• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.171-180
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• 2011

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess changes in neuropeptide Y (NPY) immunoreactivity in the hypothalamus and interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) in the small intestine of rats fed high-fat diets (HFD). Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats (200~250 g body weight) were randomly divided into two groups, which were the control group (normal chow diet for 6 weeks), and the HFD group (rodent diet with 60% kcal fat for 6 weeks). The immunoreactivity of NPY in the hypothalamus and ICC in the small intestine was evaluated after every feed for 6 weeks. Results: NPY immunoreactivity was observed strongly in the hypothalamic nuclei in the HFD group compared to the control group. The numbers of NPY-immunoreactive (IR) cells were significantly higher in the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus in the HFD group than in the control group. In the region of Auerbach's plexus (AP) of small intestine, the staining intensity of the ICC-IR cells was reduced in the HFD group compared to the control group. The numbers of ICC in the small intestine with HFD, including ICC in the inner circular and outer longitudinal muscle were significantly lower than in the control group. Conclusion: This study suggested that increasing NPY-IR cells in the hypothalamus may reflect resistance of NPY action after a HFD, and decreasing ICC-IR cells in the small intestine after a HFD is functionally significant in gastrointestinal motility.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.31-38
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• 2017

Objectives The purpose of this study was to find out the clinically reliable relationships between the Risser sign and chronological age, bone age, menarche, and adult height prediction (AHP) and to evidence the reliability of the Risser sign. Methods This study had been carried out with 50 children who had their growth checked in an oriental medical hospital from January 2015 to February 2017. We investigated Risser sign in AP X-rays with iliac crest, bone age, AHP for all 50 children and the timing of menarche from the 22 girls in the study subjects. We also investigated a correlation between the Risser stage and the other indicators to analyze statistical data. Results The mean chronological ages of Risser 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 11.2, 12.6, 14.4, and 15.5 years respectively for the boys and 10.8, 12.2, 13.8 and 14.8 years respectively for the girls. The mean bone ages of Risser 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 12.3, 13.6, 15.7 and 16.5 years respectively for the boys and 11.7, 13.8, 14.3 and 14.9 years respectively for the girls. We analyzed 22 girls' Risser stages in accordance with the duration from menarche. The result showed that in the first six months after menarche, all girls were in Risser 1 and 2; in the next six months, the girls were in Risser 2 on average; in the next 12 months, all girls were in Risser 3 and 4; after more than two years from menarche, all girls were in Risser 4. The mean remaining growth height of Risser 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 27.8, 17.3, 4.4 and 1.0 cm respectively for the boys and 14.5, 5.1, 3.1 and 1.1 cm respectively for the girls. The Risser stage was correlated strongly with chronological age (Spearman's rho=0.707 (boy), 0.841 (girl)), bone age (Spearman's rho=0.869 (boy), 0.875 (girl)), duration from menarche (Spearman's rho=0.909) and remaining growth height (Spearman's rho=-0.784 (boy), -0.878 (girl)). Conclusions This study showed that the Risser sign can be useful in assessing skeletal maturity and predicting remaining growth height based on the Risser stage and the other growth indicators.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.31-46
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• 2014

