• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.131-134
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• 2003

There are significant differences in the extent of drug interactions between subjects. The influence of the genetic make up of drug metabolizing enzyme activities (CYP3A5, CYP2C19 and UDP-glucuronosyl transferase) on the pharmacokinetic drug interaction potential were studied in vivo. Nineteen healthy volunteers were grouped with regard to the $CYP3A5^{*}3$ allele, into homozygous wild-type (CYP3A5^{*}1/1^{*}1$, n=6), heterozygous $(CYP3A5^{*}1/^{*}3$, n=6), and homozygous variant-type $(CYP3A5^{*}3/^{*}3$, n=7) subject groups. The pharmacokinetic profile of intravenous midazolam was characterized before and after itraconazole administration (200 mg once daily for 4 days), and also following rifampin pretreatment (600 mg once daily for 10 days), with a washout period of 2 weeks in between. For omeprazole and moclobemide pharmacokinetic interaction study 16 healthy volunteers were recruited. The volunteer group comprised 8 extensive metabolizers and 8 poor metabolizers of CYP2C19, which was confirmed by genotyping. Subjects were randomly allocated into two sequence groups, and a single-blind, placebo-controlled, two-period crossover study was performed. In study I, a placebo was orally administered for 7 days. On the eighth morning, 300 mg of moclobemide and 40 mg of placebo were coadministered with 200 mL of water, and a pharmacokinetic study was performed. During study n, 40 mg of omeprazole was given each morning instead of placebo, and pharmacokinetic studies were performed on the first and eighth day with 300 mg of moclobemide coadministration. In the UGT study pharmacokinetics and dynamics of 2 mg intravenous lorazepam were evaluated before and after rifampin pretreatment (600 mg once daily for 10 days), with a washout period of 2 weeks in between. The subjective and objective pharmacodynamic tests were done before and 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12 hrs after lorazepam administration. The pharmacokinetic profiles of midazolam and of its hydroxy metabolites did not show differences between the genotype groups under basal and induced metabolic conditions. However, during the inhibited metabolic state, the $CYP3A5^{*}3/^{*}3$ group showed a greater decrease in systemic clearance than the $CYP3A5^{*}1/^{*}1$ group $(8.5\pm3.8$ L/h/70 kg vs. $13.5\pm2.7$ L/h/70 kg, P=0.027). The 1'-hydroxymidazolam to midazolam AUC ratio was also significantly lower in the $CYP3A5^{*}3/^{*}3$,/TEX> group $(0.58\pm0.35,$ vs. $1.09\pm0.37$ for the homozygous wild-type group, P=0.026). The inhibition of moclo-bemide metabolism was significant in extensive metabolizers even after a single dose of omeprazole. After daily administration of omeprazole for 1 week, the pharmacokinetic parameters of moclobemide and its metabolites in extensive metabolizers changed to values similar to those in poor metabolizers. In poor meta-bolizers, no remarkable changes in the pharmacokinetic parameters were observed. The area under the time-effect curves of visual analog scale(VAS), choice reaction time, and continuous line tracking test results of lorazepam was reduced by 20%, 7%, 23% respectively in induced state, and in spite of large interindividual variablity, significant statistical difference was shown in VAS(repeated measures ANOVA, p=0.0027).

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.709-719
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• 2000

Background : The different features of high-resolution CT(HRCT) findings of active pulmonary tuberculosis(TB) were studied between acid fast bacilli(AFB) smear or culture positive and negative group. Methods : We prospectively evaluated 36 patients who had been confirmed for active pulmonary tuberculosis by the smear or culture of AFB in sputum(n=25), and changes on serial chest radiographs(n=11). The patients were divided into 3 groups by the results of sputum AFB stain and culture. Group 1(n= 11) is negative in both AFB stain and culture; group 2(n=13) is negative in AFB stain but positive in culture ; and group 3(n=12) is positive in both AFB stain and culture. We evaluated the findings of HRCT in each group randomly. Result : On the HRCT scans, acinar nodule(100%), macronodule(75%), and cavity(75%) in group 3 were more frequently found than group 1(63%. 18%, 9%) and group 2(46%, 15%, 23%)(p<0.05). The centrilobular nodule and branching structure were more frequently observed in group 3(92%) than in group 1(54%)(p<0.05), but were similarly observed in group 2(77%)(p>0.05). AFB positive group was statistically different than the negative group in the HRCT findings with to acinar nodule(100% vs 54%), macronodule(75% vs 17%), and cavity(75% vs 17%)(p<0.05). TB culture positive group was statistically different than the negative group in the HRCT findings with respect to acinar nodule(72% vs 45%) and cavity(48% vs 9%)(p<0.05). Conclusions : HRCT scans are helpful in determining disease acitivity in sputum AFB stain-negative pulmonary tuberculosis. When HRCT shows centrilobular nodule and branching structure, acinar nodule, macronodule, cavity, further studies as sputum induction and bronchoscopy can be performed to determine the presence of bacilli in patients of AFB stain-negative tuberculosis.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.226-233
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• 2004

