• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.177-184
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• 1994

Nine rabbits were fed with Clonorchis sinenis metacercariae (MC) and the blood samples chronologically obtained were analyzed biochemically. Rabbits Infected by less than 100 flukes were grouped into Group I, and by 100-250 flukes into Group II. The serum level of alanine amlnotransferase (ALT) was increased from 3 weeks after the Infection of the metacercariae (AIM) and showed a peak at 8 weeks, and decreased from 12 weeks ASM. The serum level of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) was raised to $92.3{\;}{\pm}{\;}65.4{\;}U/L$ at 3 weeks AIM and stayed high until 8 weeks, then lowered thereafter. The serum level of ${\gamma}-glutamyl$ transpeptidase (${\gamma}-GT$) was increased rapidly to the highest value ($18.9{\;}{\pm}{\;}14.6{\;}U/L$) at 16 weeks ASM, and decreased to the control level after 20 weeks. The serum level of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was headed down from the early infection to 52 weeks AIM. The serum cholesterol level was increased from 8 weeks and reached at a peak 16 weeks AIM, and decreased thereafter to the control level. It is suggested that serum ALT, AST, ALP and ${\gamma}-GT$ tests be useful to diagnose the early infEction of C. sinensis.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.178-184
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• 2005

Carry over contamination has been reduced in some systems by flushing the internal and external surfaces of the sample probe with copious amount of diluent. It between specimens should be kept as small as possible. A built-in, continuous-flow wash reservoir, which allows the simultaneous washing of the interior and exterior of the syringe needles, addresses this issue. In addition, residual contamination can further be prevented through the use of efficient needle rinsing procedures. In discrete systems with disposable reaction vessels and measuring cuvets, any carry over is entirely caused by the pipetting system. In analyzers with reuseable cuvets or flow cells, carry over may arise at every point through which high samples pass sequentially. Therefore, disposable sample probe tips can eliminate both the contamination of one sample by another inside the probe and the carry over of in specimen into the specimen in the cup. The results of the applicative carry over experiment studied on 21 items for total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), total bilirubin (TB), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspratate aminotranferase (AST), alanine aminotranferase (ALT), gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT), creatinine kinase (CK), lactic dehydrogenase (LD), creatnine (CRE), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), uric acid (UA), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), glucose (GLU), amylase (AMY), calcium (CA), inorganic phosphorus (IP), sodium (Na), potassium (K), chloride (CL) tests in chematology were as follows. Evaluation of process performance less than 1% in all tests was very good, but a percentage of ALB, TP, TB, ALP, CRE, UA, TC, GLU, AMY, IP, K, Na, and CL was 0%, implying no carry over. Other tests were ALT(-0.08%), GGT(-0.09%), CK(0.08%), LD(0.06%), BUN(0.12%), TG (-0.06%), and CA(0.89%).

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2006

The analytical measurement range (AMR) is the range of analyte values that a method can directly measure on a specimen without any dilution, concentration, or other pretreatment not part of the usual assay process. The linearity of the AMR is its ability to obtain test results which are directly proportional to the concentration of analyte in the sample from the upper and lower limit of the AMR. The AMR validation is the process of confirming that the assay system will correctly recover the concentration or activity of the analyte over the AMR. The test specimen must have analyte values which, at a minimum, are near the low, midpoint, and high values of the AMR. The AMR must be revalidated at least every six months, at changes in major system components, and when a complete change in reagents for a procesure is introduced; unless the laboratory can demonstrate that changing the reagent lot number does not affect the range used to report patient test results. The AMR linearity was total protein (0-16.6), albumin (0-8.1), total bilirubin (0-18.1), alkaline phosphatase (0-1244.3), aspartate aminotransferase (0-1527.9), alanine aminotransferase (0-1107.9), gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (0-1527.7), creatine kinase (0-1666.6), lactate dehydrogenase (0-1342), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (0.3-154.3), sodium (35.4-309), creatinine (0-19.2), blood urea nitrogen (0.5-206.2), uric acid (0-23.9), total cholesterol (-0.3-510), triglycerides (0.7-539.6), glucose (0-672.7), amylase (0-1595.3), calcium (0-23.9), inorganic phosphorus (0.03-17.0), potassium (0.1-116.5), chloride (3.3-278.7). We are sure that materials for the AMR affect the evaluation of the upper limit of the AMR in the process system.

