• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.237-243
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• 2018

Hedgehog (Hh) pathway plays a key role in development from invertebrate to vertebrate. It is known to be involved in cell differentiation, polarity, proliferation, including the development of vertebrate limb and the establishment of flies' body plan. To investigate how the regulation of Hh pathway affects the development of parthenogenetic murine embryos, the parthenogenetically activated murine embryos were treated with either cyclopamine (Cyc), an antagonist of Hh pathway, or purmorphamine, an agonist of Hh pathway. While Cyc did not affect the blastocyst formation and its total cell number, the chemical reduced the hatching rate of embryos and the expression levels of Fn1 mRNA. The results of the present study show the possibility that Cyc may affect the development of embryos at blastocyst stage by blocking Hh pathway and this may cause detrimental effect to the embryos at peri-, and post-implantation stages.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.234-257
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• 2000

At present in the medical care, the study and effort for producing health service to consider efficiency, effectiveness, and quality are urgently called for because of the difficulty in the keen competition according to the inter- nationalization and opening, the operation in the medical institution service testing system, the change in the medical policy of KDRGs, and the lack of the health care cost increasing rate. As an alternative, the case management for the new management system is introduced in the U.S., and the Critical Pathway that is the method designing the contents of activity and its result has been developed and applied in order to anticipate and manage the patient-outcome for the realization of the cost-effective case-management. Thus, this study intended to analyze the effectiveness to obtain by developing the Critical Pathway presented as the method to improve the quality-betterment and cost effectiveness through the continuous and consistent patient management for the hysterectomy patient and applying it to the real practice. As a study method, this author formed a conceptual framework through considering five Critical Pathway used in the current U.S. and three Critical Pathway presented in the literature to develop the Critical Pathway for the hysterectomy patient, and made out the preliminary Critical Pathway through reviewing the old chart. This author made the verified the validity of the expert group about the developed Critical Pathway, and to confirm the possibility of practice application, completed and settled the final Critical Pathway after using the Critical Pathway to the hysterectomy patient from March 1st to 15th, 1997. Finally, to analyze the application-effect of the developed Critical Pathway, this author offered health care service applying the Critical Pathway to the hysterectomy patient from April 15th to August 31th, 1997. The guide for the Critical Pathway was carried out in advance by outpatient setting nurse for outpatient setting visit before the operation, and after hospitalization the primary nurse monitored the execution degree on the every duty. After discharge this author surveyed the complication through phone visiting, and one month after discharge surveyed the patient's reaction about the offered service when outpatient setting visit and analyzed the result. The source for health care cost was obtained by the statistics about the hospital charge which was offered by the General Business Department. The results were as follows. 1. It was decided that the vertical line of the Critical Pathway was made up of eight items such as monitoring/assessment, treatment, line/drains, activity, medication, lab test, diet, patient teaching, and the horizontal line of the Critical Pathway was made up of from hospitalization to discharge. 2. After the analysis of service contents through reviewing the old chart, it was decided that the horizontal line of the preliminary Critical Pathway was made up of from hopitalization to fourth postoperative day, and the vertical line of it was divided into eight items which were the contents to occur with the time frame of the horizontal line. 3. After the verifying the validity of the expert group about the preliminary Critical Pathway, the horizontal line was amended from hopitalization to third postoperative day, and taking their consensus, some contents of the horizontal line was amended and deleted. 4. From March 1st to 15th, 1997, to confirm the clinical suitability, this author offered eight hysterectomy patients the medical service through the Critical Pathway. The result was that three of them could be discharged at the expected discharge day, and the others later than that day. Supplementing the preliminary Critical Pathway through analyzing the cause of that delay- case, this author developed the final Critical Pathway. 5. There were no significant differences between the experimental and the control group in the incidence of complication(P > 0.05). 6. The 92.4% of experimental group was satisfied with the Critical Pathway service. 7. The length of hospital stay of the experimental group offered with the Critical Pathway service was 4.6 days and there was a significant difference that it was 1.3 days shorter than that of the control group(t=-29.514, P=0.000). 8. There wsa a significant difference that the mean medical charge per one patient of the experimental group offered the Critical Pathway service was cheaper \124,150 than that of the control group(t=-9.826, P=0.000). 9. The result that the author assumed and analyzed hospital income with the rate of turning bed was assumed that the increase of hospital income was \63,245,072 for that study, and the income increase was expected with \68,704,864 for a year. The result that this author applied the Critical Pathway to the hysterectomy patient have no differences in the incidence of complication, high satisfaction with that service, and the length of hospital stay decreased in the experimental group, and the mean hospital charge per one patient decreased, but hospital income increased. Suggestions for further study and nursing practice are as follows. 1. The study to apply the Critical Pathway for a year, verify the validity, and measure the effect repeatedly is needed. 2. To apply and manage the Critical Pathway effectively, the study to computerize it is needed. 3. The study to develop hospital-based Critical Pathway about other diseases or procedure, and measure the effect is needed.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.144-151
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• 2019

