effect of the low MW sample, indicating that the WSC with low MW was better than that with high MW. Chitin and chitosan showed a drastic decrease of acidity from pH 7.0 to 4.9 after 8 minute incubation time and reached an equilibrium after that. WSC, however, restrained pH of the sample from lowering up to about 16 minutes of incubation and reached an equilibrium after that. WSC obviously showed a buffering effect against pH change.

• Analytical Science and Technology
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.398-408
• /
• 2015

Carbon monoxide (CO) intoxication, arising from CO from an ignited charcoal briquette (ICB), is a popular means of committing suicide in Korea. Most CO intoxications are related to suicide attempts; however, the possibility of a homicide disguised as a suicide cannot be ruled out. Therefore, forensic investigation of the deceased and the crime scene is crucial to confirm that the deceased committed suicide. Detection of the components of an ICB on the objects suspected of being contacted by the deceased, such as the hands, nostrils, and doorknobs, is essential for linking the crime scene to the victim in the case of suicides by ignited ICBs. The traces from an ICB were analyzed by investigating the morphological characteristics and obtaining elemental compositions. The ICBs were completely different from blackened wood, as detected by discriminant analysis with the elements of carbon and oxygen. We analyzed one case of CO intoxication to demonstrate an excellent procedure for verifying whether a suicide occurred with an ICB. We employed SEM-EDX for the analysis of an ICB, microscope-FT/IR and pyrolysis-GC/MS for a partly burnt resin-type substance, GC/MS for diphenhydramine (a sleeping drug), and GC/TCD for the CO-Hb level. We detected traces of an ICB on the hands, nostrils, and doorknobs, which were all discriminated into an ICB group. Detection of ICB traces from the nostrils could indicate that the deceased started the fire themselves to commit suicide. The partially burnt black material was analyzed as an acrylronitrilestyrene polymer, which is normally used to make bags for carrying or wrapping and could be assumed to have been used to transport the ICB. Diphenhydramine, a sleeping drug, was detected at a level of 2.3 mg/L in the blood, which was lower than that in fatal cases (8-31 mg/L; mean 16 mg/L). A CO-Hb level of 79% was found in the blood, which means that the cause of death was CO intoxication. The steps shown here could represent an ideal method for reaching a verdict of suicide by CO intoxication produced by burning an ICB in a sealed room or a car.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.27-35
• /
• 1991

An interstitial radiofrequency needle electrode system was constructed for interstitial heating of brain tissue. Radiofrequency electrodes with Thermotron RF 8 were tested in an agar phantom and in a normal canine brain to determine how variations in physical factors affected temperature distributions. Temperature distributions were checked after heating with 1 mm diameter needle electrode implants on the corners of 1 and 2 cm squares in a phantom and plot isotherms for various electrodes arrangement. We observed that the 1 cm square array would heat a volume with a 1.25 cm radius circular field cross section to therapeutic temperatures ($90\%$ relative SAR using Tm) and the 2 cm square array with a 1.75 cm radius rectangular field with central inhomogeneity. With 2 cm long electrode implants, we observed that the 1 cm square array would heat a 3 cm long sagittal section to therapeutic temperature ($90\%$ relative SAR using Tm). We found that radiofrequency electrodes could be selected to match the length of the heating area without affecting its performance. The histopathological changes associated with RF heating of normal canine brains have been correlated with thermal distributions. RF needle electrode heating was applied for 50min to generate tissue temperatures of $43^{\circ}C$. We obtained a quarter of the heated tissue material immediately after heating and sacrificed at intervals from $7\sim30$days. The acute stage (immediately after heating) was demonstrated by liquefactive necrosis, pyknosis of neuronal element in the gray matter and by some polymer-phonuclear leukocytes infiltration. The appearance of lipid-laden macrophages surrounding the area of liquefaction necrosis was demonstrated in all three sacrificed dogs. Mild gliosis occurring around the necrosis was demonstrated in the last sacrificed (Days 30) canine brain.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.121-130
• /
• 2007

To investigate the enhancement in strength and deformation capacities of concrete confined by FRP composites, tests under axial loads were carried out on three groups of thirty six short columns in circular section with diverse GFRP confining reinforcement. The major test variables considered include fiber content or orientation, wrap or tube type by varying the end loading condition, and continuous or discontinuous confinement depending on the presence of vortical spices between its two halves. The circumferential FRP strains at failure for different types of confinements were also investigated with emphasis. Various analytical models capable of predicting the ultimate strength and strain of the confined concrete were examined by comparing to observed results. Tests results showed that FRP wraps or tubes provide the substantial increase in strength and deformation, while partial wraps comprising the vertical discontinuities fail in an explosive manner with less increase in strength, particularly in deformation. A bilinear stress-strain response was observed throughout all tests with some variations of strain hardening. The failure hoop strains measured on the FRP surface were less than those obtained from the tensile coupons in all tests with a high degree of variation. In overall, existing predictive equations overestimated ultimate strengths and strains observed in present tests, with a much larger scatter related to the latter. For more accuracy, two simple design- oriented equations correlated with present tests are proposed. The strength equation was derived using the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, whereas the strain equation was based on entirely fitting of test data including the unconfined concrete strength as one of governing factors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.788-795
• /
• 2002

