• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.105-110
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• 2021

Objective: Uropathogenic Escherichia coli is known to cause urinary tract infections, and the endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide [LPS]) of this bacterium may cause deficiencies of sperm quality and morphology. In the present study, the effects of LPS on mouse sperm were studied, and the levels of interleukin (IL)-17A and possible changes in testis tissue were evaluated. Methods: LPS of uropathogenic E. coli was extracted using the methanol-chloroform method, followed confirmation using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide electrophoresis. Purified LPS (100 ㎍/kg) or phosphate-buffered saline was injected intraperitoneally into BALB/c mice for 7 days consecutively in the test and control groups, mice were sacrificed on days 3, 7, and 42 after the first injection. Blood was tested for levels of IL-17A using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. Testis tissue and sperm were collected from each mouse and were studied according to standard protocols. Results: The mean sperm count and motility significantly decreased (p=0.03) at 3, 7, and 42 days after the injections. The level of IL-17A in the test groups increased, but not significantly (p=0.8, p=0.11, and p=0.15, respectively). Microscopic studies showed no obvious changes in the morphology of the testis tissue; however, significant changes were observed in the cellular parenchyma on day 42. Conclusion: LPS can stimulate the immune system to produce proinflammatory cytokines, resulting in an immune response in the testis and ultimately leading to deficiency in sperm parameters and testis tissue damage. In addition, the presence of LPS could significantly impair sperm parameters, as shown by the finding of decreased motility.

• BMB Reports
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.106-112
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• 1997

The effect of cryopreservation on extracellular matrix was studied with the ultimate objective of permiting a prediction of the tendency of aorta conduit tissue to calcify following transplantation. Cryopreserved and fresh porcine aorta conduit tissues were extracted using guanidine-hydrochloride (Gdn-HCl) followed by sequential digestion of the tissues with collagenase, elastase, and papain. Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) of the proteoglycans (PGs) were isolated and quantitated. Gdn-HCl extracted about 61% and 62% of the total GAG (proteoqlycan) material from cryopreserved and fresh tissues, respectively. Collagenasesolubilized proteoglycans from Gdn-HCl extracted tissue represented 20% and 13%, respectively, of the total GAGs present in cryopreserved and fresh tissues. Subsequent elastase hydrolysis of collagenase-digested tissue released about 11% of total GAGs from cryopreserved tissue and 16% from fresh tissue. The remaining 8%, from cryopreserved tissue, and 9%, from fresh tissue, of the total GAGs were obtained after using a papain hydrolysis. There was essentially no difference between fresh and cryopreserved tissues in the relative distribution of proteoglycans in the extracts and digestions except in the initial digestion step where more proteoglycans were obtained from collagenase solubilization of cryopreserved tissue than fresh tissue (p<0.05). The histologic status of the fresh and cryopreserved porcine aortic conduit did not differ markedly. The normal tissue architecture was not affected markedly by the cryopreservation procedure as neither alteration of elastic structure, fibrous proteins nor alteration of nuclear distribution or smooth muscle cell morphology was detected. Quantitative tissue mineral studies revealed that the mean calcium content of the cryopreserved aorta conduit tissue $(165{\pm}3\;{\mu}g/g\;wet\;tissue)$ was higher than that of the fresh tissue $(105{\pm}4\;{\mu}g/g\;wet\;tissue)$ $(p<0.05)$. The mean phosphorus content was $703{\pm}35\;{\mu}g$ wet tissue from cryopreserved tissue and $720{\pm}26\;{\mu}g$ wet tissue from fresh tissue. The study indicates that there is no significant alteration in the distribution of PGs in properly cryopreserved tissue, but the total calcium level appears to be increased in tissue cryopreserved by the cryopreservation process used in this study.

• Nutritional Sciences
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.3-10
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• 2000

The present study was aimed at investigating the nutritional and physiological significance of rice bran as a source of dietary fiber as compared to pectin and wheat bran. The parameters for comparison included hypertrophy and morphology of intestines, stool weights and villus marker enzyme activity. For 6 weeks, 10 Sprague Dawley male rats were given one of six experimental diets: 1% cellulose control (CC), 5% pectin (P5), 5% rice bran(RB5), 10% rice bran(RB10), 5% wheat bran (WB5) or 10% wheat bran (WB10) based on the level of dietary fiber. Among experimental groups, food efficiency ratio and body weight gain was comparable. RB10 increased cecal and colonic tissue weights and content weights of cecum and colon as much as P5 did. Stool weight was positiviely correlated with colonic tissue weight (r=0.727, P<0.001), with colonic content weight(r=0.647, P<0.001). Small intestine length increased most in the P5 group, followed by the RB10 group. The scanning electron micrograph of jejunal villi from rice bran groups showed a leaf-shaped, smooth and regular pattern, whereas that of CC group produced a rather long shape. The wheat bran groups showed an irregular leafshaped pattern, and the pectin group typically produced leaf-shaped villi with surface damage. The activities of villus marker enzymes (maltase and sucrase) were higher in the bran-fed rats than in the control or pectin-fed rats. The results indicate than not only dietary fiber amounts but also fiber sources are closely related to the physiology and morphology of the large and small intestines in rats. Rice bran exerted effects on fecal output and trophic effects on the intestines similar to those of pectin.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.41-46
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• 2014

