• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.83-99
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• 2011

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the protective effects of Socheongryong-tang (SCRT) on elastase-induced lung injury. Materials and Methods: The extract of SCRT was treated to A549 cells and elastase-induced COPD mice model. Then, various parameters such as cell-based cytoprotective activity and histopathological findings were analyzed. Results: SCRT showed a protective effect on elastase-induced cytotoxicity in A549 cells. This effect was correlated with analysis for caspase 3 levels, collagen and elastin contents, and gene expression of TNF-${\alpha}$ and IL-$1{\beta}$ in A549 cells. SCRT treatment also revealed the protective effect on elastase-induced COPD mice model. This effect was evidenced via histopathological findings including immunofluoresence stains against elastin, collagen, and caspase 3, and protein level of Cdc2, cyclin B1, and phospho-Erk1/2 in lung tissue. Conclusion: These data suggest that SCRT has pharmaceutical properties on COPD. This study provides scientific evidence for the efficacy of SCRT for clinical application to patients with COPD.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.97-102
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• 2021

Objectives : Virus infection through the respiratory tract causes various inflammatory diseases such as pneumonia, cystic fibrosis, and obstructive pulmonary disease, causing enormous social damage. Therefore, it is very important to develop a treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. In this study, we investigated the effect of water extracts of Liriope muscari (WELM), known to improve lung function, on the inflammatory response of lung carcinoma cell line A549 cells induced by the viral double stranded RNA mimetic Polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (Poly I:C). Methods : The cell viability by WELM treatment was analyzed using MTS assay in A549 cells. After inducing an inflammatory response to WELM-treated A549 cells with Poly I:C, the degree of apoptosis was confirmed through bright field microscopy. Interferon beta (IFN-β) mRNA expression level in A549 cells was analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR). Results : WELM treatment has no significant effect on cell viability of A549 cells. We confirmed that pre-treatment of WELM effectively reduces the Poly I:C-induced apoptotic cell death in A549 cells. In addition, it was confirmed that the mRNA expression level of IFN-β, a pro-inflammatory cytokine increased by Poly I:C treatment, was significantly suppressed by WELM treatment in A549 cells. Conclusions : These results provide the evidence that WELM is effective at inhibiting inflammation on respiratory viral infections and suggest that Liriope muscari might be a valuable natural substance in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.284-290
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• 2023

Objectives: Work environment assessments were conducted to investigate epidemiologically several cases of lung cancer and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) among workers in domestic quarries. Methods: We visited three quarries in South Korea where an epidemiological investigation was requested and measured total dust, respirable dust, and crystalline silica on rock drilling workers (4 people) and rock chipping workers (13 people). Measurement and analysis were conducted according to NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health) method 0500, NIOSH method 0600 for respirable dust, and NIOSH method 7500 for crystalline silica. Results: Among rock drilling workers the AMs (arithmetic mean) of total dust concentrations, respirable dust concentrations, and crystalline silica concentrations were 3.462 mg/m³ (range: 0.764~6.085 mg/m³), 0.613 mg/m³ (range: 0.153~1.251 mg/m³), and 0.105 mg/m³ (range: 0.012~0.228 mg/m³), respectively. Among rock chipping workers, the AMs of total dust concentrations, respirable dust concentrations, and crystalline silica concentrations were 2.446 mg/m³ (range: 0.156~8.494 mg/m³), 0.488 mg/m³ (range: 0.028~1.536 mg/m³), and 0.099 mg/m³ (range: 0.004~0.274 mg/m³), respectively. Conclusions: Although it cannot be said that the dust concentrations were high for both rock drilling workers and rock chipping workers, the concentrations of crystalline silica were found to be high. If such work is performed for a long period of time, diseases such as lung cancer and COPD may occur, so the work environment needs to be improved.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.346-352
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• 2007

Background: Pulmonary hypertension is one of the cardiovascular complications of in COPD. However, a diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension requires an invasive test, such as right heart catheterization. NT-proBNP is a cardiac hormone that is elevated when a cardiac volume or pressure overload is present. It was hypothesized that NT-proBNP might play a role in detecting of pulmonary hypertension in COPD patients. Method: The 31 COPD patients, who underwent all of NT-proBNP, echocardiography, and spirometry in Seoul National University Bundang Hospital during the period from November 2003 to July 2005, were retrospectively analyzed. Result: Of the 31 COPD patients, 9 patients had pulmonary hypertension. A significant positive correlation was observed between the NT-proBNP and pulmonary arterial pressure (r=0.589, p=0.002). However, there was no significant correlation observed between the $FEV_1$ and NT-proBNP and $FEV_1$ and pulmonary arterial pressure. Conclusion: NT-proBNP might indicate the presence of pulmonary hypertension in COPD patients.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.86 no.3
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• pp.203-215
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• 2023

