• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.87-99
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• 2022

A novel porcine circovirus 4 (PCV4) was recently emerged in Chinese and Korean pig herds, which provided epidemiological situation where three pathogenic PCVs, PCV2, PCV3, and newly emerged PCV4, could co-infect pig herds in these countries. In this study, a new triplex quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (tqPCR) method was developed for the rapid and differential detection of these viruses. The assay specifically amplified each viral capsid gene, whereas no other porcine pathogenic genes were detected. The detection limit of the assay was below 10 copies/µL and the assay showed high repeatability and reproducibility. In the clinical evaluation using 1476 clinical samples from 198 Korean pig farms, the detection rates of PCV2, PCV3 and PCV4 by the tqPCR assay were 13.8%, 25.4%, and 3.8%, respectively, which were 100% agreement with those of previously reported monoplex qPCR assays for PCV2, PCV3, and PCV4, with a κ value (95% CI) of 1 (1.00~1.00). The prevalence of PCV2, PCV3, and PCV4 at the farm levels were 46.5%, 63.6%, and 19.7%, respectively. The co-infection analysis for tested pig farms showed that single infection rates for PCV2, PCV3, and PCV4 were 28.8%, 44.4%, and 9.6%, respectively, the dual infection rates of PCV2 and PCV3, PCV2 and PCV4, and PCV3 and PCV4 were 12.6%, 3.5%, and 5.1%, respectively, and the triple infection rate for PCV2, PCV3, and PCV4 was 1.5%. These results demonstrate that three pathogenic PCVs are widely spread, and their co-infections are common in Korean pig herds, and the newly developed tqPCR assay will be useful for etiological and epidemiological studies of these pathogenic PCVs.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.319-338
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• 2022

Purpose: Gastric cancer (GC) has high morbidity and mortality, the cure rate of surgical treatment and drug chemotherapy is not ideal. Therefore, development of new treatment strategies is necessary. We aimed to identify the mechanism underlying Sp1 regulation of GC progression. Methods and Methods: The levels of Sp1, β-catenin, SET domain bifurcated 1 (SETDB1), and 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (HPGD) were detected by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis. The targets of SETDB1 were predicted by AnimalTFDB, and dual-luciferase reporter assay was used for confirming the combination of Sp1, β-catenin, and SETDB1. HGC27 or AGS cells (1×10⁶ cells/mouse) were injected into mice via the caudal vein for GC model establishment. The level of Ki67 was detected using immunohistochemistry, and hematoxylin and eosin staining was performed for evaluating tumor metastasis in mice with GC. Results: HPGD was inhibited, while the protein levels of Sp1, β-catenin, and SETDB1 were up-regulated in GC tissues and cell lines. HPGD overexpression or SETDB1 silencing inhibited the proliferation, invasion, and migration of GC cells, and Sp1 regulated the proliferation, invasion, and migration of GC cells in a β-catenin-dependent manner. Furthermore, HPGD served as a target of SETDB1, and it was negatively regulated by SETDB1; additionally, Sp1 and β-catenin bound to the SETDB1 promoter and negatively regulated HPGD expression. We proved that Sp1 regulated GC progression via the SETDB1/HPGD axis. Conclusions: Our findings revealed that Sp1 transcriptionally inhibited HPGD via SETDB1 in a β-catenin-dependent manner and promoted the proliferation and metastasis of GC cells.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.346-352
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• 2023

Background: A significant proportion of cardiac surgery intensive care unit (CSICU) patients require long-term ventilation, necessitating tracheostomy placement. The goal of this study was to evaluate the long-term postoperative outcomes and complications associated with percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) in CSICU patients. Methods: All patients undergoing PDT after cardiac, thoracic, or vascular operations in the CSICU between January 1, 2013 and January 1, 2021 were identified. They were evaluated for mortality, decannulation time, and complications including bleeding, infection, and need for surgical intervention. Multivariable regression models were used to identify predictors of early decannulation and the complication rate. Results: Ninety-three patients were identified for this study (70 [75.3%] male and 23 [24.7%] female). Furthermore, 18.3% of patients had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 21.5% had history of stroke, 7.5% had end-stage renal disease, 33.3% had diabetes, and 59.1% were current smokers. The mean time from PDT to decannulation was 39 days. Roughly one-fifth (20.4%) of patients were on dual antiplatelet therapy and 81.7% had anticoagulation restarted 8 hours post-tracheostomy. Eight complications were noted, including 5 instances of bleeding requiring packing and 1 case of mediastinitis. There were no significant predictors of decannulation prior to discharge. Only COPD was identified as a negative predictor of decannulation at any point in time (hazard ratio, 0.28; 95% confidence interval, 0.08-0.95; p=0.04). Conclusion: Percutaneous tracheostomy is a safe and viable alternative to surgical tracheostomy in cardiac surgery ICU patients. Patients who undergo PDT have a relatively short duration of tracheostomy and do not have major post-procedural complications.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.494-500
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• 2023

