In order to clarify the cause of intracellular ATP dependency on Zn2+ blockade of KATP channels in pancreatic beta cells, we investigated the KATP channel activity during external Zn2+ application using voltage clamp technique. Cultured beta cells were used for patch-clamp experiment. When 3 mM glucose was applied in bath, KATP channel activity was increased transiently by externally applied Zn2+ in the cell-attached mode and was recoverable. The KATP channel activity was, however, consistently increased by Zn2+ application during the 0 mM glucose in bath. Inside-out mode, internally applied Zn2+ elicited no response on the KATP channels. Another divalent cation, Mn2+, didn't have any effect on the KATP channels. Therefore, This effect, so-called external glucose-dependency on Zn2+ blockade of the KATP channels, might be due to intracellular Zn2+ metabolism which induces ATP consumption. This appears to be a mechanism that the Zn2+ blockade of the KATP channels in the pancreatic beta cells depends on the intracellular ATP concentration.
Adenosine Triphosphate* ; Baths ; Glucose ; Insulin-Secreting Cells* ; KATP Channels* ; Metabolism

Acute appendicitis is the most common reason for non-obstetric abdominal surgery during pregnancy. The diagnosis of appendicitis in pregnancy is difficult due to the blunting of signs and symptoms during pregnancy along with a migration of appendiceal location. When appendicitis in pregnancy is suspected, the physician must balance the risk of delaying surgery and incurring the morbidity of delay against acting hastily and performing unnecessary surgery. Eleven patients who underwent appendectomy during pregnancy from April 1995 through February 1997 were reviewed. Seven patients were proven to be acute appendicitis at laparotomy and by subsequent histopathology. There were no significant differences between patients with positive and negative laparotomies regarding frequency of presenting symptoms and signs or laboratory results. Two cases of preform(25 and 31 weeks) deliveries occurred, one with a perforated appendicitis and the other with negative laparotomy.
Appendectomy ; Appendicitis* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Laparotomy ; Pregnancy* ; Unnecessary Procedures

No abstract available.

Partial knee ankylosis is a recognized complication following open operative procedure, trauma and disease processes about the knee. It can result from the formation of intraarticular adhesion and contracture of the capsule as well as the shortening or adhesion of the quadriceps mechanism. Physical therspy and occasionally manipulation under the anesthesia may improve the results, but performed late, these methods will be useless. This is a review of 30 patients who had severe limitation of motion in the knee joint following open operative procedures or trauma about the knee and who were treated by the percutaneous release of adhesions under the arthroscopic control. The following results were obtained; There were 17 males and 13 females, and the age of release ranged from 23 to 69 years old (av. 42.8years old). The interval between arthroscopic adhesiolysis and the last follow-up evaluation ranged from 6 months to 5 years and 7 months(av. 23 months). The interval between the last open operative procedure or trauma and arthroscopic adhesiolysis ranged from 3 months to 4 years(av. 15 months). The average preoperative knee ROM was 38.8°the postoperative ROM was 121.1°and the average final knee ROM at follow-up was 102.6°So the average loss of ROM was 18.5°The arthroscopic adhesiolysis seems to be applied to the various conditions of the partial knee ankylosis and the results are better than the other surgical procedures when it was performed early enough.
Anesthesia ; Ankylosis ; Contracture ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Knee Joint ; Knee ; Male ; Surgical Procedures, Operative

In the treatment of Tb.knee, the preservation of mobility is an important issue, there are many difficulties due to pain and swelling in the trial of early ROM exercise, and various problems such as the recurrence of Tb. lesions, delayed wound healing and draining sinus formation. We analysed 30 cases of Tb. knee treated with synovectomy during 10 years since March, 1979. In Group I (25 cases), early ROM exercise were started about 4 weeks after synovectomy. And in Group II (5 csses), arthroscopic adhesiolysis was performed after minimum 6 month immobilization and chemotherapy following synovectomy. We compared the two Groups and the results were as followings: 1. Male was 15 patients and female was 15 patients, the average age was 28.1 years. 2. The average follow-up period was 18.3 months. 3. In Group I, the ROM exercise was performed before 4 weeks in 9 cases and after 4 weeks in 16 cases postoperatively. The average final ROM was 68.9° 4. Draining sinus formation was in 4 cases in Group I. 5. In Group II, arthroscopic adhesiolysis was performed in 5 cases after synovectomy and chemotherapy for average 8.8 months ranging from 6 to 14 months. 6. The average final ROM at follow-up was 111° in Group II. 7. In a case with the severe involvement of bone and cartilage in Tb. lesion at the synovectomy, ROM was reduced gradually to 50° after arthroscopic adhesiolysis. We could gain ROM of 120° by TKR. 8. Draining sinus formation was not found in Group II.
Cartilage ; Drug Therapy ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Immobilization ; Joints ; Knee ; Male ; Methods ; Recurrence ; Wound Healing

