PURPOSE: To measure the hypermethylation of four genes in primary tumors and paired plasma samples to determine the feasibility of gene promoter hypermethylation markers for detecting breast cancer in the plasma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DNA was extracted from the tumor tissues and peripheral blood plasma of 34 patients with invasive breast cancer, and the samples examined for aberrant hypermethylation in cyclin D2, retinoic acid receptor beta (RARbeta), twist and high in normal-1 (HIN-1) genes using methylation-specific PCR (MSP), and the results correlated with the clinicopathological parameters. RESULTS: Promoter hypermethylation was detected at high frequency in the primary tumors for cyclin D2 (53%), RARbeta (56%), twist (41%) and HIN-1 (77%). Thirty-three of the 34 (97%) primary tumors displayed promoter hypermethylation in at least one of the genes examined. The corresponding plasma samples showed hyperme thylation of the same genes, although at lower frequencies (6% for cyclin D2, 16% for RARbeta, 36% for twist, and 54% for HIN-1). Overall, 22 of the 33 (67%) primary tumors with hypermethylation of at least one of the four genes also had abnormally hypermethylated DNA in their matched plasma samples. No significant relationship was recognized between any of the clinical or pathological parameters (tumor size, axillary lymph node metastasis, stage, or Ki-67 labeling index) with the frequency of hypermethylated DNA in the primary tumor or plasma. CONCLUSION: The detection of aberrant promoter hypermethylation of cancer-related genes in the plasma may be a useful tool for the detection of breast cancer.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Cyclin D2 ; DNA ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Methylation ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Plasma* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Receptors, Retinoic Acid

Among the various sacral fixation techniques used to enhance the strength of fixation, S1 screw placement in the sacrum is the most common method. Ventrolateral S1 screw placement through the sacral ala has been used alone or in combination with a medially-directed screw in the S1 pedicle to enhance pull-out resistance. Although the anatomical safe zone was identified, there is a risk of neurovascular injury particularly when the enhancement of fixation strength requires bicortical purchase. The purpose of this cadaver study is to re-evaluate the previous anatomical safe zone when using an S1 screw laterally directed toward the sacral ala. After dissecting the lateral safe zone of sacral ala in 12 human cadavers, K-wires were intentionally inserted deep into this zone. Each "safe" angle to the center of the safe zone was measured and the degree of risk to neurovascular structures was recorded on the basis of the distance in millimeters from the tips of the penetrating K-wires. The results are as follows: the mean safe angle to the center of the anatomical safe zone was 33.5degrees+/-9.3(20-50). Between 20 and 50 degrees, the range of safe angle was too wide. The distance between the tip of the K-wire and the sacroiliac joint, lumbosacral trunk, obturator nerve was 4.8mm+/-1(4-7.5), 6.8mm+/-1(6-9.5) and 6.8mm+/-3.2(0-10) respectively, while the anterior height between sacral cortex and lumbosacral trunk, internal iliac vein was 0mm and 2.1mm+/-1.8(0-5) respectively. In 29% of cases, the iliolumbar artery, the first branch of the internal iliac artery, abnormally crossed the middle of the safe zone. The sacroiliac joint, lumbosacral trunk, internal iliac vein and iliolumbar artery were at risk from laterally-directed S1 screws. This study shows that bicortical placement of S1 screws into the sacral ala presents unnecessary risks to neurovascular structures. It is concluded that the previous anatomical safe zone for bicortical S1 screw placement into the sacral ala was not surgically safe, and when lumbosacral fixation surgery is planned, operative techniques other than bicortical screw placement should be considered.
Arteries ; Cadaver ; Humans ; Iliac Artery ; Iliac Vein ; Intention ; Obturator Nerve ; Sacroiliac Joint ; Sacrum

The emergence of Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT), a chatbot developed by OpenAI, has garnered interest in the application of generative artificial intelligence (AI) models in the medical field. This review summarizes different generative AI models and their potential applications in the field of medicine and explores the evolving landscape of Generative Adversarial Networks and diffusion models since the introduction of generative AI models. These models have made valuable contributions to the field of radiology. Furthermore, this review also explores the significance of synthetic data in addressing privacy concerns and augmenting data diversity and quality within the medical domain, in addition to emphasizing the role of inversion in the investigation of generative models and outlining an approach to replicate this process. We provide an overview of Large Language Models, such as GPTs and bidirectional encoder representations (BERTs), that focus on prominent representatives and discuss recent initiatives involving language-vision models in radiology, including innovative large language and vision assistant for biomedicine (LLaVa-Med), to illustrate their practical application.This comprehensive review offers insights into the wide-ranging applications of generative AI models in clinical research and emphasizes their transformative potential.

