BACKGROUND: Non-ablative dermal remodeling and ablative skin resurfacing are currently well-established skin treatment modalities. Fractional laser was recently introduced as a new concept for laser skin rejuvenation, and is characterized by creation of a dense pattern of epidermal and dermal microthermal treatment zones (MTZs). However, the precise mechanisms of dermal remodeling by Er:glass fractional laser treatment are largely unknown. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 1,550 nm Er:glass fractional laser treatment on dermal collagen synthesis and expression of TGF-beta1, a potent cytokine involved in collagen synthesis. METHODS: We treated hairless mice with several power densities (5 W 5 mJ~20 W 20 mJ), and examined the tissue samples on days 1, 30, and 90 after treatment. We analyzed the penetrating depth of laser treatment by determining dermal response through assessment of type I collagen synthesis and TGF-beta1 expression by H&E, Masson-trichrome staining, western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry staining. RESULTS: We observed, through H&E staining, that increasing the pulse energy of fractional laser treatment correlated with increasing depth of MTZ. Also, fractional laser treatment increased type 1 collagen synthesis on days 30 and 90, energy dependently. Immunohistochemical study showed that fractional laser treatment increased expression of type I collagen and TGF-beta1, energy dependently, with TGF-beta1 expression peaking on day 1. In addition, according to western blot analysis, expressions of TGF-beta1 and type I collagen were up-regulated in an energy- dependent manner. CONCLUSION: Er:glass fractional laser induced dermal remodeling by up-regulation of TGF-beta1 and type I collagen synthesis, and may be a promising modality for skin rejuvenation.
Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Collagen ; Collagen Type I ; Immunohistochemistry ; Mice ; Mice, Hairless ; Rejuvenation ; Skin ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; Up-Regulation

The congenital absence of the left circumflex artery and a compensatory super-dominant right coronary artery (RCA) is a very rare benign coronary anomaly in the clinic. The presence of a massive thrombus in the super-dominant RCA can lead to fatal results in cases of acute myocardial infarction, unless the thrombus is mechanically removed. Aspiration of the thrombus using a 6 Fr right Judkins guide catheter is useful to extract a massive thrombus and is both safe and effective. We report a case of complete revascularization of the super-dominant RCA after thrombus aspiration using a 6 Fr Judkins right catheter in a patient with acute inferior and inferolateral wall myocardial infarction.
Catheters ; Coronary Thrombosis ; Coronary Vessel Anomalies ; Coronary Vessels* ; Humans ; Inferior Wall Myocardial Infarction ; Lung Neoplasms* ; Myocardial Infarction ; Thrombosis*

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Patient-controlled sedation (PCS) allows the patients to titrate the dosages of sedative drug according to their needs. The objective of this study was to compare the safety and the efficacy of nurse-administered propofol sedation (NAPS) with those of PCS. METHODS: Eighty one patients were randomly assigned to two groups. All patients received meperidine 25 mg and propofol 40 mg as an initial dose for sedation. Patients in PCS group were subsequently infused with propofol 15 mg over 80 seconds through infusion pump whenever they required. Patients in NAPS group were injected with 10~20 mg propofol by nurse with supervision by endoscopist. The dosage of propofol, cardiopulmonary parameters, procedure time, sedation score, pain score, the patients' and endoscopists' satisfaction scores were assessed. RESULTS: With regard to blood pressure, pulse rate and oxygen saturation, serious complications were not observed. Especially, there was no significant difference of mean total dose between two groups (NAPS group and PCS group received 76.7+/-24.7 mg and 82.5+/-26.6 mg respectively). Pain score was higher in woman than in man (p=0.03). CONCLUSIONS: 1.2~1.5 mg/kg of propofol with small dose of opioid during colonoscopy was effective and safe. NAPS was more practical and useful method of sedation than PCS during colonoscopy.
Blood Pressure ; Colonoscopy* ; Female ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Infusion Pumps ; Meperidine ; Organization and Administration ; Oxygen ; Propofol*

