• Laboratory Medicine Online
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2017

Background: We evaluated a sensitive and quantitative method utilizing fragment analysis of the fms-like tyrosine kinase 3-internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD), simultaneously measuring mutant allele burden and length, and verified the analytical performance. Methods: The number and allelic burden of FLT3-ITD mutations was determined by fragment analysis. Serial mixtures of mutant and wild-type plasmid DNA were used to calculate the limit of detection of fragment analysis, conventional PCR, and Sanger sequencing. Specificity was evaluated using DNA samples derived from 50 normal donors. Results of fragment analysis were compared to those of conventional PCR, using 481 AML specimens. Results: Defined mixtures were consistently and accurately identified by fragment analysis at a 5% relative concentration of mutant to wild-type, and at 10% and 20% ratios by conventional PCR and direct sequencing, respectively. No false positivity was identified. Among 481 AML specimens, 40.1% (193/481) had FLT3-ITD mutations. The mutant allele burden (1.7-94.1%; median, 28.2%) and repeated length of the mutation (14-153 bp; median, 49 bp) were variable. The concordance rate between fragment analysis and conventional PCR was 97.7% (470/481). Fragment analysis was more sensitive than conventional PCR and detected 11 additional cases: seven had mutations below 10%, three cases represented conventional PCR failure, and one case showed false negativity because of short ITD length (14 bp). Conclusions: The new fragment analysis method proved to be sensitive and reliable for the detection and monitoring of FLT3-ITD in patients with AML. This could be used to simultaneously assess ITD mutant allele burden and length.

• Honam Mathematical Journal
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.457-468
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• 2015

The aim of present paper is to investigate 3-dimensional ${\xi}$-projectively flt and $\tilde{\varphi}$-projectively flt normal almost paracontact metric manifolds. As a first step, we proved that if the 3-dimensional normal almost paracontact metric manifold is ${\xi}$-projectively flt then ${\Delta}{\beta}=0$. If additionally ${\beta}$ is constant then the manifold is ${\beta}$-para-Sasakian. Later, we proved that a 3-dimensional normal almost paracontact metric manifold is $\tilde{\varphi}$-projectively flt if and only if it is an Einstein manifold for ${\alpha},{\beta}=const$. Finally, we constructed an example to illustrate the results obtained in previous sections.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.5341-5344
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• 2013

Objectives: To explore the relationships between age, cytogenetic subgroups, molecular markers, and cells with leukemic aberrant immunophenotype in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Methods: In this study, we evaluated the correlations between age, cytogenetic subgroups (normal, balanced and unbalance karyotype), molecular mutations (NPM1, FLT3-ITD, and CEBPA mutations) and marrow leukemia cells (LC) identified by flow cytometry in 256 patients with de novo AML. Results: From age group 10-19 years to age group ${\geq}60$ years, the percentage of LC decreased from $67.0{\pm}18.4%$ to $49.0{\pm}25.1%$ (F=2.353, P=0.041). LC percentage was higher in patients with balanced karyotypes ($65.7{\pm}22.4%$), than those with unbalanced karyotypes ($46.0{\pm}26.6%$) (u=3.444, P=0.001) or a normal karyotype ($49.9{\pm}22.1%$) (u=5.093, P<0.001). Patients with FLT3-ITD ($64.3{\pm}19.5%$) had higher LC percentages compared with those without ($54.2{\pm}24.3%$) (u=2.794, P=0.007). Conclusions: Associations between age, cytogenetics, molecular markers, and marrow leukemia cells may offer beneficial information to understand the biology and pathogenesis of AML.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.198-204
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• 2004