Image processing is currently used in various fields. Among them, autonomous vehicles, medical image processing, and robot control require fast image processing response speeds. To fulfill this requirement, hardware design for real-time processing is being actively researched. In addition to the size of the input image, the hardware processing speed is affected by the size of the inactive video periods that separate lines and frames in the image. In this paper, we design three different scaler structures based on the type of line memories, which is closely related to the inactive video periods. The structures are designed in hardware using the Verilog standard language, and synthesized into logic circuits in a field programmable gate array environment using Xilinx Vivado 2023.1. The synthesized results are used for frame rate analysis while comparing standard image sizes that can be processed in real time.

• Hip & pelvis
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.200-205
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• 2023

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the current status of venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention in Korean patients with hip fractures. Materials and Methods: A survey using a questionnaire on the experiences and protocols of VTE prevention was conducted among 570 members of the Korean Hip Society. Results: A total of 97 surgeons responded, with a response rate of 17.0%. Of the 97 participants, 61.9% answered that they had encountered one or more cases of symptomatic VTE in the past year. Mechanical prophylaxis was applied most often (30.9%) until the point of ambulation in standard-risk patients and most often (34.0%) extended until discharge in high-risk patients. Chemical prophylaxis was most often prescribed for a particular period of time rather than for recovery of walking ability (24.7% in standard-risk patients and 26.8% in high-risk patients). Dual prophylaxis was administered in the standard-risk group by 58.8% of the participants and in the high-risk group by 83.5%. Among the participants, 73.2% answered that they had been attentive to wound complications during chemical prophylaxis. More than half of the participants (59.8%) reported that they did not perform routine screening for VTE after surgery. Conclusion: The results of our survey provided information regarding the current status of VTE prevention for patients undergoing surgery for treatment of hip fractures in Korea as well as a baseline for establishment of educational programs and guidelines in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2024

While arterial tone is generally determined by the phosphorylation of Ser¹⁹ in myosin light chain (p-MLC2), Thr¹⁸/Ser¹⁹ diphosphorylation of MLC2 (pp-MLC2) has been suggested to hinder the relaxation of smooth muscle. In a dual-wire myography of rodent pulmonary artery (PA) and mesenteric artery (MA), we noticed significantly slower relaxation in PA than in MA after 80 mM KCl-induced condition (80K-contraction). Thus, we investigated the MLC2 phosphorylation and the expression levels of its regulatory enzymes; soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), Rho-A dependent kinase (ROCK) and myosin light chain phosphatase target regulatory subunit (MYPT1). Immunoblotting showed higher sGC-α and ROCK2 in PA than MA, while sGC-β and MYPT1 levels were higher in MA than in PA. Interestingly, the level of pp-MLC2 was higher in PA than in MA without stimulation. In the 80K-contraction state, the levels of p-MLC2 and pp-MLC2 were commonly increased. Treatment with the ROCK inhibitor (Y27632, 10 µM) reversed the higher pp-MLC2 in PA. In the myography study, pharmacological inhibition of sGC (ODQ, 10 µM) slowed relaxation during washout, which was more pronounced in PA than in MA. The simultaneous treatment of Y27632 and ODQ reversed the impaired relaxation in PA and MA. Although treatment of PA with Y27632 alone could increase the rate of relaxation, it was still slower than that of MA without Y27632 treatment. Taken together, we suggest that the higher ROCK and lower MYPT in PA would have induced the higher level of MLC2 phosphorylation, which is responsible for the characteristic slow relaxation in PA.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.346-357
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• 2024