This study described the effect of levan (9-2,6-linked fructose polymer) feeding on serum lipids, adiposity and uncoupling protein (UCP) expression in growing rats. Levan was synthesized from sucrose using bacterial levansucrase. UCP is a mitochondrial protein that uncouples the respiratory chain from oxidative Phosphorylation and generates heat instead of ATP, thereby increase energy expenditure. We observed that 3% or 5% levan containing diet reduced serum triglyceride levels, visceral and peritoneal fat mass and induced the UCP expression in rats fed high fat diet in previous study. To determine whether the intake of low level of levan may have the hypolipidemic and anti-obesity effect, 4 wk old Sprague Dawley male rats were fed AIN-76A diet for 6 wk, and sub-sequently fed 1% or 2% levan solution for further 5 wk. Intake of 1% levan in liquid form reduced serum triglyceride and serum total cholesterol levels to 50% and 66% of control group, respectively. Although epididymal and peritoneal fat masses were not affected by levan feeding, visceral fat mass was lower in 1% levan group compared to control group. The expression of UCP2 mRNA in brown adipose tissue, skeletal muscle and hypothalamus and UCP3 mRNA in skeletal muscle were not changed by levan feeding, while the UCP2 mRNA in white adipose tissue was up-regulated by levan feeding. In conclusions, intake of low level of levan solution reduced serum triglyceride and total cholesterol, restrained the visceral fat accumulation and increased UCP expression in white adipose tissue in rats. This study suggests that hypolipidemic and anti-obesity effect of levan attributed to anti-lipogenesis and inefficeint energy utilization by up-regulation of UCPs.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.26 no.5
• /
• pp.545-554
• /
• 2016

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is an important macromolecule in medical and pharmaceutical fields. HA is a natural and linear polymer composed of repeating disaccharide units of β-1, 3-N-acetyl glucosamine and β-1, 4-glucuronic acid. This work aimed to confirm the structural characteristics and anti-inflammatory activities of HA and its chemically sulfated-HA. HA was produced from a fed-batch fermentation process using Streptococcus dysgalactiae in a 5 l bioreactor. HA was isolated water-soluble form (HA-WS) and water-insoluble form (HA-WI) from culture medium, and was obtained chemically sulfated-derivative (S-HA) that resulted in a 90% yield from HA-WI. The structural features of the sulfated- HA (S-HA) were investigated by FT-IR and ¹H-NMR spectroscopy. The FT-IR and NMR patterns revealed the similarity in both the FTIR spectrum as well as NMR spectrum of both reference standard and purified HA from S. dysgalactiae. The anti-inflammatory activities of HA and S-HA were examined on LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells. S-HA was significantly inhibited production of pro-inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide (NO) and PGE₂ and the gene levels of iNOS and COX-2, which are responsible for the production of NO and PGE₂, respectively. Furthermore, S-HA also suppressed the overproduction of pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α (<80 pg/ml) and IL-6 (<100 pg/ml) compared to that of HA-WI. The present study clearly demonstrates that HA-S exhibits anti-inflammatory activities in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.175-179
• /
• 1992

To develope the methods for isolation and enumeration of lymphocyte subpopulations in pigs, we carried out the rosette-assay using sheep erythrocytes(SRBC) and Korean native goat erythrocytes(GRBC) as a target cells. To enumerate T lymphocytes, E-rosette methods were applied with RBC treated with various concentration of polymers such as Aet and Dex, singly or in combination. And to enumerate B lymphocytes, EAand EAC-rosette assay was adopted. The results were as follows; 1. E-RFR with polymer-untreated SRBC and GRBC was $32.9{\pm}7.9%$ and $31.3{\pm}9.4%$, respectively. On the other hand, RFR with 0.1M Aet plus 8% Dex treated SRBC and GRBC was increased about two-fold($67.8{\pm}7.4%$ and $69.8{\pm}8.5%$), respectively. 2. EA-RFR with SRBC and GRBC were $ 39.1{\pm}10.2%$ and $32.6{\pm}6.1%$, respectively. 3. EAC-RFR with SRBC and GRBC were $27.6{\pm}7.0%$ arld $21.0{\pm}3.2%$, respectively. These results showed that both SRBC and GRBC could be recommanded as a binding cells for rosetteassay to isolate of lymphocyte-subpopulations in pigs.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.15-21
• /
• 2001

