• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.291-300
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• 2022

Background and Objectives: Many preclinical studies have been conducted using animal disease models to determine the effectiveness of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) for treating immune and inflammatory diseases based on the belief that hMSCs are not immunogenic across species. However, several researchers have suggested xenogeneic immune responses to hMSCs in animals, still without detailed features. This study aimed to investigate a xenogeneic humoral immune response to hMSCs in mice in detail. Methods and Results: Balb/c mice were intraperitoneally injected with adipose tissue-derived or Wharton's jelly-derived hMSCs. Sera from these mice were titrated for each isotype. To confirm specificity of the antibodies, hMSCs were stained with the sera and subjected to a flow cytometic analysis. Spleens were immunostained for proliferating cell nuclear antigen to verify the germinal center formation. Additionally, splenocytes were subjected to a flow cytometric analysis for surface markers including GL-7, B220, CD4, CD8, CD44, and CD62L. Similar experiments were repeated in C57BL/6 mice. The results showed increased IgG₁ and IgG_2a titers in the sera from Balb/c mice injected with hMSCs, and the titers were much higher in the secondary sera than in the primary sera. These antibodies were specifically stained the hMSCs. Germinal centers were observed in the spleen, and flow cytometric analysis of the splenocytes showed higher frequencies of centroblasts (B220⁺ GL7⁺) and memory T cells (CD62L⁺ CD44⁺) both in CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ subsets. Similar results were obtained for C57BL/6 mice. Conclusions: hMSCs induced a humoral immune response in mice, with characters of T cell-dependent immunity.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.18-26
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• 2012

Background: Vitamin C is an essential nutrient for maintaining human life. Vitamin C insufficiency in the plasma is closely related with the development of scurvy. However, in vivo kinetics of vitamin C regarding its storage and consumption is still largely unknown. Methods: We used $Gulo^{-/-}$ mice, which cannot synthesize vitamin C like human. Vitamin C level in plasma and organs from $Gulo^{-/-}$ mice was examined, and it compared with the level of wild-type mice during 5 weeks. Results: The significant weight loss of $Gulo^{-/-}$ mice was shown at 3 weeks after vitamin C withdrawal. However, there was no differences between wild-type and vitamin C-supplemented $Gulo^{-/-}$ mice (3.3 g/L in drinking water). The concentration of vitamin C in plasma and organs was significantly decreased at 1 week after vitamin C withdrawal. Vitamin C is preferentially deposited in adrenal gland, lymph node, lung, and brain. There were no significant changes in the numbers and CD4/CD8 ratio of splenocytes in $Gulo^{-/-}$ mice with vitamin C withdrawal for 4 weeks. And the architecture of spleen in $Gulo^{-/-}$ mice was disrupted at 5 weeks after vitamin C withdrawal. Conclusion: The vitamin C level of $Gulo^{-/-}$ mice was considerably decreased from 1 week after vitamin C withdrawal. Vitamin C is preferentially stored in some organs such as brain, adrenal gland and lung.

• 대한의생명과학회지
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.165-173
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• 2005

A potent demethylating agent, 5-Azacytidine (5-AzaC) has been widely used as in many studies on DNA methylation, regulation of gene expression, and cancer biology. The mechanisms of the demethylating activity were known to be formation of complex between DNA and DNA methyltransferase (MTase), which depletes cellular MTase activity. However, 5-AzaC can also induce hypermethylation of a transgene in a transgenic cell line, G12 cells and it was explained as a result of defense mechanisms to inactivate foreign gene(s) somehow. This finding evoked the question that whether the phenomenon of hypermethylation induced by 5-AzaC is limited to the transgene or it can be occurred in endogenous gene(s). In order to answer the question, mutagenicity test of 5-AzaC and molecular characterization of mutants obtained from the test were performed using an endogenous gene, thymidine kinase (tk) in Chinese hamster V79 cells. When V79 and V79-J3 subclone cells were treated with 1, 2.5 ,5, $10{\mu}M$ of 5-AzaC for 48 hours, their maximum mutant frequencies were revealed as $6\times10^{-3}\;at\;5{\mu}M$(350-fold induction over background) and $8\times10^{-3}\;at\;2.5{\mu}M$ (l,800-fold induction over background) respectively. Since the induction rates were too high to be induced by true mutations, many trifluorothymidine (TFT)-resistant $(TFT^R)$ cells were subjected to Northern blot analysis to check the presence of tk transcripts. Surprisingly, all clones tested possessed the transcripts in a similar level, that implicates the $TFT^R$ phenotype induced by 5-AzaC has not given rise to hypermethylation of the gene in spite of unusually high mutation frequency. In addition, it has shown that the TK activity in the pool of 5-AzaC-induced $TFT^R$ cells has about a half of that in spontaneously-induced $TFT^R$ cells or in non-selected parental V79-J3 cells. This result suggests that the mechanism(s) underlying the TFT-resistance between spontaneously occurred and 5-AzaC-induced cells may be different. These findings have shown that the $TFT^R$ phenotype induced by 5-AzaC has not given rise to hypermethylation of the tk gene, and 5-AzaC may be induced by one or combined pathways among many drug resistance mechanisms. The exact mechanisms for the 5-AzaC-induced $TFT^R$ phenotype remain to elucidate.

