• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제29권10호
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• pp.1398-1406
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• 2016

In general, the seminiferous tubule basement membrane (STBM), comprising laminin, collagen IV, perlecan, and entactin, plays an important role in self-renewal and spermatogenesis of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) in the testis. However, among the diverse extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins constituting the STBM, the mechanism by which each regulates SSC fate has yet to be revealed. Accordingly, we investigated the effects of various ECM proteins on the maintenance of the undifferentiated state of SSCs in pigs. First, an extracellular signaling-free culture system was optimized, and alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity and transcriptional regulation of SSC-specific genes were analyzed in porcine SSCs (pSSCs) cultured for 1, 3, and 5 days on non-, laminin- and collagen IV-coated Petri dishes in the optimized culture system. The microenvironment consisting of glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF)-supplemented mouse embryonic stem cell culture medium (mESCCM) (GDNF-mESCCM) demonstrated the highest efficiency in the maintenance of AP activity. Moreover, under the established extracellular signaling-free microenvironment, effective maintenance of AP activity and SSC-specific gene expression was detected in pSSCs experiencing laminin-derived signaling. From these results, we believe that laminin can serve as an extracellular niche factor required for the in vitro maintenance of undifferentiated pSSCs in the establishment of the pSSC culture system.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.127-131
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• 2007

Embryonic germ (EG) cells are undifferentiated stern cells isolated from cultured primordial germ cells (PGC). These cells share many characteristics with embryonic stem cells including morphology and pluripotency. Undifferentiated porcine EG cell lines demonstrating capacities of differentiation both in vitro and in vivo have been established. Since EG cells can be cultured indefinitely in an undifferentiated state, whereas somatic cells in primary culture are often unstable and have limited lifespan, EG cells may provide inexhaustible source of karyoplasts in nuclear transfer (NT). In this study the efficiencies of NT using porcine EG and fetal fibroblast cells were compared. Two different techniques were used to perform NT. With conventional NT procedure (Roslin method) involving fusion of donor cells with enucleated oocytes, the rates of development to the blastocyst stage in EG and somatic cell NT were 16.8% (59/351) and 14.5% (98/677), respectively. In piezo-driven microinjection (Honolulu method) of donor nuclei into enucleated oocytes, the rates of blastocyst formation in EG and somatic cell NT were 11.9% (15/126) and 9.4% (9/96), respectively. Regardless of NT methods used in this study, EG cell NT gave rise to comparable rate of blastocyst development to somatic cell NT. Overall, EG cells can be used as karyoplast donor in NT procedure, and embryos can be produced by EG cell NT that may be used as an alternative to conventional somatic cell NT.

• 가정과삶의질연구
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• 제10권1호통권19호
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• pp.207-228
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• 1992

This study investigated the relationship between personality characteristics of individual and adjustment in the mid-life. The subjects of the study consisted of 374 married persons(185 men and 189 women) who live in Seoul and are 40 to 50 years old and whose last child is in middle school. Bem's short form BSRI, Rotter(1966)'s Internal-External Scale and Hayes & Stinnett(1977)'s MYLSS were used as measurements tools. The major results of the study were summarized as follows ; 1) While sex-role identity of middle aged men appeared in the follwing order ; Androgynous, masculine, undifferentiated, feminine, sec-role identity of middle aged women appeared in the following order ; Undifferentiated, androgynous, feminine, masculine. Both men and women had the moderate scores on the locus of control. The middle aged expressed a moderate level of life satisfaction with middle aged men reporting significantly a higher life satisfaction than did women. 2) Socio-demographic variables such as age, education, occuption and income have turned out to be significant on the life satisfaction of middle aged men. As for the life satisfacton of middle aged women, age, education, husband's occuption and religon had significant influences However, employment status of women, family structure, marital duration, number of child, status of last child, status of first child had no significant influences on Mid-life satisfaction. 3) Mid-life satisfaction of men and women was influenced significantly by sex-role identity and internal-external locus of control. Those men described as masculine and those women androgynous in the sex-role identity had the highest life satisfaction. On the other hand those of undifferentiated in the sex-role identity had the lowest life satisfaction. High levels of internal control were associated with high levels of life satisfaction. 4) The variables affecting the life satisfaction of middle aged men and women were education, income, sex-role identity, internal control. These 4 variables explained 27% of the life satisfaction of middle aged men and 24% of the life satisfaction of middle aged women.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• 제31권8호
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• pp.811-815
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• 1998

원발성 심장종양은 대단히 희귀하며 원발성 심장종양가운데 25%정도가 악성종양이다. 저자들은 희귀한 원발성 좌심방 미분화 육종을 보고하는 바이다. 환자는 28세 여자로 임신32주에 호흡곤란을 주소로 내원하였다. 심초 음파와 자기공명영상에서 좌심방의 80-90%를 차지하는 종양이 발견되어 점액종으로 진단하고 응급수술을 시행 하였다. 수술은 먼저 제왕절개술을 통하여 태아를 분만후에 체외순환하에 좌심방 절개를 하였다. 좌심방내의 심내막일부를 포함하여 종양절제후에 병리소견상 미분화 육종으로 판명되어 방사선치료후 현재 추적관찰중이다.