Background : Interferon-gamma (IFN-${\gamma}$) is a critical cytokine in the defense against a Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Even though IFN-${\gamma}$ has occasionally been used in the treatment of refractory multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) with some promising results, there is still some controversy regarding the therapeutic efficacy of IFN-${\gamma}$. This study was performed to examine the effect of subcutaneous IFN-${\gamma}$ in the treatment of MDR-TB patients. Methods : Six patients with refractory MDR-TB were enrolled in this study. Two million IU of IFN-${\gamma}$ was administered subcutaneously three times a week with the concomitant administration of antituberculous drugs for at least for 28 weeks. During the IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy, the sputum smear and culture, radiological and clinical evaluations were performed every 4 weeks throughout the study period. Results : The mean age of the 6 patients was 37 years (ranges, 15-61 years). The drug susceptibility test to standard antituberculous drugs revealed resistance to an average of 6.8 (${\pm}1.2$) agents including isoniazid and rifampicin. An average of 10.8 (${\pm}1.3$) antituberculous drugs were prescribed before IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy. The culture became negative in 2 patients (33%) after initiating IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy; one at 8 weeks, and the other at 24 weeks. Finally, after stopping the IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy after 28 weeks, the culture became positive again in the two patients who were culture-negative. The other 4 patients who failed in the culture conversion are still on antituberculous treatment except for one who died of tuberculosis. Conclusion : Even though 28 weeks of subcutaneous IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy in combination with antituberculous drugs was successful in inducing the culture-negative conversion in some patients with refractory MDR-TB, the culture became positive again after stopping the IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy. This suggests that subcutaneous IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy may have suppressive effect on tuberculosis only during the IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy period in some patients. Further studies will be needed to determine the optimum dose, the administration route, the duration of therapy, and the predicting factors of the response to adjuvant IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.290-298
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• 2007

Background: The currently available diagnostic markers for pleural effusion have a limited role. The soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (sTREM-1) is a molecule recently reported to play an important role in the myeloid cell mediated inflammatory response, and is up regulated in the body fluid by bacterial or fungal products. This study examined the expression of sTREM-1 in pleural effusion. Methods: Between April 2004 and December 2005, 48 patients with pleural effusions were enrolled in this study. The pleural fluids were taken and analyzed for the total protein, glucose, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), adenosine deaminase (ADA), and sTREM-1. Bacterial cultures and cytology tests were also performed. Results: The clinical diagnoses were 17 parapneumonic, 14 tuberculous, and 13 malignant effusions. Four patients presented with transudates. The mean ages of the parapneumonic, tuberculous and malignant effusion groups were $57.1{\pm}19.7$, $49.5{\pm}18.6$, $66.9{\pm}15.5$, and $76.0{\pm}18.1$. respectively. The level of sTREM-1 expression was significantly higher in the parapneumonic effusions ($344.0{\pm}488.7$) than in the tuberculous effusions ($81.7{\pm}56.6$) and malignant effusions ($39.3{\pm}19.6$). With a cut-off value of 55.4pg/ml, the sensitivity and specificity for a parapneumonic effusion was 70.6% and 74.1%. Conclusion: sTREM-1 expression is significantly higher in parapneumonic effusions, suggesting its potential role as an additional diagnostic marker for pleural effusions.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.46 no.11
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• pp.1073-1079
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• 2003