• Nutritional Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.233-239
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• 2006

Porous matrices of bioactive polymers such as polyglycolic acid (PGA) or polylactic acid (PLA) can be used as scaffolds in bone tissue growth during bone repair process. These polymers are highly porous and serve as a template for the growth and organization of new bone tissues. We evaluated the effect of PGA and PLA polymers on osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cell extracellular mineralization. MC3T3-E1 cells were cultured in a time-dependent manner -1, 15, 25d as appropriate - for the period of bone formation stages in one of the five culture circumstances, such as normal osteogenic differentiation medium, PGA-plated, fetal bovine serum (FBS)-plated, PGA/FBS-coplated, and PLA-plated For the evaluation of bone formation, minerals (Ca, Mg, Mn) and alkaline phosphatase activity, a marker for osteoblast differentiation, were measured Alizarin Red staining was used for the measurement of extracellular matrix Ca deposit During the culture period, PGA-plated one was reabsorbed into the medium more easily and faster than the PLA-plated one. At day 15, at the middle stage of bone formation, cellular Ca and Mg levels showed higher tendency in PGA- or PLA-plated treatments compared to non-plated control and at day 25, at the early late stage of bone formation, all three cellular Ca, Mg or Mn levels showed higher tendency as in order of PGA-related treatments and PLA-plated treatments, compared to control even without significance. Medium Ca, Mg or Mn levels didn't show any consistent tendency. Cellular ALP activity was higher in the PGA- or PLA-plated treatments compare to normal osteogenic medium treatment PGA-plated and PGA/FBS-plated treatments showed better Ca deposits than other treatments by measurement of Alizarin Red staining, although PLA-plated treatment also showed reasonable Ca deposit. The results of the present study suggest that biodegradable material, PGA and also with less extent for PLA, can be used as a biomaterial for better extracellular matrix mineralization in osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1897-1906
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• 2019

Objective: An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary non-phytate phosphorus (nPP) deficiency on intestinal pH value, digestive enzyme activity, morphology, nutrient utilization, and gene expression of NaPi-IIb in meat ducks from 1 to 21 d of age. Methods: A total of 525 one-d-old Cherry Valley ducklings were fed diets (with 7 pens of 15 ducklings, or 105 total ducklings, on each diet) with five levels of nPP (0.22%, 0.34%, 0.40%, 0.46%, or 0.58%) for 21 d in a completely randomized design. Five experimental diets contained a constant calcium (Ca) content of approximately 0.9%. Body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), and feed to gain ratio (F:G) were measured at 14 and 21 d of age. Ducks were sampled for duodenum and jejunum digestion and absorption function on 14 and 21 d. Nutrient utilization was assessed using 25- to 27-d-old ducks. Results: The results showed ducks fed 0.22% nPP had lower (p<0.05) growth performance and nutrient utilization and higher (p<0.05) serum Ca content and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity. When dietary nPP levels were increased, BW (d 14 and 21), BWG and FI (all intervals), and the serum phosphorus (P) content linearly and quadratically increased (p<0.05); and the jejunal pH value (d 14), duodenal muscle layer thickness (d 14), excreta dry matter, crude protein, energy, Ca and total P utilization linearly increased (p<0.05); however, the serum ALP activity, jejunal $Na^+-K^+$-ATPase activity, and duodenal NaPi-IIb mRNA level (d 21) linearly decreased (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results indicated that ducks aged from 1 to 21 d fed diets with 0.22% nPP had poor growth performance related to poor intestinal digestion and absorption ability; but when fed diets with 0.40%, 0.46%, and 0.58% nPP, ducks presented a better growth performance, intestinal digestion and absorption function.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.46-53
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• 2015

