• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2015

It is well established that TGF-${\beta}1$ and retinoic acid (RA) cause IgA isotype switching in mice. We recently found that lactoferrin (LF) also has an activity of IgA isotype switching in spleen B cells. The present study explored the effect of LF on the Ig production by mouse peritoneal B cells. LF, like TGF-${\beta}1$, substantially increased IgA production in peritoneal B1 cells but little in peritoneal B2 cells. In contrast, LF increased IgG2b production in peritoneal B2 cells much more strongly than in peritoneal B1 cells. LF in combination with RA further enhanced the IgA production and, interestingly, this enhancement was restricted to IgA isotype and B1 cells. Similarly, the combination of the two molecules also led to expression of gut homing molecules ${\alpha}4{\beta}7$ and CCR9 on peritoneal B1 cells, but not on peritoneal B2 cells. Thus, these results indicate that LF and RA can contribute to gut IgA response through stimulating IgA isotype switching and expression of gut-homing molecules in peritoneal B1 cells.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.209-212
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• 2010

Photoplethysmogram (PPG) and pressure pulse waveform (PPW) were compared and evaluated for the efficacy of stimulating knuckles by using the pulsed magnetic field. Both signals were observed simultaneously while the knuckles were exposed for 10 min to the pulsed magnetic field, with maximum field intensity of 0.8 T and transition time of 0.126 msec. After 5 min stimulation of the knuckles, the results showed that the aging indexes calculated from the second derivative of the PPG were increased from -1.913 to 0.072, and that of the PPW from -0.063 to 0.387. However, for the relatively long-term stimulation for 10 min, we found that the values of both the aging indexes of the second derivatives and augmentation index of the PPW returned to the starting level. The changes observed in characteristic factors such as the aging indexes of the second derivatives and augmentation index of the PPW indicate the potential of pulsed magnetic field stimulation as a therapeutic method for the treatment of patients with peripheral vascular disease.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1996 no.05
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• pp.88-90
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• 1996

The right and left atrial pressures are important parameters in automatic control of a total artificial heart (TAH) within normal physiological ranges. Our TAH is composed of a moving actuator, right and left ventricles and the interventricular space enclosed by a semi-rigid housing. During operation of the TAH, the jnterventpicular space's volume is changed dynamically by the difference between the ejection volume of one ventricle and the inflow volume of the other. Therefore, the changes in pressure of the interventricular space is related to both atrial pressures. We measured the interventricular pressure (IVP) waveform using a pressure sensor and attempted to indirectly estimate the changes of atrial pressures. This method has an advantage that the sensor does not contact the blood directly. Furthermore, the IVP waveforms have its zero baseline in each pump cycle, thus the pressure measurements are free from the transducer drift problems by measuring the peak pressure from these baseline values. From the In vitro experiments, we found that the IVP waveform contained several useful parameters such as negative peak, dP/dT on the initial break, the area enclosed by the profile in each stroke, which are associated with atrial pressures and the filling conditions of the ventricles. The measured atrial pressures were linearly related to the negative peak of the interventricular pressure.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.198-204
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• 2008

Uroflowmetry is a non-invasive clinical test useful for screening benign prostatic hyperplasia(BPH) common in the aged men. The current standard way to obtain the urinary flow rate is to continuously acquire the urine weight signal proportional to volume over time. The present study proposed an alternative technique measuring pressure to overcome noise problems present in the standard weight measuring technique. Experiments were performed to simultaneously acquire both weight and pressure changes during urination of 9 normal men. Noise components were separated from volume signals converted from both weight and pressure signals based on the polynomial signal model. Signal-to-noise ratio was defined as the ratio of the energies between signal and noise components of the measured volume changes, which was 8.5 times larger in the pressure measuring technique, implying that cleaner signal could be obtained, more immune to noisy environments. When four important diagnostic parameters were estimated, excellent correlation coefficients higher than 0.99 were resulted with mean relative errors less than 5%. Therefore, the present pressure measurement seemed valid as an alternative technique for uroflowmetry.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.155-163
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• 2020

To investigate the optimal detector material for prompt gamma imaging during boron neutron capture therapy, in this study, we evaluated the characteristic regarding radiation reaction of available detector materials using a Monte Carlo simulation. Sixteen detector materials used for radiation detection were investigated to assess their advantages and drawbacks. The estimations used previous experimental data to build the simulation codes. The energy resolution and detection efficiency of each material was investigated, and prompt gamma images during BNCT simulation were acquired using only the detectors that showed good performance in our preliminary data. From the simulation, we could evaluate the majority of detector materials in BNCT and also could acquire a prompt gamma image using the six high ranked-detector materials and lutetium yttrium oxyorthosilicate. We provide a strategy to select an optimal detector material for the prompt gamma imaging during BNCT with three conclusions.