Purpose : Recently there has been a decrease in ventilator care rate and duration of very low birth weight infants(VLBWI) in Fatima Hospital. The aims of this study were to survey the frequency and duration of ventilation in VLBWI and to develop a non-invasive neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) policy. Methods : We performed a retrospective study of 284 newborn of infants less than 1,500 gm admitted to NICU and discharged from January 1998 to December 2001. Patients were intubated or applied continuous positive airway pressure(CPAP) via nasal prong immediately after presenting signs of respiratory distress. We analyzed epidemiologic data to study the changes in ventilator care rate, duration and outcome of ventilator care groups. Results : Of 284 newborn infants, 146 required invasive management, such as endotracheal intubation and assisted ventilation. The characteristics, the severity of clinical symptoms and laboratory findings in ventilator care groups at birth showed no significant differences. The annual proportion of infants requiring assisted ventilation decreased according to increasing gestational age. The median duration of ventilation decreased markedly from 6.0 days in 1998 to 2.7 days in 2001. Final complications and outcomes in ventilator care groups showed no significant differences. Conclusion : Our study shows a significant reduction in the invasiveness of the treatment of VLBW infants, which was not associated with an increased mortality or morbidity. A non-invasive strategy for the VLBW infant with minimal to moderate respiratory distress after birth in NICU is better than immediate invasive management. Non-invasive nasal CPAP is a simpler and safer method than invasive assisted ventilation.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.338-343
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• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a small animal PET using dual layer phoswich detector to minimize parallax error that degrades spatial resolution at the outer part of field-of-view (FOV). Materials and Methods: A simulation tool GATE (Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission) was used to derive optimal parameters of small PET, and PET was developed employing the parameters. Lutetium Oxyorthosilicate (LSO) and Lutetium-Yttrium Aluminate-Perovskite(LuYAP) was used to construct dual layer phoswitch crystal. $8{\times}8$ arrays of LSO and LuYAP pixels, $2mm{\times}2mm{\times}8mm$ in size, were coupled to a 64-channel position sensitive photomultiplier tube. The system consisted of 16 detector modules arranged to one ring configuration (ring inner diameter 10 cm, FOV of 8 cm). The data from phoswich detector modules were fed into an ADC board in the data acquisition and preprocessing PC via sockets, decoder block, FPGA board, and bus board. These were linked to the master PC that stored the events data on hard disk. Results: In a preliminary test of the system, reconstructed images were obtained by using a pair of detectors and sensitivity and spatial resolution were measured. Spatial resolution was 2.3 mm FWHM and sensitivity was 10.9 $cps/{\mu}Ci$ at the center of FOV. Conclusion: The radioactivity distribution patterns were accurately represented in sinograms and images obtained by PET with a pair of detectors. These preliminary results indicate that it is promising to develop a high performance small animal PET.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.36 no.3 s.104
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• pp.322-335
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• 2003

Nutrient fluxes and sediment oxygen demands (SOD) were measured with intact sediment cores collected from three stations in the downstream of Nagdong River. The sediments were subjected to controlled oxic and hypoxic conditions and temperature gradients (from $10^{\circ}C$ to $30^{\circ}C$) of the overlying waters in laboratory batch system. The effect of temperature and labile layer thickness of the sediment on SOD were examined. $PO_4\;^{3-}$ and $NH_4\;^+$ fluxes were elevated above $20^{\circ}C$ and large mobilities were observed when they were coupled with a hypoxic and high-temperature condition. In the well oxygenated conditions, $PO_4\;^{3-}$ fluxes were negative or negligible but $NH_4\;^+$ fluxes ranged from 1.3 mg N $m^{-2}\;hr^{-1}$ to 2.3 $m^{-2}\;hr^{-1}$. Temperature quotients($Q_{10}$) of $PO_4\;^{3-}$ fluxes were 3.7 ${\sim}$ 7.3 ranges to have the most high values. $PO_4\;^{3-}$ and $NH_4\;^+$ fluxes had the logarithmic increase with temperature, while $NO_3\;^-$ was negatively absorbed to the sediment and linearly correlated with the temperature. $SiO_2$ fluxes showed no difference among oxic and hypoxic conditions and sediment texture. The nutrient fluxes would be closely correlated with pore water chemistry of sediments and activated by the top sediment layer composition such as labile organic matters or algal detritus. The ecological implications of the nutrient fluxes were discussed in terms of sources and sinks of nutrients coupled to algal productions in the Nagdong River.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.119-133
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• 1997

In spite of much progress in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) program, the pregnancy rate remains at 20-30%, and the endometrial implantation rate per embryo transferred at 10-15%. As a result, about 90% of embryos may fail to implant to the endometrium, and many attempts such as optimization of follicular development, improvement of in vitro culture system including coculture, and micromanipulation of zona pellucida have been made to improve embryonic implantation after IVF-ET. Recently, several procedures of assisted hatching (AH) using micromanipulation have been introduced, and pregnancies and births have been obtained after AH. To develop and establish AH as an effective procedure to improve embryonic implantation, AH with partial zona dissection (PZD) was performed in 116 cycles of 89 infertile couples who had previous repeated failures of standard IVF-ET more than two times (Group I: 71 cycles in 54 patients), or who had implantation failure of embryos with good quality (Group II: 15 cycles in 13), or who had undergone AH without specific indication (Group III: 30 cycles in 22) from January, 1995 to Februry, 1996, and the outcomes of AH were analyzed according to pregnancy rate. The number of oocytes retrieved after controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) was $9.9{\pm}7.1$ in Group I, $11.5{\pm}4.5$ in Group II, and $7.9{\pm}6.4$ in Group III. The number of embryos transferred after AH was $4.7{\pm}1.8$ in Group I, $5.3{\pm}1.3$ in Group II, and $3.5{\pm}2.4$ in Group III. The mean cumulative embryo score (CES) was $56.8{\pm}30.0$ in Group I, $76.1{\pm}35.9$ in Group II, and $38.5{\pm}29.9$ in Group III. The overall clinical pregnancy rate per cycle and per patient was 12.7% (9/71) and 16.7% (9/54) in Group I, 33.3% (5/15) and 38.5% (5/13) in Group II, and 6.7% (2/30) and 9.1% (2/22) in Group III, respectively. There were significant differences in the numbers of oocytes retrieved and embryos transferred, CES, and the clinical pregnancy rate per cycle among three groups. There was a significant inverse correlation between basal serum FSH level and CES, and no pregnancy occurred in patients with CES less than 20. In conclusion, AH of human embryos with PZD prior to ET has improved the implantation and pregnancy rates in IVF-ET patients with the past history of repeated failures, especially in spite of transfer of embryos with good quality, and AH will provide a range of novel techniques which may contribute much to effective management of infertile couples.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2002

