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Study on the Reproductive Function in Transgenic Pig Harboring Human Erythropoietin (hEPO) Gene

  • Lee, Hyun-Gi;Lee, Hwi-Cheul;Chung, Hak-Jae;Hwang, In-Sul;Choi, Myoung-Seob;Byun, Sung-June;Lee, Seung-Hoon;Kim, Min-Ji;Woo, Jae-Seok;Chang, Won-Kyong;Lee, Poong-Yeon;Lee, Hoon-Taek;Park, Jin-Ki
    • Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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    • v.32 no.2
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    • pp.117-121
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    • 2008
  • Our previous study showed that transgenic (TG) pigs harboring human EPO (hEPO) gene have been shown to have reproductive disorders, including low pregnancy rates, irregular estrus cycle and low little size. To investigate these reasons, we assessed estrus behavior (standing response) and plasma $17{\beta}$-estradiol ($E_2$) level, which partly reflect reproductive function, during the estrus cycles after synchronization and superovulation by hormone treatments. Then, we analysed blood composition and expression of hEPO gene in TG pigs. Pigs were injected with PG600. After 10 days, pigs were fed with Regumate porcine for 6 days. Blood samples were collected from jugular vein. Analysis of blood composition and $E_2$ level were measured by Hemavet 950 and $E_2$ ELISA kit, respectively. And, the expression of hEPO gene in reproductive organs was quantitated by real-time RT-PCR. The percentage of estrus behavior in TG was significantly decreased. Hematocrit (HCT), hemoglobin (Hb) concentration and red blood cell (RBC) number were significantly higher in TG than wild type (WT). On the other hand, high expression of hEPO gene in TG was observed in the mammary gland as well as in the uterus. Moreover, plasma $E_2$ level was significantly higher in TG than WT. These results suggest that nonspecific expression of hEPO gene in the other organs of TG may affect blood composition and plasma $E_2$ level, thereby causing reproductive disorders.

Impact of AhR, CYP1A1 and GSTM1 Genetic Polymorphisms on TP53 R273G Mutations in Individuals Exposed to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

  • Gao, Meili;Li, Yongfei;Xue, Xiaochang;Long, Jiangang;Chen, Lan;Shah, Walayat;Kong, Yu
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.15 no.6
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    • pp.2699-2705
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    • 2014
  • This study was to undertaken to investigate the impacts of AhR, CYP1A1, GSTM1 genetic polymorphisms on the R273G mutation in exon 8 of the tumor suppressor p53 gene (TP53) among polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) exposed to coke-oven workers. One hundred thirteen workers exposed to PAH and 82 control workers were recruited. We genotyped for polymorphisms in the AhR, CYP1A1, GSTM1, and TP53 R273G mutation in blood by PCR methods, and determined the levels of 1-hydroxypyrene as PAH exposure marker in urine using the high pressure liquid chromatography assay. We found that the distribution of alcohol users and the urinary excretion of 1-OHP in the exposed workers were significantly higher than that of the control workers (p=0.004, p<0.001, respectively). Significant differences were observed in the p53 genotype distributions of smoking subjects (p=0.01, 95%CI: 1.23-6.01) and PAH exposure (p=0.008, 95%CI: 1.24-4.48), respectively. Further, significant differences were observed in the p53 exon 8 mutations for the genetic polymorphisms of Lys/Arg for AhR (p=0.02, 95%CI: 0.70-15.86), Val/Val for CYP1A1 (p=0.04, 95%CI: 0.98-19.09) and null for GSTM1 (p=0.02, 95%CI: 1.19-6.26), respectively. Our findings indicated that polymorphisms of PAH metabolic genes, such as AhR, CYP1A1, GSTM1 polymorphisms may interact with p53 genetic variants and may contribute to PAH related cancers.

