• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2004.04a
• /
• pp.1903-1908
• /
• 2004

A preconditioned numerical method for gas-liquid two-phase flows is applied to solve cavitating flow. The present method employs a finite-difference dual time-stepping integration procedure and the MUSCLTVD scheme. A homogeneous equilibrium cavitation model is used. The present density-based numerical method permits simple treatment of the whole gas-liquid two-phase flow field, including wave propagation, large density changes and incompressible flow characteristics at low Mach number. Some internal flows such as convergent-divergent nozzles are computed using this method. Comparisons of predicted and experimental results are provided and discussed.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• v.2 no.6
• /
• pp.753-761
• /
• 1998

Preconditioning of a heart with small doses of catecholamines induces a tolerance against the subsequent lethal ischemia. The present study was performed to find a specific receptor pathway involved with the catecholamine preconditioning and to test if adenosine plays a role in this cardioprotective effect. Isolated rat hearts, pretreated with small doses of ${\alpha}-\;or\;{\beta}-adrenergic$ agonists/antagonists, were subjected to 20 minutes ischemia and 20 minutes reperfusion by Langendorff perfusion method. Cardiac mechanical functions, lactate dehydrogenase and adenosine release from the hearts were measured before and after the drug treatments and ischemia. In another series of experiments, adenosine $A_1\;or\;A_2$ receptor blockers were treated prior to administration of adrenergic agonists. Pretreatments of a ${\beta}-agonist,\;isoproterenol(10^{-9}{\sim}10^{-7}\;M)$ markedly improved the post-ischemic mechanical function and reduced the lactate dehydrogenase release. Similar cardioprotective effect was observed with an ?-agonist, phenylephrine pretreatment, but much higher $concentration(10^{-4}\;M)$ was needed to achieve the same degree of cardioprotection. The cardioprotective effects of isoproterenol and phenylephrine pretreatments were blocked by a ${\beta}_1-adrenergic$ receptor antagonist, atenolol, but not by an ${\alpha}_1-antagonist,$ prazosin. Adenosine release from the heart was increased by isoproterenol, and the increase was also blocked by atenolol, but not by prazosin. A selective $A_1-adenosine$ receptor antagonist, 1,3-dipropyl-8-cyclopentyl xanthine (DPCPX) blocked the cardioprotection by isoproterenol pretreatment. These results suggest that catecholamine pretreatment protects rat myocardium against ischemia and reperfusion injury by mediation of ${\beta}_1-adrenergic$ receptor pathway, and that adenosine is involved in this cardioprotective effect.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.196-203
• /
• 2013

Recent accumulating studies have reported that hypoxic preconditioning during ex vivo expansion enhanced the self-renewal or differentiation of various stem cells and provide an important strategy for the adequate modulation of oxygen in culture conditions, which might increase the functional bioactivity of these cells for cardiac regeneration. In this study, we proposed a novel priming protocol to increase the functional bioactivity of cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) for the treatment of cardiac regeneration. Firstly, patient-derived c-$kit^+$ CPCs isolated from the atrium of human hearts by enzymatic digestion and secondly, pivotal target molecules identified their differentiation into specific cell lineages. We observed that hCPCs, in response to hypoxia, strongly activated ERK phosphorylation in ex vivo culture conditioning. Interestingly, pre-treatment with an ERK inhibitor, U0126, significantly enhanced cellular proliferation and tubular formation capacities of CPCs. Furthermore, we observed that hCPCs efficiently maintained the expression of the c-kit, a typical stem cell marker of CPCs, under both hypoxic conditioning and ERK inhibition. We also show that hCPCs, after preconditioning of both hypoxic and ERK inhibition, are capable of differentiating into smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and cardiomyocytes (CMs), but not endothelial cells (ECs), as demonstrated by the strong expression of ${\alpha}$-SMA, Nkx2.5, and cTnT, respectively. From our results, we conclude that the functional bioactivity of patient-derived hCPCs and their ability to differentiate into SMCs and CMs can be efficiently increased under specifically defined culture conditions such as short-term hypoxic preconditioning and ERK inhibition.