Alopecia has emerged as one of the biggest interests in modern society. Many studies have focused on the treatment of alopecia, such as transplantation of hair follicles or inhibition of the androgen pathway. Hair growth is achieved through proper proliferation of the components such as keratinocytes and dermal papilla cells (DPCs), movement, and interaction between the two cells. The present study examined the effect of the hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway, which is an important and fundamental signal in the cell, on the morphology and the viability of human keratinocytes and DPCs. Upregulation of Hh signaling caused a morphological change and an increase in epithelium-mesenchymal transition-related gene expression but reduced the viability of keratinocytes, while the alteration of Hh signaling did not cause any change in DPCs. The results show the possibility that the regulation of Hh signaling can be applied for the treatment of alopecia.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.7.1-7.13
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• 2022

2-Methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (MNQ) has been shown to cause cytotoxic towards various cancer cell lines. This study is designed to investigate the regulatory effect of MNQ on the key cancer genes in mitogen-activated protein kinase, phosphoinositide 3-kinase, and nuclear factor κB signaling pathways. The expression levels of the genes were compared at different time point using polymerase chain reaction arrays and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis was performed to identify gene networks that are most significant to key cancer genes. A total of 43 differentially expressed genes were identified with 21 up-regulated and 22 down-regulated genes. Up-regulated genes were involved in apoptosis, cell cycle and act as tumor suppressor while down-regulated genes were involved in anti-apoptosis, angiogenesis, cell cycle and act as transcription factor as well as proto-oncogenes. MNQ exhibited multiple regulatory effects on the cancer key genes that targeting at cell proliferation, cell differentiation, cell transformation, apoptosis, reduce inflammatory responses, inhibits angiogenesis and metastasis.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.69 no.3
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• pp.241-265
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• 2017

This study was conducted to propose anti-stigma strategies by verifying the social stigma on behavioral addiction under the premise that social stigma is a main obstacle to the treatment of addiction. A research model was constructed by applying the attribution affection theory and the modified attribution affection theory, which are very useful for explaining emotional and behavioral responses to the persons with mental illness. In other words, when attributing the causes of behavioral addiction to the personally controllable things such as personality, will and lifestyle, social distance can be increased by the mediate of anger. However, when attributing the causes of behavioral addiction to biological factors that can not be controlled by an individual, there can exist two pathway, one is the arising of helping behaviors by the mediate of sympathy (the attribution affection theory), and the other is the aggravation in the social distance due to rising fear (the modified attribution affection theory). In order to verify the research model, 383 adult subjects mainly in South Gyeongsang Province were randomly presented with the vignettes of gambling addiction and internet game addiction, and asked about the causes of the problems and their emotional, prejudicial, and behavioral responses to them. As a result, all pathway had statistically significant predictive effect. Therefore, in the case of attributing to personal causes, social distance increased by the mediate of anger. In the case of attributing to biological causes, both pathway had significant predictive effect, but the indirect effect of the pathway predictive of the helping behavior by the mediate of sympathy was greater. Researchers suggested that anti-stigma strategies, which emphasize that behavioral addiction is a mental health problem requiring treatment, are necessary.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.66-74
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• 2019

Hyperlipidemia is defined as conditions of the accumulation of lipids such as free fatty acids (FFA), triglyceride (TG), cholesterol and/or phospholipid in the bloodstream. Hyperlipidemia can cause lipid accumulation in non-adipose tissue, which is lipid-cytotoxic effects in many tissues and mediates cell dysfunction, inflammation or programmed cell death (PCD). TG is considered to be a major cause of atherosclerosis through inflammatory necrosis of vascular endothelial cells. Recently, TG have also been shown to exhibit lipid-cytotoxicity and induce PCD. Therefore, we investigated the effect of TG on the cytotoxic effect of various cell types. When exposed to TG, the cell viability of U937 monocytes and Jurkat T lymphocytes, as well as the cell viability of MCF-7, a non-immune cell, decreased in time- and dose-dependent manner. In U937 cells and Jurkat cells, caspase-9, an intrinsic apoptotic caspase, and caspase-8, an extrinsic apoptotic caspase, were increased by exposure to TG. However, in TG-treated MCF-7 cells, caspase-8 activity increased only without caspase-9 activity. In addition, the reduction of cell viability by TG was recovered when all three cell lines were treated with pan-caspase inhibitor. These results suggest that activation of apoptotic caspases by TG causes lipotoxic effect and decreases cell viability.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.427-432
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• 1997

