After the synthesis of IL-15 cDNA from the total RNA of mouse spleen, it was inserted into the prokaryotic expression vector, pRseta, and eukaryotic expression vector, pcDNA3.0, respectively. Subsequently, the insertion of gene and open reading frame were confirmed by sequencing of each plasmid, respectively. Using pRseta- IL-15 plasmid, the recombinant IL-15 protein was induced by IPTG under BL21 (DE 3) host cells and recombinant IL-15 was expressed at 14.5 KDa with time. Then, IL- 15 was separated by His-tag affinity chromatography and analyzed by SDS-PAGE to yield soluble IL-15 at 14.5 KDa as monomer and 29.0 KDa as dimer. In order to inspect the function and contribution of IL-15, the in vitro experiment was established using mononuclear cells separated from the mouse spleen. After 48h exposure of PHA to mouse splenocyte and 24h treatment with recombinant IL-15, the effects of cytokine inductions inspected against IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, IFN-r, and GM-CSF. The results showed that comparing with the control, IL-6 increased, IL-2, IL-12 and IFN-r increased and similar, and GM-CSF decreased. In addition, the direct injection of pcDNA3.0-IL-15 plasmid into mice gave the similar results to in vitro studies. Namely, IL-6 and IL-12 increased, and IL-2, IFN-r and GM-CSF were similar or decreased. IL-10 was not induced in in vitro and in vivo experiments. These results suggested that the IL-15 induce the splenocyte activation and can be an important factor in proliferation and fuction recovery of weakened T-cell.
Animals ; Chromatography, Affinity ; DNA, Complementary ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor ; Interleukin-10 ; Interleukin-12 ; Interleukin-15* ; Interleukin-2 ; Interleukin-6 ; Isopropyl Thiogalactoside ; Mice* ; Open Reading Frames ; Plasmids ; RNA ; Spleen ; T-Lymphocytes

No abstract available.
Bipolar Disorder*

PURPOSE: This study was performed to identify skin health status and the factors influencing skin hydration in the institutionalized elderly. METHODS: The subjects were 139 elders living in 2 nursing homes in Seoul. Data for skin health status were collected by measurement of skin hydration, sebum, trans-epidermal water loss and pH using Corneometer, Sebumeter, Tewameter and Skin pH-meter on face, flank, arm and leg. Baseline data were collected by a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed by SPSS/WIN 12.0 program. RESULTS: Skin hydration and pH were relatively low especially on arms and legs but sebum and TEWL were not low, relatively. There were significant differences in skin health status according to gender, smoking, alcohol intake, and bath cleanser. There was significant positive correlation between skin-hydration and bath-time, TEWL and bath-frequency. Smoking, bath-cleanser, bath-time. pH and gender were identified as the significant influencing factors of skin hydration. CONCLUSION: Smoking, bath-time and pH need to be considered as important control factors for increasing skin health status in the institutionalized elderly.
Aged ; Arm ; Baths ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Leg ; Nursing Homes ; Sebum ; Skin ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to identify the job competencies of HIV counseling nurses and to figure out the importance, level of difficulty, and performance frequency of the competencies. METHODS: The job competencies were drawn from 22 HIV counseling nurses by developing new models and utilizing specialist groups. The importance, level of difficulty, and performance frequency of the competencies were analyzed using the average and deviation. RESULTS: The results of this study identified 6 job competencies such as counseling performance, expertise utilization, cooperation, support, administration, and self-development, 28 sub-competencies, and 48 job descriptions. Out of the 6 job competencies, counseling performance recorded high levels in the importance, level of difficulty, and performance frequency CONCLUSION: The study results will be used as the basic data of the training programs for strengthening the job competencies of HIV counseling nurses. Furthermore, it is expected that the results will contribute to the prevention of HIV/AIDS transmission, the core of the national HIV/AIDS control programmes, and the improved health and quality of life in people living with HIV.
Counseling* ; Education ; HIV* ; Job Description ; Quality of Life ; Specialization

A total of 48 subjects harbouring Trichuris trichiura, Ascaris lumbricoides, hookworm and/or Enterobius vermicularis were treated with oxantel/pyrantel pamoate tablets (100 mg of each) in a single dose of 20 mg base per kg of body weight. In all 37 cases of A. lumbricoides and 8 cases of A. duodenale infections cured completely, and the mean recovered worm-load was 3.8 with a range of 1-21 and 5.8 with a range of 3-9 respectively. In T. trichiura infection, 32(71.1%) of 45 cases cured completely and the average egg reduction rate was 90.8 per cent. The mean recovered worm-load was 14.6 with a rnage of 1-77 worms. On the other hand, in E. vermicularis infection, 37 (84.1 %) of 44 patients were negative eggs by anal swab tests on the 10 to 11th days and 27 (61.4%) on the 20 to 21st days after treatment. The mean recovered worm-load was 17.7 with a range of 1-62. Only one patient with Trichostrongylus orientalis treated with this drug showed no eggs in his stools throughout the post-treatment examinations. Side effects were not noted in all treated cases. These findings demonstrate that a single dose of oxantel/pyrantel pamoate tablets can be considered a drug of choice for multiple infections with these nematodes.
parasitology-helminth-nematoda ; Trichuris trichiura ; Ascaris lumbricoides ; hookworm ; Enterobius vermicularis ; chemotherapy ; oxantel/pyrantel pamoate