• 대한임상검사과학회지
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• 제39권3호
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• pp.241-248
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• 2007

To clarify the growth mechanisms of thyroid tumors, we investigated apoptotic cells in 88 thyroid tumors, consisting of 24 adenomas, 58 papillary thyroid carcinomas, and 6 undifferentiated carcinoma, using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate digoxigenin-nick end labeling (TUNEL). The cell proliferating marker was also evaluated immunohistochemically using the monoclonal antibody to Ki-67 antigen (MIB-1) in the same tumors. The apoptosis was expressed as a percentage of the TUNEL-positive cells in the tumor cells, and a proliferating marker, being the percentage of Ki-67 positive cells, was counted up each tumor. The statistical analysis were used analysis of variance (ANOVA) and student's t-test that were analyze the differences in the rate of each histological types of the thyroid tumors. The overall level of apoptosis was extremely low in all histological types of the thyroid tumors analyzed, the mean apoptosis being $0.31{\pm}0.40$ in adenoma, $0.55{\pm}0.48 $in papillary thyroid carcinoma, and $4.60{\pm}3.27$ in undifferentiated carcinoma. The Ki-67 protein in the thyroid tumor subtypes was significantly lower in adenoma and papillary carcinoma, at $2.45{\pm}2.99$ and $6.27{\pm}4.42$, respectively, than that in undifferentiated carcinoma at $26.47{\pm}23.88$ (p<0.0001). There was no correlation between clinicopathological factors and apoptosis or Ki-67 in papillary thyroid carcinoma. In conclusion, our findings suggest that apoptosis occurs infrequently in thyroid tumor, and that cell proliferating maker Ki-67 markedly differs according to the thyroid tumor subtypes. Moreover, the ratio between proliferating cells and apoptotic cells may reflect thyroid tumor progression.

• 한국동물생명공학회지
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• 제34권2호
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• pp.93-99
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• 2019

Telomeres are known as a specialized region in the end of chromosomes to protect DNA destruction, but their lengths are shortened by repetition of cell division. This telomere shortening can be preserved or be elongated by telomerase and TERT expression. Although a certain condition in the cells may affect to the cellular and molecular characteristics, the effect of differentiation induction to telomere length and telomerase activity in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has been less studied. Therefore, the present study aimed to uncover periodical alterations of telomere length, telomerase activity and TERT expression in the dental pulp-derived MSCs (DP-MSCs) under condition of differentiation inductions into adipocytes and osteoblasts on a weekly basis up to 3 weeks. Shortening of telomere was significantly (p < 0.05) identified from early-middle stages of both differentiations in comparison with undifferentiated DP-MSCs by non-radioactive chemiluminescent assay and qRT-PCR method. Telomere length in undifferentiated DP-MSCs was 10.5 kb, but the late stage of differentiated DP-MSCs which can be regarded as the adult somatic cell exhibited 8.1-8.6 kb. Furthermore, the relative-quantitative telomerase repeat amplification protocol or western blotting presented significant (p < 0.05) decrease of telomerase activity since early stages of differentiations or TERT expression from middle stages of differentiations than undifferentiated state, respectively. Based on these results, it is supposed that shortened telomere length in differentiated DP-MSCs was remained along with prolonged differentiation durations, possibly due to weakened telomerase activity and TERT expression. We expect that the present study contributes on understanding differentiation mechanism of MSCs, and provides standardizing therapeutic strategies in clinical application of MSCs in the animal biotechnology.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• 제32권2호
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• pp.105-110
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• 2008

