• BMB Reports
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.371-376
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• 2012

To investigate the therapeutic effect of a Korean herbal medicine Pulsatilla koreana as an anti-septic agent, anti-inflammatory effects of the herbal medicine were determined in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-exposed rats. Treatment with a methanol extract from Pulsatilla koreana significantly inhibited LPS-induced inflammatory responses. Results from ELISA analysis showed that Pulsatilla koreana decreased the plasma and hepatic levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-$1{\beta}$, IL-6, TNF-${\alpha}$ while increased the level of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 in LPS-exposed rats. Pulsatilla koreana also decreased the plasma levels of other inflammatory mediators such as $NO_3{^-}/NO_2{^-}$, ICAM-1, $PGE_2$, and CINC-1 in LPS-exposed rats. Although no significant effects were observed in the phagocytic activities, the distribution of lymphocyte population was significantly shifted by the treatment with Pulsatilla koreana. All together, Pulsatilla koreana exerts anti-inflammatory activities in the immune-challenged animals implicating that this Korean herbal medicine is therapeutically useful for the treatment of inflammatory diseases like sepsis.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.57-64
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• 1997

$Amino-{\beta}-lactam$ antibiotics are absorbed by the dipeptide transporter in the small intestine. These uptakes are coupled to a proton influx. The inward proton gradient is partly induced by the $Na^+/H^+$ exchanger and calcium ion is involved in control of this antiport. Interaction between ampicillin which is one of the $Amino-{\beta}-lactam$ antibiotics and nifedipine which is one of calcium channel blocking agents was studied in rats in vivo and with rabbit jejunum mounted on the Sweetana/Grass diffusion cells in vitro. Bioavailability of ampicillin was increased significantly when nifedipine was co-administered orally in rats. There were no differences in the distribution phase and the elimination phase when ampicillin was given either alone or with nifedipine intravenously. Conditions for in vitro experiments were determined. The lift rate of $O_2/CO_2$ gas was controlled to 3 bubbles/sec and ampicillin was stable in the Kreb's buffer at pH 6.0. Absorption of ampicillin was the greatest when the completely-stripped serosal membrane was used. Transport of ampicillin from mucosal to serosal side in the rabbit jejunum was enhanced by 32% in the presence of nifedipine (p=0.059). Above results suggest that nifedipine might increase the plasma level of ampicillin via the improved absorption in the intestine rather than the reduction in the elimination or/and alteration in the distribution.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.393-398
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• 2008

A propofol delivery system was prepared using two biocompatible polymeric surfactants, poloxamer 407 and PEG 400. The nanoparticular stability of the micellar system was evaluated in terms of temperature change, storage time and composition. The particle size of the system was slightly increased with elevating temperature from $4^{\circ}C$ to $25^{\circ}C$, but its distribution was unimodal. At $40^{\circ}C$, the system presented a bimodal particle size distribution and the increase in the fraction of particles larger than 15 nm. This result might be due to the expansion of the nanoparticles through micellar swelling at the high temperature. It was found that propofol was gradually come out of the system, stored for a month at three different temperatures (4, 25 and $40^{\circ}C$). The drug loss was apparently dependent on temperature and the system composition. Increasing temperature induced the acceleration of the drug loss of $7{\sim}10%$ at $4^{\circ}C$ and $14{\sim}16 %$ at $40^{\circ}C$. This may be owing to the high diffusivity resulting from the swelling of the hydrophilic surface of the nanoparticle at high temperature. However, the addition of PEG 400 to the system led to the reduction of the drug loss. This result is associated with the previous investigation that PEG coverage decreased diffusion coefficient because of the formation of the denser structure on the surface of nanoparticulate. Nevertheless, the limited amount of PEG, less than 2% (w/v), should be used to prevent the precipitation and discoloration of the system.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.119-124
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• 2015