Tumor cell proliferation is considered to be a useful prognostic indicator of tumor aggressiveness and tumor response to therapy but in vitro measurement of individual proliferation is complex and tedious work. PET imaging provides a noninvasive approach to measure tumor growth rate in situ. Early approaches have used $^{18}F$-FDG or methionine to monitor proliferation status. These 2 tracers detect changes in glucose and amino acid metabolism, respectively, and therefore provide only an indirect measure of proliferation status. More recent studies have focused on DNA synthesis itself as a marker of cell proliferation. Cell lines and tissues with a high proliferation rate require high rates of DNA synthesis. $[^{11}C]Thymidine$ was the first radiotracer for noninvasive imaging of tumor proliferation. The short half-life of $^{11}C$ and rapid metabolism of $[^{11}C]Thymidine$ in vivo make the radiotracer less suitable for routing use. Halogenated thymidine analogs such as 5-iodo-2-deoxyuridine (IUdR) can be successfully used as cell proliferation markers for in vitro studies because these compounds are rapidly incorporated into newly synthesized DNA. IUdR has been evaluated as a potential in vivo tracer in nuclear medicing but the image qualify and the calculation of proliferation rates are impaired by its rapid in vivo degradation. Hence, the thymidine analog $3'-deoxy-3'-^{18}F-fluorothymidine$ (FLT) was recently introduced as a stable proliferation marker with a suitable nuclide half-life and stable in vivo. $[^{18}F]FLT$ is phosphorylated to 3-fluorothymidine monophosphate by thymidine kinase 1 and reflects thymidine kinase 1 activity in proliferating cell. $[^{18}F]FLT$ PET is feasible in clincal use and well correlates with cellular proliferation. Choline is a precursor for the biosynthesis of phospholipids (in particular, phosphatidylcholine), which is the essential component of all eukaryotic cell membranes and $[^{11}C]choline$, which is a new marker for cellular proliferation.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.179-184
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• 2013

The biological effects of radiation are dependent on the dose rate and dose of radiation. In this study, effects of dose and dose rate using whole body radiation on plasma cytokines and blood count from male BALB/c mice were evaluated. We examined the blood and cytokine changes in mice exposed to a low (3.49m Gy $h^{-1}$) and high (2.6 Gy $min^{-1}$) dose rate of radiation at a total dose of 0.5 and 2 Gy, respectively. Blood from mice exposed to radiation were evaluated using cytokine assays and complete blood count. Peripheral lymphocytes and neutrophils decreased in a dose dependent manner following high dose rate radiation. The peripheral lymphocytes population remained unchanged following low dose rate radiation; however, the neutrophils population increased after radiation. The sera from these mice exhibited elevated levels of flt3 ligand and granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), after high/low dose rate radiation. These results suggest that low-dose-rate radiation does not induce blood damage, which was unlike high-dose-rate radiation treatment; low-dose-rate radiation exposure activated the hematopoiesis through the increase of flt3 ligand and G-CSF.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.138-144
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• 2010

Purpose: Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), which mediates neovascularization of uterine endometrium may be involved in the neovascularization in the utero-placental circulation. Low numbers of endothelial progenitor colony-forming unit (CFU) in culture are predictive biomarker of vascular disease. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether the number of CFU in preeclampsia differed from that in normal pregnancy. Materials and Methods: Women with singleton normal (n=26) or preeclamptic (n=20) pregnancies were studied during the third trimester. The number of EPCs was quantified by CFU methodology. Plasma levels of angiogenic factors, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1), and placental growth factor (PlGF) were determined by enzyme-linked immunoassay. Results: CFU numbers were significantly decreased in the preeclamptic patients compared with the controls (median, 3; range 1-12 vs. 31; 3-81 CFU/well, P<0.001). A majority of the cells comprising individual colonies were positive for endothelial characteristics (Ulex europaeus lectin staining and acetylated low-density lipoprotein uptake). Plasma levels of the sFlt-1 were highly elevated (P<0.001) in patient with preeclampsia compared to controls, whereas PlGF were highly reduced (P=0.004), but these factors did not associate with CFU numbers. Conclusion: Our results suggest that reduced numbers of CFU obtained from maternal peripheral blood may contribute to the development of preeclampsia.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.34-37
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• 2013