Cyclins are proteins that activate different cyclin-dependent kinases(CDKs) and promote the cell cycles. Their correlations with several human cancers have been identified. Cyclin E, as one of G1 cylins, produces DNA replication through the progression of cell cycle G1 --> S phase. In contrast, cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors(CDKI) bound with cyclin E-cdk2 complex control the cell cycle and inhibit the cell proliferation. P21(WAF1) proteins, which are CDKIs, are transcripted by a p53 gene and participate in the cell cycle inhibition. Variant p53 proteins produced by a mutated p53 gene lose the ability to control of the cell cycle resulting in cell proliferation. This study is aimed to reveal the expressions of cyclin E, p21(WAF1) protein, p53 variant protein in colorectal adenomas and carcinomas, and also reveal their correlations in the process of carcinogenesis. Twenty-one colorectal adenomas or adenomatous polyps, and thirty colorectal carcinoma tissues were obtained by operative resections or endoscopic polypectomies. Immuno histochemical stains of the above-mentioned three proteins and a statistical analysis of their correlations were made. The results were as follows: 1. P21 proteins were expressed in the upper-one third layer of all normal colonic mucosa, but cyclin E and variant p53 protein were not identified. 2. Cyclin E was expressed in 23.8% of adenomas and 76.7% of carcinomas. Variant p53 protein was expressed in 71.4% of adenomas and 83.3% in carcinomas. The degree of positivity of variant p53 expression was correlated with cancer staging. P21 protein was expressed in all adenomas, similar to normal mucosa, but was not expressed in 43.3% of carcinomas. 3. Expression of cyclin E was increased as to the positivity of variant p53 proteins but the correlations of p21 proteins and cyclin E, and p21 proteins and variant p53 proteins were not identified. Cancer staging was not correlated with the expressions of the three proteins. In conclusion, it can be thought that the overexpression of cyclin E and variant p53 proteins, and the loss of p21 proteins are related with the colorectal carcinogenesis. We can also identify the relationship of cyclin E and variant p53 proteins.
Adenoma* ; Adenomatous Polyps ; Carcinogenesis ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Proliferation ; Colon ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Coloring Agents ; Cyclin E* ; Cyclins* ; DNA Replication ; Genes, p53 ; Humans ; Mucous Membrane ; Neoplasm Staging ; Phosphotransferases ; S Phase

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is an hereditary autosomal dominant disease characterized by development of hundreds to thousands of adenomatous polyps in the colon and rectum. The common symptoms are bloody stool, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. The average age at onset of symptoms is 33 years. Because of inevitable progression to malignancy, it is necessary to remove the entire colonic and rectal mucosa. Current surgical options are total proctocolectomy with permanent ileostomy, trans-abdominal colectomy with ileorectal anastomosis (IRA), and restorative proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA). Recently IPAA can give optimum control of colorectal polyposis in FAP patients with an acceptable incidence of postoperative complications and satisfactory functional results. We experienced one case of FAP who had malignacy in the remained rectum after subtotal colectomy. IPAA was done and the result was satisfactory.
Abdominal Pain ; Adenomatous Polyposis Coli* ; Adenomatous Polyps ; Colectomy* ; Colon ; Diarrhea ; Humans ; Ileostomy ; Incidence ; Mucous Membrane ; Postoperative Complications ; Proctocolectomy, Restorative ; Rectum*

