• Development and Reproduction
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.63-73
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• 2006

This study aimed to find out suitable culture conditions for the differentiation of human amniotic membrane-derived stem cells(HAM) into hepatocyte-like cells. Almost homogenous population of fibroblast-like cells was successfully isolated from the amniotic membrane. In comparison to the non-coated plates and in the absence of insulin/transferrin/selenium(ITS), HAM cultured on the fibronectin-coated plates and in the presence of ITS showed the more intense immunocytochemical staining against the albumin. Addition of both fibroblast growth factor(FGF)-1 and -2 to the differentiation medium gave stronger staining compared to the treatment with FGF-1 or -2 alone. Periodic acid Schiff's base staining of glycogen and morphological turnover of fibroblast-like appearance of HAM into round shape matched the results of immunocytochemical studies. When the efficiency of two-step culture method was examined on the differentiation of HAM into hepatocyte-like cells, all of the results of immunocytochemical staining, periodic acid Schiff's staining and morphological change exhibited effective hepatic differentiation of HAM compared to the continuous culture method. Immunoblot analyses of HAM- conditioned media against the albumin showed that the culture of HAM in the presence of both ITS and fibronectin always gave a stronger staining intensity than those in the absence of them, and that the addition of ether mixture of FGF-4 and either FGF-2 or transforming growth $factor(TGF)-{\alpha}$ to the culture medium significantly enhanced the albumin secretion by HAM. Based on these observations, it is suggested that HAM could differentiate into hepatocyte-like cells under a culture condition consisting of fibronectin and ITS, and addition of FGF-4 with either one of FGF-2 or $TGF-{\alpha}$ could enhance the hepatic differentiation of HAM.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.172-176
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• 2003

Purpose : This study was designed to evaluate the perception of cancer in the students of Korea University. Methods : 1,000 students of Korea University were surveyed by questionnaire from March 2001 to September 2002. Nine hundred ninety two complete questionnaires were returned. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, and Chi-square analysis using the SPSS program. Results : 701 students (76.1%) replied that cancer is a curable disease. However, the degree of satisfaction for cancer treatment with modem clinical medicine was low (37.5%). Moreover, they thought that there was no difference between the efficacy of treatment by chemotherapy, alternative medicine, or dietary modification. But, the positive evaluation for the effectiveness of chemotherapy in the students who had cancer patients in their families was higher than that in the students without the experience of cancer patients in their families. Six hundred ninety four students (75.3%) replied positively for euthanasia in terminal cancer patients. And they thought that the dignity and the right of the patients were the most important point that should be considered in making the decision of euthanasia. Conclusions : The credibility to modem clinical medicine for cancer treatment was relatively low in the students of Korea University who had no cancer patients in their families. So, further studies and trials will be warranted to evaluate the causes of these results and improve the credibility of modem clinical medicine for cancer treatment in the general population.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.133-143
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• 2003

Purpose : Amont the various issues concerning bio-ethics, the concern on euthanasia has increased along with the development of medical technology. Thus, the general public tends to have more liberal opinion. They have detail research data and real practices in US, Europe and Australia, but we lack such studies in our country. This study was undertaken to address the need of studies on the recognition of euthanasia among the public because the existing studies have been focused on the medical staff. Methods : Survey 413 people the age of 17 or more, from May to July 2000. Testify the data on the variation of demography and the recognition of euthanasia by using SAS 6.12, the statistic program. Results : 304 people (73.6%) think that euthanasia should be legislated, 156 people (37.8%) permit euthanasia to the rage of voluntary one, and 234 people (56.6%) permit passive euthanasia. When the subject of voluntary euthanasia was himself, more people whose age is 35 or more (P=0.001) responded that they will undertake euthanasia. And, on issues related to the passive euthanasia, one's educational background (P=0.046) and economic power (P=0.040) arrangement showed significant differences. When the subject of voluntary euthanasia is other people, more people whose age is 35 or more than 35 (P=0.001), whose sex is male (P=0.001), and married people (P=0.002) were for allowing the matter. For the subject of passive euthanasia, survey participant's occupation (P=0.016) created meaningful difference. More people whose age is 35 or more than 35 responded that they want voluntary euthanasia for themselves (P=0.001), and in the case when euthanasia is legislated, marital status (P=0.002) also shows meaningful difference. Passive euthanasia is permitted by the more people whose age is less than 35 for respondents other people (P=0.001), marital status show meaningful difference in case for respondent himself. In the case of legal euthanasia is more people whose age is 35 or more than 35 (P=0.001), sex is male (P=0.004) and more married people (P=0.001) responded that they want voluntary euthanasia for other people. And, age (P=0.002), sex (P=0.001), education (P=0.025) and economic power (P=0.001) show meaningful difference for case the subject of passive euthanasia. Conclusion : Most of general public responded that the legislation on euthanasia is required; and, age, education and economic power seem to have an influence on their decisions on euthanasia. Not only such a study of demographic and sociological correlation; but, various basic data on the legislation of euthanasia are needed.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.144-151
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• 2003