The aim of the present study was to assess whether exposure to the combination of an extremely low frequency magnetic field (ELF-MF; 60 Hz, 1 mT or 2 mT) with a stress factor, such as ionizing radiation (IR) or $H_2O_2$, results in genomic instability in non-tumorigenic human lung epithelial L132 cells. To this end, the percentages of G2/M-arrested cells and aneuploid cells were examined. Exposure to 0.5 Gy IR or 0.05 mM $H_2O_2$ for 9 h resulted in the highest levels of aneuploidy; however, no cells were observed in the subG1 phase, which indicated the absence of apoptotic cell death. Exposure to an ELF-MF alone (1 mT or 2 mT) did not affect the percentages of G2/M-arrested cells, aneuploid cells, or the populations of cells in the subG1 phase. Moreover, when cells were exposed to a 1 mT or 2 mT ELF-MF in combination with IR (0.5 Gy) or $H_2O_2$ (0.05 mM), the ELF-MF did not further increase the percentages of G2/M-arrested cells or aneuploid cells. These results suggest that ELF-MFs alone do not induce either G2/M arrest or aneuploidy, even when administered in combination with different stressors.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.213-260
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• 2009

While the medical supplies have positive functions such as extending lifespan, recovering health, and preventing diseases, they also cause unexpected tragic consequences due to their side effects, and the magnitude of such damage inevitably increases due to the mechanism of mass production, mass distribution, and mass consumption of those medical supplies. Therefore, needless to say, the optimal way to prevent or reduce such damage is rather through medical supply manufacturers' producing non-defective products, or through the government's controlling production and sales of medical supplies with more aggressive exercise of regulatory authority on medical supply manufacturers, than through a remedy by a legal relief after using medical supplies. In this case, although the victim died due to the defect of the cold medicine, 'CONTAC 600', the drug company's responsibility to cover damages was not recognized because a defect could not be found in the then-manufacturing process. Thus, while pharmaceutical companies are gaining economic profits by producing and selling a medical supplies, if they do not take any remedy measures for the victims of their products' side effects, the victims have to use medical supplies under their own responsibility of taking a risk, and they have to accept the full damage of the potential consequence. Therefore, to remove such absurdity and contradiction, and to practically remedy the victim of medical supplies' side effects, the pharmaceutical side effects remedy project pending in the the Drugs, Cosmetics and Medical Instruments Lawneeds to be actively implemented.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.305-311
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• 2020

BACKGROUND: The healthy food trend has encouraged the consumption of natural products, including berries. This trend is expected to increase the strawberry consumption. There has been a concern about the exposure of pesticides approved for use on strawberry. In this study, the dissipation patterns of systemic and non-systemic pesticides were evaluated in strawberry under plastic-covered greenhouse conditions. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cyflumetofen and dimethomorph were applied on strawberry in the critical GAP (Good Agricultural Practices). Strawberries were harvested at 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 days after final application of the pesticides. The analyses of the residual pesticides were performed by HPLC-DAD with C18 column. The limits of quantitation (LOQ) of cyflumetofen and dimethomorph were 0.04 and 0.02 mg/kg, respectively. The recovery of cyflumetofen and dimethomorph were 88.1 ~ 103.3% and 79.0 ~ 110.2% for the spiked two levels (LOQ and 10LOQ), respectively. The biological half-lives of cyflumetofen and dimethomorph werer 7.5 and 8.9 days, respectively. The dissipation rates in strawberry were calculated by the statistics method at a 95% confidence level. The distribution showed that pesticides with low log Pow were indicated by the decreased dissipation rate and pesticides with similar log Pow and low solubility also showed the decreased dissipation rate. CONCLUSION: The residues of cyflumetofen and dimethomorph in strawberry at time 0 after the final application were below the established MRL in Korea. The dissipation behavior of systemic and non-systemic pesticides in strawberry is affected by their log Pow and water solubility values.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.73-80
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• 2001