This study evaluated the effects of somatic mutations and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on disease progression and tried to verify the two-hit theory in cancer pathogenesis. To address this issue, SNP analysis was performed using the UCSC hg19 program in 10 acute myeloid leukemia patients (samples, G1 to G10), and somatic mutations were identified in the same tumor sample using SomaticSniper and VarScan2. SNPs in KRAS were detected in 4 out of 10 different individuals, and those of DNMT3A were detected in 5 of the same patient cohort. In 2 patients, both KRAS and DNMT3A were detected simultaneously. A somatic mutation in IDH2 was detected in these 2 patients. One of the patients had an additional mutation in FLT3, while the other patient had an NPM1 mutation. The patient with an FLT3 mutation relapsed shortly after attaining remission, while the other patient with the NPM1 mutation did not suffer a relapse. Our results indicate that SNPs with additional somatic mutations affect the prognosis of AML.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.2177-2180
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• 2012

New [$^{18}F$]F-fluorination methods using a minimized amount of precursor has been developed by controlling the base concentration. In the first method, pre-conditioning of the anion exchange cartridge with $K_2CO_3$ solution or water was carried out. The trapped [$^{18}F$]fluoride on the cartridge was then eluted by KOMs or KOTf solution. [$^{18}F$]F-Fluorination could be performed without additional base. In the second method, the QMA cartridge was preconditioned with KOMs solutions. Trapped [$^{18}F$]fluoride on the QMA was then eluted with KOMs and additional base, such as KOH, $K_2CO_3$, and $KHCO_3$, was added into the reaction vessel. Method 1 showed a [$^{18}F$]F-incorporation yield of 20.9% for [$^{18}F$]FLT synthesis with 5 mg of precursor. Unlike method 1, a [$^{18}F$]F-incorporation yield of 91.4% was achieved from the same amount of precursor in method 2.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.64-72
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• 1995

This paper proposes how to tune the gains of PI controllers in case of gain change in a process control system. Controllers of PI type have been used in industry and the gains of the controllers have been tuned by expert engineers. It, therefore, takes much time and efforts to tune the controllers. It is more difficult to find gains of multi-loop processes. The tuning method of a fuzzy tuner in this paper is developed based on the assumptions that the PI controllers are of analog type and are tuned off-line, and that the characteristic values must be supplied for the tuner. A Tuner using Fuzzy Logic(FLT1 is capable of showing presentlpast states of a process control system and finding gains of PI controllers. The verfication of the FLT is shown by various experiments.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.1247-1253
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• 2014

Mutations in the DNMT3A and IDH genes represent the most common genetic alteration after FLT3/NPM1 in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We here analyzed the frequency and distribution pattern of DNMT3A and IDH mutations and their associations with other molecular markers in normal karyotype AML patients. Fortyfive patients were screened for mutations in DNMT3A (R882), IDH1 (R132) and IDH2 (R140 and R172) genes by direct sequencing. Of the 45 patients screened, DNMT3A and IDH mutations were observed in 6 (13.3%) and 7 (15.4%), respectively. Patients with isolated DNMT3A mutations were seen in 4 cases (9%), isolated IDH mutations in 5 (11.1%), while interestingly, two cases showed both DNMT3A and IDH mutations (4.3%). Nucleotide sequencing of DNMT3A revealed missense mutations (R882H and R882C), while that of IDH revealed R172K, R140Q, R132H and R132S. Both DNMT3A and IDH mutations were observed only in adults, with a higher frequency in males. DNMT3A and IDH mutations were significantly associated with NPM1, while trends towards higher coexistence with FLT3 mutations were observed. This is the first study to evaluate DNMT3A/IDH mutations in Indian patients. Significant associations among the various molecular markers was observed, that highlights cooperation between them and possible roles in improved risk stratification.