• ALGAE
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.341-349
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• 2018

Sargassum horneri is edible brown seaweed abundant along the coasts of Jeju Island, South Korea. In addition to the native S. horneri population, a large amount of S. horneri has been found to invade Jeju Island from the east coast of China. Thus, S. horneri of both Korea (SK) and China (SC) strains now inhabits along with the shore of Jeju Island and have become a threat to the coastal biodiversity. However, they could be used in obtaining functional ingredients for industrial level applications provided an optimized cost effective strategy. In the present study, we compared SK and SC strains for the extraction efficiency, components, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties of 80% methanolic extracts and their partially purified fractions. According to the results, two strains indicated similar bioactive properties such as DPPH and alkyl radical scavenging activity as well as anti-inflammatory activities on lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. The yield of 80% methanol extract from SC was higher than SK. However, the yields of the ethyl acetate and chloroform fractions from SK were higher than those of SC strain. The major peaks in the high-performance liquid chromatography chromatograms, which was identified as Apo-9 fucoxanthinone, indicated that both methanolic extracts of SK and SC contains major target peaks but with different amounts. This study might be useful for developing functional materials from SC and SK in future.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.18-24
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• 2021

Vibration is a mechanical cue that can be applied to adipose tissues for the purpose of treating obesity. However, the exact correlation between vibration and other anti-adipogenic pathways, such as development of cytoskeleton and apoptosis, remains unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate the unknown anti-adipogenic effects of vibration with varied frequencies on preadipocytes. 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) containing 5% calf serum at 37 ℃ with 5% CO2 in a humidified incubator. Vibration was generated using Arduino Uno microcontroller and vibration motor module with 1 V DC, and applied to preadipocytes for 3 days. Frequency conditions were set to 20, 55, and 90 Hz. Then, the expressions of p38 pathway, ROCK-1, α-actinin, Bax, Bcl-2, caspase-9, 8, and 3 were analyzed with western blot. As a result, p38 pathway was inhibited in 55 and 90 Hz while ROCK-1 and α-actinin were expressed in 20 Hz. Caspase-3, a terminal apoptotic factor, was activated in 20 Hz via extrinsic pathway rather than intrinsic pathway. Results suggest that various frequencies of vibration can inhibit adipogenesis via different pathways which sheds light on future mechanotransduction applications of vibration for the treatment of obesity.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.258-265
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• 2021

High levels for noise and a loss of true signal make the quantitative interpretation of nuclear medicine (NM) images difficult. An application of profile optimization using a sigmoidal function in this study was used to acquire the NM images with high quality. And the images were acquired by using three kinds of reconstruction method using each same sinogram: a standard filtered back-projection (FBP), an iterative reconstruction (IR) technique, and the sigmoidal function profile optimization (SFPO). Comparison of image according to reconstruction method was performed to show a superiority of the SFPO for imaging. The images reconstructed by using the SFPO showed an average of 1.49 times and of 1.17 times better in contrast than the results obtained using the standard FBP and the IR technique, respectively. Higher signal to noise ratios were obtained as an average of 12.30 times and of 3.77 times than results obtained using the standard FBP and the IR technique, respectively. This study confirms that reconstruction with SFPO (vs FBP and vs IR) can lead to better lesion detectability and characterization with noise reduction. It can be developed for future reconstruction technique for the NM imaging.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.54-64
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• 2022

Purpose: This in vitro study was conducted to evaluate the effects of different debridement techniques and conditioning procedures on root surface morphology and blood clot stabilization. Methods: Two debridement techniques (curette [CU] vs. high-speed ultrasound [US]) and 2 conditioning procedures (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid [EDTA] and phosphoric acid [PA]) were used for the study. Seven experimental groups were tested on root surfaces: 1) no treatment (C); 2) CU; 3) US; 4) CU+EDTA; 5) US+EDTA; 6) CU+PA; and 7) US+PA. Three specimens per group were observed under scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for surface characterization. Additional root slices received a blood drop, and clot formation was graded according to the blood element adhesion index by a single operator. Data were statistically analyzed, using a threshold of P<0.05 for statistical significance. Results: The C group displayed the most irregular surface among the tested groups with the complete absence of blood traces. The highest frequency of blood component adhesion was shown in the CU+EDTA group (P<0.05), while no differences were detected between the CU, US+EDTA, and CU+PA groups (P<0.05), which performed better than the US and US+PA groups (P<0.05). Conclusions: In this SEM analysis, EDTA and conventional manual scaling were the most efficient procedures for enhancing smear layer removal, collagen fiber exposure, and clot stabilization on the root surface. This technique is imperative in periodontal healing and regenerative procedures.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 2021

Radiopharmaceuticals are important for tumor diagnosis and therapy. To deliver a radiotracer at the desired target excluding non-targeted tissues is difficult The development of a targeted tracer that has a good clearance profile while maintaining high biostability and biocompatibility is key to optimizing its biodistribution and transport across biological barriers. Improving the hydrophilicity of radiotracers by PEGylation can reduce serum binding, allowing the tracer to circulate without retention and reducing its affinity for non-targeted tissues. In this study, we synthesized a new benzamido tracer (SnBz-PEG₃₆) with the introduction of a low molecular weight polyethylene glycol unit (PEG₃₆, ~2,100 Da). The tumor targeting efficiency and biodistribution of [¹³¹I]-Bz-PEG₃₆ or radiotracer-loaded liposomes were evaluated after their administration to normal mice or mouse tumor models including CT26 (xenograft) and 4T1 (xenograft and orthotopic). Most of the radiotracer was cleared out rapidly (1-24 h post-administration) through the kidney and there was little tumor uptake.