The endogenous retrovirus-like elements (HERVs) found on several human chromosomes are somehow involved in gene regulation, especially during the transcription level. HERV-H, located on chromosome Xp22, may regulate gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) in connection with diverse diseases. By suppression subtractive hybridization screen on SV40-immortalized lung fibroblast (WI-38 VA-13), we discovered that expression of HERV-HX2, a clustered HERV-H sequence on chromosome X, was upregulated in immortalized lung cells, compared to that of normal cells. Expression of HERV-HX2 was then analyzed in various cell lines, including normal somatic cells, cancer cells, SV40-immortalized cells, and undifferentiated and differentiated human embryonic stem cells. Expression of HERV-HX2 was specifically upregulated in continuously-dividing cells, such as cancer cells and SV40-immortalized cells. Especially, HERV-HX2 in HeLa cells was highly upregulated during the S phase of the cell cycle. Similar results were obtained in hES cells, in which undifferentiated cells expressed more HERV-HX2 mRNA than differentiated hES cells, including neural precursor and endothelial progenitor cells. Taken together, our results suggest that HERV-HX2 is upregulated in cancer cells and undifferentiated hES cells, whereas downregulated as differentiation progress. Therefore, we assume that HERV-HX2 may playa role on proliferation of cancer cells as well as differentiation of hES cells in the transcriptional level.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• 제32권2호
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• pp.135-140
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• 2008

Recent studies on nuclear transfer and induced pluripotent stem cells have demonstrated that differentiated somatic cells can be returned to the undifferentiated state by reversing their developmental process. These epigenetically reprogrammed somatic cells may again be differentiated into various cell types, and used for cell replacement therapies through autologous transplantation to treat many degenerative diseases. To date, however, reprogramming of somatic cells into undifferentiated cells has been extremely inefficient. Hence, reliable markers to identify the event of reprogramming would assist effective selection of reprogrammed cells. In this study, a transgene construct encoding enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) under the regulation of human Oct4 promoter was developed as a reporter for the reprogramming of somatic cells. Microinjection of the transgene construct into pronuclei of fertilized mouse eggs resulted in the emission of green fluorescence, suggesting that the undifferentiated cytoplasmic environment provided by fertilized eggs induces the expression of EGFP. Next, the transgene construct was introduced into human embryonic fibroblasts, and the nuclei from these cells were transferred into enucleated porcine oocytes. Along with their in vitro development, nuclear transfer embryos emitted green fluorescence, suggesting the reprogramming of donor nuclei in nuclear transfer embryos. The results of the present study demonstrate that expression of the transgene under the regulation of human Oct4 promoter coincides with epigenetic reprogramming, and may be used as a convenient marker that non-invasively reflects reprogramming of somatic cells.

• 여성건강간호학회지
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.190-200
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• 2002

The purposes of this study were to understand the sex role identity and the meaning in life(MIL) of matriarchs and analyze their relationships to offer basic data for effective nursing strategies for improving MIL. The data for this study was collected from the 10th of August to the 30th of November, 2000. The subjects were women registered in an occupational training program for unemployed matriarchs which is held in the Working Women's Center in Busan. The measurement tools of this study were MIL(unpublished)developed by researchers and sex role inventory designed by Kim Deuk Ran(1992). The results of this study were as follows: 1.Sex role identities of matriarchs were feminity 13.7%, masculinity 13.4%, androgyny 37.8% and undifferentiated 35.1%. 2. The mean MIL for matriarchs was $173.46{\pm}16.09$. 3. The levels of MIL were 57.2% of the subjects felt a loss of meaning in life, i. e. existential vacuum, 42.8% were in pursuit of meaning but had not discovered it completely and 6.0% felt they had established meaning in life. 4.There were significant differences in MIL levels, concurrent to 4 types of sex role identities(F=11.93, P=.000). And according to Scheffe's post test, between feminity and masculinity, feminity and androgyny, masculinity and the undifferentiated, androgyny and the undifferentiated, there were significant differences. From the results of this study, most matriarchs felt loss of meaning in life, i. e. existential vacuum, and the group with masculine sex role identity had the highest level of MIL. In conclusion, the factors related to masculine sex role identity are necessary to develop nursing strategies for improving levels of MIL.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.120-126
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• 2004

Sinonasal Undifferentiated Carcinoma (SNUC) is a very rare, highly aggressive malignant tumor of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses. SNUC tends to present with advanced-stage disease, often with intracranial invasion. It requires an aggressive multimodality therapy that includes surgical resection. A cure rate of less than 20% is generally reported in the literature, with most patients dying within 1 year of onset of the disease. Three patients diagnosed as SNUC were treated at the Yeungnam University Medical Center between the years 2000 and 2003 were analyzed retrospectively. All patients presented with the disease very advanced. The three cases were given chemotherapy or chemotherapy with radiotherapy. Two patients died of the disease, surviving only 6 and 11 months following treatment, respectively. We did a follow-up on just the one remaining case with incomplete controlled disease for 27 months. The overall prognosis of SNUC is very poor. We consider that more intensive multimodality therapies are recommended for all patients with SNUC.