Lung perfusion scanning, invariably combined with ventilation studies provides a reliable and non-invasive mean to diagnose lung related pathologies despite the availability of modern techniques such as angiography, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance angiography, and helical (spiral) computed tomography. The technique involves the generation of images by radiations emitted from radioisotopes introduced in to the lungs. Various radiopharmaceuticals have been proposed and designed to incorporate $Tc^{99m}$ in to macroparticulate form for lung perfusion imaging. However, most of these have associated difficulties such as reproducibility of the product with regards to particle size distribution and poor elimination from the lung capillary bed. $Tc^{99m}$ macroaggregated albumin $(Tc^{99m}-MAA)$ is used extensively for clinical lung perfusion imaging and is considered as the radiopharmaceutical of choice. It is non-toxic, safe, and being biodegradable, is easily eliminated from the lung capillary bed by proteolytic enzyme metabolism and by mechanical forces due to lung movement.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 1979

The main route of metabolism of isonicotinic acid hydrazid (INH) in man is its conjugation with acetyl coenzyme A to form acetyl-INH. The reaction is catalyzed by an N-acetyl transferase in the liver. The acetylated drug can be excreted by the kidney more efficiently than INH, and the biological half-life of the drug in the body depends upon how rapidly the drug can be acetylated. This report measured the concentration of INH in the blood of 147 individuals 6 hours after they received a standard dose (9.8mg/kg) and plotted the data as a frequeney distribution hiotogram. There was bimodality, with a mean for one subpopulation at approximately $0.6{\sim}0.8\;mcg/ml.$, and a mean for the other subpopulation between 2.8 and 4.0mcg/ml. As might be expected slow acetylators of INH are more likely to develop a cumulative toxicity to the drug. The principle ,toxicity to INH is a peripheral neuritis but this adverse effect can be prevented by given extra pyridoxin to the patients, and the vitamin does not alter the antitubercular activity of INH. This report carried out that pyridoxine does not alter the ratio of free INH to the total INH in blood.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 1999

ABSTRACT-A self-microemulsifying drug delivery system (SMEDDS) was developed to enhance the solubility and dissolution rate of poorly water soluble drug, biphenyl dimethyl dicarboxylate, DDB. The system was optimized by evaluating the solubility of DDB and the microemulsion existence range after the preparation of microemulsions with varying compositions of triacetin and surfactant-cosurfactant mixtures (Labrasol as surfactant (S) and the combination of Transcutol, Cremophor RH 40 and Plurol oleique as cosurfactant (CoS)). SMEDDS in this study markedly improved the solubility of DDB in water up to 10 mg/ml and the size of the o/w microemulsion droplets measured by dynamic light scattering showed a narrow monodisperse size distribution with an average diameter less than 50 nm. The microemulsion existing range is increased proportional to the ratio of S/CoS, however, it decreased remarkably as the oil content was more than 20%. In vitro dissolution study of SMEDDS showed a significantly increased dissolution rate of DDB in water (> 12 fold over DDB powder), and SMEDDS also had significantly greater permeability of DDB in Caco-2 cell compared to powders.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.161-170
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• 1991

The storage stabilities of immunoliposomes incorporated with variable amounts of ganglioside $G_{M1}$ were investigated as a function of time. temperature. and composition by observing absorbance of visible light and calcein release. In the column chromatographe, the layer of unsaturated PE(dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine : DOPE). unable to form stable liposomes at physiological temperature and pH, were formed when palmitoyl-immunoglobulin G(IgG) $(2.5{\times}10^{-4}\;mol/DOPE\;mol)$ added. The incorporation of ganglioside $G_{M1}$ into immunoliposome. enhanced the stabilities of bilayers during the extended period of storage. The turbidities of immunoliposomes coated with ganglioside $G_{M1}$ exhibited the maximum near 20 mol% $G_{M1}/DOPE$ mol. probably because of the disturbance of the bilayer characteristics, i.e., layer transition or reorientation of interaction sites. At low temperature. the higher stability was achieved than at elevated temperatures. After one week of storage. the redispersed liposomal solutions at lower temperatures maintained the original elution patterns in chromatography but broader distribution at elevated temperatures. During the storage, it is suggested the aggregation is the more dominant phenomena for liposomes kept at $5^{\circ}C$ than the fusion. while he fusion is at elevated temperatures.