• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.365-370
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• 2016

Atopic dermatitis refers to a chronic, recurrent, skin condition, typically typified by itching, inflamed skin. It precedes other allergic diseases, such as asthma, food allergies, and allergic rhinitis, and is usually accompanied by various other immune disorders and secondary symptoms. In this study, we discovered that when treating TNF-${\alpha}$ and IFN-${\gamma}$-stimulated HaCaT cells with various concentrations of Picea wilsonii Mast (PwM) extracts, the cell viability was excellent. In addition, we measured the inflammatory cytokines associated with atopic dermatitis, including IL-6, IL-8, IL-13, and MCP-1. The production of IL-6, IL-13, and MCP-1 decreased in the presence of PwM extracts, whereas there was no significant difference in the production of IL-8. Further studies are necessary to develop an effective cure for atopic dermatitis and inflammation using foreign plant extracts, and PwM efficacy should be determined with an in-depth, objective verification process using protein and mechanism analysis.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.9-21
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• 2007

This study was conducted to determine the cause and prevalence of occupational skin disease in dental technicians working in Seoul, Korea. and to investigate the relation between these work condition and skin disease of the hand, wrist and forearm. This study was based on the Nordic occupational skin questionnaire(NOSQ), a self-administrated questionnaire which was modified to investigate the dental technician's occupational factors in domestic circumstances. The number was distributed to 500 dental technicians who participated in annual continuing education for dental technicians of the Seoul metropolitan area in April 2006. Of the subjects, 62(30.4%) had eczema and 70(32.9%) had urticaria, as diagnosed. Of the subjects with the symptoms of urticaria, 30 complained of atopic dermatitis, 65 complained of allergic rhinitis, 56 complained of allergic conjunctivitis, and 18 complained of asthma. The group with atopic history had a higher frequency of eczema or urticaria than the group without atopic history. From multiple regression analysis, the group who had a history of atopic dermatitis also had high symptom rates of eczema. The group who had a history of allergic rhinitis and allergic conjunctivitis had high symptom rates of urticaria. The urticaria symptom rates were higher in those wearing gloves than those who did not for the type of work.

• BMB Reports
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.305-310
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• 2012

Allergic diseases such as asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis are heterogeneous diseases characterized by multiple symptoms and phenotypes. Recent advancements in genetic study enabled us to identify disease associated genetic factors. Numerous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed multiple associated loci for allergic diseases. However, the majority of previous studies have been conducted in populations of European ancestry. Moreover, the associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with allergic diseases have not been studied amongst the large-scale general Korean population. Herein, we performed the replication study to validate the previous variants, known to be associated with allergic diseases, in the Korean population. In this study, we categorized three allergic related phenotypes, one allergy and two asthma related phenotypes, based on self-reports of physician diagnosis and their symptoms from 8,842 samples. As a result, we found nominally significant associations of 6 SNPs with at least one allergic related phenotype in the Korean population.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.226-232
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• 1999

Background : Various type of psychological and stressful events in life have been reported to have much effect in the onset, progress and exacerbation of psychosomatic disorders such as hypertension, bronchial asthma, peptic ulcer, tension headache, alopecia areata, and atopic dermatitis. However, the nature of the association between stress and psychosomatic disorders remains unclear. Objective : The purpose of this study is to determine the relation of stress and the progress of dermatologic disorder. Method : We examined 30 patients with atopic dermatitis and 30 control subjects with tinea pedis and onychomycosis who visited to Dept. of Dermatology, Chung-Ang University Hospital. To evaluate the stress, we used 'Scale of Life Events' and 'Multidemensional Coping Scale'. Result : 1) The score of life events stress in atopic dermatitis group was significantly higher than that of control group. 2) In the result of coping strategies, the atopic dermatitis group was significantly higher than control group at the active forgetting, positive comparison, and emotional pacification, while in control group religious seeking and accomodation tended to be higher with no statistical significance. Conclusion : These findings suggest that psychosocial stress may play a role in life pattern of atopic dermatitis. But further studies are needed to clarity the exact relationship between stress and psychosomatic disorder.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current level of sleep quality among Korean middle-school students using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and to analyze the factors influencing sleep quality. Methods: The study used a descriptive cross-sectional design and a self-report questionnaire. The participants were 744 middle-school students. The questionnaire included the PSQI and health-related questions, such as the types of diseases they had been diagnosed with and the frequency of hospital admissions. The data were analyzed using the independent t-test, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficients, and linear multiple regression. Results: The global PSQI score was 4.21, which indicated good sleep quality. The major factors that were associated with the sleep quality of middle-school students were the number of diseases they had been diagnosed with (β=.54, p=.001) and atopic dermatitis (β=.32, p=.001). In addition, asthma and the frequency of hospital admissions were significant factors influencing each component of the PSQI. Conclusion: The findings from this study suggest that sleep quality was associated with several health-related factors. Thus, nurses, school nurses, and nursing researchers may need to assess the health-related factors associated with adolescents' sleep quality as part of efforts to improve their sleep quality.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.48-54
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• 2013