Background: Glucocorticoids (GCs) are commonly used in many chemotherapeutic protocols and play an important role in the normal regulation of bone remodeling. However, the prolonged use of GCs results in osteoporosis, which is partially due to apoptosis of osteoblasts and osteocytes. In this study, effects of Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) on GC-treated murine osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells and a GC-induced osteoporosis mouse model were investigated. Methods: MC3T3-E1 cells were exposed to dexamethasone (Dex) with or without KRG and cell viability was measured by the 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Realtime polymerase chain reaction was performed to evaluate the apoptotic gene expression; osteogenic gene expression and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity were also measured. Western blotting was performed to evaluate the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) proteins. A GC-induced osteoporosis animal model was used for in vivo study. Results and conclusion: The MTT assay revealed that Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) prevents loss of cell viability caused by Dex-induced apoptosis in MC3T3E1 cells. Real-time polymerase chain reaction data showed that groups treated with both Dex and KRG exhibited lower mRNA levels of caspase-3 and -9, whereas the mRNA levels of Bcl2, IAPs, and XIAP increased. Moreover, groups treated with both Dex and KRG demonstrated increased mRNA levels of ALP, RUNX2, and bone morphogenic proteins as well as increased ALP activity in MC3T3-E1 cells, compared to cells treated with Dex only. In addition, KRG increased protein kinase B (AKT) phosphorylation and decreased c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) phosphorylation. Moreover, microcomputed tomography analysis of the femurs showed that GC implantation caused trabecular bone loss. However, a significant reduction of bone loss was observed in the KRG-treated group. These results suggest that the molecular mechanism of KRG in the GC-induced apoptosis may lead to the development of therapeutic strategies to prevent and/or delay osteoporosis.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.11
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• pp.763-772
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• 2019

Periodontitis is characterized by the loss of periodontal tissues, especially alveolar bone. Common therapies cannot satisfactorily recover lost alveolar bone. Periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) possess the capacity of self-renewal and multilineage differentiation and are likely to recover lost alveolar bone. In addition, periodontitis is accompanied by hypoxia, and hypoxia-inducible $factor-1{\alpha}$ ($HIF-1{\alpha}$) is a master transcription factor in the response to hypoxia. Thus, we aimed to ascertain how hypoxia affects runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2), a key osteogenic marker, in the osteogenesis of PDLSCs. In this study, we found that hypoxia enhanced the protein expression of $HIF-1{\alpha}$, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and RUNX2 ex vivo and in situ. VEGF is a target gene of $HIF-1{\alpha}$, and the increased expression of VEGF and RUNX2 proteins was enhanced by cobalt chloride ($CoCl_2$, $100{\mu}mol/L$), an agonist of $HIF-1{\alpha}$, and suppressed by 3-(5'-hydroxymethyl-2'-furyl)-1-benzyl indazole (YC-1, $10{\mu}mol/L$), an antagonist of $HIF-1{\alpha}$. In addition, VEGF could regulate the expression of RUNX2, as RUNX2 expression was enhanced by human VEGF ($hVEGF_{165}$) and suppressed by VEGF siRNA. In addition, knocking down VEGF could decrease the expression of osteogenesis-related genes, i.e., RUNX2, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and type I collagen (COL1), and hypoxia could enhance the expression of ALP, COL1, and osteocalcin (OCN) in the early stage of osteogenesis of PDLSCs. Taken together, our results showed that hypoxia could mediate the expression of RUNX2 in PDLSCs via $HIF-1{\alpha}$-induced VEGF and play a positive role in the early stage of osteogenesis of PDLSCs.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.268-278
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• 2021

Purpose: While several prognostic models for the stratification of death risk have been developed for patients with advanced gastric cancer receiving first-line chemotherapy, they have seldom been tested in the Chinese population. This study investigated the performance of these models and identified the optimal tools for Chinese patients. Materials and Methods: Patients diagnosed with metastatic or recurrent gastric adenocarcinoma who received first-line chemotherapy were eligible for inclusion in the validation cohort. Their clinical data and survival outcomes were retrieved and documented. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and calibration curves were used to evaluate the predictive ability of the models. Kaplan-Meier curves were plotted for patients in different risk groups divided by 7 published stratification tools. Log-rank tests with pairwise comparisons were used to compare survival differences. Results: The analysis included a total of 346 patients with metastatic or recurrent disease. The median overall survival time was 11.9 months. The patients were different into different risk groups according to the prognostic stratification models, which showed variability in distinguishing mortality risk in these patients. The model proposed by Kim et al. showed relative higher predicting abilities compared to the other models, with the highest χ² (25.8) value in log-rank tests across subgroups, and areas under the curve values at 6, 12, and 24 months of 0.65 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.59-0.72), 0.60 (0.54-0.65), and 0.63 (0.56-0.69), respectively. Conclusions: Among existing prognostic tools, the models constructed by Kim et al., which incorporated performance status score, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, alkaline phosphatase, albumin, and tumor differentiation, were more effective in stratifying Chinese patients with gastric cancer receiving first-line chemotherapy.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.1049-1060
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• 2021

