No abstract available.
Hepatitis B Vaccines* ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans

The purpose of this study was to investigate middle school students' perception of environment-friendly agricultural products (EAPs) and the degree of confidence about the certification mark. Questionnaires were distributed to 444 students of 6 middle schools located in Daegu, and a total of 416 responses were used for analysis. 28.6% of the respondents were using EAPs at home, and 62.0% of respondents didn't know whether to use EAPs at home. The 6 items representing the perception of EAPs were analyzed, resulting in 2 distinct dimensions-'benefits of EAPs' and 'attitude toward EAPs'. Regarding Benefits of EAPs, the score of 'EAPs better for health' was the highest, followed by 'EAPs have higher quality', 'EAPs were better for environmental protection', respectively. The proportion of students responded that 'the amount of pesticides should be reduced gradually' was 65.5% and only 3.4% for 'current level of pesticide use is not a problem'. There were significant differences between male and female students with regard to an interest in EAPs (p < 0.05) and opinion on the use of pesticides (p < 0.05), while no significant difference was found between groups with different education level of mothers. The respondents who use EAPs at home showed significantly higher scores with attitude toward EAPs (p < 0.001), and higher response rate for 'pesticides should not be used even if the price increases' (p < 0.05). Degree of confidence about the EAPs certification mark also affected students' perception of EAPs (p < 0.001). Our results indicate the importance of education for students on EAPs to enhance students' attitude towards EAPs and improve school meal satisfaction.
Certification ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Meals ; Mothers ; Pesticides

No abstract available.
Rupture* ; Uterus*

Prader-Willi(PW)syndrome is characterized by obesity, hypotonia, mental retardation, hypogonadism, short stature, excessive eating and characteristic facial appearance. Diabetes mellitus has been considered a component of PW syndrome. Recently this syndrome is caused by the absence of paternally derived genes normally located on chromosome segment 15 q11-q13 or may be the result of maternal uniparental disomy with the absence of paternally derived 15 q11-q13 region. The developement of probes containing segments of DNA from chromosome region 15 q11-q13 provides the oppotunity to confirm the diagnosis of PW syndrome by fluorescence in situ hybridization(FISH). We experienced a 15-year-old boy of PW syndrome with diabetes mellitus, who revealed mental retardation, hypogonadism, obesity and microdeletion of chromosome 15 q11-q13 comfirmed by FISH.
Adolescent ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 15* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diagnosis ; DNA ; Eating ; Fluorescence ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Intellectual Disability ; Male ; Muscle Hypotonia ; Obesity ; Prader-Willi Syndrome* ; Uniparental Disomy

Intrauterine inflammation is defined as the inflammation of the chorion, amnion, and placenta. Untreated inflammation increases the risk of fetal inflammatory response syndrome, which may result in multiorgan diseases involving the brain, cardiovascular system, lung, eye, and intestine. Therefore, controlling inflammation is critical in pregnant women to reduce the risk of diseases. However, there are no safe and effective anti-inflammatory drugs for administration during pregnancy. Although the primary function of melatonin is to control circadian rhythms, it has protective effects against cellular insults occurring from hypoxia, oxidative stress, and inflammation. While animal studies support the effective and safe role of melatonin in improving pregnancy-related morbidities, it leaves plenty of opportunities for clinical studies investigating its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and protective effects against insults induced by intrauterine inflammation. Therefore, it will be worthwhile to investigate antenatal supplementation of melatonin in pregnant women with intrauterine inflammation to reduce the incidence of associated comorbidities.

The aim of this study was to assess the nutrient intakes from infant formula and supplemental foods of 246 healthy infants fed infant formula, aged from 5 to 18 months. Subjects were devided into two groups depending on supplemental food type for weaning, Domestic supplemental foods (mainly home-made, n = 129) and Delivery supplemental foods (mainly commercially-delivered, n = 117). Four subgroups were assigned to 5 - 6 months, 7 - 8 months, 9 - 11 months, and 12 - 18 months by ages, respectively. Dietary assessment was carried out using 24-hour-recall method. Formula intakes in the delivery group tended to decrease accordingly with the ages. However, in the domestic group, formula intakes up to 8 month were similar and decreased after 9 month. Energy, protein, calcium and iron intakes from infant formula and supplemental foods were assessed. Energy intake at 12 - 18 months were lower than the RDA in both groups. Daily intake of protein and calcium at all ages were much higher than the RDA in both groups. Therefore, protein and calcium overnutrition were elucidated. Especially, protein intake at 5 - 6 months, calcium intake at all ages from infant formula was higher than the RDA in both groups. Iron intake at 5 - 6 months from infant formula were higher than the RDA. Consequently, as for infant formula, it was suggested that not only formula intakes but also nutrient content in formula should be reconsidered. On the other hand, nutrient intakes from supplemental foods in the domestic group tended to be higher than that of the delivery group. Especially at 9 - 11 months, significant differences between the two groups were observed. This may be due to high dependency on commercial powdered baby food in the domestic group. This study revealed that daily nutrient intakes of formula-fed infants are desirable but nutrient intakes from infant formula are too high. Conclusively, this study suggests that as the age of infants increases, formula intakes should be controlled and various supplemental foods besides commercially powdered baby food should be appropriately provided.
Calcium ; Energy Intake ; Hand ; Humans ; Infant Formula* ; Infant* ; Iron ; Overnutrition ; Seoul* ; Weaning