Objective: In order to acquire the technique for the establishment of human embryonic stem cells (ESe) derived from the human frozen-thawed embryos produced in IVF-ET program, this study was performed to establish mouse ESC derived from the in vitro fertilized embryos. Materials and Methods: After Fl hybrid (C57BL female $\times$ CBA mael) female mice were superovulated with PMSG and hCG treatment, their oocytes were retrieved and inseminated, and the fertilized embryos were cultured for 96-120 hours until the expected stages of blastocysts were obtained. To isolate the inner cell mass (ICM), either the blastocysts were treated with immunosurgery, or the whole embryos were cultured for 4 days. Isolated ICMs were then cultured onto STO feeder cell layer, and the resultant ICM colonies were subcultured with trypsin-EDTA treatment. During the subculture process, ESC-like cell colonies were observed with phase contrast microscopy. To identify ESC in the subcultured ESC-like cell colonies, alkaline phosphatase activity and Oct-4 (octamer-binding transcription factor-4) expression were examined by immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR, respectively. To examine the spontaneous differentiation, ESC-like cell colonies were cultured without STO feeder cell layer and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). Results: Seven ESC-like cell lines were established from ICMs isolated from the in vitro fertilized embryos. According to the developmental stage, the growth of ICMs isolated from the expanded blastocysts was significantly better than that of ICMs isolated from the hatched blastocysts (80.3% vs. 58.7%, p<0.05). ESC-like cell colonies were only obtained from ICMs of expanded blastocysts. However, the ICMs isolated from the embryos treated with immunosurgery were poorly grown and frequently differentiated during the culture process. The established ESC-like cell colonies were positively stained with alkaline phosphatase and expressed Oct-4, and their morphology resembled that observed in the previously reported mouse ESC. In addition, following the extended in vitro culture process, they maintained their expression of cell surface markers characteristic of the pluripotent stem cells such as alkaline phosphatase and Oct-4. When cultured without STO feeder cell layer and LIF, they were spontaneously differentiated into the various types of cells. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that the establishment of mouse ESC can be successfully derived from the in vitro fertilized embryos. The established ESC-like cells expressed the cell surface markers characteristic of the pluripotent stem cells and spontaneously differentiated into the various types of cells.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.205-209
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• 2018

'Saemimyeon,' a Tongil-type rice variety (Indica x Japonica), containing high amylose content, is suitable for rice noodle production. Currently, the major parts of the rice processing industry that include products such as rice flour and noodles are expected to partially replace the wheat flour market. The volume of the rice noodle market is growing and can contribute to the rice surplus problems and farmer's income. This study was carried out to promote productivity of 'Saemimyeon' by finding the most suitable transplanting times in Youngnam Province. The transplanting times were May $10^{th}$, May $17^{th}$, May $24^{th}$, May $31^{th}$, June $7^{th}$, and June $14^{th}$ and the planting distance was $30{\times}12cm$. The field experiment was conducted in the Miryang region (southern plain region of Korea) from 2015 to 2017. Our results suggested that the optimum transplanting dates were from May $17^{th}$ to May $31^{th}$, which resulted in an average yield of 750 kg/10 a. The average grain filling rate before May $31^{th}$ was more than 83% and it declined to 75% after June $7^{th}$. The average temperature range from heading to harvesting time was $21{\sim}25^{\circ}C$ and the estimated optimal temperature was $24^{\circ}C$, which is similar to that of May $24^{th}$ by regression equation. It is suggested that low temperature at seed maturation time caused the lower grain filling rate, and therefore 'Saemimyeon' needed to be transplanted before May $31^{th}$ for higher productivity. Estimated optimal transplanting time based on temperature was 1 ~ 2 weeks earlier than the optimum transplanting time for common japonica rice cultivars in Youngnam Province.