Objective: This study assessed the effect of different levels of xylanase, β-glucanase and phytase on intestinal enzyme activities and tibia bone development in broiler chickens fed wheat-based diets. Methods: Twelve experimental diets were formulated using a 3×2×2 factorial design (three doses of phytase and two doses of both xylanase and β-glucanase) and offered to 648 day-old Ross 308 male chicks having 6 replicates groups with 9 birds per replicate and lasted for 35 days. Results: An interaction between the enzymes products improved (p<0.01) the activity of chymotrypsin. Protein content at d 10 was highest (p<0.001) with addition of phytase while general proteolytic activity (GPA) (p<0.02) and lipase activity (p<0.001) were decreased. At d 24, there were improvements in protein content (p<0.01) and lipase (p<0.04) with supplementation of superdose phytase. Addition of superdose phytase decreased in chymotrypsin (p<0.02), trypsin (p<0.01) and GPA (p<0.001). The optimum dose of xylanase decreased the chymotrypsin activity (p = 0.05), while the GPA (p<0.001) was increased with the optimum level of β-glucanase. Superdose phytase supplementation at d 10 improved maltase (p = 0.05), sucrase (p<0.001) and alkaline phosphatase (p<0.001) activities in the jejunum while aminopeptidase activity was highest (p<0.005) with the low level of phytase. Protein content of jejunum mucosa was bigger (p<0.001) in birds fed superdose phytase while maltase activity (p<0.001) at d 24 was reduced by this treatment. Sucrase (p<0.04) and aminopeptidase activities (p<0.001) improved when diets supplemented with low levels of phytase. Tibia bone breaking strength was highest (p<0.04) with addition of low level of superdose phytase or optimum level of β-glucanase. Bone dry matter content decreased (p<0.04) when diets supplemented with phytase. Conclusion: From the results obtained in this study, supplementation of superdose phytase was the most effective, however, the cost-benefit analysis of the use of such a dose needs to be evaluated.

• The Korean Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.111-118
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• 2018

Nicotine of tobacco component has a controversial impact in the clinical outcome of dental implants. Although numerous nicotine effects on bone healing around implants have been presented, it is rarely reported in vitro study about normal human osteoblast(NHost) from oral and maxillofacial area at the surface of implants. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of nicotine on the proliferation and differentiation response of NHost to plasmatic and salivary levels of nicotine reported in smokers at the surface of screw-type plasma-sprayed titanium implants. NHosts were seeded on the surface of titanium implants and cultured for 21 days in ${\alpha}-MEM$ supplemented with 10% FBS, 50mg/ml ascorbic acid, 5mM ${\beta}$-glycerophosphate and 100nM dexamethasone. Seeded implants were exposed to various nicotine concentration(0.05-0.5mg/ml) from 1 to 21 days, and characterized for cell morphology, proliferation, differentiation, alkaline phosphatase(ALP) activity and ionized calcium concentration(Cai) of medium. Continuous exposure to higher nicotine concentration(above 0.3mg/ml) induced a dose- and time-dependent vacuolation of the cytoplasm, and a tendency to detach from the implant surface. 0.05mg/ml(lower nicotine concentration) did not cause significant effects in the cell proliferation and ALP activity. 0.1-0.2mg/ml caused evident dose-dependent effects in increased cell proliferation, ALP activity and earlier onset of matrix mineralization at levels up to 0.2mg/ml, while a dose-dependent inhibitory effect at 0.3-0.5mg/ml. Cai concentration of control group was decreased at 14 days. Increased Cai concentration at 0.1-0.2mg/ml, decreased Cai concentration at 0.3mg/ml and no change at 0.5mg/ml during the culture period were seen. It suggested that nicotine concentration could paly an role in modulating NHost activity as a contributing factor associated with proliferation and differentiation of NHost at the surface of implants.