• Development and Reproduction
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.111-115
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• 2002

5-Hydroxytryptamine(5-HT; serotonin) system has been implicated in the modulation of male sexual behaviors and the secretion of reproductive hormones. In human males, selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors(SSRIs) are known to improve the major male sexual dysfunction, premature ejaculation, through the central nervous system-mediated pathways. As numerous hormone and local factors, 5-HT may have peripheral role in the regulation of male sexual function. The expression of 5-HT receptor subtypes in the target tissue, however, has not been explored yet. The present study was undertaken to test whether the 5-HT receptor subtypes are expressed in the reproductive tissues of male rat, especially in ejaculatory machinery such as seminal vesicle and vas deferens. To do this, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) and Southern blot analysis were employed. The transcripts for the 1A, 1B and 2C subtypes of 5-HT receptor were amplified in all the tested tissues. The present study demonstrated the expression of 5-HT receptor in the rat ejaculatory machinery, suggesting that 5-HT may play a pivotal role in the male sexual function via not only central pathway but also peripheral route. Further study on the receptor subtype-specific effect and their harmonized mode of action will be needed to establish the understanding of ejaculation mechanism and drug design.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.287-295
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• 2010

It was recently reported that nesfatin-1/NUCB2, which is secreted from the brain, controls appetite and energy metabolism. The purpose of this research was to confirm whether or not the protein and its binding site should have been expressed in the mouse reproductive organs and to know the possible effects of nesfatin-1 on the reproductive function. Using the ICR female mouse ovary and uterus, the expression of NUCB2 mRNA was confirmed with the conventional PCR and the relative amount of NUCB2 mRNA in the tissues was analyzed with real-time PCR. Immunohistochemical staining was performed using the nesfatin-1 antibody to investigate the nesfatin-1 protein expression and the biotin conjugated nesfatin-1 to confirm the binding site for nesfatin-1 in the ovary. Furthermore, in order to examine if the expression of NUCB2 mRNA in the ovary and uterus is affected by gonadotropin, its mRNA expression was analyzed after PMSG administration into mice. As a result, the expression level of NUCB2 mRNA in the ovary and the uterus was as much as the expression level in hypothalamus. As a result of the immunohistochemical staining, nesfatin-1 proteins were localized at the theca cells, the interstitial cells, and some of the luteal cells. However, the granulosa cells in the follicles did not stain. Interestingly, the oocytes in the some follicles were stained with nesfatin-1. On the other hand, nesfatin-1 protein binding sites were displayed at the theca cells and the interstitial cells near the tunica albuginea. After PMSG administration the expression level of NUCB2 mRNA was increased in the ovary and the uterus. These results demonstrate that for the first time the nesfatin-1 and its binding site were expressed in the ovary and NUCB2 mRNA expression was controlled by gonadotropin, suggesting an important role in the reproductive organs as a local regulator. Therefore, further study is needed to elucidate the functions of nesfatin-1 on the reproductive organs.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.45-55
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• 2001

Gametogenes, reproductive cycle, first sexual maturity(biological minimum size), sex ratio and larval development of the marsh clam Corbicula japonica were investigated monthly by histological observations. Samples were collected in brackish water of Gokgang stream, Kyungsangbuk-Do, Korea, from August 1997 to July 1998. Sexuality of Corbicula japonica is dioecious and the species are an oviparous clam. The gonads are irregularly arranged from the sub-region of mid-intestinal gland in visceral cavity to reticular connective tissue of foot. The ovary is composed of a number of ovarian sac which are branched arborescent. Oogonia actively proliferate along the germinal epithelium of ovarian sac, in which young oocytes are growing. The testis is composed of a number of testicular tubules, and the epithelium of the tubule has function of germinal epithelium, along which spermatogonia actively proliferate. A great number of undifferentiated mesenchymal tissue and eosinophilic granular cells are abundantly distributed between developing oocytes and spermatocytes in the early developmental stages. With the further development of the ovary and testis these tissue and cells gradually disappear. Then the undifferentiated mesenchymal tissue and eosinophilic granular cells are considered to be related to the growing of the oocytes and spermatocytes. The spawning period is from July to September, and the main spawning occur between July and August when seawater temperatures reach above 22$^{\circ}C$. The reproductive cycle of this species can be divided into five successive stages; early active (February to April), late active (May to July), ripe (June to September), partially spawned (July to September), degenerative (September to October) and resting stage (October to February). Percentages of first sexual maturity of female and male clams ranging in length from 10 mm to 12 mm are over 50% and 100% for clams over 16.0 mm in shell length. Fertilized eggs or Corbicula japonica were 80-90 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ in diameter. In the early embryonic development of C. japonica, the appearance of polar body, trochophore and D-shaped veliger were observed around 40 min., 27 hours and 4 days after spawning, respectively, at a water temperature of 26.5-28.$0^{\circ}C$. The size of larvae of early umbo stage was about 185-210 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ in shell length, 160-180 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ in shell height around 7 days after fertilization. The correlation of relative growth between the culture day (D) and shell length (SL) was expressed by the following simple formula from D-shaped veliger to metamorphosing stage; SL = 13.300D + 209.36($r^2$= 0.9078).

