• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2015

Objectives: This study was carried out to analyze the single-dose toxicity of Eun-Bi San pharmacopuncture injected into the muscle of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Methods: All experiments were performed at Biotoxtech, an institution certified to conduct non-clinical studies under the Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) regulations. Six week old SD rats reared by ORIENTBIO were chosen for this pilot study. The reason SD rats were chosen is that they have been widely used in safety tests in the field of medicine, so the results can be easily compared with many other databases. The Eun-Bi San pharmacopuncture was made in a clean room at the Korean Pharmacopuncture Institute (KPI, K-GMP). The constituents of the Eun-Bi San pharmacopuncture are Angelicae gigantis radix, Strychni semen and Glycyrrhizae radix. These were extracted at low temperature and low pressure in an aseptic room at the KPI. Doses of Eun-Bi San pharmacopuncture, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 mL, were administered to the experimental groups, and a dose of normal saline solution, 1.0 mL, was administered to the control group. This study was performed under the approval of the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee of Biotoxtech Co., Ltd. Results: No deaths or abnormalities occurred in any of the four groups. No significant changes in weight, hematological parameters or clinical chemistry between the control group and the experimental groups were observed. To determine if abnormalities existed in any organs and tissues, we used microscopy to examine representative histological sections of each specified organ; the results showed no significant differences in any of the organs or tissues. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that treatment with Eun-Bi San pharmacopuncture is relatively safe and that its clinical use may be beneficial. Further evaluations and studies on this subject will be needed to provide more concrete evidence in support of these conclusions.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.83-93
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• 1997

Although IVF-ET is widely applied in the treatment of couples with male factor infertility, it may fail in many infertile couples with normal semen parameters, and certain couples cannot be accepted for standard IVF-ET due to unfertilization or extremely low fertilization rate of oocytes. Recently, several procedures of microassisted fertilization (MAF) using micromanipulation have been introduced, and pregnancies and births have been obtained after partial zona dissection (PZD), subzonal insertion (SUZI), and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). This clinical study was performed to develop and establish ICSI as an effective procedure of MAF in infertile couples who could not undergo standard IVF-ET repetitively because of failure in fertilization or extremely low fertilization rate of oocytes with the conventional fertilization technique in the previous IVF-ET cycles. From March, 1995 to May, 1996, 27 cycles of IVF-ET with ICSI in 19 infertile patients were included in study group, and the outcomes of ICSI were analyzed according to fertilization rate, cumulative embryo score (CES), and pregnancy rate. The number of oocytes retrieved after controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) was $10.50{\pm}6.13$ in 30 previous cycles, and $10.57{\pm}5.53$ in 27 ICSI cycles. In ICSI cycles, the number of oocytes optimal for ICSI procedure was $7.89{\pm}4.30$, and the fertilization rate of $67.9{\pm}20.2%$ could be obtained after ICSI. The number of embryos transferred was $1.43{\pm}2.40$ in previous cycles, and $4.36{\pm}1.77$ with the mean CES of $41.8{\pm}27.4$ in ICSI cycles. In ICSI cycles, the overall pregnancy rate was 29.6% (8/27) per cycle and 42.1% (8/19) per patient with the clinical pregnancy rate of 22.2% (6/27) per cycle and 31.6% (6/19) per patient. In conclusion, MAF of human oocytes with ICSI is a promising fertilization method for IVF-ET patients, especially with the past history of failure in fertilization or low fertilization rate of oocytes in the previous IVF-ET cycles, and ICSI using micromanipulation procedures applied to human oocytes will provide a range of novel techniques which may dramatically improve the pregnancy rate in IVF-ET program and contribute much to effective management of infertile couples.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.89-96
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• 1999

Some of the information concerning sexual function in the male diabetes has been focused upon the problems of endocrine or semen parameters. However, the characteristics of acrosome reaction and spermatozoa concentration at the epididymis and vas deferens have scarcely been studied, and the causes of the infertility has not been critically identified. So, we designed to inspect the spermatozoa concentration and the characteristics of acrosome reaction at epididymis and vas deferens of diabetic Wistar rat induced by streptozotocin (STZ, 70 mg/kg, ip). Experimental animal was sacrificed at 3 days and 14 days after the STZ injection. In the diabetes-induced rat, the levels of insulin and glucose had a pattern of inverse proportion. The spermatozoa concentrations in caput and corpus epididymis were significantly decreased in all diabetic condition. In cauda epididymis, however, there was significant decrease in sperm concentration at 14 days onward. In diabetic rat, the spontaneous reaction rate of spermatozoa of cauda and vas deferens were significantly higher than the control group. The ARIC (acrosome reaction to ionophore challenge) value of caudal sperm was 28.7 at control, 22.1 at 3 days, and 8.3 at 14 days. In the present study the spermatozoa concentration was decreased and the spontaneous reaction rate was increased by diabetes. In ARIC-test, it is revealed that the fertility of spermatozoa of 14 days group was lower than control or 3 days group. Diabetes mellitus may be provoke the decreased fertilization rate and subsequent infertility and subsequent infertility.