• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.694-700
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• 2007

Acanthopanax senticosus is a common Asian herb also known as "Siberian Ginseng". It is often used as a traditional herbal medicine for reducing damage in the liver, kidney, bone and muscle. In the present study we investigated the ferric reducing/antioxidant power and total phenolic contents of the ethanol-/water-extracts obtained from the stems and leaves of Acanthopanax senticosus. Osteoblast cellular proliferation was evaluated using the MTT and alkaline phosphatase activity assays in the human osteoblast-like MG-63 cell line. Acanthopanax senticosus extracts exerted remarkable ferric reducing/antioxidant power and contained high amount of phenolics. Among the extracts the stem-/ethanol-extract showed the highest antioxidant activity and total phenol content. Interestingly a highly positive correlation was found between antioxidant activity and total phenol content (p < 0.01). Proliferation of MG-63 osteoblast cells was highest in the stem-/ethanol-extract and alkaline phosphatase activity significantly increased in the water-extract of the stems (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that Acanthopanax senticosus extracts have antioxidant activity for preventing oxidative stress-related diseases and may have beneficial effects on bone health through the proliferation of osteoblast cells.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.411-419
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• 2016

Purpose: Dysregulation of adipokines caused by excess adipose tissue has been implicated in the development of obesity-related metabolic diseases. This study evaluated the effects of mugwort (Artemisia princeps Pampanini) ethanol extract on lipid metabolic changes, insulin resistance, adipokine balance, and body fat reduction in obese rats. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed either a control diet (NC), high-fat diet (HF, 40% kcal from fat), or high-fat diet with 1% mugwort extract (HFM) for 6 weeks. Results: Epididymal and retroperitoneal fat mass increased in the HF group compared with the NC group, and epididymal fat mass was reduced in the HFM group (p < 0.05). No difference was observed in serum levels of total cholesterol (TC) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) among the groups. However, triglyceride (TG), TG/HDL-C ratio, and TC/HDL-C ratio increased in the HF group and significantly decreased in the HFM group. TG and TC levels in the liver were significantly higher in the HF group, whereas these levels were significantly reduced in the HFM group. HF rats had lower insulin sensitivity as indicated by increased homeostasis model assessment of the insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) value. HOMA-IR values significantly decreased in the HFM group. Adiponectin levels were higher in NC rats, and their leptin and PAI-1 levels were lower. Relative balance of adipokines was reversed in the HF group, with lower adiponectin levels but higher leptin and PAI-1 levels. In contrast, the HFM group maintained balance of adiponectin/leptin and adiponectin/PAI-1 levels similar to NC by reducing leptin and PAI-1 levels. Conclusion: Overall data indicated that mugwort extract can be effective in alleviating metabolic dislipidemia, insulin resistance, and adipokine dysregulation induced by a high-fat diet.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.6.1-6.10
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• 2018

The intention of this study was to identify the bacterial pathogens infecting Oreochromis niloticus (Nile tilapia) and Clarias gariepinus (African catfish), and to establish the antibiotic susceptibility of fish bacteria in Uganda. A total of 288 fish samples from 40 fish farms (ponds, cages, and tanks) and 8 wild water sites were aseptically collected and bacteria isolated from the head kidney, liver, brain and spleen. The isolates were identified by their morphological characteristics, conventional biochemical tests and Analytical Profile Index test kits. Antibiotic susceptibility of selected bacteria was determined by the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. The following well-known fish pathogens were identified at a farm prevalence of; Aeromonas hydrophila (43.8%), Aeromonas sobria (20.8%), Edwardsiella tarda (8.3%), Flavobacterium spp. (4.2%) and Streptococcus spp. (6.3%). Other bacteria with varying significance as fish pathogens were also identified including Plesiomonas shigelloides (25.0%), Chryseobacterium indoligenes (12.5%), Pseudomonas fluorescens (10.4%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (4.2%), Pseudomonas stutzeri (2.1%), Vibrio cholerae (10.4%), Proteus spp. (6.3%), Citrobacter spp. (4.2%), Klebsiella spp. (4.2%) Serratia marcescens (4.2%), Burkholderia cepacia (2.1%), Comamonas testosteroni (8.3%) and Ralstonia picketti (2.1%). Aeromonas spp., Edwardsiella tarda and Streptococcus spp. were commonly isolated from diseased fish. Aeromonas spp. (n = 82) and Plesiomonas shigelloides (n = 73) were evaluated for antibiotic susceptibility. All isolates tested were susceptible to at-least ten (10) of the fourteen antibiotics evaluated. High levels of resistance were however expressed by all isolates to penicillin, oxacillin and ampicillin. This observed resistance is most probably intrinsic to those bacteria, suggesting minimal levels of acquired antibiotic resistance in fish bacteria from the study area. To our knowledge, this is the first study to establish the occurrence of several bacteria species infecting fish; and to determine antibiotic susceptibility of fish bacteria in Uganda. The current study provides baseline information for future reference and fish disease management in the country.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.1119-1124
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• 2009