Objectives Forsythiae Fructus treatment has been used for inflammatory and allergic diseases in Korean Medicine. Nevertheless, the mechanism of action and the cellular targets are not understood well. The pathogenesis of allergic diseases are associated with Th2 cytokines such as IL-13, MIP-$1{\alpha}$, IL-13, IL-5, GM-CSF, IL-4, TNF-${\alpha}$ and IL-6, which are secreted by the mast cells. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Forsythiae Fructus extracts (FF) on Th2 cytokines expression and signal transduction in MC/9 mast cells. Methods In the study, MC/9 mast cells were stimulated with DNP-IgE for 24 hours and then treated separately with CsA $10{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ and varying doses of FF for one hour. MC/9 mast cells stimulated with DNP-IgE was the control group, a treatment with CsA was the positive control group and a treatment with varying doses FF was the experimental groups. The mRNA levels of IL-13, IL-5, GM-CSF, IL-4, TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-6 were analyzed with Real-time PCR. The levels of IL-13, MIP-$1{\alpha}$ were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays(ELISA). NFAT, AP-1 and NF-${\kappa}B$ p65 were examined by Western blot analysis. Results 1. FF were observed to suppress the mRNA expression of IL-13, IL-5, GM-CSF, IL-4, TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-6 in comparison to DNP-IgE control group. 2. FF also has inhibited the IL-13, MIP-$1{\alpha}$ production significantly in comparison to DNP-IgE control group. 3. Western blot analysis of transduction factors involving Th2 cytokines expression has revealed a prominent decrease of the mast cell specific transduction factors including NFAT-1, NFAT-2, c-Jun, and NF-${\kappa}B$ p65 but c-Fos. Conclusions In conclusion, the anti-allergenic activities of FF may be strongly related to the regulation of transcription factors NFAT-1, NFAT-2, c-Jun, and NF-${\kappa}B$ p65 causing inhibition of Th2 cytokines in mast cells.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.264-274
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• 2013

This study investigates long-term trends and characteristics of aerosol light scattering coefficient at Seoul and Baengnyeongdo in order to understand aerosol optical and radiative properties around Korea. The analysis period is limited to one year of 2011. First, the aerosol scattering coefficients (${\sigma}_{sp}$) of both sites show strong linear dependence on the $PM_{2.5}$ mass concentrations with significant correlations between both. Further, correlations and sensitivity between ${\sigma}_{sp}$ and $PM_{2.5}$ increase with relative humidity, implying both relationships are strongly dependent upon moisture amounts in the atmosphere. This study applied 3-step careful quality control procedures to the analysis of ${\sigma}_{sp}$ for the insurance of data confidence. For the relationship analysis of extinction coefficients (${\sigma}_{ext}$) to visibility and aerosol optical depth, ${\sigma}_{sp}$ observed at 3 p.m. have been used with help of aerosol absorption coefficients (${\sigma}_{ap}$) in order to remove its dependence upon relative humidity, and also those of rainy period have been excluded. As expected, ${\sigma}_{ext}$ estimated are inversely proportional to visibility observation by eye. Finally, aerosol extinction coefficients have been vertically integrated with an assumption of nearly well-mixed within an e-folding height to determine aerosol optical depth, and compared with those retrieved from sunphotometer. The results show a reasonable agreement in spite of an inherent difference of each definition. We expect these findings would help to eventually understand aerosol radiative forcing and its effect on the regional climate change around Korea.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.310-319
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• 2003

Inflammatory mediators has been recognized as an important role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). IL-17 is increasingly recognized as an important regulator of immune and inflammatory responses, including induction of proinflammatory cytokines and osteoclastic bone resorption. Evidence of the expression and proinflammatory activity of IL-17 has been demonstrated in RA synovium and in animal models of RA. However, the signaling pathways that regulate IL-17 production remain unknown. In the present study, we investigated the role of the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K)-Akt pathway in the regulation of IL-17 production in RA. PBMC were separated from RA (n=24) patients, and stimulated with various agents (anti CD3, anti CD28, PHA, ConA, IL-15). IL-17 levels were determined by sandwich ELISA and RT-PCR. The production of IL-17 was significantly increased in cells treated with anti-CD3 antibody, PHA, IL-15 or MCP-1 (P<0.05). ConA also strongly induced IL-17 production (P<0.001), whereas TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IL-18 or TGF-beta did not. IL-17 was detected in the PBMC of patients with osteoarthritis (OA) but their expression levels were much lower than those of RA PBMC. Anti-CD3 antibody activated the PI3K-Akt pathway and activation of the PI3K-Akt pathway resulted in a pronounced augmentation of nuclear factor kappaB ($NF-{\kappa}B$). IL-17 production by activated PBMC in RA is completely or partially blocked in the presence of $NF-{\kappa}B$ inhibitor PDTC and PI3K-Akt inhibitor, wortmannin and LY294002, respectively. Whereas the inhibition of AP-1 and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1/2 did not affect IL-17 production. These results provide new insight into that PI3K/Akt and $NF-{\kappa}B$ dependent signal transduction pathway could be involved in the overproduction of key inflammatory cytokine, IL-17 in rheumatoid arthritis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.31
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• pp.145-164
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• 1997

