• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.106-113
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• 2006

Phthalate analogues are a plasticizer and solvent used in industry. Phthalates were classified in the category of "suspected" endocrine disruptors. The purpose of our study was to screen and elucidate the endocrine disrupting activity of seven phthalate analogues. E-screen assay was performed in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells with seven phthalate analogues. In this cell proliferation assay, benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP) and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) showed high estrogenic activity. Their relative proliferation efficiencies (RPE) were 109 and 106%, respectively. In vitro estrogen receptor (ER) binding assay, BBP, di-n-octyl phthalate (DOP) and dinonyl phthalate (DNP) showed weak relative binding affinity (RBA: 0.02%) compared to $17{\beta}-estradiol\;(E2)$ (RBA: 100%). In uterotrophic assay, E2 produced a significant increase, whereas four tested phthalate analogues had potential estrogenic effects in vitro did not increased in uterus weight in immature rats. From these results, we demonstrated that phthalate analogues exhibit weak estrogenic activity in vitro assays at high concentrations. Although phthalates induced an increase in MCF-7 cell proliferation by an estrogenic effect, they could not induce a uterus weight increase in vivo. From these, we may suggest that these phthalate analogues are easily metabolized to inactive forms in vivo. Further investigation in other in vitro and in vivo experimental systems might be required.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.1297-1306
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• 1998

Carotenoids are yellow to orange red pigments that are ubiquitous in the nature and its annual pro duction amounts to one hundred million ton. This review discussed physicochemical properties, antiox idative activity, anticancer activity of carotenoids and its production technology. Carotenoids, mainly used as food colourants, are characterized by its strong reactive conjugated double bonds, related to oxidation by heat, light, acid, and metal ions. The provitamin A activity of carotenoids is higher in trans form than in cis form. Antioxidative properties of carotenoids are related to ionone structure and long, conjugated polyene chain number. In particular, carotene, astaxanthin, canthaxanthin, and lycopene possess strong antioxidant activity, compared with tocopherol. Especially, carotene, astaxanthin, carotene, fucoxanthin, halocynthiaxanthin and peridinin impart strong anticancer activity against lung cancer, breast cancer, buccal pouch cancer and nerve cell cancer. Carotene and astaxanthin are produced by biotechnology using algae such as Dunaliella salina and Haematococcus pluvalis. But the change of cultivation conditions and screening of algae, efficiently producing carotenoids, are needed for its commercial production. Carotenoids are expected to be used in the various fields through explanation of its biological activity and establishment of commercial production technology.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.124-127
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• 2019

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a rare congenital anomaly of the genitourinary tract comprising uterus didelphys, obstructed hemivagina, and ipsilateral renal agenesis. Patients with HWW syndrome usually present symptoms such as dysmenorrhea, abdominal pain, pelvic mass, and purulent vaginal discharge. If not treated at an appropriate time, complications such as infertility, endometriosis, pyosalpinx, and subsequent pelvic adhesions may occur. Here, we report a case of HWW syndrome in a 7-year-old-girl who was also diagnosed as having central precocious puberty. She was brought to the pediatric department with chief complaints of lump in her breast and vaginal discharge. When she was around 2 months old, she was confirmed to have a single kidney on ultrasonography. We checked her past medical history and diagnosed her as having HWW syndrome based on the results of imaging studies, including abdominal ultrasonography and pelvic magnetic resonance imaging. She underwent treatment with gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue for 2 years. During 24 months of follow-up, she showed no serious problems or complications. If renal anomalies are identified immediately after birth or in infancy, further screening tests should be conducted prior to menstruation for determining congenital abnormalities of the reproductive tract and vice versa.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.296-310
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• 2000