Hyperlipidemia has been reported to be associated with the development of fatty liver. Palmitic acid, a major saturated fatty acid, is involved in the development of diverse diseases. The activation of mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs), such as Jun N-terminal kinase (INKs) and p38 MAPK is implicated in the apoptosis in diverse cells. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the effects of palmitic acid on apoptosis and its relationship between JNK and p38 MAPK in cultured rat hepatocytes. In the present study, palmitic acid (>50 uM) decreased cell proliferation and increased lactate dehydrogenase activity in hepatocytes, which was blocked by the treatment of SP600125 (a JNK inhibitor) and SB203580 (a p38 MAPK inhibitor). Indeed, palmitic acid decreased Bcl-2 expression but increased Bax expression in rat hepatocytes, which was blocked by the treatment of SP600125 and SB203580. In addition, palmitic acid decreased glutathione (GSH) content and increased lipid peroxide formation, which was blocked by the treatment of SP600125 and SB203580. Western immunoblotting analysis also revealed that palmitic acid increased JNK and p38 MAPK. In conclusion, palmitic acid induced apoptosis through oxidative stress via JNK and p38 MAPK activation in rat hepatocytes.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1233-1243
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• 2018

Sterol regulatory-element binding proteins (SREBPs) are a family of transcription factors that regulate lipid homeostasis and metabolism by controlling the expression of enzymes required for endogenous cholesterol, fatty acid (FA), triacylglycerol, and phospholipid synthesis. The three SREBPs are encoded by two different genes. The SREBP1 gene gives rise to SREBP-1a and SREBP-1c, which are derived from utilization of alternate promoters that yield transcripts in which distinct first exons are spliced to a common second exon. SREBP-2 is derived from a separate gene. Additionally, SREBPs are implicated in numerous pathogenic processes, such as endoplasmic reticulum stress, inflammation, autophagy, and apoptosis. They also contribute to obesity, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases. Genome-wide analyses have revealed that these versatile transcription factors act as important nodes of biological signaling networks. Changes in cell metabolism and growth are reciprocally linked through SREBPs. Anabolic and growth signaling pathways branch off and connect to multiple steps of SREBP activation and form complex regulatory networks. SREBPs are activated through the PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway in these processes, but the molecular mechanism remains to be understood. This review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of SREBPs in physiology and pathophysiology at the cell, organ, and organism levels.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.210-228
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• 2002

Background: The purpose of this research was to examine the fall incidence rate and its related factors of fall in inpatients. Methods: The data were collected from the 138 fall incident reports in one tertiary hospital in Seoul from April 1st 1999 to September 30th 2001. The Fall Incident Report Form was originally developed based on that of Massachusetts General Hospital revised in 1995. And this was modified for this survey by the collaborating work of QI team including researcher and department of nursing service of this particular hospital. The contents of Fall Incident Form were general characteristics of patient. factors related to fall. types and places of fall. circumstances, nursing interventions. and outcome. Results: 1) The incidence rate of fall was 0.08% of total discharged patients and 0.081 per 1000 patient-day. This incidence rate is much lower than that of several hospitals in USA. This finding might result from the different incidence report system of each hospital. 2) The characteristics of fall-prone patient were found as follows. They were mostly over 60 years old, in alert mental status, ambulatory with some assistance, and dependent on ambulatory device. The types of diseases related high incidence rate were cerebrovascular disease(3.2), hypertension(1.6), cardiovascular disease(1.4), diabetes(1.3) and liver disease(0.6). 3) The majority of fall events usually occurred m bed. bedside(walking or standing) and bathroom in patient room. Usually they were up on their own when they fell. And there were more falls of elderly occurred during night time than day or evening. 4) 63.8% of fall events resulted in physical injuries such as fracture and usually the patients had diagnostic procedures and some treatment(ex. suture) which caused additional cost to the patients and their families. 5) The found risk factors of fall were drugs(antihypertensive drug, diuretics) and environmental factors like too high bed height, long distance of bedside table and lamp switch, and slippery tile of bathroom floor. Conclusion: Considering these results, every medical and nursing staff should be aware of the risk factors of patients in hospital, and should intervene more actively the preventive managements, specially for the elderly patients during night. Therefore, it is recommended that the development of Fall Prevention Programs based on these results.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.109-113
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• 2001

Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) has been shown to modulate transactivations by the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR)$\gamma$ and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF$\kappa$B). In this study, the oxLDL signaling pathways involved with the NF$\kappa$B transactivation were investigated by utilizing a reporter construct driven by three upstream NF$\kappa$B binding sites, and various pharmacological inhibitors. OxLDL and its constituent lysophophatidylcholine (lysoPC) induced a rapid and transient increase of intracellular calcium and stimulated the NF-KB transactivation in resting RAW264.7 macrophage cells in an oxidation-dependent manner. The NF$\kappa$B activation by oxLDL or lysoPC was inhibited by protein kinase C inhibitors or an intracellular calcium chelator. Tyrosine kinase or PI3 kinase inhibitors did not block the NF$\kappa$B transactivation. Furthermore, the oxLDL-induced NF$\kappa$B activity was abolished by the PPAR$\gamma$ ligands. When the endocytosis of oxLDL was blocked by cytochalasin B, the NF$\kappa$B transactivation by oxLDL was synergistically increased, while PPAR transactivation was blocked. These results suggest that oxLDL activates NF-$\kappa$B in resting macrophages via protein kinase C- and/or calcium-dependent pathways, which does not involve the endocytic processing of oxLDL. The endocytosis-dependent PPAR$\gamma$ activation by oxLDL may function as an inactivation route of the oxLDL induced NF$\kappa$B signal. Short heterodimer partner (SHP), specifically expressed in liver and a limited number of other tissues, is an unusual orphan nuclear receptor that lacks the conventional DNA-binding domain. In this work, we found that SHP expression is abundant in murine macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 but suppressed by oxLDL and its constituent I3-HODE, a ligand for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor y. Furthermore, SHP acted as a transcription coactivator of nuclear factor-$\kappa$B (NF$\kappa$B) and was essential for the previously described NF$\kappa$B transactivation by lysoPC, one of the oxLDL constituents. Accordingly, NF$\kappa$B, transcriptionally active in the beginning, became progressively inert in oxLDL-treated RAW 264.7 cells, as oxLDL decreased the SHP expression. Thus, SHP appears to be an important modulatory component to regulate the transcriptional activities of NF$\kappa$B in oxLDL-treated, resting macrophage cells.

• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.277-287
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• 2004

I have come to next conclusions in consequence of documentary study about medical books of many generations regarding venesection therapy. 1. Venesection therapy is much used for five sensory organ disease. Besides that internal disease, pain paralysis disease of muscle and joints, sugical disease, disease of woman and children, fever sunstroke CVA emergency case follow that in the order of frequency of use. 2. It is used for swollen tongue, eye pain, pharyngitis, swelling and pain in the throat, bleeding from the eye ear nose mouth or subcutaneous tissue, tonsillitis, aphthae and so on in the five sensory organ disease. Focus, sosang, jinjin yuye, taiyang, baihui are used for five sensory organ disease in the order of frequency of use. 3. It is used for malaria, headache, precordial pain, head-wind, abdominal colic, diseases characterized by acute diarrhea and vomiting, and so on in the Internal disease. Superficial venules and lymph vessesls, taiyang, quze are used for Internal disease in the order of frequency of use. 4. It is used for low back pain, hypochondriac pain, numbness, knee pain, tinea pedis, red swelling pain of hand and arm, flaccidity-syndrome, and so on in the pain paralysis disease of muscle and joints. Weizhong, superficial venules and lymph vessesls, Ashi point, zhigou are used for pain paralysis disease of muscle and joints in the order of frequency of use. 5. It is used for furuncle, tinea capitis, and so on in the sugical disease. Focus, weizhong are used for sugical disease in the order of frequency of use. 6. It is used for inflammatory disease with redness of skin, and so on in the disease of woman and children. Focus, weizhong, yanglingquan, yaoshu, sanyinjiao are used for disease of woman and children in the order of frequency of use. 7. It is used for fever, CVA, sunstroke, cadaverous coma, common cold, and so on in the fever sunstroke CVA emergency case. Sosang, weizhong, chize are used for fever sunstroke CVA emergency case in the order of frequency of use. 8. The urinary bladder channel of foot-taiyang is most used. Next there are the du channel, the stomach channel of foot-yangming, the lung channel of hand-taiyin, the gall baldder channel of foot-shaoyang, the triple-warmer channel of hand-shaoyang, the large intestine channel of hand-yangming, the spleen channel of foot-taiyin, the kidney channel of foot-shaoyin the pericardium channel of hand-jueyin the liver channel of foot-jueyin, the ren channel, the heart channel of hand-shaoyin, the small intestine channel of hand-taiyang in the order of frequency in use. 9. Superficial venules and lymph vessesls, focus, five shu points, extra-point, back point are used in the venesection therapy, those are characteristic of locating an acupuncture point.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.431-445
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• 2000