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to identify the current status of symptom and pain control in cancer patients treated with chemotherapy. Methods : The study population consisted of 66 cancer patients treated with chemotherapy and the data was collected by chart audit and using questionnaire from 19 clinicians in an university hospital during the period of August 7 to 24, 2001. The degree of symptom, analgesics type, dose, administration route, and pain control method of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy was investigated. The collected data were analyzed by frequency, percent, mean, and SD using SPSS $PC^+$ program. Results : The number of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy was 66, male 35 (53.0%), female was 31 (47.0%). The largest of age group was $61{\sim}69$(34.8%) years old. Most frequent cancer site was stomach 19 case (28.8%), cole-rectal 17 case (25.8%), urinary 11 case (16.7%) in the respective order. The most common stage of cancer was stage 3, 14 case (29.2%). The most frequent duration of diagnosis was under 3 month, 25 (37.9%). The frequent symptom of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy was marasmus ($2.4193{\pm}1.2220$), pain ($1.9333{\pm}1.2194$), sleep disorders ($1.7142{\pm}1.0384$), personality change ($1.5806{\pm}0.8971$) in the respective order. 3) The analgesics used for pai control were narcotic analgesics 66.2% and nonnarcotic analgesics 33.8%. Pain control method were regular basis+as needed 47.4%, as needed 31.6%, regular basis 21.0% in order. Administration route were oral 50.7%, injection 41.8%, patch 7.5% in order. Conclusion : The most frequent symptom of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy were marasmus and pain. The frequent analgesics was narcotic analgesics but 21% of the clinician regularly prescribed analgesics for pain control. Thus this prescription was insufficient for pain control. Administration route that were used more oral or injection than patch. Based on this evidence, it seemed that more active practice and education about evaluation and pain control of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy are needed.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.121-126
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• 1999

Some attempts were made to investigate the honeydew excretion of the brown planthopper(BPH), Nilaparvata lugens Stal, biotypes in terms of instal nymph, days after emergence, macropterous and brachypterous mated and unmated female, and macropterous female with different sources fed on 60-day-old rice cultivars with different resistance genes. The feeding amount of the BPH biotypes was measured by using the honeydew excretion test. The feeding amount of fifth instar on Miryang 23 with no resistance gene was higher than that of Cheon-gcheongbyeo with Bph-1 gene by two times. Macropterous and brachypterous females showed low feeding amount at first day after emergence, but they showed high feeding amount from second days after emergence. Also the feeding amount of brachypterous female was higher than that of macropterous female. In addition, the feeding amount of BPH was in the order of nymph

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.6 s.67
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• pp.906-912
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• 2004

Helicobacter pylori infection is highly prevalent, as high as 2/3 of whole population infected, in Korea. H. pylori infection initiates inflammation by induction of interleukin-8 through type IV secretion of CagA. It was recently suggested that induction failure of IL-8 is not associated with defect in cag PAI but associated with cagE locus diversity. This study was designed to investigate ability of 11-8 in-duction according to sequence variation within the cagE gene, cagA TP motifs and vacA m-types in vitro study using AGS cell-line, and to evaluate its association with different clinical outcome. Seventy-four H. pylori stains were isolated from 23 patients with gastric cancer (Ca), 24 subjects with gastritis (G) and 27 patients with duodenal ulcer (Du) in Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital, Seoul, Korea. cagE gene diversity was confirmed by the PCR-RFLP methods with MboI/NlaIII and tyrosine phosphate motifs (TPMs) of cagA was determined TPM-A and C by using DdeI/Tsp5091 restriction enzyme and TPM-B was determend by Real time PCR the method of Owen et al. and IL-8 was measured by ELISA assay. IL-8 activity was positively detected in 59 among 74 strains $(79.7\%)$. IL-8 secretion was significantly increased in MboI A and MboI B type compared to MboI C type and in MboI/NlaIII A-C and B-C type than C-C type. 1L-8 activity was not associated with either the number or composition of cagA tyrosine phosphorylation motifs and vacA m-type. There was no significant difference in IL-8 activity among patient groups. cagE gene diversity is thought to be mainly associated with the induction of IL-8 in H. pylori infection.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1851-1858
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• 2010

Estrogen deficiency in peri- and postmenopausal women results in variety of neurovegetative, psychic and somatic symptoms, and may contribute to severe diseases within the aged female population. Ecklonia stolonifera (ES) is an edible brown algae traditionally used in fishery towns in Far East Asia. This study was performed to investigate the effects of ES extracts on blood flow and serum lipid concentration in ovariectomized rats. Weight-matched female Sprague-Dawley strain rats were assigned to four groups. Three groups were surgically ovariectomized (OVX). The fourth group was sham operated. Rats were randomly assigned to the following groups: sham-operated rats (Sham), ovariectomized control rats (OVX-CON), ovariectomized rats supplemented with ES extract at 50 mg/kg bw/day (OVX-ES50) and ovariectomized rats supplemented with ES extract at 200 mg/kg bw/day (OVX-ES200). Serum total cholesterol and triglyceride contents decreased in the sham group compared to the OVX-CON group. Six weeks feeding of ES extract resulted in a significant (p<0.05) lowering of serum triglyceride and a lowering tendency of total cholesterol level. The level of Hdl-cholesterol in serum increased by supplementation of ES extracts at 50 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg bw/day (p<0.05). Blood passage time of the ES extracts-supplemented group was higher than the OVX-CON group. The ability of platelet aggregation of groups treated with ES extracts was less than that of the OVX-CON group. These results suggest that the beneficial effects of ES extract may be used to possibly improve on the metabolic syndrome of menopausal women.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1320-1329
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• 2016

