Akabane, Aino and Chuzan virus are arthropod-borne (arbo)viruses mainly associated with reproductive failures in cattle. We investigated apoptosis in Vero cells (C-1586) infected with Akabane, Aino and Chuzan virus. The fragmentation of chromosomal DNA was simultaneously detected with the progress of cytopathic effect from 48 hr to 72 hr post infection, depending on viruses. Although the treatment of cycloheximide blocked apoptosis in Vero cells infected with three viruses, actinomycin D did not prevent DNA oligomerization, thus indicating that de novo viral protein synthesis is critical for viral apoptosis. In addition, the activation of caspase-3 was also detected in Vero cells by indirect fluorescent assay. From the present results, it is of future interest whether apoptotic characteristics of these viruses are related to pathogenecity in vivo.
Animals ; Apoptosis/*physiology ; Bunyaviridae/*physiology ; Caspase 3 ; Caspases/metabolism ; Cercopithecus aethiops ; Cytopathogenic Effect, Viral/*physiology ; DNA Fragmentation/physiology ; Dactinomycin ; Enzyme Activation ; Orbivirus/*physiology ; Vero Cells

Vector-borne arboviruses produce mild to severe symptoms in domestic animals. Bovine ephemeral fever (BEF), Akabane, Aino, and Chuzan virus have been primarily attributed to reproductive disorders or febrile diseases in cattle, and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is mainly associated with reproductive failures in swine. We investigated antibody titers from domestic swine against four bovine arboviruses (BEF, Akabane, Aino, and Chuzan virus) and from cattle against JEV in Korea. While the positive rates for Akabane and BEF were 37.4% and 15.7%, the positive incidence of Chuzan and Aino were relatively low, with positive rates of 3.04% and 0.4%, respectively, based on a virus neutralization assay. Antibody titers against more than one virus were also frequently detected in domestic swine. The incidence of JEV was 51.3% among domestic cattle. In addition, one positive case was detected in the thoracic fluids from 35 aborted calves, based on the hemagglutination inhibition test. Our results indicate that swine are susceptible hosts of bovine arboviruses without showing clinical symptoms in a natural environment. Moreover, we confirmed that JEV could be associated with reproductive failure in pregnant cattle, as were other vector-borne bovine arboviruses assessed in this study.
Animals ; Antibodies, Viral/blood ; Cattle ; Cattle Diseases/*epidemiology/*virology ; Encephalitis Virus, Japanese/*immunology ; Encephalitis, Japanese/blood/epidemiology/*veterinary/virology ; Ephemeral Fever/blood/*epidemiology/virology ; Ephemeral Fever Virus, Bovine/*immunology ; Hemagglutination Tests ; Incidence ; Korea/epidemiology ; Neutralization Tests ; Swine ; Swine Diseases/*epidemiology/*virology

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) envelope glycoprotein (gp51/gp30T-), consisting of BLV gp51 and BLV gp30 that lacked its C-terminal transmembrane domain, was expressed in insect cells under the control of the baculovirus polyhedron promoter. Recombinant BLV gp51/gp30T- secreted from insect cells was determined by immunofluorescence, enzyme-linked immunosorbent and western blot assays using a BLV-specific monoclonal antibody and BLV-positive bovine antibodies. An agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test using gp51/gp30T- as the antigen for the detection of BLV antibodies in serum was developed and compared to traditional AGID, which uses wild type BLV antigen derived from fetal lamb kidney cells. AGID with the recombinant BLV gp51/gp30T- was relatively more sensitive than traditional AGID. When the two methods were tested with bovine sera from the field, the recombinant BLV gp51/gp30T- and traditional antigen had a relative sensitivity of 69.8% and 67.4%, respectively, and a relative specificity of 93.3% and 92.3%. These results indicated that the recombinant BLV gp51/gp30T- is an effective alternative antigen for the diagnosis of BLV infection in cattle.
Agar ; Animals ; Antibodies, Viral/blood ; Antigens, Viral/immunology ; Baculoviridae/*metabolism ; Cattle ; Cell Line ; Enzootic Bovine Leukosis/blood/immunology ; Gene Expression Regulation, Viral/*physiology ; Immunodiffusion/methods/*veterinary ; Kidney/cytology ; Leukemia Virus, Bovine/genetics/*metabolism ; Molecular Biology ; Sheep ; Viral Envelope Proteins/genetics/*metabolism

