• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.12
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• pp.459-466
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• 2018

This study investigated a systematic literature review on local and international literatures focusing on Participatory Action Research(PAR), Community Based Participatory Research(CBPR) in workplace and community. Eighty percent of the 10 studies reviewed included research involving health professionals, community networks, workers, and university researchers. Health promotion programs varied from health and safety awareness, smoking cessation, diabetes management, physical activity, self-efficacy enhancement, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders and mental health. PAR, CBPR are required to participate actively in research through community collaboration to promote health. We can solve problems at the community level. And identified sustainable effects when developing and implementing a health promotion program. PAR and CBPR are expected to continuously pursue change by adjusting the scope of individuals, organizations, communities, and institutional dimensions. They are also expected to be implemented for workers in the various workplace.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.427-437
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• 2019

Oxidative stress and overproduction of free radicals have been reported to be a major pathological hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases. Samultang has been known as a beneficial agent to treat liver disease and cardiovascular diseases. However, the anti-oxidant activities and neuro-protective effects of Samultang against oxidative stress still have not been evaluated yet. The aim of the present study was to investigate the anti-oxidant and protective effects of Samultang and its four herbal plants, Paeonia lactiflora (PL), Ligusticum striatum (LS), Rehmannia glutinosa (RG), and Angelica gigas (AG), in vitro system and in SH-SY5Y neuronal cells. The extracts of Samultang strongly increased the radical scavenging activities of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), hydroxyl radical (${\cdot}OH$), and nitric oxide (NO) in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, we investigated the protective effects of Samultang on cellular damage against oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) in SH-SY5Y cells. Treatment with Samultang alleviated the oxidative stress from $H_2O_2$ by increasing the cell viability and decreasing the intracellular reactive oxygen species levels. Based on these results, we further investigated the radical scavenging effects of PL, LS, RG, and AG. In our results, PL had the highest DPPH, ${\cdot}OH$, and NO radical scavenging activities. Thus, PL has a crucial role in Samultang, which has anti-oxidative and neuro-protective effects. The present research suggests that Samultang and PL have protective roles against oxidative stress from $H_2O_2$-induced neuronal cell death.

• Integrative Medicine Research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.95-102
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• 2018

Background: Hypertension is a major cause of cardiovascular disease and associated mortality, and postmenopausal women are at a high risk of hypertension. We aim to investigate the hypotensive effect and safety of acupuncture, focusing on postmenopausal women with prehypertension and stage 1 hypertension. In addition, we aim to investigate whether the effect of acupuncture treatment differed, depending on Sasang Constitution and cold-heat pattern. Methods: This study is designed as an intervention cohort study. Two hundred postmenopausal women aged <65 years with prehypertension or stage 1 hypertension living in Daejeon city in Korea will be recruited, and randomly assigned to either an acupuncture or no-treatment control group. The intervention will consist of four sessions; one session will include acupuncture performed 10 times for 4 weeks. There will be a 20-week observation period after each session, and the total study duration will be 96 weeks. Acupuncture will be applied at the bilateral Fengchi (GB20), Quchi (LI11), Zusanli (ST36), and Sameumgyo (SP6) acupoints. The effect of acupuncture will be evaluated by comparing the change in systolic and diastolic blood pressure between the acupuncture and control groups every 4 weeks until the end of the study. Discussion: To evaluate the success of blood pressure management, long-term observation is required, but no long-term studies have been conducted to evaluate the effect of acupuncture on blood pressure in postmenopausal women. To our knowledge, this study will be the first long-term study to investigate this issue for more than 6-8 weeks.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Oncology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.95-101
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• 2018

Purpose: The standard treatment of esophageal cancer is the Ivor-Lewis operation, which consists of an abdominal phase involving gastric tube formation, and a chest phase involving esophagectomy and anastomosis. We aimed to report our experience of performing thoracic esophagectomy with the laparoscopic gastric pull up (LGPU) technique and its surgical outcomes. Methods: Clinicopathologic data and short-term surgical outcomes of 14 patients who underwent LGPU for thoracic esophageal cancer from August 2008 to May 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Results: Mean age of the patients was 62.3 years and mean body mass index was $21.7kg/m^2$. Eleven patients had medical comorbidities. Patients' mean American Society of Anesthesiologists score was 2. Mean operation time was 428.5 minutes, with the mean abdominal operation time being 138.9 minutes. There was no open conversion case. Three patients had pneumonia, three patients had surgical site infection, and one patient had subcutaneous emphysema within 30 days after surgery. One patient had minor anastomosis site leakage. There was one 30-day mortality case. One patient with postoperative aspiration pneumonia developed acute respiratory distress disease, and died due to sepsis. Mean postoperative intensive care unit stay was 3.5 days, and mean postoperative hospital stay was 20.6 days. Nasogastric tubes were removed on average at 3.4 days, and mean oral intake time was 3.4 days. Conclusion: If the gastrointestinal surgeon has extensive experience in laparoscopic procedures, LGPU will be a safe and feasible technique for thoracic esophagectomy in patients with intrathoracic esophageal cancer.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.293-299
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• 2018