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.207-215
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• 2009

Numerous factors can affect the activities of hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad (HPG) hormonal axis, resulting in alteration of reproductive capacity or status such as onset of puberty and menopause. Soon after the finding of leptin, a multifunctional hormone secreted from adipocytes, a close relationship between reproduction and body energy balance have been manifested. Ghrelin, another multifunctional hormone from gastrointestinal tract, is an endogenous ligand of growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR), and is thought to be a counterpart of leptin in the regulation of energy homeostasis. As expected, ghrelin can also modulate the reproductive capacity through the modulation of activities of HPG axis. This paper summarizes the current knowledge on the discovery, gene structures, tissue distribution and roles of ghrelin and GHSRs in mammalian reproduction in particular modulation of reproductive hormone secretion in HPG axis. Like POMC gene expression in pituitary gland, preproghrelin gene can generate a complex repertoire of transcripts which further undergo alternative splicing and posttranslational modifications. Concerning the roles of preproghrelin gene products in the control of body physiology except energy homeostasis, limited knowledge is available so far. Several lines of evidence, however, show the interplay of ghrelin between metabolism and reproduction. In rat and human, the distribution of ghrelin receptor GHSRs (GHSR1a and GHSR1b) has been confirmed not only in the hypothalamus and pituitary which were originally postulated as target of ghrelin but also in the testis and ovary. Expression of the preproghrelin gene in the brain and gonads was also verified, suggesting the local role (s) of ghrelin in HPG axis. Ghrelin might play a negative modulator in the secretions of hypothalamic GnRH, pituitary gonadotropins and gonadal steroids though the action on pituitary is still questionable. Recent studies suggest the involvement of ghrelin in regulation of puberty onset and possibly of menopause entry. It is now evident that ghrelin is a crucial hormomal component in 'brain-gut' axis, and is a strong candidate links between metabolism and reproduction. Opposite to that for leptin, ghrelin signaling is likely representing the 'hunger' state of body energy balance and is necessary to avoid the energy investment into reproduction which has not a top priority in maintaining homeostasis. Further researches are needed to gain a deep insight into the more precise action mechanism and role of ghrelin in reproduction, and to guarantee the successful biomedical applications.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.143-151
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• 2010

Pluripotency of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) is one of the most valuable ability of hESCs for applying cell therapy field, but also showing side effect, for example teratoma formation. When transplant multipotent stem cell, such as mesnchymal stem cell (MSC) which retains similar differentiation ability, they do not form teratoma in vivo, but there exist limitation of cellular source supply. Accordingly, differentiation of hESC into MSC will be promising cellular source with strong points of both hESC and MSC line. In this study, we described the derivation of MSC like cell population from feeder free cultured hESC (hESC-MSC) using direct differentiation system. Cells population, hESC-MSC and bone marrow derived MSC (BM-MSC) retained similar characteristics in vitro, such as morphology, MSC specific marker expression and differentiation capacity. At the point of differentiation of both cell populations, differentiation rate was slower in hESC-MSC than BM-MSC. As these reason, to verify differentially expressed molecular condition of both cell population which bring out different differentiation rate, we compare the molecular condition of hESC-MSC and BM-MSC using 2-D proteomic analysis tool. In the proteomic analysis, we identified 49 differentially expressed proteins in hESC-MSC and BM-MSC, and they involved in different biological process such as positive regulation of molecular function, biological process, cellular metabolic process, nitrogen compound metabolic process, macromolecule metabolic process, metabolic process, molecular function, and positive regulation of molecular function and regulation of ubiquitin protein ligase activity during mitotic cell cycle, cellular response to stress, and RNA localization. As the related function of differentially expressed proteins, we sought to these proteins were key regulators which contribute to their differentiation rate, developmental process and cell proliferation. Our results suggest that the expressions of these proteins between the hESC-MSC and BM-MSC, could give to us further evidence for hESC differentiation into the mesenchymal stem cell is associated with a differentiation factor. As the initial step to understand fundamental difference of hESC-MSC and BM-MSC, we sought to investigate different protein expression profile. And the grafting of hESC differentiation into MSC and their comparative proteomic analysis will be positively contribute to cell therapy without cellular source limitation, also with exact background of their molecular condition.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.281-296
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• 1994