OBJECTIVES: This study was to assess the status and awareness of excessive heat exposure among agricultural workers. METHODS: We selected a total of 90 farmers from a villages of Gyeongju-si, during August, 2015. We carried out the temperature measurement for nine times and derived Health Index (HI) and Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) index. We compared the HI, WBGT and excessive heat warnings. Status of high temperature exposure, lifestyle, medical history, and awareness about excessive health related exposure illness assessed using survey questionnaires. RESULTS: The matching rates between the WBGT and the HI during excessive heat warning were high, but when it was a non-excessive heat warning, there were days of excessive HI or WBGT. Out of 90 farmers surveyed, 78 cases (86.7%) were in their 60s and older age group. Slightly more than two third (71.1%) farmers were farming in the dawn-morning (71.1%), and the daily working hours were less than 4 hours (54.4 %), but only 23.3% among farmers took regular breaks. Of total, 14.4% farmers experienced excessive heat exposure related illness in order of tiredness, lethargy, dizziness, headaches, and sweating. Overall, the awareness of the danger for excessive heat and the heat wave warnings were high at 70.0% and 74.4%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Politically, the excessive heat warnings should not be taken into account the simple temperature measurement but, have to consider WBGT and HI standards at the same time. Farmers need to be promoted and educated to prevent the excessive heat related illness by periodically increasing their rest time during farming.
Agriculture ; Dizziness ; Farmers* ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Headache ; Hot Temperature* ; Humans ; Infrared Rays ; Lethargy ; Life Style ; Sweat ; Sweating

Secondary brain insults such as cerebral compression, hypoxia, and ischemia materially influence the outcome of human traumatic brain injury(TBI). Memory dysfunction following such injury is a common clinical observation, but the pathologic substrate underlying this loss of function has not been well-characterized. In the present study, we examined the effects of immediate hemodynamic change resulting from moderate closed head injury on memory dysfunction, neuronal cell loss and synaptic loss in the CA1 sector of the hippocampus. A modified Morris Water Maze(MWM) memory paradigm was used to assess memory retention in rats for five consecutive days before and for two days after injury. A total of 24 Sprague-Dawley rats, regardless of sex, weighing 250-330gm, were used, and were divided into four groups : sham control, head injury-no treatment(group 1), head injury-hypotension(group 2), and head injury-resuscitation(group 3). After injury, latency time to invisible platform in spatial navigation was longer in the head injury-hypotension group(group 2) than in the other injury groups(p<0.05). At the completion of cognitive testing, the animals were sacrificed and neuronal cell loss and synaptic loss in the hippocampal CA1 sector were examined with H and E staining and immunohistochemical staining to synaptophysin. The number of pyramidal neurons in the hippocampal CA1 sector per 5000nm2 was lower in the injury groups(20.3+/-3.0 in group 1, 20.2+/-3.4 in group 2, 19.8+/-2.1 in group 3, mean+/-standard deviation) than in the sham control group(23.7+/-3.5). The density of immunohistochemical staining to synaptophysin tended to be less in groups 1 and 2 than in the sham control group, and tended to increase to the level of the sham control group in group 3. The present study showed that during a period of acute TBI, neuronal and/or synaptic loss in the hippocampal CA1 sector may be responsible for transient memory disturbance and that to prevent neurologic deficit after TBI, active therapy or stabilization of the hemodynamic state is important.
Animals ; Anoxia ; Brain ; Brain Injuries* ; Head ; Head Injuries, Closed ; Hemodynamics* ; Hippocampus* ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Memory* ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Neurons ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Synapses ; Synaptophysin