• Journal of The Korean Dental Society of Anesthesiology
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.107-114
• /
• 2014

Background: Angiogenesis has been recognized an essential precondition for osteogenesis. Because reduction and disruption of the blood supply to tissue cause tissue hypoxia, pathological bone loss affected by hypoxia often can occur in various clinical conditions. The effects of propofol on the process of osteogenesis have received little direct attention. Therefore, we investigated the effect of propofol on the growth and function of osteoblasts under hypoxic condition. Methods: After propofol (3, 30, $300{\mu}M$) preconditioning for 2 hours, hFOB 1.19 human osteoblast cells were cultured under 1 % oxygen tension for 48 hours. Using real time PCR and western blot analysis, we analyzed the expression of, BMP-2, TGF-${\beta}1$, type I collagen, osteocalcin, HIF-1s and Akt. Cell viability was also determined by MTT assay. Results: Propofol preconditioning on hypoxic-cultured osteoblast promoted the expressions of BMP-2, TGF-${\beta}1$, type I collagen and osteocalcin and induced hypoxia-mediated HIF-1 activation and the expression of Akt protein. Propofol with $300{\mu}M$ significant decreased cell viability compared to control. Conclusions: Clinically relevant concentrations of propofol are not cytotoxic to hypoxic osteoblasts in vitro. Propofol preconditioning on hypoxic-cultured osteoblast stimulates proliferation and differentiation of osteoblast through induced expression of BMP-2, TGF-${\beta}1$, type I collagen and osteocalcin. Propofol might promote angiogenesis and bone regeneration under hypoxic condition.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.281-296
• /
• 2021

The beneficial effects of hypoxic preconditioning are abolished in the diabetes. The present study was designed to investigate the protective effects and mechanisms of repeated episodes of whole body hypoxic preconditioning (WBHP) in db/db mice. The protective effects of preconditioning were explored on diabetes-induced vascular dysfunction, cognitive impairment and ischemia-reperfusion (IR)-induced increase in myocardial injury. Sixteen-week old db/db (diabetic) and C57BL/6 (non-diabetic) mice were employed. There was a significant impairment in cognitive function (Morris Water Maze test), endothelial function (acetylcholine-induced relaxation in aortic rings) and a significant increase in IR-induced heart injury (Langendorff apparatus) in db/db mice. WBHP stimulus was given by exposing mice to four alternate cycles of low (8%) and normal air O₂ for 10 min each. A single episode of WBHP failed to produce protection; however, two and three episodes of WBHP significantly produced beneficial effects on the heart, brain and blood vessels. There was a significant increase in the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and nitric oxide (NO) in response to 3 episodes of WBHP. Moreover, pretreatment with the BDNF receptor, TrkB antagonist (ANA-12) and NO synthase inhibitor (L-NAME) attenuated the protective effects imparted by three episodes of WBHP. These pharmacological agents abolished WBHP-induced restoration of p-GSK-3β/GSK-3β ratio and Nrf2 levels in IR-subjected hearts. It is concluded that repeated episodes of WHBP attenuate cognitive impairment, vascular dysfunction and enhancement in IR-induced myocardial injury in diabetic mice be due to increase in NO and BDNF levels that may eventually activate GSK-3β and Nrf2 signaling pathway to confer protection.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.34 no.11
• /
• pp.823-830
• /
• 2001

Background: Paraplegia is a serious complication of thoracic or thoracoabdominal aortic operations, which is related to ischemic injury of the spinal cord induced by low perfusion pressure during cross clamping of the aorta. Ischemic preconditioning of heart or brain with reversible sublethal ischemic injury induces resistance to subsequent lethal ischemia. The aim of this study is to investigate whether ischemic tolerance could be induced by the preconditioning of the spinal cord using swine model. Material and Method: The animals were randomly assigned to three groups: sham group(n=3), control group(n=6) and pre-conditioning group(n=8). In the sham group, we performed the left thoracotomy only without any ischemic injury. In the preconditioning group, the swine received reversible spinal cord ischemic injury by aortic clamping for 20 minutes, whereas control group had no previous aortic cross- clamping. Forty-eight hours later, the aorta was clamped for 30 minutes in both groups. Neurological examination was done 24 hours later, then the animals were euthanized for histopathology and malonedialdehyde(MDA) spectrophotometry assay of the spinal cord. Result: Statistically significant difference in neurological outcome was observed between the control and preconditioning groups at 24 hours after ischemic injury. The incidence of paraplegia and severe paresis was 100% in the control group, and 62.5% in the preconditing group(p=0.028). There was no statistically significant difference in histopathology and MDA assay of the ischemic spinal cord between these two groups with borderline statistical difference in MDA assay(p=0.0745). Conclusion: In the present swine study, ischemic preconditioning could induce tolerance against 30 minute ischemic insult of the spinal cord, although the animals did not completely recover(stand-up or walk). We expect that combining this preconditioning with other currently existing protection methods might lead to a synergistic effect, which warrants further investigation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.27 no.8
• /
• pp.1122-1133
• /
• 2003