During the past 10 years, concern for community people's health has increased together with the changes. Public health policies and studies for community people's health, however, have influenced those in childmaternal health care to want more general coverage and studies of health and wellness. Particularly, the study of community people's health in the extent an island area is almost rare as that personal and the material benefits in this area are lacking of community people's work is large, and the basic elements of living, such as diet and elimination, are irregular due to the schedule of the tide. Thus, there are many potential health problems. In this regard, the study attempted to understand the health problems of island community people and to provide a basis for developing health promotion and health education programs. In collecting data for the study, face to face interviews were made through a structured questionnaire from October 1 to December 30, 1996. Collected data were analyzed with the SAS statistics program, descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. Subjects' health status was examined by classifying into such categories as their health perception, complaints of health problem, related lifestyle, psychosocial health staus, the result of examination is as follows; 1. For subjects' health perception, 26.9% of the subject answered not sick, but not so healthy'; 30.9% thought they were healthy, while 22.9% answered that they were not healthy. 2. For the health problem complaints many complained of pains in their muscles and skeletal system, especially knee joint pain. Women's health problems related with breast and the reproductive system included 52.3% of cases doing breast self examination, while 56.55% received the cervical cancer screening test. In men's health problems, 44.2% of subjects answered that they have moderate to severe BPH(Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy) symptom. 3. There were statistically a significant difference in the degree of physical health according to marital status(p=0.0028), occupation(p=0.0442), income(p=0.0357). 4. For stress status, 17.2% was to need the intervention, 50.2% was to need observation. 5. The mean score of self-esteem was 27.7 showing a relatively high score. 6. For the rate of smoking, 37.7% used to smoke, while 28% used to take alcohol. 7. The rate of substance abuse was 45.9% of subjects. 8. Most of subjects' health behaviors included most of the acupuncture (52%). 9. The rate of subjects receiving comprehensive medical testing was 34.36% while 34.78% did after care managing behavior. 10. For the obesity grade, 53% is normal weight, low-weight 32.8%, obesity 33%. 11. For nutrition status, 78.7% illy balanced to need intervention of nutritional education. 12. For 78.7% of subjects, muscle strength and 40.7% of stretching were not good enough to need health education on physical exercises. Therefore, based on the results, appropriate health education programs need to be developed to promote health of community people on an island.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.43-51
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• 2006

Background: The DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay is a newly developed cancer diagnostic test which quantifies the serum fibrin degradation products (FDP), produced during fibrinolysis, by antibody reaction. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of DR-$70^{TM}$ Immunoassay in screening malignant tumor. Methods: Sample subjects were 4,169 adults, both male and female, who visited the health promotion center of a general hospital from March 2004 to April 2005 and underwent the DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay test and other tests for cancer diagnosis. The patient group was defined as 42 adults out of the sample subjects who were newly diagnosed with cancer during the same time period when the DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay test was performed. Final confirmation of a malignant tumor was made by pathological analysis. Results: The mean DR-$70^{TM}$ level was $0.83{\pm}0.65{\mu}g/ml$ (range: 0.00 (0.0001)${\sim}7.42{\mu}g/ml)$ in the control group (n=4,127) as opposed to $2.70{\pm}2.33{\mu}g/ml$ (range: $0.12{\sim}9.30{\mu}g/ml)$ in the cancer group (n=42), and statistical significance was established (p<0.0001, Student t-test). When categorized by the type of malignant tumor, all cancer patients with the exception of the subgroups of colon and rectal cancer showed significantly higher mean DR-$70^{TM}$ levels compared with the control group (p<0.0001, Kruscal-Wallis test). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed ${\geq}1.091{\mu}g/ml$ as the best cut-off value. Using this cut-off value, the DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay produced a sensitivity of 71.4%, a specificity of 70.1%, a positive predictability of 69.4%, and a negative predictability of 69.2% (1). Conclusion: A significant increase in the mean DR-$70^{TM}$ value was observed in the cancer group (thyroidal, gastric, breast, hepatic and ovarian) com pared with the control group. In particular, the specificity and sensitivity of the DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay was relatively high in the subgroups of breast, gastric, and thyroidal cancer patients. There is need for further studies on a large number of malignant tumor patients to see how the DR-$70^{TM}$ level might be changed according to the differentiation grade and postoperative prognosis of the malignant tumor.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.11-25
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• 2008

As breast cancer shows the highest incidence among women's cancers, the use of mammography is also increasing as a screening test. Mammography should produce high-quality images for accurate diagnosis. For this, it is necessary to manage the performance and image quality of mammography. Thus, in order to investigate quality control, the present study conducted a questionnaire survey of 37 hospitals registered as breast cancer medical examination centers in Gwang-Ju, concerning their quality control of mammography. In the results of surveying the characteristics of apparatus use for mammography, many respondents did not know about the equipment that they were using. Of the hospitals, 19 (49%) were using film, 19 (49%) CR, and 1 DR. In the results of asking how to do quality control, only 38% answered that they inspected according to the manual. In addition, all the surveyed hospitals had specialized agencies do quality control for them. As to the reason for using agencies, 65% mentioned limitations in personnel, time, distance, etc, and 44% mentioned the absence of machines and materials. These results suggest that quality control is being performed perfunctorily, as well as passively and indifferently as it relies on specialized agencies. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide regular education for enhancing people's perception of quality control and to perform quality control adequately in the presence of Radiologist.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.790-794
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• 2004