This study was carried out to screen the antifungal activity against Colletotrichum acutatum, Colletotrichum dematium, and Colletotrichum coccodes. Bacterial isolate GP-P8 from pepper soil was found to be effective against the tested pathogens with an average inhibition rate of 70.7% in in vitro dual culture assays. 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis result showed that the effective bacterial isolate as Bacillus siamensis. Biochemical characterization of GP-P8 was also performed. According to the results, protease and cellulose, siderophore production, phosphate solubilization, starch hydrolysis, and indole-3-acetic acid production were shown by the GP-P8. Using specific primers, genes involved in the production of antibiotics, such as iturin, fengycin, difficidin, bacilysin, bacillibactin, surfactin, macrolactin, and bacillaene were also detected in B. siamensis GP-P8. Identification and analysis of volatile organic compounds through solid phase microextraction/gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME/GC-MS) revealed that acetoin and 2,3-butanediol were produced by isolate GP-P8. In vivo tests showed that GP-P8 significantly reduced the anthracnose disease caused by C. acutatum, and enhanced the growth of pepper plant. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis of pepper fruits revealed that GP-P8 treated pepper plants showed increased expression of immune genes such as CaPR1, CaPR4, CaNPR1, CaMAPK4, CaJA2, and CaERF53. These results strongly suggest that GP-P8 could be a promising biocontrol agent against pepper anthracnose disease and possibly a pepper plant growth-promoting agent.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.50-61
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• 1994

From soil samples, 380 antagonistic microorgnisms were isolated. Among the isolates, 42 strains had mycelia growing inhibition ability against Fusariun solani, ginseng root rot causing pathogen. Isolates CHA 1 and S-PFHR 6 were proposed as antagonists for this study and they were identified as Promicromonospora sp. and Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes respectively. As an antagonism against hyphae of F. solani in dual culture test, CHA 1 and S-PFHR 6 inhibited linear growing, caused abnormal branching, and the membrane projection which formed by cell wall destruction. The secondary metabolites contained in the culture filtrates which prepared from PD broth and Nutrient broth inhibited the spore germination to 14.3%. The culture filtrate of S-PFHR 6 which prepared by a little amount of soil extract addition to nutrient rich medium had more strongly. inhibited the spore germination and spore germination decreased to less than 4.0% in it. The soil used in this study had fungistasis and the germination rate of macroconidia and chlamydospore of F.solani was 19.4% and 17.7% respectively. The steam sterilized soil lost fungistasis and germination rate of conidia increased to more than 97.9%. The soils amended with the propagule of CHA 1 and S-PFHR 6 increased fungistasis and the germination rate of macroconidia decreased to 14.7% and 11.7% respectively in each treatments. But the soil ammended with glucose and asparagine annulled fungistatic ability and the germination rate of macroconidia increased to more than 48.0%. As an antagonistic activity of the secondary metabolites of two antagonistic isolates in soil, the germination rate of macroconidia of F. solani was 9.3% in the soil amended with the culture filtrate of CHA 1 but the culture filtrate of S-PFHR 6 had no such activity. In the soil which treated with antagonist propagule or culture filtrate, the chlamydospore germination rate was lower than that in natural soil. The addition of glucose and asparagine to antagonist propagule treated soil did not enhanced the chlamydospore germination.

• Proceedings of the KSAR Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.10-12
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• 2000