No abstract available.
Pemphigus*

Thirty-nine patients with fixed drug eruption who visited the Department of Dermatology in National Medical Center from January 1g7g to December 1982 were selected. Among them, twentyseven patients performed skin biopsy and were evaluated histopathologically on the basis of duration. The results were as follows; ].In the early stage less than 1 week of duration, hydropic degeneration of basal cells, necrotic keratinocytes with eosinophilic cytoplasm and pknotic nucleus in the epidermis, and mixed cell infiltration with eosinophlis in the upper dermis were prominently. In the late stage more than 20 days of duration, acanthosis, an increased amount of melanin in the basal cell layer and presence of melanophages were found more prominent, however, hydropic degeneration of basal cells, papillary dermal ederna, inflammatory infiltration of mononuclear cells were found less prounced or absent.
Biopsy ; Cytoplasm ; Dermatology ; Dermis ; Drug Eruptions* ; Eosinophils ; Epidermis ; Humans ; Keratinocytes ; Melanins ; Skin

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the web-based nutrition counseling on the dietary behavior and food intake of hyperlipidemic patients and to evaluate the web-based nutrition counseling program. Forty hyperlipidemic patients, twenty of them were hypercholesterolemia and the other twenty were hypertriglyceridemia, participated in the web-based nutrition counseling program. At the first nutrition counseling, the patients were interviewed and then follow-up nutrition counselings were accomplished four times during eight weeks through a web-based internet program. The web-based nutrition counseling program was consisted of diet management, nutrition education and nutritional assessment and the follow-up counseling program. The dietary behavior score increased significantly in both groups after the nutrition counseling program(p<0.01). The diet therapy knowledge score also increased significantly (p<0.01). For food frequency, vegetable (p<0.01), fruit (p<0.05) and seaweed (p<0.01) consumption increased significantly, while meat (p<0.01), egg (p<0.01), snack (p<0.01) and instant food (p<0.01) intake decreased significantly in both groups after the nutrition counseling program. The evaluation of the web-based nutrition counseling program by the patients showed above average in all domains, specially the evaluation scores of younger aged patients habituated to practice computer were better than those of older aged patients. Therefore, this study shows that the web-based nutrition counseling program is effective for improving dietary behavior and food consumption the patients. In addition, these results indicate that internet presents us with potential as a new medium for nutrition counseling in informationized society.
Counseling* ; Diet ; Diet Therapy ; Eating* ; Education ; Follow-Up Studies ; Fruit ; Humans ; Hypercholesterolemia ; Hypertriglyceridemia ; Internet ; Meat ; Nutrition Assessment ; Ovum ; Seaweed ; Snacks ; Vegetables

In order to evaluate antitumor rnechanisms of interleukin (IL)-12/IL-2 that has been shown significant tumor suppressive activity on established primary and metastatic Renca tumor, we studied chemokine gene expression induced by direct action of IL- 12/IL-2 or cytokine cascade. IL-12/IL-2 induced gene expression of interferon gamma (IFN-r) and granulocyte monocyte-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in splenocytes, and it induced gene expression of monokine induced by IFN-r (Mig), interferon inducible protein 10 (IP- 10), SDF-1, macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1a, MIP-1B, MIP-2, monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1, and Rantes in tumor mass. However IL-12/IL-2 could not induce these chemokines in tumor mass of GKO mice and Renca cell in vitro. IL- 12 also did not increased chemokine gene expression in Renca cell in vitro, but IFN-r induced gene expression of Mig, IP-10, MCP-1 in Renca cell in vitro. In the chemotaxis assay, culture supernatant of Renca cell stimulated with IFN-r increased splenocyte migration in vitro. All these data suggest IL-12/IL-2 can induce IFN-r-chemokine cascade in tumor mass, and Mig, IP-10, MCP-1 produced from tumor cell may play an important role for initial immune cell migration into tumor mass.
Animals ; Cell Movement ; Chemokine CCL5 ; Chemokine CXCL10 ; Chemokines ; Chemotaxis ; Gene Expression* ; Granulocytes ; Interferons ; Interleukins ; Macrophages ; Mice ; Monocytes

No abstract available.
Animals ; Killer Cells, Natural* ; Mice*