The reduction of nasal bone fracture has been done by a simple procedure. The nasal bone fracture was not a serious problem and patients are usually treated as outpatients. However it is causing increased demand for medical services far cosmetic reasons. We studied the nasal bone fracture by retrospective analysis, it comprising 606 patients with nasal bone fractures in various accidents and treated of Chonnam University Hospital from March 1995 to February 1998. We reviewed and analyzed the medical records and facial bone CT scans of 606 patients. The following results were obtained. 1. The prevalent age group was in the third decade, the most common cause was traffic accidents, while nasal swelling, tenderness, nasal deviation and crepitation were examined 2. The classification of nasal bone fracture was done by facial bone CT. Class 1: Nasal tip depressed fracture(16%) Class 2: Displaced nasal bone fracture without depression(30%) Class 3: Displaces nasal bone fracture with depression(12%) Class 4: Comminuted nasal bone fracture (10%) Class 5: Simple fracture of nasal bone and frontal process of maxilla(14%) Class 6: Comminuted fracture of nasal bone and frontal process of maxilla(11%) Class 7: Nasal bone fracture without displacement(9%) .
Accidents, Traffic ; Classification* ; Facial Bones ; Fractures, Comminuted ; Humans ; Jeollanam-do ; Medical Records ; Nasal Bone* ; Outpatients ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

There is increasing evidence that inactivation of tumor-suppressor genes can promote tumor growth. Retinoblastoma protein (pRb) is the product of the retinoblastoma gene located on chromosome 13q14. pRb negatively regulates cell growth when functioning normally. Mutational inactivation of the Rb gene has been observed in retinoblastomas, osteosarcomas and soft tissue sarcomas. Recently, several other human cancers have also been shown to carry abnormalities of the Rb gene. The potential role of the Rb gene in cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) and basal cell caicinomas (BCCs), has not been determined and was the focus of this study. Immunohistochemical expression of pRb in 16 cutaneous SCCs and 17 BCCs was examined. The expression of PCNA was studied in parallel to assess the cellular proliferation rate in these lesions. The pRb and PCNA immunoreactivity were localized to the nuclei of tumor cells. A few pRb and PCNA positive cells were seen in normal squamous epithelium, sebaceous glands, sweat glands and hair follicles. The loss of expression of pRb was seen in 3 of 16 SCCs(18.8%) and 6 of 17 BCCs (35.3%). PCNA immunoreactivity was slightly high in pRb-negative or lower-positive cases. PCNA immunoreactivity was similar to that produced by pRb in some cases. These results suggest that mutational inactivation of the Rb gene may be related to the carcinogenesis of cutaneous SCC and BCC, though the frequency is relatively low.
Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Basal Cell* ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell* ; Cell Proliferation ; Epithelium ; Genes, Retinoblastoma ; Hair Follicle ; Humans ; Osteosarcoma ; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen ; Retinoblastoma Protein* ; Retinoblastoma* ; Sarcoma ; Sebaceous Glands ; Sweat Glands

The antigenic domain of the major surface protein (Nc-p43) of Neospora caninum was examined by polymerase chain reaction of its gene fragments and recombinant expression as GST fusion proteins. The fragments of Nc-p43 were as follow: a total open reading frame (OFR), T; OFR without signal sequence and C-terminal hydrophobic sequence, S; N-terminal 2/3 parts of S, A; C-terminal 2/3 parts, P; N-terminal 1/3 part, X; middle 1/3 part, Y; and C-terminal 1/3 part, Z, respectively. The DNA fragments were cloned into pGEX-4T vector. Recombinant plasmids transformed into Escherichia coli of BL21 pLysS (DE3) strain were induced to express GST or GST fused fragments of Nc-p43 such as 69 kDa protein for T, 66 kDa for S, 52 kDa for A, 53 kDa for P, and 40 kDa proteins for X, Y, and Z, respectively in SDS-PAGE. The Nc-p43 fragments of T, S, and P reacted with a bovine serum of neosporosis while those of A, X, Y, and Z together with GST did not in the western blot. These findings suggest that the antigenic domain of Nc-p43 of N. caninum may be localized in the C-terminal 2/3 parts. Together with A19 clone in SAG1 of Toxoplasma gondii (Nam et al., 1996), the P fragment of Nc-p43 could be used as efficient antigens to diagnose and differentiate those infections with both species.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Animals ; Base Sequence ; Biological Markers/analysis ; Blotting, Western ; Cells, Cultured ; Cercopithecus aethiops ; Coccidiosis/diagnosis ; Neospora/*immunology ; Protozoan Proteins/*analysis/genetics/immunology ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Vero Cells/parasitology