R&D Activities, Imperfect Competition and Economic Growth (R&D 및 불완전경쟁과 경제성장)

  • Kim, Byung-Woo
    • Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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    • v.10 no.1
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    • pp.47-72
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    • 2007
  • Ideas do not become exhausted, and there are no diminishing returns in the creation of knowledge. Nonetheless, growth ultimately ceases in this simplest model of endogeneous innovation. The reasons are similar to those that are discussed in the context of the neoclassical model of capital accumulation. Even if the resource cost of creating new goods does not rise, the economic return to invention may decline as the number of available products increases. When the rate of return to R&D falls to the level of the discount rate, private agents cease to be willing to defer consumption in order to invest in product development. But, if we treat knowledge capital as a public capital considering of its non-appropriable benefits, economic growth can be sustained in the economy. Romer(1986) has pointed out that growth might be sustainable if the accumulation of knowledge is not subject to long-run diminishing returns. Actually Romer assumed diminishing returns in the production of private knowledge from available resources, but increasing returns in the production of output from labor and total (public and private) knowledge. His condition for the sustainability of long-run growth amounts to an assumption that the diminishing returns in the former activity do not outweigh the increasing returns in the latter. The Johansen(1988) cointegration test method is used for finding long-run equilibrium relationship between R&D input and the product innovation. Test results indicate the existence of cointegrating equation between each pair of regression variables including dependent variable in the knowledge production function. And, the signs of cointegrating vectors are well accord to the prediction of sustainable growth. In the empirical analysis, from all cases of the form for the knowledge production function, we could not reject the null hypothesis that R&D spillover effect is significant($H_{0}:\;{\gamma}=1$). In summary, we showed that considering goodness of fit of regression model, we can see that the empirical evidence is strongly in favor of the character of knowledge as the public knowledge capital. So, we can expect that by product innovation, economic growth can be sustained in the Korean economy.

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Induces Vasodilatation of Rat Mesenteric Artery in vitro Mainly by Inhibiting Receptor-Mediated $Ca^{2+}$ -Influx and $Ca^{2+}$ -Release

  • Cao Yong-Xiao;Zheng Jian-Pu;He Jian-Yu;Li Jie;Xu Cang-Bao;Edvinsson Lars
    • Archives of Pharmacal Research
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    • v.28 no.6
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    • pp.709-715
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    • 2005
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of atropine on peripheral vasodilation and the mechanisms involved. The isometric tension of rat mesenteric artery rings was recorded in vitro on a myograph. The results showed that atropine, at concentrations greater than 1$\mu$M, relaxed the noradrenalin (NA)-precontracted rat mesenteric artery in a concentration-dependent manner. Atropine-induced vasodilatation was mediated, in part, by an endothelium-dependent mechanism, to which endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor may contribute. Atropine was able to shift the NA-induced concentration-response curve to the right, in a non-parallel manner, suggesting the mechanism of atropine was not mediated via the ${\alpha}_1$-adrenoreceptor. The $\beta$-adrenoreceptor and ATP sensitive potassium channel, a voltage dependent calcium channel, were not involved in the vasodilatation. However, atropine inhibited the contraction derived from NA and $CaCl_2$ in $Ca^{2+}$-free medium, in a concentration dependent manner, indicating the vasodilatation was related to the inhibition of extracellular $Ca^{2+}$ influx through the receptor-operated calcium channels and intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ release from the $Ca^{2+}$ store. Atropine had no effect on the caffeine-induced contraction in the artery segments, indicating the inhibition of intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ release as a result of atropine most likely occurs via the IP3 pathway rather than the ryanodine receptors. Our results suggest that atropine-induced vasodilatation is mainly from artery smooth muscle cells due to inhibition of the receptor-mediated $Ca^{2+}$-influx and $Ca^{2+}$-release, and partly from the endothelium mediated by EDHF.

