No abstract available.

No abstract available.

Rehmannia glutinosa is a perennial medicinal plant belonging to the family Scrophulariaceae with more than 300 species known in the world, especially in temperate regions. Its roots have been used widely in Korea for medicinal purposes. However, it is commonly infected by various pathogens during storage, causing great damage to the roots, and impedes the intensive farming of the crop. Therefore, an attempt has been made to isolate and screen a resistance gene against the pathogen Fusarium oxysporum using differential display. We treated salicylic acid (SA), and isolated a resistance gene that responds to SA. As a result, we found that SA was involved in plant defense mechanism in pathogenicity tests with SA treated and non-treted plants, and we isolated a partial PR-la gene through differential display polymerase chain reaction (DD-PCR) method.
Fusarium ; Humans ; Korea ; Plants ; Plants, Medicinal ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Rehmannia* ; Salicylic Acid* ; Scrophulariaceae ; Virulence

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of articular immobilization-induced hindlimb skeletal muscle atrophy on the autophosphorylation of the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase in rats. Rats were divided control, and knee and ankle joint immobilized groups. The experiments were performed on the 3rd, 7th, and 21st day after the immobilization. immobilization was induced by k-wire fixation in knee and ankle joint. The ratio of soleus muscle weight to body weight was decreased in proportion to the duration of the immobilization. The glycogen content of the soleus muscle was decreased significantly (p<0.01) at the 7th day, but this value was recovered to 65% of control at the 21st day after the immobilization. The insulin bindings at various concentrations of insulin to wheat-germ agglutinin purified insulin receptor from red gastrocnemius muscle at the 7th day after immobilization were not changed compared to control. The autophosphorylation of the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase with 10-8 and 10-7 M insulin concentration at the 7th day after immobilization was decreased compared to control. In conclusion, above results showed that insulin resistance of immobilized rat hindlimb skeletal muscle was arised from defect of autophosphorylation of the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase in part.
Animals ; Ankle Joint ; Atrophy* ; Body Weight ; Glycogen ; Hindlimb* ; Immobilization* ; Insulin Resistance ; Insulin* ; Knee ; Muscle, Skeletal* ; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases* ; Rats* ; Receptor, Insulin* ; Tyrosine*

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of releasing of immobilization on glycogen metabolism of hindlimb muscle after 7days use of a hindlimb casting in mice. The experimental group was divided into control group and recovery groups after removal of left hindlimb casting. The recovery groups, were subivided into the 0, 3rd and 5th day after removal of left hindlimb casting. The results were as follows; 1. The degree of atrophy of hindlimb muscles by 7 days immobilization was measured by ratio of muscle to body weight in plantaris and soleus muscles. The muscle to body weight ratios of plantaris and soleus muscles were decreased by 88% and 74%, respectively on the day of cast removal. The ratios of the both muscles were increased to the level of the control values on the 3rd and 5th day removal of casting. 2. A significant reduction of the glycogen concentration in gastrocnemius muscle occurred after 7 days hindlimb immobilization. The glycogen concentration in gastrocnemius muscle was decreased by 63% on the day of cast removal. The glycogen concentration was recovered to the values of the control group on the 3rd and 5th day after removal of hindlimb casting. 3. The level of muscle glycogen concentration of 25% glucose ingested control group was almost twice that of the normal diet control group. The muscle glycogen concentration of glucose ingested group was significantly less by 81% after 7 days of immobilization compared with the respective control gmup. The concentration recovered to the values of control on the 3rd and 5th day after removal of hindlimb casting. In contrast, there was no significant difference in the liver glycogen concentration between the immobilized grop and the cast removed group in which was removed. 4. The effects of releasing of hindlimb immobilization on plasma glucose, insulin concentration and insulin
Animals ; Atrophy ; Blood Glucose ; Body Weight ; Diet ; Glucose ; Glycogen ; Hindlimb Suspension ; Hindlimb ; Hypokinesia ; Immobilization ; Insulin ; Liver Glycogen ; Metabolism ; Mice ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Muscles