• 만화애니메이션 연구
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• 통권11호
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• pp.105-120
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• 2007

이 논문에서는 버추얼스튜디오, 사이버스튜디오 등으로 알려진 애니메이션을 이용한 영상무대장치를 애니스테이지라 새롭게 정의하고 그 탄생 배경을 정리하였다. 일부 기법으로 국한된 기존의 영상무대장치를 다양한 애니메이션 기법과 접목시켜 '애니스테이지화' 될 수 있는 요건과 제한적요소를 벗어나 자유로운 앵글구사와 단순화 한 합성과정을 가능하게 할 수 있는 장치를 제안하고자 한다. 본 논문의 목적은 애니스테이지에 대한 애니메이션 전문적 인력의 인지도를 높이고 애니메이션을 이용한 영상무대장치에 대한 새로운 정의를 제시하는데 있다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권8호
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• pp.2999-3005
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• 2022

The new experimental setup has been built at the 11b channel of the IBR-2 research reactor at FLNP, JINR, to study the elemental composition of samples by registration of prompt gamma emission during thermal neutron capture. The setup consists of a curved mirror neutron guide and a radiation-resistant HPGe high-purity germanium detector. The detector is surrounded by lead shielding to suppress the natural background gamma level. The sample is placed in a vacuum channel and surrounded by a LiF shield to suppress the gamma background generated by scattered neutrons. This work presents characteristics of the experimental setup. An example of hydrogen concentration determining in a diamond powder made by detonation synthesis is given and on its basis, the sensitivity of the setup is calculated being ~4 ㎍.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• 제11권4호
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• pp.331-351
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• 2021

Underwater images are very much different from images taken on land, due to the presence of a higher disturbance ratio caused by the presence of water medium between the camera and the target object. These distortions and noises result in unclear details and reduced quality of the output image. An underwater image restoration method is proposed in this paper, which uses blurriness information, background light neutralization information, and red-light intensity to estimate depth. The transmission map is then estimated using the derived depth map, by considering separate attenuation coefficients for direct and backscattered signals. The estimated transmission map and estimated background light are then used to recover the scene radiance. Qualitative and quantitative analysis have been used to compare the performance of the proposed method against other state-of-the-art restoration methods. It has been shown that the proposed method can yield good quality restored underwater images. The proposed method has also been evaluated using different qualitative metrics, and results have shown that method is highly capable of restoring underwater images with different conditions. The results are significant and show the applicability of the proposed method for underwater image restoration work.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권9호
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• pp.5495-5501
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• 2013

Background: Alu elements are one of the most common repetitive sequences that now constitute more than 10% of the human genome and potential targets for epigenetic alterations. Correspondingly, methylation of these elements can result in a genome-wide event that may have an impact in cancer. However, studies investigating the genome-wide status of Alu methylation in cancer remain limited. Objectives: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) presents with high incidence in South-East Asia and thus the aim of this study was to evaluate the Alu methylation status in OSCCs and explore with the possibility of using this information for diagnostic screening. We evaluated Alu methylation status in a) normal oral mucosa compared to OSCC; b) peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of normal controls comparing to oral cancer patients; c) among oral epithelium of normal controls, smokers and oral cancer patients. Materials and Methods: Alu methylation was detected by combined bisulfite restriction analysis (COBRA) at 2 CpG sites. The amplified products were classified into three patterns; hypermethylation ($^mC^mC$), partial methylation ($^uC^mC+^mC^uC$), and hypomethylation ($^uC^uC$). Results: The results demonstrate that the $%^mC^mC$ value is suitable for differentiating normal and cancer in oral tissues (p=0.0002), but is not significantly observe in PBMCs. In addition, a stepwise decrease in this value was observed in the oral epithelium from normal, light smoker, heavy smoker, low stage and high stage OSCC (p=0.0003). Furthermore, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses demonstrated the potential of combined $%^mC$ or $%^mC^mC$ values as markers for oral cancer detection with sensitivity and specificity of 86.7% and 56.7%, respectively. Conclusions: Alu hypomethylation is likely to be associated with multistep oral carcinogenesis, and might be developed as a screening tool for oral cancer detection.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제55권5호
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• pp.440-448
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• 2003