Numerical characteristics of implicit upwind schemes, such as upwind ADI, line Gauss-Seidel (LGS) and point Gauss-Seidel (LU) algorithms, for Navier-Stokes equations have been investigated. Time-derivative preconditioning method was applied for efficient convergence at low Mach/Reynolds number regime as well as at large grid aspect ratios. All the algorithms were expressed in approximate factorization form and von Neumann stability analysis was performed to identify stability characteristics of the above algorithms in the presence of high grid aspect ratios. Stability analysis showed that for high aspect ratio computations, the ADI and LGS algorithms showed efficient damping effect up to moderate aspect ratio if we adopt viscous preconditioning based on min-CFL/max-VNN time-step definition. The LU algorithm, on the other hand, showed serious deterioration in stability characteristics as the grid aspect ratio increases. Computations for several practical applications also verified these results.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.53-62
• /
• 2016

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the bone marrow and other somatic tissues reside in an environment with relative low oxygen tension. Cobalt chloride ($CoCl_2$) can mimic hypoxic conditions through transcriptional changes of some genes including hypoxia-inducible factor-$1{\alpha}$ (HIF-$1{\alpha}$) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). This study evaluated the potential role of $CoCl_2$ preconditioning on multi-lineage differentiation of C3H/10T1/2, a murine MSC line to understand its possible molecular mechanisms in vitro. $CoCl_2$ treatment of MSCs markedly increased HIF-$1{\alpha}$ and VEGF mRNA, and protein expression of HIF-$1{\alpha}$. Temporary preconditioning of MSCs with $CoCl_2$ induced up-regulation of osteogenic markers including alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin, and type I collagen during osteogenic differentiation, followed by enhanced mineralization. $CoCl_2$ also increased chondrogenic markers including aggrecan, sox9, and type II collagen, and promoted chondrocyte differentiation. $CoCl_2$ suppressed the expression of adipogenic markers including $PPAR{\gamma}$, aP2, and $C/EBP{\alpha}$, and inhibited adipogenesis. Temporary preconditioning with $CoCl_2$ could affect the multi-lineage differentiation of MSCs.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.32 no.5
• /
• pp.30-40
• /
• 2004

In the present study, a numerical method has been developed for the calculation of the gust response of an airship using unstructured meshes. A preconditioning method is incorporated for accurate and efficient computations of the Euler equations at the low Mach number range. A simple sharp-edged gust is used as a gust model. The accuracy of the present method is demonstrated through comparisons with an exact line theory. The numerical results show that the variation of lift is relatively larger than that of moment. It is also shown that the static stability of the airship is enhanced with the use of control fins.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.63-69
• /
• 2001

In this study, we shall be concerned with computing in parallel a few of the smallest eigenvalues and their corresponding eigenvectors of the eigenvalue problem, $Ax={\lambda}Bx$, where A is symmetric, and B is symmetric positive definite. Both A and B are large and sparse. Recently iterative algorithms based on the optimization of the Rayleigh quotient have been developed, and CG scheme for the optimization of the Rayleigh quotient has been proven a very attractive and promising technique for large sparse eigenproblems for small extreme eigenvalues. As in the case of a system of linear equations, successful application of the CG scheme to eigenproblems depends also upon the preconditioning techniques. A proper choice of the preconditioner significantly improves the convergence of the CG scheme. The idea underlying the present work is a parallel computation of the Multi-Color Block SSOR preconditioning for the CG optimization of the Rayleigh quotient together with deflation techniques. Multi-Coloring is a simple technique to obatin the parallelism of order n, where n is the dimension of the matrix. Block SSOR is a symmetric preconditioner which is expected to minimize the interprocessor communication due to the blocking. We implemented the results on the CRAY-T3E with 128 nodes. The MPI(Message Passing Interface) library was adopted for the interprocessor communications. The test problems were drawn from the discretizations of partial differential equations by finite difference methods.