Background: Surgical resection is the standard treatment for early-stage lung cancer. Since postoperative lung function is related to mortality, predicted postoperative lung function is used to determine the treatment modality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive performance of linear regression and machine learning models. Methods: We extracted data from the Clinical Data Warehouse and developed three sets: set I, the linear regression model; set II, machine learning models omitting the missing data: and set III, machine learning models imputing the missing data. Six machine learning models, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), Ridge regression, ElasticNet, Random Forest, eXtreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and the light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM) were implemented. The forced expiratory volume in 1 second measured 6 months after surgery was defined as the outcome. Five-fold cross-validation was performed for hyperparameter tuning of the machine learning models. The dataset was split into training and test datasets at a 70:30 ratio. Implementation was done after dataset splitting in set III. Predictive performance was evaluated by R² and mean squared error (MSE) in the three sets. Results: A total of 1,487 patients were included in sets I and III and 896 patients were included in set II. In set I, the R² value was 0.27 and in set II, LightGBM was the best model with the highest R² value of 0.5 and the lowest MSE of 154.95. In set III, LightGBM was the best model with the highest R² value of 0.56 and the lowest MSE of 174.07. Conclusion: The LightGBM model showed the best performance in predicting postoperative lung function.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.613-622
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• 1996

Constrictive bronchiolitis, one of small airway diseases, is very rare and occupies one of the two arms of bronchiolitis obliterans together with proliferative bronchiolitis. Proliferative bronchiolitis, presenting the prototype with bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia(BOOP), can be easily taken into diagnostic consideration in terms of relatively rapid clinical course and radiologic presentation as if atypical pneumonia with interstitial and alveolar infiltrations. Meanwhile constrictive bronchiolitis is not only very Tare but also easily overlooked as chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases such as emphysema, because it usually shows normal chest radiographic finding and obstructive pattern in pulmonary function test. In the aspects of the response to treatment, proliferative bronchiolitis showed dramatic response to the corticosteroid while constrictive bronchiolitis is intractable, which is easily explained on the basis of the pathologic characteristics of cicartrical replacement of bronchiolar walls. The bronchiolitis, both proliferative and constrictive, can be associated with diverse conditions such as inhalational injury, postinfectious process, drug of chemical induced reactions, connective tissue diseases, and organ trasplantation. And there is idiopathic type which has no associated condition. There is one explanation that both types of bronchiolitis lie on the same disease spectrum because the different disease pattern can be evoked from the same etiology. In contrast, another explanation is suggested that both types of bronchiolitis are one of nonspecific tissue reaction rather than a disease specific histologic finding because the various types of causes can provoke the same histologic findings. These dilemma remains for further investigation. With literature investigation, the authors report a case of constrictive bronchiolitis proven by open lung biopsy in 47 year old female who was diagnosed as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and simultaneously had relatively rapid progression of airflow obstruction and showed negative radiographic finding without the rise factors for the development of chronic obstructive lung disease. We consider it as idiopathic because we could not find any relationship between constrictive bronchiolitis and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on the literature search and it requires further investigation.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.426-436
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• 2001

Background : Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) is one of the major contributors to morbidity and mortality among the adult population. Cigarette smoking(CS) is undoubtedly the single most important factor in the pathogenesis of COPD. However, its mechanism is unclear. The current hypothesis regarding the pathogenesis of COPD postulates that an imbalance between proteases and antiproteases leads to the destructive changes in the lung parenchyma. This study had two aims. First, to evaluate the effect of CS exposure on histologic changes of the lung parenchyme, and second, to evaluate the effect of CS exposure on the expression of the gelatinolytic enzymes in BAL fluid cells in guinea pigs. Methods : Two groups of five guinea pigs were exposed to the whole smoke of 20 commercial cigarettes per day, 5 hours/day, 5 days/week, for 6weeks, and 12 weeks, respectively, using a smoking apparatus. Five age-matched guinea pigs exposed to room air were used as controls. Five or more sections were microscopically extamined(${\times}400$) and the number of cellular infiltration of the alveolar wall was measured in order to evaluate the effect of CS exposure on the histologic changes of lung parenchyme. The statistical significance was analyzed by a linear regression method. To evaluate the expression of the gelatinolytic enzymes in intraalveolar cells, BAL fluid was obtained and the intraalveolar cells were separated by centrifugation (500 g for 10 min at $4^{\circ}C$). Two sets of culture plates were loaded with $1{\times}10^6$ intraalveolar cells. One plate, contained O.1mM EDTA, a inhibitor of matrix metalloproteases(MMPs), and the other plate had no EDTA. Both plates were incubated for 48 hours at $37^{\circ}C$. After incubation, gelatinolytic protease expression in the supernatants was analyzed by gelatin zymography. Results : At the end of CS exposure, the level of blood carboxy Hb had increased significantly(4.1g/dl in control group, 24g/dl immediately after CS exposure, 18g/dl 30 min after CS exposure, 15g/dl 1 hour after CS exposure). Alveolar inflammatory cells were identified in the CS exposed guinea pigs. The number of alveolar cellular cells observed in a microscopic field ($400{\times}$) was $121.4{\pm}7.2$, $158.0{\pm}20.2$, $196.8{\pm}32.8$, in the control, the 6 weeks, and the 12 weeks group, respectively. The increased extent of inflammatory cellular infiltration of the lung parenchema showed a statistically significant linear relationship with the duration of CS exposure(p=0.001, $r^2=0.675$). Several types of gelatinolytic enzymes in the intraalveolar cells of CS exposed guinea pigs were expressed, of which some were inhibited by EDT A. However, the gelatinolytic enzymes were not expressed in the control groups. Conclusion : CS exposure increases inflammatory cellular infiltration of the alveolar wall and the expression of gelatinolytic proteases in guinea pigs. EDTA inhibits some of the gelatinolytic proteases. These findings suggest a possibility that CS exposure may increase MMP expression in the lungs of guinea pigs.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.72 no.6
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• pp.467-474
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• 2012