Formation of a large-scale quasi-circular flare ribbon enclosing three-ribbon through two-step eruptive flares

  • Lim, Eun-Kyung;Yurchyshyn, Vasyl;Kumar, Pankaj;Cho, Kyuhyoun;Kim, Sujin;Cho, Kyung-Suk
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.41 no.2
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    • pp.42.1-42.1
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    • 2016
  • The formation process and the dynamical properties of a large-scale quasi-circular flare ribbon were investigated using the SDO AIA and HMI data along with data from RHESSI and SOT. Within one hour time interval, two subsequent M-class flares were detected from the NOAA 12371 that had a ${\beta}{\gamma}{\delta}$ configuration with one bipolar sunspot group in the east and one unipolar spot in the west embedded in a decayed magnetic field. Earlier M2.0 flare was associated with a coronal loop eruption, and a two-ribbon structure formed within the bipolar sunspot group. On the other hand, the later M2.6 flare was associated with a halo CME, and a quasi-circular ribbon developed encircling the full active region. The observed quasi-circular ribbon was strikingly large in size spanning 650" in north-south and 500" in east-west direction. It showed the well-known sequential brightening in the clockwise direction during the decay phase of the M2.6 flare at the estimated speed of 160.7 km s-1. The quasi-circular ribbon also showed the radial expansion, especially in the southern part. Interestingly, at the time of the later M2.6 flare, the third flare ribbon parallel to the early two-ribbon structure also developed near the unipolar sunspot, then showed a typical separation in pair with the eastern most ribbon of the early two ribbons. The potential field reconstruction based on the PFSS model showed a fan shaped magnetic configuration including fan-like field lines stemming from the unipolar spot and fanning out toward the background decayed field. This large-scale fan-like field overarched full active region, and the footpoints of fan-like field lines were co-spatial with the observed quasi-circular ribbon. From the NLFF magnetic field reconstruction, we confirmed the existence of a twisted flux rope structure in the bipolar spot group before the first M2.0 flare. Hard X-ray emission signatures were detected at the site of twisted flux rope during the pre-flare phase of the M2.0 flare. Based on the analysis of both two-ribbon structure and quasi-circular ribbon, we suggest that a tether-cutting reconnection between sheared arcade overarching the twisted flux rope embedded in a fan-like magnetic field may have triggered the first M2.0 flare, then secondary M2.6 flare was introduced by the fan-spine reconnection because of the interaction between the expanding field and the nearby quasi-null and formed the observed large-scale quasi-circular flare ribbon.

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Transmitter Beamforming and Artificial Noise with Delayed Feedback: Secrecy Rate and Power Allocation

  • Yang, Yunchuan;Wang, Wenbo;Zhao, Hui;Zhao, Long
    • Journal of Communications and Networks
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    • v.14 no.4
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    • pp.374-384
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    • 2012
  • Utilizing artificial noise (AN) is a good means to guarantee security against eavesdropping in a multi-inputmulti-output system, where the AN is designed to lie in the null space of the legitimate receiver's channel direction information (CDI). However, imperfect CDI will lead to noise leakage at the legitimate receiver and cause significant loss in the achievable secrecy rate. In this paper, we consider a delayed feedback system, and investigate the impact of delayed CDI on security by using a transmit beamforming and AN scheme. By exploiting the Gauss-Markov fading spectrum to model the feedback delay, we derive a closed-form expression of the upper bound on the secrecy rate loss, where $N_t$ = 2. For a moderate number of antennas where $N_t$ > 2, two special cases, based on the first-order statistics of the noise leakage and large number theory, are explored to approximate the respective upper bounds. In addition, to maintain a constant signal-to-interferenceplus-noise ratio degradation, we analyze the corresponding delay constraint. Furthermore, based on the obtained closed-form expression of the lower bound on the achievable secrecy rate, we investigate an optimal power allocation strategy between the information signal and the AN. The analytical and numerical results obtained based on first-order statistics can be regarded as a good approximation of the capacity that can be achieved at the legitimate receiver with a certain number of antennas, $N_t$. In addition, for a given delay, we show that optimal power allocation is not sensitive to the number of antennas in a high signal-to-noise ratio regime. The simulation results further indicate that the achievable secrecy rate with optimal power allocation can be improved significantly as compared to that with fixed power allocation. In addition, as the delay increases, the ratio of power allocated to the AN should be decreased to reduce the secrecy rate degradation.

