• Development and Reproduction
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.105-109
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• 2018

A 40-year-old G1 P0 L0 A1 woman was referred to our clinic with 6-year history of infertility. Before visiting the clinic, she had 3 cycles of In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) procedures (2 cycles of Controlled Ovarian Stimulation-IVF and 1 cycle of frozen-thawed Embryo Transfer (ET)) at other clinic. She had medical history of abortion at early gestation following FET (frozen-thawed-ET). The patient had complete type of septate uterus, double cervix and longitudinal vaginal septum. Vaginal septotomy was done first and 1 month later, hysteroscopic septoplasty was followed using ballooning filled with dye. After septoplasty, we inserted ballooning and left for several days to compress septal endometrium on the septectomy area. All procedures were done in the ambulatory operating room without laparoscopy or admission. 3 months later, she had in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) and FET procedures in our clinic. She had successful pregnancy and now is at 22 weeks of gestation. New ambulatory septoplasty using dye-filled ballooning is easy, safe and minimally invasive surgery for treatment of complete septate uterus.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.278-281
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• 2021

Facial palsy (FP) is a functional disorder of the facial nerve involving paralysis of the mimic muscles. According to the principle "time is muscle," early surgical treatment is tremendously important for preserving the mimic musculature if there are no signs of nerve function recovery. In a 49-year-old female patient, even 19 months after onset of FP, successful neurotization was still possible by a V-to-VII nerve transfer and cross-face nerve grafting. Our patient suffered from complete FP after vestibular schwannoma surgery. With continuous application of electrostimulation (ES) therapy, the patient was able to bridge the period between the first onset of FP and neurotization surgery. The significance of ES for mimic musculature preservation in FP patients has not yet been fully clarified. More attention should be paid to this form of therapy in order to preserve the facial musculature, and its benefits should be evaluated in further prospective clinical studies.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.69-81
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• 2021

Cortico-cortical evoked potential (CCEP) mapping is a rapidly developing method for visualizing the brain network and estimating cortical excitability. The CCEP comprises the early N1 component the occurs at 10-30 ms poststimulation, indicating anatomic connectivity, and the late N2 component that appears at < 200 ms poststimulation, suggesting long-lasting effective connectivity. A later component at 200-1,000 ms poststimulation can also appear as a delayed response in some studied areas. Such delayed responses occur in areas with changed excitability, such as an epileptogenic zone. CCEP mapping has been used to examine the brain connections causally in functional systems such as the language, auditory, and visual systems as well as in anatomic regions including the frontoparietal neocortices and hippocampal limbic areas. Task-based CCEPs can be used to measure behavior. In addition to evaluations of the brain connectome, single-pulse electrical stimulation (SPES) can reflect cortical excitability, and so it could be used to predict a seizure onset zone. CCEP brain mapping and SPES investigations could be applied both extraoperatively and intraoperatively. These underused electrophysiologic tools in basic and clinical neuroscience might be powerful methods for providing insight into measures of brain connectivity and dynamics. Analyses of CCEPs might enable us to identify causal relationships between brain areas during cortical processing, and to develop a new paradigm of effective therapeutic neuromodulation in the future.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.54.1-54.16
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• 2024

Importance: As one of the main etiologic agents of infectious diseases in pigs, pseudorabies virus (PRV) infections have caused enormous economic losses worldwide. EP0, one of the PRV early proteins (EP) plays a vital role in PRV infections, but the mechanisms are unclear. Objective: This study examined the function of EP0 to provide a direction for its in-depth analysis. Methods: In this study, the EP0-deleted PRV mutant was obtained, and Tandem Mass Tag-based proteomic analysis was used to screen the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) quantitatively in EP0-deleted PRV- or wild-type PRV-infected porcine kidney 15 cells. Results: This study identified 7,391 DEPs, including 120 and 21 up-regulated and down-regulated DEPs, respectively. Western blot analysis confirmed the changes in the expression of the selected proteins, such as speckled protein 100. Comprehensive analysis revealed 141 DEPs involved in various biological processes and molecular functions, such as transcription regulator activity, biological regulation, and localization. Conclusions and Relevance: These results holistically outlined the functions of EP0 during a PRV infection and might provide a direction for more detailed function studies of EP0 and the stimulation of lytic PRV infections.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.459-465
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• 1997