연구배경 : 다제내성균의 신속한 확인을 가능케 해주는 감수성검사법은 신속한 처방결정을 통해 환자의 치료 성공률을 향상 시킴과 동시에 다제내성균의 전파를 조기에 차단할 수 있게 되어, 국가 결핵관리 사업의 효율성을 증대시킬 수 있다. 방 법 : 아이나 또는 리팜피신 내성에 관련된 유전자 rpoB, katG, inhA, ahpC 등의 돌연변이를 검출할 수 있는 probe를 합성하였고, 총 502개의 내성균을 대상으로 중함효소연쇄반응 역교잡반응법으로 내성균 검출을 시도하였다. 결 과 : 264개의 리팜피신 내성균 중에서 Ser531Leu돌연변이가 46%를 차지하였고, codon 526에서는 32% 의 균주에서 돌연변이를 보였으며, codon 516에서는 10%의 균주가 돌연변이를 나타냈다. 469개의 아이나 내성균 중에서는 64%가 katG 유전자의 Ser315Thr 돌연변이를 나타내었고, 19%의 균은 inhA 유전자 promoter 돌연변이를 가지고 있었으며, ahpC유전자 돌연변이는 3%에 불과하였다. 역교잡반응법에 의한 검출율은 아이나 내성균 중 80%이상이었으며, 리팜피신 내성균에서도 92%이상을 검출할 수 있었다. 결 론 : 역교잡반응법에 의해 리팜피신 뿐만 아니라 아이나에 대한 감수성검사를 신속하게 수행할 수 있음을 확인하였고, 이 검사법은 특히 재발 또는 다제내성이 의심되는 환자의 처방 결정에 매우 유용한 수단이 될 수 있다.

• Laboratory Medicine Online
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.10-14
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• 2012

배경: HbA_1c의 측정은 최근 6-8주간의 혈당조절을 평가하고 당뇨를 진단하기 위해 사용되고 있다. 최근 라텍스 면역비탁법을 사용하는 HbA_1c 측정법이 개발되어 분석 능력과 임상검사실에서의 유용성을 평가하였다. 방법: 2009년 4월부터 7월까지 TBA-200FR에 Autolab HbA_1c을 장착하여 CLSI guideline (EP5-A2, EP6-P, EP9-A2)에 따라 직선성, 정밀도, 상관성을 평가하였다. 결과: Autolab HbA_1c는 고농도(15.1%)와 저농도(3.1%)의 검체의 혼합에서 r²=0.9997의 높은 직선성을 보였다. 12.1%의 경우 검사 일내 정밀도와 검사 일간 정밀도의 표준편차는 각각 0.06, 0.12였고 변이계수는 0.5%, 1.0%였다. 5.1%의 경우 각각 표준편차는 0.04, 0.09이었고 변이계수는 0.8%, 1.6%이었다. 비교식은 Autolab HbA_1c=1.0859×HPLC-0.6957이었다. 결론: 본 연구에서 Autolab HbA_1c는 Tosoh G7과 비교하여 좋은 수행능력을 보였다. 문헌고찰에서 변이형 혈색소에 따른 간섭은 없는 것으로 알려졌다. Tosoh G7에 비해 결과획득시간은 지연되는 단점이 있지만 Autolab HbA_1c의 장점은 일반 화학분석기에 적용이 가능하고 검체의 전처리가 필요없으며 증류수를 사용하여 자동적으로 용혈과정이 이루어진다는 점이다.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제6권3호
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• pp.110-116
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• 2008

Blood pressure refers to the force exerted by circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels, and chronical elevation of blood pressure is known as hypertension. Although hypertension is affected by genetic and environmental factors, the genetic background of hypertension is not fully understood. One of the candidate genetic factors, Prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2), is a membrane-bound enzyme, catalyzing the conversion of arachidonic acid to prostaglandin, and recently SNPs of PTGS2 gene was associated with hypertension in Japanese population. Therefore the association of PTGS2 polymorphisms was investigated with blood pressure in healthy Korean subjects, 470 unrelated individuals randomly selected from Ansung and Ansan cohorts. The 25 SNPs of PTGS2 gene were identified by the sequencing analysis of 24 Korean samples. Among identified polymorphisms, three SNPs (rs689466, -1329A>G; rs5275, +6365T>C; rs4648308, +8806G> A) were selected for further association analysis, and rs689466 located in promoter region was associated with blood pressure as well as triglyceride level in the blood. By in silico analysis, rs689466 locates in v-Myb transcription factor binding site, and the v-Myb site disappears when the SNP is changed from A to G nucleotide. Individuals with A/G and G/G genotype in rs689466 have higher blood pressure than those with A/A genotype, and the regression p-value is 0.008 for systolic and 0.004 for diastolic blood pressure. In summary, the PTGS2 polymorphism (rs689466) is associated with blood pressure in Asian populations based on this and Japanese studies, shedding light on it as a genetic risk marker of hypertension.