The induction of interleukin (IL)-32 in bone marrow (BM) inflammation is crucial in graft versus host disease (GvHD) that is a common side effect of allogeneic BM transplantation. Clinical trials on α-1 antitrypsin (AAT) in patients with GvHD are based on the preliminary human and mouse studies on AAT reducing the severity of GvHD. Proteinase 3 (PR3) is an IL-32-binding protein that was isolated from human urine. IL-32 primarily induces inflammatory cytokines in myeloid cells, probably due to PR3 expression on the membrane of the myeloid lineage cells. The inhibitory activity of AAT on serine proteinases may explain the anti-inflammatory effect of AAT on GvHD. However, the anti-inflammatory activity of AAT on BM cells remains unclear. Mouse BM cells were treated with IL-32γ and different inflammatory stimuli to investigate the anti-inflammatory activity of AAT. Recombinant AAT-Fc fusion protein inhibited IL-32γ-induced IL-6 expression in BM cells, but failed to suppress that induced by other stimuli. In addition, the binding of IL-32γ to PR3 was abrogated by AAT-Fc. The data suggest that the specific anti-inflammatory effect of AAT in mouse BM cells is due to the blocking of IL-32 binding to membrane PR3.
Animals ; Bone Marrow Cells* ; Bone Marrow* ; Cytokines* ; Graft vs Host Disease ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Interleukin-6 ; Interleukins ; Membranes ; Mice* ; Myeloblastin ; Myeloid Cells ; Serine Proteases

In order to screen microsatellites for conservation genetics studies of the species, a total of 23 microsatellite loci from Korean goral (Naemorhedus caudatus), including 15 previously developed loci and 8 new loci in this study, were tested. Eleven microsatellites were screened and subjected to cross-species amplification using a test panel of four Caprinae species, Japanese serows (Capricornis crispus), Chinese gorals (Naemorhedus goral), Northern chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) and domestic goats (Capra hircus). In addition, all eleven microsatellites (SY3A, SY12A, SY12B, SY48, SY58, SY71, SY76, SY84, SY84B, SY112, and SY129) satisfied the criteria to be a core set of microsatellites. This core set of microsatellites and cross-species amplification of Korean goral microsatellites were found to be helpful for high-resolution studies for conservation and management of Korean goral and other endangered Caprinae species.
Animals ; Conservation of Natural Resources ; Genetic Variation ; Hybridization, Genetic/*genetics ; Microsatellite Repeats/*genetics ; Republic of Korea ; Ruminants/*genetics

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) is a positive-sense singlestranded RNA (+ssRNA) that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The viral genome encodes twelve genes for viral replication and infection. The third open reading frame is the spike (S) gene that encodes for the spike glycoprotein interacting with specific cell surface receptor – angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) – on the host cell membrane. Most recent studies identified a single point mutation in S gene. A single point mutation in S gene leading to an amino acid substitution at codon 614 from an aspartic acid 614 into glycine (D614G) resulted in greater infectivity compared to the wild type SARS-CoV2. We were interested in investigating the mutation region of S gene of SARS-CoV2 from Korean COVID-19 patients. New mutation sites were found in the critical receptor binding domain (RBD) of S gene, which is adjacent to the aforementioned D614G mutation residue. This specific sequence data demonstrated the active progression of SARS-CoV2 by mutations in the RBD of S gene.The sequence information of new mutations is critical to the development of recombinant SARS-CoV2 spike antigens, which may be required to improve and advance the strategy against a wide range of possible SARS-CoV2 mutations.