The present study examined the cytotoxic effects of 1, 2, 3, 4, 6-penta-O-galloyl-${\beta}$-D-glucose (PGG), known as the pentahydroxy gallic acid ester of glucose, in the various human cancer cell lines (A-549, MDA-MB-231, U87-MG, MCF-7 and PANC-1), normal MRC-5 fetal fibroblasts, and dental papilla tissue- derived mesenchymal stem cells (DPSCs). Significantly (p<0.05) lower half maximal inhibitory concentration ($IC_{50}$) values were observed in the A-549 and MDA-MB-231 cells showing a high proliferation capacity, compared with other cancer and normal cell lines with a relatively low proliferation capacity. The population doubling time (PDT) was significantly (p<0.05) higher in the $10{\mu}M$ PGG-treated cell lines than those of untreated control cell lines. The present study demonstrated that the $IC_{50}$ value increases proportionally to the extending PDT. A high cell number with senescence-associated ${\beta}-galactosidase$ activity was also observed in the $10{\mu}M$ PGG-treated cells compared with those of untreated control cells. Moreover, the level of telomerase activity was significantly (p<0.05) decreased with $10{\mu}M$ PGG treatment, especially in A-549 and MDA-MB-231 cells showing a high proliferation capacity. Based on these observations, PGG could serve as a potent agent for cancer chemotherapy, as its treatment was more effective in cells with a high proliferation capacity.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.279-285
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• 2013

To establish sample preparation method for detection of food-borne pathogens from lettuce, perilla leaves, cucumber, pepper, and cherry tomato, the influences of diluent composition, processing time, and proportion of diluent to sample were examined. Each produce was inoculated with 6.0 log $CFU/cm^2$ of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus cereus. Each produce was treated with 0.1% peptone water, and D/E neutralizing broth. Processing time of produce was 30, 60, 90, and 120s, and the proportion of diluent to sample was 2 : 1, 4 : 1, 9 : 1, and 19 : 1. The number of bacteria after treatment of D/E neutralizing broth was higher than that of 0.1% peptone water (P<0.05). In cherry tomato, the population of S. typhimurium recovered from treated with D/E broth was higher than that recovered from treated with 0.1% peptone water by 1.05 log $CFU/cm^2$ (P<0.05). No difference in numbers of pathogens was observed in processing time. Optimum proportion of diluent to perilla leaf, iceberg lettuce, cucumber, green pepper, and tomato was 9 : 1, 4 : 1, 2 : 1, 2 : 1, and 2 : 1, respectively. These data suggest that D/E neutralizing broth should be recommend as diluent, and the diluent volume applied to produce should be determined in proportion to produce surface area per weight (g).

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.166-175
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• 2004

Purpose: Present study has been undertaken to determine the distribution of various renal diseases causing asymptomatic hematuria in children and to evaluate the benefit of doing renal biopsy in these children. Methods: Study population consisted of 146 children with asymptomatic primary hematuria who had been admitted to the pediatric departmen of Kyungpook National University Hospital for the past 4 years from 1999 to 2002. In 122 out of 146 cases, renal biopsy was performed percutaneously and in 24 out of 146 cases, diagnosed as idiopathic hypercalciuria, oral calcium loading test was performed. Results: The age$(mean{\pm}SD)$ at onset or discovery of hematuria of the 146 children in-cluded in this study was $8.0\pm3.2$ years and the proportion of boys and girls was 54.8% and 45.2%, respectively. In 76 out of 146 cases(52%), asymptomatic hematuria was first diagnosed by school urinalysis screening. The proportion of histopathologic findings based on 122 biopsies was as follows : Thin Glomerular Basement Membrane(TGBM) 73 cases(50%): IgA nephropathy 20 cases(14%): Alport syndrome 6 cases(4%), Membranous Glomerulonephropathy(MGN) 4 cases(3%): Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis(MPGN) 2 cases(1%); IgA nephropathy with TGBM 3 cases(2%): 'normal' glomeruli 14 cases(10%) Twenty four cases (16%) were diagnosed as idiopathic hypercalciuria. During follow-up periods, 15% of 146 cases became hematuria-free and renal function did not deteriorate in any cases. Conclusion: Unless hematuric children manifest poor prognostic indicators for renal survival, we would recommend long term regular follow-up prior to a renal biopsy.