In general the prevalence of old people is high and frequently have multiple diseases and symtoms requiring treatment. The nature of illness in the elderly has to be faced, and drugs do have an important part in the treatment of that illness. The purpose of this study were to describe health status and medication, and to provide some basic data for elderly's health education, especially for the right medication. Body mass index, self perceived health status, activities of daily living, disease and experience of past operation were surveyed to recognize the 249 elderly's actual health status. The degree of the elderly's understanding the way of medication, experience of side effects, experience of drug combination and incidence of drug adverse reaction along with drug combination were examined for medication. The aged $women(BMI; 10.7\pm13.3\%)$ overweighed the aged $men(BMI; 4.0\pm10.4\%)$. $69.0\%$ of them recognized their health good. Their activities of daily living were diminished following by the age group(p=0.0068) and relationship with self perceived health status were very significant(p=0.0005). They(192 elderly) suffered from multiple disease such as $osteoarthritis(49.5\%)$, $hypertension(32.0\%)$, gastric $disorder(16.1%)$, $diabetes(14.6\%)$, $osteomalacia(10.9\%)$, cardiovascular $disease(9.9\%)$, senile $cataract(5.7\%)$, skin $rash(5.2\%)$, liver $disease(4.2\%)$, kidney $disease(3.6\%)$, spinal cord $problem(3.6\%)$, respiratory $disease(2.1\%)$ $tuberculosis(1.0\%)\;etc(1.0\%).$ $28.3\%$ of them replied that they had an operation for appendictis senile cataract, peptic ulcer, spinal cord problem, pleurisy, hemorrhoid and the rest. Most of $them(87.4\%)$ knew the way very well how to use drugs, and $21.6\%$ of the replied 171 elderly experienced adverse drug reaction. Drug compliance rate were $high(83.6\%)$. In our study 56.9% of the 167 elderly took several medicine together. And $18.9\%$ of the 95 elderly who did drug combination had an experience of drug interaction. One person kept average 5.5 kinds of drugs at home among 243 elderly. They kept $digestives(79.4\%)$, $ointments(68.7\%)$, $vitamins(59.7\%)$, $analgesics(59.7\%)$, cold $medicines(45.3\%)$ antiarthritic $drugs(33.3\%)$, health $foods(27.7\%)$, antihypertensive $drugs(25.1\%)$, anti peptic ulcer $drugs(24.7\%)$, $laxatives(19.8\%)$, $antacids(16.5\%),\;antibiotics(l6.5\%)$, hypoglycemic $agents(10.3\%)$, cardiac $stimulants(7.0\%)$, $diuretics(4.5\%)$, antiarrhythmic $drugs(4.9\%)$, anti anginal $drugs(4.1\%)$, $hypnotics(3.3\%)$, $etc(38.3\%)$. With this result, we ascertain that polypharmacy in the elderly caused by multiple disease is common, which lead to drug interaction. So our task is to educate elderly how to use drugs in order to maximize their efficiency and to minimize their adverse effects.

• Advances in pediatric surgery
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.117-125
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• 2010

Unreduced small bowel intussusception requires operative treatment although the rate of spontaneous reduction is 60 to 70 %. The aim of this study is to compare clinical characteristics and outcome between spontaneous reduction and operation group and to analyze factors related to decisions to treat small bowel intussusceptions. The records of 25 patients with small bowel intussusceptions treated in Seoul National University Children's Hospital from January 1999 to August 2009 were reviewed respectively. Spontaneous reduction group (n=12, 48 %) had signs and symptoms of vomiting, abdominal pain, currant jelly stool, abdominal distension, fever, increased CRP but no rebound tenderness. One of them had been diagnosed with Henoch-Schonlein purpura and no one displayed pathologic leading point by image study. Operation group (n=13, 52 %) consisted of patients who had primary surgery. Their signs and symptoms were similar to spontaneous reduction group. Seven of them had underlying diseases such as Crohn' disease, ALL, Lymphoma, Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (n=3), post-transplanted state of liver and 2 of them displayed Peutz-Jeghers polyp and Meckel's diverticulum as pathologic leading point by preoperative ultrasonography. Mean relieve interval (interval between onset of symptoms and reduction/operation) was 1.78 days in spontaneous reduction group and 2.25 days in operation group (p=0.341). Seven of operation group had manual reduction and 6 out of 7 received segmental resection of the small bowel. No one of them underwent manual reduction and all of them underwent segmental resection were found to have pathologic leading points [Peutz-Jeghers polyp (n=3), Meckel's diverticulum (n=2), lymphoma (n=1)] during operation. In conclusion, 48% of small bowel intussusceptions resolved spontaneously. Patients' symptoms and relieve intervals were not related to the operative decisions. We therefore recommend significant factors for determining treatment plan such as change of clinical symptoms, underlying disease or pathologic leading point by imaging.