Atopic dermatitis is a recurrent or chronic eczematous skin disease with severe pruritus and has annually increased in Korea. In this study, we investigated whether Duchesnea chrysantha (Dc) extracts have an anti-inflammatory effect in human monocytic THP-1 cells and human eosinophilic EoL-1 cells. The dried and powdered whole plants of Dc were extracted with 80% EtOH (Dc-1). The residue was diluted with water, and then successively partitioned with n-hexane, EtOAc, and BuOH to produce the n-hexane (Dc-2), EtOAc (Dc-3), BuOH (Dc-4), and the water-soluble fractions (Dc-5), respectively. The mite extract and LPS increased the production of IL-6, IL-8 and MCP-1 in THP-1 cells and the increase was strongly suppressed by Dc-3 extract, as compare with other extracts. Dc-3 also inhibited the release of IL-6 increased by mite extract and LPS in EoL-1 cells. However, Dc-3 extract increased IL-8 production induced by the mite extract and LPS in EoL-1 cells. These results suggest that Dc extract may be used as anti-inflammatory agents in treating allergic disorders such as asthma and atopic dermatitis.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.363-373
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• 2022

Multi-omics data is difficult to interpret due to the heterogeneity of information by the volume of data, the complexity of characteristics of each data, and the diversity of omics platforms. There is not yet a system for interpreting to visualize research data on environmental diseases concerning environmental harmful substances. We provide MEE, a web-based visualization tool, to comprehensively explore the complexity of data due to the interconnected characteristics of high-dimensional data sets according to exposure to various environmental harmful substances. MEE visualizes omics data of correlation between omics data, subjects and samples by keyword searches of meta data, multi-omics data, and harmful substances. MEE has been demonstrated the versatility by two examples. We confirmed the correlation between smoking and asthma with RNA-seq and Methylation-Chip data, it was visualized that genes (P HACTR3, PXDN, QZMB, SOCS3 etc.) significantly related to autoimmune or inflammatory diseases. To visualize the correlation between atopic dermatitis and heavy metals, we selected 32 genes related immune response by integrated analysis of multi-omics data. However, it did not show a significant correlation between mercury in blood and atopic dermatitis. In the future, should continuously collect an appropriate level of multi-omics data in MEE system, will obtain data to analyze environmental substances and diseases.

• International Journal of Molecular Medicine
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.2252-2258
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• 2019

Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) plays an important role in allergic disorders, including atopic dermatitis and asthma. Ursolic acid (UA) has various pharmacological properties, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer. However, the effect of UA on TSLP regulation has not been fully elucidated. The aim of the present study was to analyze how UA regulates the production of TSLP in the human mast cell line HMC-1. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis, western blotting, caspase-1 assay and fluorescent measurements of intracellular calcium levels were conducted to analyze the regulatory effects of UA. The results revealed that UA inhibited TSLP production and mRNA expression. In addition, UA reduced the activation of nuclear factor-κB and degradation of IκBα. Caspase-1 activity was increased by exposure to phorbol myristate acetate plus calcium ionophore, whereas it was reduced by UA. Finally, UA treatment prevented an increase in intracellular calcium levels. These results indicated that UA may be a useful agent for the treatment and/or prevention of atopic and inflammatory diseases, and its effects are likely mediated by TSLP downregulation.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.169-177
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• 2009

In the past decade there has been increasing concern about the atopic dermatitis (AD) associated with environmental diseases. AD has been increased in the last decade and known as one of the multifactoral diseases, which has the genetic background and environmental factors at the same time. The purposes of this study were to investigate the prevalence rate and etiologic risk factors of atopic dermatitis in preschool children in Changwon, which is a one of the Korean cities and has a large industrial complex. We reviewed and analyzed the statistical data, obtained from Korea National Health Insurance Corporation, related to prevalence rate by age and administrative district. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey, based on ISAAC (International Study of Allergy and Asthma in Childhood), was conducted on random samples of preschool children (5 to 8 years old) of large sized kindergartens in Changwon. The lifetime and last one years prevalence of AD in preschool children in Changwon was increased from 1998 to 2008. The prevalence rate of AD in the preschool children in Changwon city was 9.6%. The prevalence rate in boys was 9.7% and that in girls was 9.4%. The one year prevalence of AD was ranked as middle among other provincial cities in Korea in 2008. This study showed that the prevalence rate of the atopic disease in Changwon was 9% in 2008, which was increased especially compare to 2000. More active governmental approaches for control and prevention of atopic dermatitis for children are recommended. Further studies are needed for more accurate estimation of the prevalence of AD in Korea including different regional and age population.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.1336-1341
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• 2008

Inflammation through the respiratory tract is a crucial event in immune disorders, including asthma, and atopic rhinitis. To investigate whether an aqueous extract of Angelica archangelica L. (AaL) has a beneficial influence in terms of anti-asthmatic activity, its effects on an ovalbumin-induced asthmatic model were examined. Mice sensitized to ovalbumin were orally administered the AaL extract, and their lungs examined by Haematoxylin-Eosin staining to determine IL-4/13 cytokine expression. The AaL extract exerted strong anti-asthmatic effects by regulating each level in the $CD4^+$ cell number, IL-4/13, and other target markers in the lungs. Together, these results collectively indicate that the aqueous AaL extract ameliorates asthmatic symptoms effectively in a mouse ovalbumin-challenge model.