Cinema costume can stimulate the public to synchronize with and replicate what they see in the movies. Especially when the public thinks the stars in the movies . Especially when the public thinks the stars in the movies are beautiful or dramatic the styles of cinema costumes powerfully affect them. Thus cinema costume designers quickey become fashion designers. Edith Head who strongly believed cinema costumes to be an effective means of portraying the Character's personality and psychological make-up was an innovative designer whose costumes manifested this belief. She enhanced the character's individual image and distinction for the public through her artistic design in costumes. She adapted a realistic approach but her costumes invariably produced aesthetic ef-fects. Since the Academy Awards added the category of costume design she led the field with 35 nominations and eight oscars during 33 years of her productive work. Edith head was a dominant figure in costume design; her creations were highly renowned as an art form while they gained popularity. The purpose of this study was to reveal the ef-fects of Edith Head's cinema costume designs on fashion. This study was also to emphasize the powerful influence on ashion of cinema costume and cinema costume designers in general. The study was done through literature movies for which she created costumes fashion magazines and Edith Head's original sketches. The influence of Edith Head's costume de-sign on fashion is as follows: 1. She introduced and lead the casual fashion in the 1950's combining simplicity and sophistication. 2. She altered uniforms and reconstructed public clothing for multiple functions. 3. She rearranged high school prom dresses through the movie 'A Place in the Sun" to en-hance characteristic of each gender and the Dandy Look of the 1930's into men's apparel in the 1970's through the movie "The Sting" 4. She expanded the traditional style in the 1940's and became a leader in ecological style. 5. She adapted glitter from astronaut's ap-parel into public clothing. 6. She resturctured Sabrina Pants in the 1960's to accentuate the individuals strength by overcoming one's weakness without minimi-zing it's aesthetic appeal and reintroduced the pants in the 1990's. 7. She introduced elegant negligees to gen-eral public and maintained it in the public do-main. As it is revealed Edith Head's costume de-sign not only impacted the field of fashion dur-ing her time but also is presently influencing modern fashion throughout the world as it is witnessed by repeated reintroduction of her fashion styles. Reviewing her cinema costumes it is concluded that cinema costumes it is concluded that cinema costumes powerfully af-fect the public through a visual channel more than any other routes. Cinema costumes can become the origin of fashion by stimulating the public to synchronize with and replicate what they see in the movies. Since cinema costumes can launch fashion trend it requires further research. Based on what is revealed in this study. it would be beneficial to examine how cinema costumes affect people socially and culturally and how they could provide resources for re-search in fashion trends. It is also the writers opinion that there should be more designers such as Edith head who could lead the field of costume design into the twenty-first century.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.595-603
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• 2016