Background: The objective of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of the Korean version of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease assessment test (CAT) and Dyspnea-12 Questionnaire for patients with bronchiectasis or tuberculous destroyed lung. Methods: For 62 bronchiectasis patients and 37 tuberculous destroyed lung patients, 3 questionnaires including St. George's Respiratory Questionnaires (SGRQ), CAT, and Dyspnea-12 were obtained, in addition to spirometric measurements. To assess the validity of CAT and Dyspnea-12, correlation with SGRQ was evaluated. To assess the reliability of CAT and Dyspnea-12, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficient was calculated. Results: The mean ages of the patients were $60.7{\pm}8.3$ years in bronchiectasis and $64.4{\pm}9.3$ years in tuberculous destroyed lung. 46.8% and 54.1% were male, respectively. The SGRQ score was correlated with the score of the Korean version of CAT (r=0.72, p<0.0001) and Dyspnea-12 (r=0.67, p<0.0001) in bronchiectasis patients. The SGRQ score was correlated with the score of CAT (r=0.86, p<0.0001) and Dyspnea-12 (r=0.80, p<0.0001) in tuberculous destroyed lung patients. The Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficient for the CAT and Dyspnea-12 were 0.84 and 0.90 in bronchiectasis, and 0.88 and 0.94 in tuberculous destroyed lung, respectively. Conclusion: We found that Korean version of CAT and Dyspnea-12 are valid and reliable in patients with tuberculous destroyed lung and bronchiectasis.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.70-75
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• 2018

Objective: Diseases of the respiratory system are one of the main causes of death and include situation such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia or asthma. Medicinal plants have beneficial effects on multiple diseases include respiratory disorders like asthma and bronchitis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of U. dioica and L. Album on tracheal smooth muscle contraction. Material and methods: Hydroalcoholic extracts of L. Album and U. Dioica aerial parts were prepared by maceration method and standardized based on their total phenol content. The effect of the extracts on the KCl-induced contraction of rat trachea was examined in an organ bath chamber. Data was analyzed with spss software 22. Results: The extract of L. Album (5 mg/ml), similar to theophylline (20 mM), significantly reduced the KCl-induced tracheal contraction. On the other hand, U. Dioica (1 mg/ml and 5 mg/ml) augmented the KCl-induced contraction. Conclusion: The relaxant effect of L. Album on the trachea makes it as a candidate for the managing patients with asthma and obstructive pulmonary diseases. But because of U. Dioica potential constrictive effect on the trachea it is suggested that patients avoid consuming it.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.71 no.2
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• pp.88-96
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• 2011

Background: It is known that cigarette smoke (CS) causes cell death. Apoptotic cell death is involved in the pathogenesis of CS-related lung diseases. Some members of the protein kinase C (PKC) family have roles in cigarette smoke extract (CSE)-induced apoptosis. This study was conducted to investigate the role of PKC epsilon in CSE-induced apoptosis in human lung fibroblast cell line, MRC-5. Methods: Lactate dehydrogenase release was measured using a cytotoxicity detection kit. The MTT assay was used to measure cell viability. Western immunoblot, Hoechst 33342 staining and flow cytometry were used to demonstrate the effect of $PKC{\varepsilon}$. Caspase-3 and caspase-8 activities were determined using a colorimetric assay. To examine $PKC{\varepsilon}$ activation, Western blotting was performed using both fractions of membrane and cytosol. Results: We showed that CSE activated $PKC{\varepsilon}$ by demonstrating increased expression of $PKC{\varepsilon}$ in the plasma membrane fraction. Pre-treatment of $PKC{\varepsilon}$ peptide inhibitor attenuated CSE-induced apoptotic cell death, as demonstrated by the MTT assay (13.03% of control, 85.66% of CSE-treatment, and 53.73% of $PKC{\varepsilon}$ peptide inhibitor-pre-treatment, respectively), Hoechst 33342 staining, and flow cytometry (85.64% of CSE-treatment, 53.73% of $PKC{\varepsilon}$ peptide inhibitor-pre-treatment). Pre-treatment of $PKC{\varepsilon}$ peptide inhibitor reduced caspase-3 expression and attenuated caspase-3, caspase-8 activity compared with CSE treatment alone. Conclusion: $PKC{\varepsilon}$ seem to have pro-apoptotic function and exerts its function through the extrinsic apoptotic pathway in CSE-exposed MRC-5 cells. This study suggests that $PKC{\varepsilon}$ inhibition may be a therapeutic strategy in CS-related lung disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.