The pancreas is a mixed exocrine and endocrine gland involved in the control of many homeostatic functions.During embryogenesis,the pancreas arises from dorsal and ventral evaginations of the foregut,which subse- quently fuse into a single organ.The characterization of early genes expressed in the developing pancreas is critical to understand its specification and differentiation.Pdx1 is one of the earliest markers of pancreatic development and a key molecule in its development.Sox proteins form a large class of transcriptional regulators implicated in the control of a variety of developmental processes.One member of this family,Sox9,is expressed in the developing pancreas, but little is known about the function of Sox9 in the developing pancreas.We further investigated Sox9 function during pancreatic development in Xenopus .Using a hormone-inducible inhibitory mutant of Sox9 ,we found that Pdx1 expres- sion was reduced in the ventral pancreatic buds in Sox9-depleted embryos.We suggest that Sox9 gene expression may be involved in pancreatic development in Xenopus.
Animals ; Endocrine Glands ; Gene Expression ; Hoof and Claw* ; Pancreas ; Xenopus

BACKGROUND: Pain remains the chief complaint that brings patients to physician's office, despite recent insights into underlying mechanism and the identification of potential new therapeutic targets. In recent years, however, with the development of molecular biology cell transplantation gives us a new chance for treating intractable chronic pain. The major purpose of the present study was to determine if the chromaffin cells that were encapsulated with 1.3% (w/v) sodium alginate-poly-l-lysine-alginate (APA) had robust analgesic effects in the spinal atlanto-occipital subarachnoid space even without nicotine stimulation. METHODS: In order to determine whether microencapsulated bovine adrenal medullary chromaffin cells transplanted in the spinal cord can produce analgesic effects, we microencapsulated adrenal medullary chromaffin cells with APA and implanted them into the subarachnoid space of rats' (n = 10) spinal cord, and investigated the hot sensitivity of rats' hind-paw by a light-beam test. RESULTS: It was found that compared with the control group, hot response latency of the group which received adrenal medullary chromaffin cells increased from the 12th day and the analgesic efficacy was maintained for at least 75 days. CONCLUSIONS: Microencapsulated bovine adrenal medullary chromaffin cells transplanted in the rats' spinal cord may provide a permanent and locally available source of neuropeptides for the relief of intractable pain. Furthermore, these kinds of analgesic effect were produced without any stimulation such as nicotine.
Cell Transplantation ; Chromaffin Cells* ; Chronic Pain ; Drug Compounding ; Humans ; Molecular Biology ; Neuropeptides ; Nicotine ; Pain, Intractable ; Physicians' Offices ; Reaction Time ; Sodium ; Spinal Cord* ; Subarachnoid Space ; Transplants

Pulmonary artery (PA) aneurysm is a rare finding in the thoracic cavity, accompanied by pulmonary hypertension. Clinical presentation of PA aneurysms is usually asymptomatic. The guideline for PA aneurysm treatment is unclear. We report an unusual case of low pressure PA aneurysm associated with atrial septal defect in a 69-year-old man.
Aneurysm ; Heart Septal Defects, Atrial ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; Pulmonary Artery ; Thoracic Cavity

Cardiac papillary fibroelastomas (CPF) are benign cardiac tumors and usually discovered incidentally during echocardiography. This report describes the case of a 68-year-old man, referred to cardiology for multiple masses of the left ventricle and left atrium. The transthoracic echocardiography revealed multiple oscillating masses in the left ventricle and aortic valve, non-mobile mass in the left atrium with severe mitral stenosis and moderate aortic regurgitation. The patient underwent surgical resection of the masses with valve replacements. Histopathologic examination confirmed the diagnosis of CPF in the left ventricle and aortic valve, thrombus in the left atrium.
Aged ; Aortic Valve ; Aortic Valve Insufficiency ; Cardiology ; Diagnosis ; Echocardiography ; Heart Atria ; Heart Neoplasms ; Heart Ventricles ; Heart* ; Humans ; Mitral Valve Stenosis ; Thrombosis*