Bifidobacterium spp. exhibits the highest number of counts among species of microflora in breast-feeding infant intestines and has been used as probiotics. From infant groups with different diets, 42 Bifidobacterial strains were isolated by selective plate, Gram-staining, and morphology using method of Mitsuoka, among which seven isolates were identified as Bifidobacterium spp. by F6PPK test, MIDI, and PCR. B. bifidum PBH-30, selected for development of probiotics, showed high resistance against low pH and oxgall treatment, and inhibition against pathogens such as Salmonella typhimurium and Staphylococcus aureus. B. bifidum PBH-30 could be applicable to dairy products as probiotic strains due to its excellent growth in raw milk.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.293-299
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• 2000

Many methods have been developed for screening chemicals with hormonal activity. Using recombinant yeasts expressing either human estrogen receptor [Saccharomyces cerevisiae ER + LYS 8127 (YER)] or androgen receptor [S. cerevisiae AR + 8320 (YAR)], we evaluated the hormonal activities of several chemicals by induction of ${\beta}-galactosidase$ activity. The chemicals were $17{\beta}-estradiol$ (E2), testosterone (T), ${\rho}-nonylphenol$ (NP), bisphenol A (BPA), genistein (GEN), 2-bromopropane (2-BP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), and butylparaben (BP). To assess the estrogenicity of NP, the result of the in vitro recombinant yeast assay was compared with an E-screen assay using MCF-7 human breast cancer cells and an uterotrophid assay using ovariectomized mice. In the YER yeast cells, E2, NP, BPA, GEN, and BP exhibited estrogenicity in a doseresponse manner, while TCDD did not. All the chemicals tested, except T, did not show androgenicity in the YAR yeast cell. The sensitivity of the yeast (YER) assay system to the estrogenic effect of NP was similar to that of the E-screen assay. NP was also estrogenic in the uterotrophic assay. However, in terms of convenience and costs, the yeast assay was superior to the E-screen assay or uterotrophic assay. These results suggest that the recombinant yeast assay can be used as a rapid tool for detecting chemicals with hormonal activities.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5759-5762
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• 2012

The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of a health check-up program among Thai people at the National Cancer Institute in the years 2008-2009. The program included history taking, physical examination, chest X-ray, EKG, and laboratory tests. A total of 28,240 women and 9,665 men were included in the study, with mean ages of 44.5 and 46.9 years, respectively. The study showed that obesity, as assessed by a BMI over 25.0 kg/m2, in men and women was present in 41.4% and 30%, respectively. Biochemical study revealed that anemia was prevalent in 21.6% of men and 20.1% of women. High plasma glucose level (>115 mg/dL), cholesterol level (>200 mg/dL), triglyceride level (>190 mg/dL) in men was 13.8%, 63.8%, 22.6% and 7.7%, 61.1%, 8.9% in women. Hepatitis B virus infection was found 7.5% in men and 4.1% in women. In this study, 177 new cancer cases were detected, of which 35 were breast, 19 were cervical and 26 were colorectal, most of these cancers being detected at early stage. In addition, precancerous states was also found including 718 cases of benign and 99 cases of adenoma in situ. In conclusion, an annual check up may detect abnormalities that have no obvious clinical symptoms of disease. Early detection of asymptomatic neoplasms and precursor lesions should contribute to a prompt provision of treatment and further decline of death from cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.699-704
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• 2012

Natural products have been the target for cancer therapy for several years but there is still a dearth of information on potent compounds that may protect normal cells and selectively destroy cancerous cells. The present study was aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic potential of n-butanolic leaf extract of $Annona$ $muricata$ L. on WRL-68 (normal human hepatic cells), MDA-MB-435S (human breast carcinoma cells) and HaCaT (human immortalized keratinocyte cells) lines by XTT assay. Prior to cytotoxicity testing, the extract was subjected to phytochemical screening for detecting the presence of compounds with therapeutic potential. Their relative antioxidant properties were evaluated using the reducing power and $DPPH^*$radical scavenging assay. Since most of the observed chemo-preventive potential invariably correlated with the amount of total phenolics present in the extract, their levels were quantified and identified by HPLC analysis. Correlation studies indicated a strong and significant (P<0.05) positive correlation of phenolic compounds with free radical scavenging potential. The results revealed that the extract was moderately cytotoxic to normal cells with a mean IC50 value of 52.4 ${\mu}g$ when compared with those obtained for cancerous cells (IC50 values of 29.2 ${\mu}g$ for MDA-MB-435S and 30.1 ${\mu}g$ for HaCaT respectively). The study confirms the presence of therapeutically active antineoplastic compounds in the n-butanolic leaf extract of $Annona$ $muricata$. Isolation of the active metabolites from the extract is in prospect.