A Study of the RCS Reduction by Pattern Synthesis for Singly Curved Structures (패턴 합성을 통한 단일 곡면 구조에서의 RCS 감소 기술에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Woojoong;Seo, Hyeong Pil;Kim, Youngsub;Yoon, Young Joong
    • The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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    • v.24 no.4
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    • pp.366-373
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    • 2013
  • This paper discusses the singly curved phased reflector for reduced RCS pattern, which has minimized RCS level at boresight with a null by phase cancelation and the lowered RCS level of main beam by splitting the main beam into multi directions. Considering the reduced level of boresight and main beam compared to the same sized reference PEC, this proposed multi-beam reflector can be adopted in the mono-static radar and the bi-static radar environment. The proposed reflector is a multi-beam reflector, which has different phase distributions at each row for different steering angle. It is designed through an intermediate stage of a single and dual-beam reflector. The behaviors of the designed reflectors are verified through full-wave simulation and experiment. The reflectors are designed in the frequency of 10 GHz and it has a size $240{\times}180mm^2$($8{\times}6\;{\lambda}^2$) with the curvature k=3.3. From the measured results, the proposed reflectors reduce the reflected power by 17 dB at boresight.

Analysis of Differentially Expressed Genes by Resveratrol Using Membrane Microarray (Membrane Microarray를 이용한 Resveratrol에 의해 차별적으로 발현되는 유전자 군의 분석)

  • Kim, Jong-Sik;Jang, Min-Jung;Kim, Hyo-Eun;Kim, Soon-Young;Kim, Byung-Oh;Sohn, Ho-Yong
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.17 no.8 s.88
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    • pp.1115-1120
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    • 2007
  • In the present study, we investigated whether several phytochemicals (resveratrol, genistein, epicatechin gallate, dially disulfide, caffeic acid phenetyl ester) and sulindac sulfide could induce expression of tumor suppressor p53 protein in human colorectal HCT116 cells. We found that p53 was dramatically induced by all phytochemical treatments except sulindac sulfide. Among treated phytochemicals, we selected resveratrol for further experiments because it is one of the highest p53 inducer. Using a Western blot analysis, we found that resveratrol induced p53 in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Additionally, using membrane-based microarray analysis, we found that twenty-five genes were up-regulated and two genes were down-regulated by resveratrol treatment. Among the up-regulated genes, we selected 4 genes and performed reverse-transcription-PCR to confirm microarray data. The results of RT-PCR were highly accorded with those of membrane microarray. In addition, we found that thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) expression was not dependent on p53 presence, whereas mammary serine protease inhibitor (MASPIN) expression was dependent on p53 expressed by resveratrol treatment. The results of this study may help to promote our understandings of the molecular mechanisms of chemoprevention that are mediated by resveratrol in human colorectal cancer.

The C609T (Pro187Ser) Null Polymorphism of the NQO1 Gene Contributes Significantly to Breast Cancer Susceptibility in North Indian Populations: a Case Control Study