Although TP53 mutations have been widely studied in lung cancer, the majority of studies have focused on exons 5-8 of the gene. In addition, TP53 mutations in Korean patients with lung cancers have not been investigated. We searched for mutations in the entire coding exons, including splice sites of the gene, in Korean patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Mutations of the gene were determined by direct sequencing in 176 NSCLCs. Sixty-nine mutations (62 different mutations) were identified in 65 tumors. Of the 62 mutations, 12 were novel mutations. TP53 mutations were more frequent in males, ever-smokers and squamous cell carcinomas than in females, never-smokers and adenocarcinomas, respectively (all comparisons, P<0.001). Missense mutations were most common (52.2%), but frameshift, nonsense, and splice-site mutations were frequently observed at frequencies of 18.8%, 15.9% and 10.1%, respectively. Of the 69 mutations, 9 (13.0%) were found in the oligomerization domain. In addition, the proportion of mutations in the oligomerization domain was significantly higher in adenocarcinomas than in squamous cell carcinomas (23.5% vs. 2.9%, P=0.01). Our study provides clinical and molecular characteristics of TP53 mutations in Korean patients with NSCLCs.
Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/*epidemiology/*genetics ; Female ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease/*epidemiology/*genetics ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea/epidemiology ; Lung Neoplasms/*epidemiology/*genetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide/genetics ; Risk Assessment/methods ; Risk Factors ; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53/*genetics

A fusion gene between echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4) and the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) has been identified in non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs). Although a few studies have evaluated EML4-ALK fusion genes in Korean NSCLCs, the prevalence of different EML4-ALK fusion variants has yet to be clearly assessed. Herein, we have examined the profiles of EML4-ALK fusion gene variants in Korean patients of NSCLCs. EML4-ALK fusion genes have been detected in 10 (6.0%) of 167 patients of NSCLCs and in 9 (7.4%) of 121 patients of adenocarcinoma. Of the 10 patients with fusion genes identified, 8 (80%) were E13;A20 (variant 1) and 2 (20%) were E6;A20, with an additional 33-bp sequence derived from intron 6 of EML4 (variant 3b). These results indicate that the profiles of EML4-ALK fusion gene variants in Korean patients of NSCLC may differ from those in other ethnic populations. Herein, we describe for the first time the profiles of EML4-ALK fusion variants of Korean patients with NSCLCs.
Adenocarcinoma/diagnosis/genetics ; Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group/*genetics ; Base Sequence ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/diagnosis/*genetics ; Exons ; Female ; Humans ; Introns ; Lung Neoplasms/diagnosis/*genetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Oncogene Proteins, Fusion/chemistry/*genetics ; Republic of Korea ; Sequence Analysis, RNA ; Smoking

Altered environmental gravity, including both hypo- and hypergravity, may result in space adaptation syndrome. To explore the characteristics of this adaptive plasticity, the expression of immediate early gene c-fos mRNA in the vestibular related tissues following an exposure to hypergravity stimulus was determined in rats. The animals were subjected to a force of 2 g (twice earth's gravity) for 1, 3, or 12 h, and were examined poststimulus at 0, 2, 6, 12, and 24 h. RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) and real-time quantitative RT-PCR were adopted to analyze temporal changes in the expression of c-fos mRNA. The hypergravity stimulus increased the expression of c-fos mRNA in the vestibular ganglion, medial vestibular nucleus, inferior vestibular nucleus, hippocampus, cerebellum, and cortex. The peak expression occurred at 0 h poststimulation in animals stimulated with hypergravity for 1 h, and at 6 h poststimulus in those stimulated for 3 h. In contrast, those stimulated for 12 h exhibited dual peaks at 0 and 12 h poststimulus. Bilateral labyrinthectomy markedly attenuated the degree of c-fos mRNA expression. Glutamate receptor antagonist also dramatically attenuated the degree of c-fos mRNA expression. These results indicate that expression of c-fos mRNA in response to hypergravity occurs in the vestibular related tissues of the central nervous system, in which peripheral vestibular receptors and glutamate receptors play an important role. The temporal pattern of c-fos mRNA expression depended on the duration of the hypergravity stimulus.
Animals ; Central Nervous System ; Cerebellum ; Ganglion Cysts ; Gravitation ; Hippocampus ; Hypergravity* ; Plastics ; Rats* ; Receptors, Glutamate ; RNA, Messenger* ; Space Motion Sickness ; Vestibular Nuclei