It is generally accepted that there is always a potential for crisis in the capitalist society because of the internal contradiction of capitalism. The contradiction is explicitly and implicitly expressed in space. The fundamental contradiction in capitalism, however, is controlled and mediated by the state (i.e., the capitalist state). We thus could argue that the state plays an important role in the capitalist society and in the capitalist spatial formation. It is necessary to note how and why spatial structure has developed unevenly in capitalist societies, particularly in the U.S., The general concept of uneven geographical development is understood in the context of the capitalist economic system and the role of the state. But the problem is that the capitalist state itself has a contradiction between the productive function (i.e., accumulation function) and the reproductive function (i.e., legitimation function). The compromise of the two functions is always the dilemma of the state and the state becomes the object of class struggle (e.g., political class struggle) . The research questions are as follows. First, what is the role of the state in the economic structure and what is the internal problem of the state\ulcorner Second, what is the role of the state in space economy (or in spatial structure)\ulcorner And last, what is the relation between the federal state and the local state in the U.S. and how does the relation form the urban policies and thus the urban and regional development\ulcorner The paper will be looking at how the political economy in the U.S. explains unevenly developed geographical phenomenon.

• 재활복지
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.195-212
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to compare the function, activity, and participation and quality of life of cerebral palsy, Down syndrome children and typically developing children. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for Children and Youth (ICF-CY) Checklist, and KIDSCREEN 52-HRQOL questionnaire were used to measure children function, activity and participation and quality of life. The results showed significant differences in functions (except for genitourinary and reproductive functions), activities and participation of ICF-CY were significantly different in all items. In the post-hoc analysis, showed high activity and participation in order of typically developing children, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome children (except for mobility). The quality of life were significantly different in all items (except for bullying), children with cerebral palsy and Down syndrome showed lower quality of life than typically developing children. The results showed that there were a significant difference in activity and participation, and quality of life among the three groups, and higher function, activity and participation, and quality of life in order of typically developing children, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome children.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.275-289
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• 2002

The objective of this study was to develop an in vitro assessment of sperm fertilizing capacity of bulls and investigate the factors influencing sperm function and characteristics of frozen-thawed bovine spermatozoa. in vitro fertilization (IVF), the evaluation of motility and normal morphology, HOST (hypoosmotic swelling test), Ca-ionophore induced acrosome reaction, luminol and lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence for the measurement of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the measurement of malondialdehyde formation for the analysis of lipid peroxidation (LPO), and the evaluation of DNA fragmentation using the method of 747-mediated nick end labelling (TUNEL) by flow cytometry were performed in frozen-thawed bovine spermatozoa. Correlations between the rates of fertilization, blastocyst formation after IVF and the values of respective assays were investigated. 1. IVF rate and blastocyst formation rate averaged 64.4% and 34.3% for spermatozoa from high -fertility bull group and averaged 18.5% and 6.2% for spermatozoa from low-fertility bull group, respectively. There were significantly different between two bull groups. Sperm motility and percentage acrosome reaction averaged 79.0% and 66.2% for spermatozoa from high-fertility bull group and averaged 40.7% and 22.9% for spermatozoa from low-fertility bull group, respectivitely. There were not different between two bull groups. 2. Luminol depenent chemiluminescence, LPO and DNA fragementation averaged 6.4, 2.0 nmol and 2.6% from spermatozoa from high-fertility bull group and averaged 6.5, 3.1 nmol and 7.4% for spermatozoa from low-fertility bull group, respectively. There were significantly different between two bull groups. There was no significant difference in lucigenin dependent chemiluminescence between two bull groups. 3. Fertilization rate was positively correlated with motility and the rate of Ca-ionophore induced acrosome reaction, but negatively correlated with the frequency of luminol-dependent chemiluminescence, the rate of LPO, and the percentage of sperm with DNA fragmentation. There was no correlation between fertilization rate and the percentage of swollen spermatozoa, normal morphology, and the frequency of lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence. 4. Blastocyst formation rate was positively correlated with the rate of Ca-ionophore induced acrosome reaction, but negatively correlated with the frequency of luminol-dependent chemiluminescence, the rate of LPO, and the percentage of sperm with DNA fragmentation. There was no correlation between blastocyst formation rate and motility, the percentage of swollen spermatozoa, normal morphology, and the frequency of lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence. In conclusion, these data suggest that ROS significantly impact semen quality. The assays of this study may provide a basis fur improving in vitro assessment of sperm fertilizing capacity.

• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.223-265
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• 2002

In United States black mothers have consistently been treated as national outsiders, as women whose children, although ostensibly entitled to full citizenship, are in practice rarely provided with equal protection within the nation′s borders or under its laws. From the time he began writing in the aftermath of the failures of national Reconstruction, the African American public intellectual and political activist W. E. B. Du Bois realized that a truly effective anti-racist politics would also have to contend with the particular ways in which U.S. racism targeted black mothers. In short, he understood that an effective anti-racism would necessarily have to be a form of anti-sexism. This article examines the myriad ways in which Du Bois attempted to reconstruct the relationship between race and reproduction in the interest of producing anti-racist, anti-nationalist, as well as internationalist thinking. In so doing it treats the various representations of black maternity and child birth that Du Bois created, and elaborates on the rhetorical and political function of these representations in combating the racialization of national belonging on the one hand, and in articulating universal black citizenship, or what this article theorizes as racial globality on the other. The article begins by considering Du Bois′s attempts to transcend ideas about the racialized reproductive body as a source of national belonging within the United States, particularly his efforts to contest the idea of the reconstructing nation as a white nation reproduced exclusively by white women. Through analysis of Du Bois′s depiction of the birth and death of his son in his monumental work The Souls of Black Folk (1903) it demonstrates his reluctance to build an anti-racist politics founded on the idea that belonging within the nation is something that can be bestowed by one′s mother. The article proceeds by turning to Du Bois less well-known romantic novel, Dark Princess (1928) in which, by contrast, he depicts the birth of a "golden chi1d" who belongs not only within the United States, but within the world. This child, the son of an African American man and an Indian Princess, is cast as a messenger and messiah of a utopian alliance between pan-Asia and pan-Africa. In exploring the relationship between these two reproductive portraits, the article moves from a discussion of Du Bois′s critique of the ideological construction of the U.S. as a white nation reproduced by white progenitors, to an examination the literary figuration of a b1aek mother out of whose womb a black diasporic anti-imperialist alliance springs. In contrast to previous scholarship, which has tended to focus on the critique of U.S. racial nationalism that Du Bois expressed in his early work, or on the internationalism that he later embraced, this article pays close attention to how Du Bois′s anti-nationalist and internationalist politics together subtended by subtle, but constitutive, sexual politics.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.41-49
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• 1984

It has been well known that ovarian steroids, estradiol and progesterone play an important role in the endometrial preparation for the implantation process. The present investigation was undertaken to correlate function of ovarian steroids with cAMP concentrations in uterine tissues of rat during the various stages of the preimplantation period. Rats ovariectomized on day 2 were treated with estradiol or/and progesterone on day 3 or on day 4 and cAMP concentrations in uterine tissues were determined by competitive protein - binding assay in control - and steroid treated - ovariectomized rats. The results obtained are as follows; 1. In control rats, cAMP concentrations in uterine tissues were decreased with preimplantation period proceeded whereas cAMP concentrations were increased and showed the highest levels on day 6 in ovariectomized rats. 2. In rats treated with progesterone only or progesterone with estradiol after ovariectomy, cAMP concentrations on day 6 were lower than those of ovariectomized control but higher than those of intact control rats while estradiol only treatment decreased cAMP concentrations on day 3 and day 6, compared with those from intact- and ovariectomized-controls. It is, therefore, concluded that the concentrations of cAMP in uterine tissues were lower in estrogen-treated rats than in ovariectomized rats, suggesting the involvement of cAMP in the regulation of uterine tissue differentiation.