No abstract available.
Brain* ; Krukenberg Tumor* ; Neoplasm Metastasis*

Sarcoidosis is a systemic inflammatory disease characterized by non-caseating granulomas of unknown origin. Of the fewer than 6% of sarcoidosis cases that occur in subcutaneous tissue, most occur on the face or forearm, but rarely in the toe. A 33-year-old man was admitted to our institute with a 2-cm mass on his chin and a 0.5-cm mass on his right fourth toe. Based on preoperative ultrasonography, epidermal cysts were suspected, and histopathological tests were performed after removing the masses. Histopathologically, the chin and toe tissue samples showed chronic granulomatous inflammation, without necrosis, indicative of sarcoidosis. Chest computed tomography revealed a large number of small nodules in both the interlobar fissures and the peribronchial area, and a large number of small lymph nodes in both the hilar and interlobar node areas. On the basis of the histopathologic and imaging findings, the patient was diagnosed with sarcoidosis. This very rare case of sarcoidosis, occurring in both chin and toe, suggests that thorough evaluation is needed to find other mass when we find sarcoidosis in facial area.
Adult ; Chin* ; Epidermal Cyst ; Forearm ; Granuloma ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Lymph Nodes ; Necrosis ; Sarcoidosis* ; Subcutaneous Tissue ; Thorax ; Toes* ; Ultrasonography

No abstract available.
Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Analyzing the association between multiple SNPs and the disease outcomes will provide new insight into the disease's etiology. However, this presents an analytic difficulty due to the large number of SNPs and the complex relationships among them. We proposed using the mixed model approach to identify the significant multi-locus genotypes and the high-order gene-to-gene interactions. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We described the mixed effects model and applied this approach to real world data. For the purpose of these analyses, we examine the association of four types of SNPs (AGT5, APOB, CETP3 and ACE6) with the lipid profiles and the measures related with cardiovascular disease. We used data from 672 healthy individuals (283 males and 389 females) who were without cardiovascular diseases. RESULTS: The results of our analysis suggested that there were significant random genotype patterns and genotype groups according to the gender effect on the lipid profiles. In other words, there was significant variability across the genotype groups because of the effect of gender on the lipid profiles. CONCLUSION: The mixed model approach provided a flexible statistical framework for controlling potential confounding variables and for identifying a significant genetic contributions that may come about through the effects of multi-locus genotypes or through an interaction between the genotype and environmental variables (e.g. gender) with the variations in quantitative traits (e.g. lipid profiles). There were significant genetic contributions to the variability in the lipid profiles, and these were explained by the 4 SNPs described in our real data.
Apolipoproteins B ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Confounding Factors (Epidemiology) ; Genotype ; Humans ; Male ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide

Pedicle screw instrumentation has proven to be reliable and effective in the surgical management of lumbosacral disorders, yet the appropriateness in the thoracic spine is not known. To evaluate the accuracy of the pedicle screw placement in the surgical management of the thoracic spinal disorders and to establish its risks and benefits, a prospective study was designed. One hundred and two thoracic pedicle screws in 22 consecutively treated patients were investigated after surgery by computed tomography scans. Twenty-one(20.5%) screws penetrated the pedicle cortex or the vertebral body anterior cortex. Three screws penetrated the medial cortex of the pedicle by the averages of 2mm to a maximum 4mm. Fifteen screws(14.7%) penetrated laterally by an average of 1.5mm. There were 3 screws of caudal penetration. The screws inserted at T1-T8 revelaed a higher penetration rate than those inserted at T9-T12(35.7% versus 14.7%)(p<0.05). Hardware failures causing the preoperative defor-mity were seen in a patient to whom half the cephalad screws were laterally misplaced. However, there were no major neurologic complications. Although segmental pedicle screw fixation of the thoracic spine requires meticulous measures and considerable experience, it was therefore can be considered as a safe and effective method for stabilizing the thoracic spine.
Humans ; Prospective Studies ; Risk Assessment ; Spine*