The present study was undertaken to determine the effect of NT time on the rate of fusion a and suhseguent development In vitro and determine the optimal strength and duration of DC pulse for electrofusion of IVF donor embryo nuclei and IVM recipient oocytes. The recipient oocytes were enucleated 25 ~ 2Sh after IVM and further cultured for 18 ~ 20h prior to fusion for oocyte aging. IVF embryos as donor nuclei were C co cultured with BOEC for 16- to 32-cell stage development. The transfer time of donor bIas tomeres was 1~3h post-enucleation in early NT group and 1 ~ 18h post-enucleation in late NT group, respectively and fusion was performed 43~4Sh post-IVM. The fusion rate did not differ between the early NT and late NT group, but the rate of cleavage and 8- to 16-cell stage embryos in the late NT group was more higher than that in the early NT group. The fusion, cleavage and M+B development was high from O.7SkV /cm DC than from 1.0kV /cm DC voltage, resulting in 17.6% M+B from 0.75kV /cm DC voltage. No difference in fusion rate was among pulse durations, but 50 and 70 usec pulse duration showed slight high cleavage and M + B d development. The results indicate that the best NT time of IVF donor blastomeres into the enucleated oocytes was 42~44 post-IVM and the most suitable condition for electrofusion was a single 0.7SkV /cm DC voltage for SO~70$\mu$sec.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.634-639
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• 2005

Purpose : An understanding of the immunological process is required if primary prevention of atopic diseases is to be developed in early childhood. But, it is too hard to distinguish atopy from nonatopy under the age of two clinically, because the expression of phenotype and cytokines is vague in early childhood. We evaluated DNA methylation changes at Th2 interleukin-4 gene in peripheral blood from atopic children. Methods : We selected 15 allergic children(mild : eight, moderate to severe : seven) and seven normal controls by using family allergy scores and clinical histories. We measured Total IgE and Der f II specific IgE levels and cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells with Der f II stimulation and extracted DNA from Der f II specific T cells. We examined the change of CpG methylation in DNA from atopic and nonatopic children. Results : In T cells from normal children, IL-4 DNA were predominantly methylated; otherwise, CpG demethylation occurred in Der f II specific T cells from allergic children. Conclusion : IL-4 DNA methylation changes occurred in T genes from allergic children and DNA methylation assay in early childhood.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.393-433
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• 2015

Creativity refers to the ability to generate novel and useful ideas. Understanding the mechanism of creativity and its enhancement is important in order to solve major problems of the modern society and to improve the wellness of mankind. Creativity is a highly heterogeneous and complex ability which should not be conceptualized as a single entity. Thus, the current literature on creativity is based on a component process approach to creativity. The present study introduces cognitive neuroscience research studying the mechanism of divergent thinking, insight, relational thinking and artistic creativity which are the major components of creativity. Based on an expansive review, the early hypothesis of hemispheric asymmetry emphasizing the importance of the right as opposed to the left hemisphere is not supported by scientific evidence. In addition, there is no consensus or consistency on which specific brain region is related to a certain component of creativity. In fact, there is a mixture of studies reporting involvement of various brain regions across all four lobes of the brain. This inconsistency in the literature most likely reflects heterogeneity of the component processes of creativity and sensitivity of the neural response to differences across tasks and cognitive strategy. The present study introduces examples of representative studies reporting seminal findings on the neural basis and the enhancement of creativity based on innovative methodology. In addition, we discuss limitations of the current cognitive neuroscience approach to creativity and present directions for future research.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.16-26
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• 2007

Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is a serine protease catalyzing the proteolytic conversion of plasminogen into plasmin, which is involved in thrombolysis. During last two decades, the role of tPA in brain physiology and pathology has been extensively investigated. tPA is expressed in brain regions such as cortex, hippocampus, amygdala and cerebellum, and major neural cell types such as neuron, astrocyte, microglia and endothelial cells express tPA in basal status. After strong neural stimulation such as seizure, tPA behaves as an immediate early gene increasing the expression level within an hour. Neural activity and/or postsynaptic stimulation increased the release of tPA from axonal terminal and presumably from dendritic compartment. Neuronal tPA regulates plastic changes in neuronal function and structure mediating key neurologic processes such as visual cortex plasticity, seizure spreading, cerebellar motor learning, long term potentiation and addictive or withdrawal behavior after morphine discontinuance. In addition to these physiological roles, tPA mediates excitotoxicity leading to the neurodegeneration in several pathological conditions including ischemic stroke. Increasing amount of evidence also suggest the role of tPA in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis even though beneficial effects was also reported in case of Alzheimer's disease based on the observation of tPA-induced degradation of $A{\beta}$ aggregates. Target proteins of tPA action include extracellular matrix protein laminin, proteoglycans and NMDA receptor. In addition, several receptors (or binding partners) for tPA has been reported such as low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP) and annexin II, even though intracellular signaling mechanism underlying tPA action is not clear yet. Interestingly, the action of tPA comprises both proteolytic and non-proteolytic mechanism. In case of microglial activation, tPA showed non-proteolytic cytokine-like function. The search for exact target proteins and receptor molecules for tPA along with the identification of the mechanism regulating tPA expression and release in the nervous system will enable us to better understand several key neurological processes like teaming and memory as well as to obtain therapeutic tools against neurodegenerative diseases.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.205-210
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• 1989

To investigate the effects of ovarian cysts on the controlled ovarian hyper-stimulation cycles, 16 patients with 16 paired cycles for IVF-ET were analyzed. These patients had taken both type of cycles, i.e., with cyst(cyst group) and without cyst(control group). Mean diameter of ovarian cysts in cyst group was 18.2mm. There were no significant differences in hormone levels in early follicular phase between two groups. No significant differences were found in total dosage of hMG(IU) administered during the ovarian stimulation $843.8{\pm}123.0$ vs $891.0{\pm}129.8$, serum estradiol level (pg/ml) on the day of hCG administration($1542.8{\pm}1100.6$ vs $1567.5{\pm}1193.0$), the number of aspirated follicles $10.0{\pm}3.4$ vs $11.2{\pm}4.3$ and oocytes $5.3{\pm}3.3$ vs $6.2{\pm}3.1$, the fertilization rate(51.2 % vs 57.2 %) and the cleavage rate(40.5 % vs 52.0 %). Serum estradiol terminal patterns during COH in one group tended to be repeated in the other group. In conclusion, this study suggests that small ovarian cysts do not adversely impact on the controlled ovarian hyperstimulation parameters in IVF - ET program and the presence of small ovarian cyst without concomitant high basal serum estradiol level is not an indication of the cancellation of the controlled ovarian hyperstimulation for IVF-ET.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.339-344
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• 2004

Recent data have shown the importance of oxidative stresses in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease, crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. $H_2O_2$, reactive oxygen species (ROS) donor, has been reported to act as a signaling molecule involved in a variety of cellular functions such as apo/ptosis and proliferation. In the present study, we investigated viability of cultured ileal smooth muscle cells (ISMC) after stimulation with $H_2O_2$. Trypan blue method revealed that the cell viability of ISMC treated with 1 mM $H_2O_2$ was not different from that of controls at up to 2 h time point, while treatment of ISMC with 1 mM $H_2O_2$ for 48 h finally induced significant decrease in the cell viability. Therefore, we evaluated whether $H_2O_2$ was capable of ERKs activation in ISMC for the short-term exposure and examined whether tyrosine kinase was involved in the process of ERK activation by $H_2O_2$ in ISMC. We also investigated the effects of $H_2O_2$ on activation of SAPK/JNK and p38 MAP kinase in ISMC. Thus, ISMC were cultured and exposed to $H_2O_2$, and western blot analysis was performed with phosphospecific MAP kinase antibodies. Robust activation of ERK occurred within 30 min of 1 mM $H_2O_2$ treatment. $H_2O_2-induced$ ERK activation was attenuated by a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, genistein, indicating that tyrosine kinase was probably involved in the ERK activation by $H_2O_2$. $H_2O_2$ was a moderate activator of SAPK/JNK, while p38 MAP kinase was not activated by $H_2O_2$. We suggest that ERK activation induced by short-term $H_2O_2$ treatment plays a critical role in cellular protection in the early stage of response to oxidative stress. The present study suggests the necessity of identification of MAPK signaling pathways affected by ROS, since it could ultimately elucidate cellular consequences involved in initiation and perpetuation of intestinal tissue damage in the diseases such as crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, resulted from excessive ROS.