  • Yadav, Prasant;Mir, Rashid;Nandi, Kajal;Javid, Jamsheed;Masroor, Mirza;Ahmad, Imtiyaz;Zuberi, Mariyam;Kaza, RCM;Jain, SK;Khurana, Nita;Ray, Prakash Chandra;Saxena, Alpana
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.17 no.3
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    • pp.1215-1219
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    • 2016
  • Background: Worldwide, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and is a leading cause of cancer death. In the present study, we investigated the NQO1 C609T genotypic and allelic distribution in north Indian breast cancer patients. Materials and Methods: The genotypic distribution of the NQ01 C609T polymorphism was assessed in 100 invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) breast cancer patients and 100 healthy controls using allele specific PCR (AS-PCR). Results: A lower frequency of the CC genotype was found in breast cancer patients (24%) than in the controls. On the other hand, TT genotype frequency was also found to be higher in female healthy controls (32%) than the female breast cancer patients (20%). The frequencies of all three genotypes CC, CT, TT in patients were 24%, 56% and 20% and in healthy controls 50%, 22% and 32% respectively. We did not find any significant correlation between the NQO1 C609T polymorphism and age group, grading, menopausal status and distant metastasis. A less significant association was found between the NQ01 C609T polymorphism and the stage of breast cancer (X2=5.931, P=0.05). Conclusions: The present study shows a strong association between NQO1 C609T polymorphism with the breast cancer risk in the north Indian breast cancer patients so that possible use as a risk factor should be further expel.

Clinical Presentation and Frequency of Risk Factors in Patients with Breast Carcinoma in Pakistan

  • Memon, Zahid Ali;Qurrat-ul-Ain, Qurrat-ul-Ain;Khan, Ruba;Raza, Natasha;Noor, Tooba
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.16 no.17
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    • pp.7467-7472
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    • 2015
  • Background: Breast cancer is known to be one of the most prevalent cancers among women in both developing and developed countries. The incidence of breast cancer in Pakistan has increased dramatically within the last few years and is the second country after Israel in Asia to have highest proportional cases of breast cancer. However, there are limited data for breast cancer available in the literature from Pakistan. Objectives: The study was conducted to bring to light the common clinical presentation of breast cancer and to evaluate the frequency of established risk factors in breast carcinoma patients and furthermore to compare the findings between premenopausal and postmenopausal women in Pakistan. Materials and Methods: A 6 months (from July 2012 to Dec 2012) cross sectional survey was conducted in Surgical and Oncology Units of Civil Hospital, Karachi. Data were collected though a well developed questionnaire from 105 female patients diagnosed with carcinoma of breast and analyzed using SPSS version 17. Institutional ethical approval was obtained prior to data collection. Results: Out of 105 patients, 43 were premenopausal and 62 were postmenopausal, 99 being married. Mean age at diagnosis was $47.8{\pm}12.4years$. A painless lump was the most frequent symptom, notived by 77.1%(n=81). Some 55.2% (n=58) patients had a lump in the right breast and 44.8%(n=47) in the left breast. In the majority of cases, the lump was present in upper outer quadrant 41.9% (n=44). Mean period of delay from appearance of symptoms to consulting a doctor was $5.13{\pm}4.8months$, from the shortest 1 month to the longest 36 months. Long delay (> 3 months) was the most frequent figure 41.9%. Considering overall risk factors most frequent were first pregnancy after 20 years of age (41%), physical breast trauma (28.6%), lack of breast feeding(21.9%), and early menarche <11 years (19%), followed by null parity (16.2%), consumption of high fat diet (15.2%), family history of breast cancer or any other cancer in first degree relatives (9.5% and 13.3%, respectively). Some of the less common factors were late menopause >54 years (8.6%), use of oral contraceptive pills (10.5%), use of hormone replacement therapy (4.7%),smoking (4.7%) and radiation (0.96%). Significant differences (p<0.005) were observed between pre and post menopausal women regarding history of physical breast trauma, practice of breast feeding and parity. Conclusions: A painless lump was the most frequent clinical presentation noted. Overall age at first child > 20 years, physical breast trauma, lack of breast feeding, early menarche <11 were the most frequent risk factors. Physical breast trauma, lower parity, a trend for less breast feeding had more significant associations with pre-menopausal than post-menopausal onset. Increase opportunity of disease prevention can be obtained through better understanding of clinical presentation and risk factors important in the etiology of breast cancer.