Members of the glycoprotein family, which includes CG, LH, FSH and TSH, comprise two noncovalently linked $\alpha$- and $\beta$-subunits. Equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG), known as PMSG, has a number of interesting and unique characteristics since it appears to be a single molecule that possesses both LH- and FSH-like activities in other species than the horse. This dual activity of eCG in heterologous species is of fundamental interest to the study of the structure-function relationships of gonadotropins and their receptors. CG and LH $\beta$ genes are different in primates. In horse, however, a single gene encodes both eCG and eLH $\beta$-subunits. The subunit mRNA levels seem to be independently regulated and their imbalance may account for differences in the quantities of $\alpha$ - and $\beta$ -subunits in the placenta and pituitary. The dual activities of eCG could be separated by removal of the N-linked oligosaccharide on the $\alpha$-subunit Asn 56 or CTP-associated O-linked oligosaccharides. The tethered-eCG was. efficiently secreted and showed similar LH-like activity to the dimeric eCG. Interestingly, the FSH-like activity of the tethered-eCG was increased markedly in comparison with the native and wild type eCG. These results also suggest that this molecular can implay particular models of FSH-like activity not LH-like activity in the eCG/indicate that the constructs of tethered molecule will be useful in the study of mutants that affect subunit association and/or secretion. A single-chain analog can also be constructed to include additional hormone-specific bioactive generating potentially efficacious compounds that have only FSH-like activity. The LH/CG receptor (LH/CGR), a membrane glycoprotein that is present on testicular Leydig cells and ovarian theca, granulosa, luteal, and interstitial cells, plays a pivotal role in the regulation of gonadal development and function in males as well as in nonpregnant and pregnant females. The LH/CGR is a member of the family of G protein-coupled receptors and its structure is predicted to consist of a large extracellular domain connected to a bundle of seven membrane-spanning a-helices. The LH/CGR phosphorylation can be induced with a phorbol ester, but not with a calcium ionophore. The truncated form of LHR also was down-regulated normally in response to hCG stimulation. In contrast, the cell lines expressing LHR-t63I or LHR-628, the two phosphorylation-negative receptor mutant, showed a delay in the early phase of hCG-induced desensitization, a complete loss of PMA-induced desensitization, and an increase in the rate of hCG-induced receptor down-regulation. These results clearly show that residues 632-653 in the C-terminal tail of the LHR are involved in PMA-induced desensitization, hCG-induced desensitization, and hCG-induced down-regulation. Recently, constitutively activating mutations of the receptor have been identified that are associated with familial male-precocious puberty. Cells expressing LHR-D556Y bind hCG with normal affinity, exhibit a 25-fold increase in basal cAMP and respond to hCG with a normal increase in cAMP accumulation. This mutation enhances the internalization of the free and agonist-occupied receptors ~2- and ~17-fold, respectively. We conclude that the state of activation of the LHR can modulate its basal and/or agonist-stimulated internalization. Since the internalization of hCG is involved in the termination of hCG actions, we suggest that the lack of responsiveness detected in cells expressing LHR-L435R is due to the fast rate of internalization of the bound hCG. This statement is supported by the finding that hCG responsiveness is restored when the cells are lysed and signal transduction is measured in a subcellular fraction (membranes) that cannot internalize the bound hormone.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.110-116
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• 2009

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the usefulness of positron emission tomography (PET)-computed tomography (CT) in the pre-operative staging of gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: Between February 2006 and August 2008, PET-CT and CT were performed on 70 patients diagnosed with gastric cancer by gastrofiberscopic biopsy. The sensitivities, specificities, Positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of PET-CT and CT imaging for the detection of gastric cancer TNM staging were compared. Results: The detection rates for the primary tumor were as follows: PET-CT, 81.4% (57/70); and CT, 42.9% (30/70). For both early gastric cancer (EGC) and advanced gastric cancer (AGC), PET-CT was more accurate than CT in detecting the lesions. As the size of the tumor exceeded 3 cm, the detection rate increased. The sensitivities, specificities, PPV, and NPV of PET-CT for lymph node staging were 55.6%, 81%, 86.2%, and 45.9%, while the sensitivities, specificities, PPV, and NPV of CT were 40.0%, 85.7%, 85.7% and 40%, respectively. One case of multiple liver metastasis and two cases of dual primary cancer (rectal and pancreatic cancers) were detected by PET-CT. PET-CT also had a higher detection rate for all histologic types of primary tumors. PET-CT was more accurate than CT in detecting primary gastric cancer lesions. The detection of nodal metastasis by PET-CT was similar to CT; small-sized tumors or EGC detection rates were not high. However, PET-CT provided additional information to detect distant metastases and dual primary cancers and reduced unnecessary laparotomies to detect peritoneal seeding or carcinomatosis. Conclusion: It would be useful to make a pre-operative diagnosis of gastric cancer and determine treatment if PET-CT were added to other routine pre-operative studies.