(E)-3-Phenyl-1-(2-pyrrolyl)-2-propenone (PPP) is a pyrrole derivative of chalcone, in which the B-ring of chalcone linked to ${\beta}$-carbon is replaced by pyrrole group. While pyrrole has been studied for possible Src inhibition activity, chalcone, especially the substituents on the B-ring, has shown pharmaceutical, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidant properties via inhibition of NF-${\kappa}B$ activity. Our study is aimed to investigate whether this novel synthetic compound retains or enhances the pharmaceutically beneficial activities from the both structures. For this purpose, inflammatory responses of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated RAW264.7 cells were analyzed. Nitric oxide (NO) production, inducible NO synthase (iNOS) and tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF-${\alpha}$) mRNA expression, and the intracellular inflammatory signaling cascade were measured. Interestingly, PPP strongly inhibited NO release in a dose-dependent manner. To further investigate this anti-inflammatory activity, we identified molecular pathways by immunoblot analyses of nuclear fractions and whole cell lysates prepared from LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells with or without PPP pretreatment. The nuclear levels of p50, c-Jun, and c-Fos were significantly inhibited when cells were exposed to PPP. Moreover, according to the luciferase reporter gene assay after cotransfection with either TRIF or MyD88 in HEK293 cells, NF-${\kappa}B$-mediated luciferase activity dose-dependently diminished. Additionally, it was confirmed that PPP dampens the upstream signaling cascade of NF-${\kappa}B$ and AP-1 activation. Thus, PPP inhibited Syk, Src, and TAK1 activities induced by LPS or induced by overexpression of these genes. Therefore, our results suggest that PPP displays anti-inflammatory activity via inhibition of Syk, Src, and TAK1 activity, which may be developed as a novel anti-inflammatory drug.

• BMB Reports
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.58-63
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• 2011

Zinc finger (ZNF) proteins play a critical role in cell growth, proliferation, apoptosis, and intracellular signal transduction. In this paper, we cloned and characterized a novel human KRAB-related zinc finger gene, ZNF425, which encodes a protein of 752 amino acids. ZNF425 is strongly expressed in the three month old human embryos and then is almost undetectable in six month old embryos and in adult tissues. An EGFP-ZNF425 fusion protein can be found in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm. ZNF425 appears to act as a transcription repressor. Over-expression of ZNF425 inhibits the transcriptional activities of SRE, AP-1, and SRF. Deletion analysis indicates that the C2H2 domain is the main region responsible for the repression. Our results suggest that the ZNF425 gene is a new transcriptional inhibitor that functions in the MAPK signaling pathway.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.19-29
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to compare the polymerization shrinkage and the compressive strength of composite and compomer cured with two different light sources ; conventional halogen-light curing unit and recently-developed plasma arc curing unit. The 'strain gauge method' was used for determination of polymerization shrinkage and the compressive strength was measured by universal testing machine. The results of the present study can be summarized as follows: 1. Filling materials in polyethylene molds showed the initial expansion in the early phase of polymerization. This was followed by the rapid contraction in volume during the first 60 seconds and gradually diminished as curing process continued. 2. The polymerization shrinkage in tooth samples was generally lower than in the mold samples. 3. The generally lower amount of linear polymerization shrinkage was observed in compomer and plasma arc curing unit group when compared to composite and conventional curing unit. 4. The higher compressive strength values was found in composite groups regardless curing methods. The results of this study strongly support the application of plasma arc system and fluoride-containing compomer in the field of clinical pediatric dentistry claiming its effectiveness in curing the esthetic dental materials and the anticariogenic capacity.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.655-661
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• 2010

To elucidate the mechanism underlying the suppressive regulation of hST8Sia I expression in retinoic acid (RA)-induced SK-MEL-2 cells, we characterized the promoter region of the hST8Sia I gene. Functional analysis of the 5‘-flanking region of the hST8Sia I gene by the transient expression method showed that the -1146 to -646 region, which contains putative binding sites for transcription factors c-Ets-1, CREB, AP-1 and NF-kB, functions as the RA-repressive promoter in SK-MEL-2 cells. Site-directed mutagenesis and ChIP analyses indicated that the NF-kB binding site at -731 to -722 is crucial for the RA-induced repression of hST8Sia I in SK-MEL-2 cells. In addition, the transcriptional activity of hST8Sia I suppressed by RA in SK-MEL-2 cells was strongly inhibited by extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) inhibitor U0126 and protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor GO6976, as determined by RT-PCR and luciferase assay of hST8Sia I promoter containing the -1146 to -646 regions. These results suggest that RA markedly modulates transcriptional regulation of hST8Sia I gene expression through the PKC/ERK signal pathway in SK-MEL-2 cells.