These studies were performed to approach the precise pathway inducing the meiotic inhibitory action of hypoxanthine on mouse follicular oocytes and to identify the cause of detrimental effect of hypoxanthine on viability of the oocyte in vitro. In addition, a correlation between the meiotic inhibitory effect and the detrimental effect of hypoxanthine was investigated. Mouse follicular oocytes at germinal vesicle(GV) stage were collected from the ovaries of ICR mice by puncturing the antral follicles with a fine needle, at 48 hours after PMSG injection. Oocytes were cultured in Modified Whittingham's T6 media containing hypoxanthine and several materials that involved in metabolism of hypoxanthine, and the effects of the materials on the actions of hypoxanthine were investigated by observing germinal vesicle breake down (GVBD), 1st polar body (PB) extrusion and viability of the oocytes. Phophodiesterase significantly reduced the meiotic inhibitory effect of dbcAMP but did not influence on the inhibitory effect of hypoxanthine. Allopurinol and 6-MP significantly enhanced the meiotic inhibitory effect of hypoxanthine, but the materials themselves also showed the meiotic inhibitory action like hypoxanthine. Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase significantly enhanced the meiotic inhibitory effect of hypoxanthine, on the contrary HGPRT itself promoted meiotic resumption of the oocytes. Catalase did not induce any change in the meiotic inhibitory effect of hypoxanthine, but SOD increased the GVBD rate suppressed by hypoxanthine. The detrimental effect of hypoxanthine on viability of the oocytes was significantly reduced by allopurinol and catalase, but SOD increased the GVBD rate suppressed by hypoxanthine. The detrimental effect of hypoxanthine on viability of the oocytes was significantly reduced by allopurinol and catalase, but SOD did not reduce the deterimental effect of hypoxanthine. In conclusion, the meiotic inhibtory effect of hypoxanthine may be caused by guanyl dervartives converted from hypoxanthine via salvage pathway, and superoxide anion may partially participate in the inhibitory effect of hypoxanthine. The detrimental effect of hypoxanthine on viability of the oocytes be cused by hydrogen peroxide produced during the metabolism of hypoxanthine.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.272-279
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• 2012

This was the second study on the ecological characteristics of the epiphytes on seagrass leaf. The objective of this study was to understand the variation of epiphytes on seagrass leaf depending on the change of physico-chemical factors such as salinity, nutrients, and etc. This study showed the four results. 1) The eelgrass growth was influenced by water temperature, suggesting the positive correlation between eelgrass growth and water temperature. 2) The epiphytes growth on seagrass leaves did not show the correlation with water temperature, but negatively correlated with salinity. 3) The eelgrass growth decreased when the concentraion of nitrogen increased. 4) However, loads of epiphytes increased when the concentration of total nitogen (TN), nitrate ($NO_3^-$), and nitrite ($NO_2^-$) were high. This increase of epiphytes growth could be suggested in the cause-effect pathway of nutrient enrichment leading to seagrasses loss.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.367-375
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• 2022

Gastric cancer stem cells (GCSCs) are a major cause of radioresistance and chemoresistance in gastric cancer (GC). Therefore, targeting GCSCs is regarded as a powerful strategy for the effective treatment of GC. Atorvastatin is a widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering drug that inhibits 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase, a rate-limiting enzyme in the mevalonate pathway. The anticancer activity of atorvastatin, a repurposed drug, is being investigated; however, its therapeutic effect and molecular mechanism of action against GCSCs remain unknown. In this study, we evaluated the anticancer effects of atorvastatin on MKN45-derived GCSCs. Atorvastatin significantly inhibited the proliferative and tumorsphere-forming abilities of MKN45 GCSCs in a mevalonate pathway-independent manner. Atorvastatin induced cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase and promoted apoptosis by activating the caspase cascade. Furthermore, atorvastatin exerted an antiproliferative effect against MKN45 GCSCs by inhibiting the expression of cancer stemness markers, such as CD133, CD44, integrin α6, aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A1, Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog, through the downregulation of β-catenin, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3, and protein kinase B activities. Additionally, the combined treatment of atorvastatin and sorafenib, a multi-kinase targeted anticancer drug, synergistically suppressed not only the proliferation and tumorsphere formation of MKN45 GCSCs but also the in vivo tumor growth in a chick chorioallantoic membrane model implanted with MKN45 GCSCs. These findings suggest that atorvastatin can therapeutically eliminate GCSCs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.13
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• pp.5311-5317
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• 2015

Cigarette smoke derivatives like NNK (4-(Methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone) and NNAL (4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butan-1-ol) are well-known carcinogens. We analyzed the interaction of enzymes involved in the NER (nucleotide excision repair) pathway with ligands (NNK and NNAL). Binding was characterized for the enzymes sharing equivalent or better interaction as compared to +Ve control. The highest obtained docking energy between NNK and enzymes RAD23A, CCNH, CDK7, and CETN2 were -7.13 kcal/mol, -7.27 kcal/mol, -8.05 kcal/mol and -7.58 kcal/mol respectively. Similarly the highest obtained docking energy between NNAL and enzymes RAD23A, CCNH, CDK7, and CETN2 were -7.46 kcal/mol, -7.94 kcal/mol, -7.83 kcal/mol and -7.67 kcal/mol respectively. In order to find out the effect of NNK and NNAL on enzymes involved in the NER pathway applying protein-protein interaction and protein-complex (i.e. enzymes docked with NNK/NNAL) interaction analysis. It was found that carcinogens are well capable to reduce the normal functioning of genes like RAD23A (HR23A), CCNH, CDK7 and CETN2. In silico analysis indicated loss of functions of these genes and their corresponding enzymes, which possibly might be a cause for alteration of DNA repair pathways leading to damage buildup and finally contributing to cancer formation.