In this study, the vegetative and reproductive morphology and anatomy of two Hawaiian endemic Portulaca species were examined. Specifically, P. molokiniensis and P. sclerocarpa were compared to closely related species in the genus. The comparisons were both qualitative and quantitative, using characteristics of leaves, stems, roots, and fruits. Tissue organizations of vegetative and reproductive parts of the plants were assessed using microtechnique procedures, statistical analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The most notable features of these two species were (1) the size and frequency of stomata in P. molokiniensis, and (2) the large number of sclerenchymatous cell layers in the thickest fruit walls of P. sclerocarpa. These findings may imply that stomata development in P. molokiniensis and thick fruit wall development in P. sclerocarpa are evolved features of survival. In particular, the development of thickened walls in indehiscent fruits likely has evolutionary implications of ecological tolerance for better adaptation.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.323-328
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• 2004

The development of group-specific tissue probability maps (TPM) provides a priori knowledge for better result of cerebral tissue classification with regard to the inter-ethnic differences of inter-subject variability. We present sequential procedures of group-specific TPM and evaluate the age effects in the structural differences of TPM. We investigated 100 healthy volunteers with high resolution MRI scalming. The subjects were classified into young (60, 25.92+4.58) and old groups (40, 58.83${\pm}$8.10) according to the age. To avoid any bias from random selected single subject and improve registration robustness, average atlas as target for TPM was constructed from skull-stripped whole data using linear and nonlinear registration of AIR. Each subject was segmented into binary images of gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid using fuzzy clustering and normalized into the space of average atlas. The probability images were the means of these binary images, and contained values in the range of zero to one. A TPM of a given tissue is a spatial probability distribution representing a certain subject population. In the spatial distribution of tissue probability according to the threshold of probability, the old group exhibited enlarged ventricles and overall GM atrophy as age-specific changes, compared to the young group. Our results are generally consistent with the few published studies on age differences in the brain morphology. The more similar the morphology of the subject is to the average of the population represented by the TPM, the better the entire classification procedure should work. Therefore, we suggest that group-specific TPM should be used as a priori information for the cerebral tissue classification.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.326-331
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• 2008

The purpose of this work is to develope sodium-containing nonstoichiometric apatitic coatings on solid substrate. The apatitic coatings prepared at different concentrations of sodium salt indicated that the presence of sodium ions exerted significant effects on the physicochemical properties of the apatitic coating including surface morphology, chemical state, and Ca/P ratio. The variation of these properties was sustained up to 0.01 mM of sodium ion concentration. The ratio of calcium to phosphorus was varied from 2.18 to 2.03 which indicated the apatitic coating prepared in this study was calcium-rich nonstoichiometric apatite. The structure of all the samples appeared to be low crystalline. In the presence of sodium ion within the apaptitic coating, the adhesion of human osteoblast-like SaOS-2 cells was significantly promoted. On the other hand, the proliferation of the cells on the apatitic coatings was decreased with the increase of sodium ions. This reverse response of SaOS-2 cells indicates that the interaction between SaOS-2 and apatitic surface triggered considerable changes in intracellular mechanisms including cellular signal transductions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.65-65
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• 2015

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.65-73
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• 2007

Chitosan, fibroin, and hydroxyapatite are natural biopolymers and bioceramics that are biocompatible, biodegradable, and resorb able for biomedical applications. The highly porous, chitosan-based, bioceramic hybrid composite, chitosanlfibroin-hydroxyapatite composite, was prepared by a novel method using thermally induced phase separation. The composite had a porosity of more than 94% and exhibited two continuous and different morphologies: an irregularly isotropic pore structure on the surface and a regularly anisotropic multilayered structure in the interior. In addition, the composite was composed of an interconnected open pore structure with a pore size below a few hundred microns. The chemical composition, pore morphology, microstructure, fluid absorptivity, protein permeability, and mechanical strength were investigated according to the composition rate of bioceramics to biopolymers for use in tissue engineering. The incorporation of hydroxyapatite improved the fluid absorptivity, protein permeability, and tenacity of the composite while maintaining high porosity and a suitable microstructure.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.63-68
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• 2013

The fruiting body of honey mushroom, Armillaria gallica, was collected from Gastrodia elata cultivated fields. Pure cultures were isolated from fruiting body tissue of the mushrooms, and cultured on MCM (mushroom complete medium) or PDA (potato dextrose agar) medium. Then, 12 different types of mycelial growth characteristics such as growth rate, colony morphology and rhizomorph formation were obtained. The vitality of the mycelial growth and rhizomorph formation of the fruiting body culture isolates were better on MCM than PDA, suggesting that the optimal culture medium for A. gallica mycelia was MCM. To observe the feature of colony morphology, the subculture of isolates were incubated on MCM. Consequently, we could find the segregated or differentiated colony morphology from isolate type 11 that was similar morphology to isolate type 12. For phylogenetic analysis of the 12 isolates, RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA) were performed. The isolate type 12 was not only shown different band patterns of RAPD variation in other 11 isolates, but also commercial strain known as Chunmagyun No. 1. Among the tissue culture isolates of fruiting, strains with better mycelial growth characteristics than Chunmagyun No. 1 were selected. We expect that the new strain can be substituted to commercial strain Chunmagyun No. 1.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.279-289
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• 2014

Objective: The aims of this article are to differentiate soft tissue masses showing low signal intensity on T2-weighted images (T2WIs) according to the histopathologic findings. Conclusion: To know relatively small numbered soft tissue masses with low signal intensities on T2WIs adding characteristic location, morphology, signal intensities on other sequences might be helpful for differential diagnosis of mostly non-specific soft tissue tumors on MRI.