Background: 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) effectively reduce serum levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and total cholesterol. High-intensity statins are recommended for all patients aged ${\leq}75$ with clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), diabetes mellitus aged 40-75 with ${\geq}7.5%$ estimated 10-year ASCVD risk and LDL-C ${\geq}190mg/dL$. High-intensity statins associated with more frequent adverse events (AEs) compared to moderate- to low-intensity statins. The aim of this study was to compare AEs between high-intensity and moderate- to low-intensity statin group using the Korea Adverse Event Reporting System (KAERS) database. Methods: Adults (${\geq}18years$) with statin-associated AEs from July 2009-June 2014 were included. Only AEs classified as "certain", "probable" and "possible" based on the WHO-Uppsala Monitoring Center criteria were analyzed. Results: In total, 247 AEs from 196 patients [high-intensity statin group (HG), n = 25 (13%); moderate- to low-intensity statin group (MLG), n = 171 (87%)] were included. Mean age was higher in HG compared with MLG ($67{\pm}14$ vs $62{\pm}12$). The HG showed a significant higher frequency of liver/biliary system disorders (37% vs 14%, p = 0.001). Hepatic function abnormal was reported more frequently in HG compared to MLG (26% vs 9%, p = 0.006). Conclusion: According to KAERS data, liver/biliary system disorders were more frequently reported in HG compared to MLG.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.41 no.12
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• pp.1052-1060
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• 2018

Triclosan (TCS) is a phenolic antimicrobial chemical used in consumer products and medical devices. Evidence from in vitro and in vivo animal studies has linked TCS to numerous health problems, including allergic, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative disease. Using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system, we here show that short-term TCS treatment ($LC_{50}$: ~0.2 mM) significantly induced mortality in a dose-dependent manner. Notably, TCS-induced mortality was dramatically suppressed by co-treatment with non-ionic surfactants (NISs: e.g., Tween 20, Tween 80, NP-40, and Triton X-100), but not with anionic surfactants (e.g., sodium dodecyl sulfate). To identify the range of compounds susceptible to NIS inhibition, other structurally related chemical compounds were also examined. Of the compounds tested, only the toxicity of phenolic compounds (bisphenol A and benzyl 4-hydroxybenzoic acid) was significantly abrogated by NISs. Mechanistic analyses using TCS revealed that NISs appear to interfere with TCS-mediated mortality by micellar solubilization. Once internalized, the TCS-micelle complex is inefficiently exported in worms lacking PMP-3 (encoding an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter) transmembrane protein, resulting in overt toxicity. Since many EDCs and surfactants are extensively used in commercial products, findings from this study provide valuable insights to devise safer pharmaceutical and nutritional preparations.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.36-43
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• 2019

Background: Diabetic peripheral polyneuropathy (DPN) is associated with a variety of symptoms. Nerve conduction studies (NCSs) are considered to be the gold standard of nerve damage assessments, but these studies are often dissociated from the subjective symptoms observed in DPN patients. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate the correlations between NCS parameters and neuropathic symptoms quantified using the Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI). Methods: Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with or without symptoms of neuropathy were retrospectively enrolled. Demographic data, clinical laboratory data, MNSI score, and NCS results were collected for analysis; DPN was diagnosed based on the MNSI score (${\geq}3.0$) and abnormal NCS results. Pearson's correlation coefficients were used to evaluate the relationships between MNSI score and NCS variables. Results: The final analyses included 198 patients (115 men and 83 women) with a mean age of $62.6{\pm}12.7$ years and a mean duration of diabetes of $12.7{\pm}8.4$ years. The mean MNSI score was 2.8 (range, 0.0-9.0), and 69 patients (34.8%) were diagnosed with DPN. The MNSI score was positively correlated with the median motor nerve latency and negatively correlated with the median motor, ulnar sensory, peroneal, tibial, and sural nerve conduction velocities (NCVs). When the patients were categorized into quartiles according to MNSI score, peroneal nerve conduction velocity was significantly lower in the second MNSI quartile than in the first MNSI quartile (p = 0.001). A multivariate analysis revealed that the peroneal NCV was independently associated with MNSI score after adjusting for age, sex, and glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels. Conclusions: The present results indicate that a decrease in peroneal NCV was responsible for early sensory deficits in T2DM patients.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.237-246
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• 2019