BACKGROUND: Cryopreservation of hematopoietic stem cells has become an important process due to the therapeutic protocol, which includes stem cell transplantation after chemotherapy, for many hematological malignancies. The conventional medium contains 10% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as a cryoprotectant, but this has been reported to be related with many complications. We analyzed the usefulness of trehalose, catalase and zVAD-fmk for cryopreservation along with using a reduced concentration of DMSO to 5%. METHODS: Peripheral blood stem cells were frozen in 10% DMSO as a control and also in 5% DMSO with trehalose and catalase. After 3 weeks of storage in a liquid nitrogen tank, the viability of the thawed hematopoietic stem cells was measured using Trypan blue staining and 7-AAD analysis via conducting flow cytometry. The colony forming potential was assessed using methylcellulose culture. We measured the viability of cells in 5% DMSO medium with or without addition of 30 uM zVAD-fmk right after thawing, and we also did this 6 and 24 hours after incubation. RESULTS: Cryopreserved cells in 5% DMSO with trehalose and catalase showed similar survival (50.42%) compared with the control (49.78%). The viability of cells that were also treated with added zVAD-fmk showed a better result (13.12%) than without it (5.5%) after 24 hours of incubation. Colony forming assay showed similar colony formation in 5% DMSO with the natural cryoprotectants. CONCLUSION: According to the results, lowering the DMSO concentration to 5% is significant and we can expect better cell viability and prevent many side effects of high dose DMSO when adding natural cryprotectants in the cryopreservation medium or by adding caspase-inhibitor right after thawing.
Amino Acid Chloromethyl Ketones ; Catalase ; Cell Survival ; Cryopreservation ; Dimethyl Sulfoxide ; Diminazene ; Flow Cytometry ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Methylcellulose ; Nitrogen ; Safrole ; Stem Cell Transplantation ; Stem Cells ; Trehalose ; Trypan Blue

No abstract available.
Leukemia, Plasma Cell* ; Plasma Cells* ; Plasma* ; Plasmacytoma*

BACKGROUND: The Coapresta 2000 (CP2000; Seikisui, Japan) system is a fully-automated random-access multiparameter coagulation analyzer equipped with a photo-optical clot detection unit. It can perform clotting time assays as well as colorimetric assays. METHODS: We evaluated the analytical performance of CP2000 for several coagulation test parameters and compared its performance with that of the CA-7000 (Sysmex, Japan) system. Fresh and frozen plasma samples were used to evaluate the performance of CP2000 with respect to four routine coagulation test parameters: prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time, fibrinogen, and D-dimer. On-board stability of the liquid reagents was confirmed. Additionally, local international sensitivity index (ISI) verification was performed with four levels of calibrants and direct PT/international normalized ratio (INR) line. RESULTS: The intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were below 5% for every parameter in both normal and pathological ranges. Carryover was not detected. The results obtained using CP2000 showed good correlation (r 2 over 0.95) with those obtained by the CA-7000 analyzer. On-board stability in open-vial state, which was expected to be much longer than that of other reagents, was confirmed. Local verification of ISI showed an acceptable bias range of INR, compared with the values using calibrants. CONCLUSIONS: The high-throughput, CP2000 analyzer is a fast, user-friendly system with long on-board reagent stability. Its results were concordant with the CA-7000 analyzer, for analysis of the routine coagulation test parameters. Furthermore, this system would add greater confidence to the reporting of INR data.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Fibrinogen ; Indicators and Reagents ; International Normalized Ratio ; Partial Thromboplastin Time ; Plasma ; Prothrombin Time

The present study aims to investigate the effect of methanol extract of Korean mistletoe (KM; Viscum album var. coloratum), on amyloid beta protein (Abeta) (25-35), a synthetic 25-35 amyloid peptide, -induced neurotoxicity in cultured rat cerebral cortical neurons and memory impairment in mice. Exposure of cultured neurons to 10 microM Abeta (25-35) for 24 h induced a neuronal cell death, which was measured by a 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and Hoechst 33342 staining. KM (10, 30 and 50 microg/ml) significantly inhibited the Abeta (25-35)-induced apoptotic neuronal death. KM (50 microg/ml) inhibited 10 microM Abeta (25-35)-induced elevation of intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i), which was measured by a fluorescent dye, Fluo-4 AM. Glutamate release into medium and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by 10 microM Abeta (25-35) were also inhibited by KM (10, 30 and 50 microg/ml). These results suggest that KM may mitigate the Abeta (25-35)-induced neurotoxicity by interfering with the increase of [Ca2+]i and then inhibiting glutamate release and generation of ROS in cultured neurons. In addition, orally administered KM (25 and 50 mg/kg, 7 days) significantly prevented memory impairment induced by intracerebroventricular injection of Abeta (25-35) (8 nmol). Taken together, it is suggested that anti-dementia effect of KM is due to its neuroprotective effect against Abeta (25-35)-induced neurotoxicity and that KM may have therapeutic role in prevention of the progression of Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer Disease ; Amyloid beta-Peptides* ; Amyloid* ; Animals ; Calcium ; Cell Death ; Glutamic Acid ; Memory* ; Methanol ; Mice ; Mistletoe* ; Neurons* ; Neuroprotective Agents ; Rats ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Viscum album