This study was conducted to investigate the immunomodulatory activities of proteoglycan extracted from cultured mycelia of Ganoderma lucidum IY009. The proteoglycan contained two polymer peaks, one was the higher MW peak of 2,000 kD and the other was low peaks of 12kD. To understand the part of strong pharmaceutical activity between two peak, the proteoglycan was separated by ultrafiltration and column chromatography and then examined the various pharmaceutical effects. High molecular weight fraction possesing high content of ${\beta}-linked$ glucan was exhibited high antitumor activity, against sarcoma 180 bearing ICR mouse. And also, anticomplementary activity was highly observed in high molecule fraction than low it fraction. When the raw 264.7 and murine peritoneal macrophage treated with low fraction, high fraction and other stimuli. The activities inducing tumor necrosis factor of the high factions were $2.2{\sim}2.5$ times stronger than that of low fraction.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.1-20
• /
• 1983

It has been known that the insect molting hormone and its analogues exist also in plant kingdom and their concentration has been found to be about 0.1~2.0% of dry matter, which is equivalent to $10^3{\sim}10^5$ times of those in insects. This study was carried out; 1) to isolate the phytoecdysones from Korean Achyranthes radix and characterize their physico-chemical properties. 2) to investigate the biological activity of this phytoecdysone on Bombyx mori larvae. The resuls were summarized as follows; 1. The extraction method of phytoecdysones was optimized by three consecutive reflux for 1hr using 200g of dried and milled radix per 1l methanol. 2. The purification from the crude extract was made by a series of steps such as precipitation of gum-type polymer with n-Butyl acetate, adsorption on technical grade silica and chromatography with neutral alumina. The conditions of each step were optimized and the resulting crude crystal was about 500mg per kg dry radix. 3. The crude crystal from the cultivated Achyranthes(Achyranthes japonia) contained ecdysterone (20-hydroxyecdysone) and inokosterone in the proportion of one to one. In order to separate these, a series of processes such as acetylation, separation by alumina column chromatography deacetylation by alcoholysis, deionization and crystallization were introduced and optimized 125mg of ecdysterone and 18mg of inokosterone per kg dry radix were thus obtained. 4. The wild Achyranthes (Achyranthes obtusifolia) radix was found to contain the ecdysterone only. A 285mg of ecdysterone was crystallized per kg dry radix. 5. Isolated ecdysterone, inodosterone and acetylated compounds were characterized by IR., UV., NMR spectroscopy, mp, TLC and densitometry. 6. Ligation experiment was undertaken to confirm the biological activity of the purified ecdysterone; the ecdysterone could induce larval-pupal metamorphosis in the ligated abdomen of 4th instar larvae injecting 0.5~1.0${\mu}g$. 7. By ecdysterone feeding experiment using artificial diet, it was elucidated that the critical time of feeding would be the first half of each instar resulting in increased weight of silk layer. 8. The ecdysterone was fed to 5th instar silkworm at the level of 1, 2, 3, 5ppm of dry feed of artificial diet containing 5% mulberry leaves for 72hrs. At 2ppm of the concentration. body weight and silk layer weight were arrived at maximum. But at higher concentrations body weight and silk layer weight decreased than the control group. At 2ppm of the concentration, body weight was increased by 12.5%. 9. Feeding 2ppm of ecdysterone at the later half of 5th instar, the duration of larvae was shortened.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.37 no.6
• /
• pp.482-491
• /
• 2004

Background: The xenogenic or allogenic valves after in Vitro repopulation with autologous cells or in vivo repo-pulation after acellularization treatment to remove the antigenicity could used as an alternative to synthetic polymer scaffold. In the present study, we evaluated the process of repopulation by recipient cell to the acellu-larized xenograft treated with NaCl-SDS solution and grafted in the right ventricular outflow tract. Material and Method: Porcine pulmonary valved conduit were treated with. NaCl-SDS solution to make the grafts acellularized and implanted in the right ventricular outflow tract of the goats under cardiopulmonary bypass. After evaluating the functions of pulmonary valves by echocardiography, goats were sacrificed at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months after implantation, respectively. After retrieving the implanted valved conduits, histopathologic examination with Hematoxylin-Eosin, Masson' trichrome staining and immunohistochemical staining was performed. Result: Among the six goats, which had been implanted with acellularized pulmonary valved conduits, five survived the expected time period. Echocardiographic examinations for pulmonary valves revealed good function except mild regurgitation and stenosis. Microscopic analysis of the leaflets showed progressive cellular in-growth, composed of fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, and endothelial cells, into the acellularized leaflets over time. Severe inflammatory respon-se was detected in early phase, though it gradually decreased afterwards. The extracellular matrices were regenerated by repopulated cells on the recellularized portion of the acellularized leaflet. Conclusion: The acellularized xenogenic pulmonary valved conuits were repopulated with fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, and endothelial cells of the recipient and extracellullar matrices were regenerated by repopulted cells 12 months after the implantation. The functional integrity of pulmonary valves was well preserved. This study showed that the acellularized porcine xenogenic valved conduits could be used as an ideal valve prosthesis with long term durability.