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) refers to the expansion and the enlarged myocardium due to the increased resistance to ejection from the left ventricle to the aorta and/or the periphery, or the long-term burden imposed by the blood increase. Hypertension is a major risk factor that accounts for more than 50% of the causes of cardiovascular disease. If hypertension endure in the long term, the myocardium responds to abnormal heartbeat in the heart. Therefore, the prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy also increases. As a result of genome-wide association study (GWAS) analysis for European people, PDGFC, MARK3, and BCL2 were related to blood pressures. In this study, the genetic polymorphisms of PDGFC, MARK3, and BCL2 were extracted and selected based on Korean genomic and epidemiologic data, and then logistic regression analysis was performed on LVH. As a result, one SNP (rs9307953) in PDGFC gene, four SNPs (rs6575983, rs17679475, rs2273703 and rs10141388) in MARK3 gene and two SNPs (rs17756073 and rs17070739) in BCL2 gene were statistically significant. The rs6575983 of the MARK3 gene showed the highest significance level ($P=7.2{\times}10^{-3}$) among the SNPs and the relative risk of 1.08 (95% confidence interval: 1.06 to 1.45). These results suggest that the polymorphisms of PDGFC, MARK3, and BCL2 not only affect European blood pressures but also correlate with LVH in Korean. These results suggest that increased understanding of the genetic correlations of the pathogenesis of LVH.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.371-387
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• 2019

Although the dried root of Saposhnikovia divaricata (Turcz.) Schischk. (Umbelliferae) is a popular medicinal plant in East Asia, there has been no systemic toxicological evaluation of a water extract of Saposhnikoviae Radix (SRE). In this experiment, an oral acute and 13-week subchronic toxicological evaluations of SRE (500-5,000 mg/kg body weight) were performed in both sexes of Crl:CD(SD) rats. Based on the results from mortality, clinical signs, effects on body weight and organ weight, clinical biochemistry, hematology, urinalysis, and histopathology, significant acute, 4-week repeated dose range finding (DRF) and 13-week subchronic toxicity of SRE was not observed in either sex of rats; thus, the no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) was 5,000 mg (kg/day). To identify anti-hyperuricemia potential of SRE, the suppressive effect of SRE was determined in mice challenged with potassium oxonate (PO; 250 mg/kg) via intraperitoneal injection for 8 days (each group; n = 7). SRE supplementation suppressed the uric acid level in urine through significant xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibitory activity. Kidney dysfunctions were observed in PO-challenged mice as evidenced by an increase in serum creatinine level. Whereas, SRE supplementation suppressed it in a dose-dependent manner. Collectively, SRE was safe up to 5,000 mg (kg/day) based on NOAEL found from acute and 13-week subchronic toxicological evaluations. SRE had anti-hyperuricemia effect and lowered the excessive level of uric acid, a potential factor for gout and kidney failure.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2019

Soybean (Glycine max), as one of the foods with high plant proteins, contains a large amount of bioactive compounds and known to be effective in cardiovascular disease and obesity as well as in improving skin condition. The purpose of this study was to investigate the anti-photoaging effects of soybean fermented with Lactobacillus Rhamnosus ($Bio-Peptone^{(R)}$) by assessment of cytotoxicity against UVB, collagen synthesis after UVB-irradiation, tyrosinase activity, and melanin synthesis. Results showed that $Bio-Peptone^{(R)}$ protected skin fibroblasts against UVB-induced cytotoxicity and increased type I collagen synthesis. Furthermore, $Bio-Peptone^{(R)}$ significantly inhibited tyrosinase activity and reduced melanin contents. This study suggests that $Bio-Peptone^{(R)}$ has protective effects against UVB-induced skin damage. Thus, it is concluded that $Bio-Peptone^{(R)}$ is able to prevent skin damage against UVB and thus acts as anti-photoaging materials by protecting skin forming wrinkles and skin pigments.