No abstract available.
Leukemia*

A household survey was conducted to compare the patterns of morbidity and medical care utilization between medical aid beneficiaries and medical insurance beneficiaries. The study population included 285 medical aid beneficiaries that were completely surveyed and 386 medical insurance beneficiaries selected by simple random sampling from a Dong (Township) in Taegu. Well-trained surveyors mainly interviewed housewives with a structured questionnaire. The morbidity rates of acute illness during the 15-day period, were 63 per 1,000 medical aid beneficiaries and 62 per 1,000 medical insurance beneficiaries. The rates for chronic illness were 123 per 1,000 medical beneficiaries and 73 per 1,000 medical insurance beneficiaries. The most common type of acute illness in medical aid and medical insurance beneficiaries was respiratory disease in medical aid beneficiaries, musculoskeletal disease was most common, but in medical insurance beneficiaries, gastrointestinal disease was most common. The mean duration of acute illness of medical aid beneficiaries was 3.8 days and that of medical insurance beneficiaries was 6.8 days. During the one year period, mean duration of medical aid beneficiaries chronic illnesses was 11.5 months which was almost twice as long compared to medical insurance beneficiaries. Pharmacy was most preferable facility among the acute illness patient in medical aid beneficiaries, but acute cases of medical insurance beneficiaries visited the clinic most commonly. Chronic cases of both groups visited the clinic most frequently. There were some findings suggesting that much unmet need existed among the medical aid beneficiaries. In acute cases, the average number of days of medical aid users utilized medical facilities was less than medical insurance users. On the other hand, the length of medical care utilization of chronic cases was reversed. Geographical accessibility was the most important factors in utilization of medical facilities. Almost half of the study population answered the questions about source of funds on medical security correctly. Most respondents considered that the objective of medical security was affordability. The chief complaint on hospital utilization was the complicated administrative procedures. These findings suggest that there were some problems in the medical aid system, especially in the referral system.
Chronic Disease ; Daegu ; Family Characteristics ; Financial Management ; Gastrointestinal Diseases ; Hand ; Humans ; Insurance Benefits ; Insurance* ; Musculoskeletal Diseases ; Pharmacy ; Referral and Consultation ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Background: Triiodothyronine(T3) is a hormone secreted from thyroid gland which exerts a stimulating effect on metabolism. The disorder of thyroid system brings about several serious diseases like hypothymidism or hyperthyroidism. Therefore, the determination of T in blood is very important on monitoring thyroid function. Methods: Rabbit anti-T3 antibody was generated by immunization of T-BSA as an immunogen and purified hom antisera using Affi-gel protein A kit. The titer and specificity of purified antibody were characterized. To detect T3, competitive ELISA was performed using anti-T3 antibody and T3-HRP conjugate which was synthesized by glutaraldehyde method. The sensitivity and precision assay wer~e deterrnined and compared with that of RIA. Results: The titer of purified anti-T3 antibody was about 1:100 and the optimal dilution of T3- HRP conjugate was 1:1000. When the standard curve was constructed by ELISA, its sensitivity was about 0.5ng/ml. The eoefficient variations of intra- and inter-assay were 4.9~9.3% and 7.5~13.8%, respectively. The results obtained by ELISA and RIA correlated well with each other(n =50, r= 0.97), The linear regression equation was y= 1.09*0.08(P<0.01). Conclusion: We successfully developed a method for the measurement of T3 on ELISA which was based on competitive reaction between antigen(T3) and enzyme labeled antigen(T3-HRP). These results demonstrated that competitive ELISA is a convenient, fast, reproducible and aecurate method for the determinstion of T in serum and can be used as practical alternative to RIA.
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Glutaral ; Hyperthyroidism ; Immune Sera ; Immunization ; Linear Models ; Metabolism ; Methods ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Staphylococcal Protein A ; Thyroid Gland ; Triiodothyronine

Osteoporosis has become a rapidly social burden for public health in South Korea, but the lack of study on osteoporosis of persons affected Hansen's disease. For the evaluation of the prevalence of osteoporosis of persons-affected Hansen's disease, we investigated a bone mineral density (BMD) of persons affected Hansen's disease who live in the settlement villages. 1,125 subjects(male: 462, female: 663 & MB: 743, PB: 382) were included, and the mean age was 72.2 +/- 8.3 years. The prevalence of osteoporosis was 67.8% and that of osteopenia was 26.7%. The T-score and Z-score of MB type patients showed a significantly lower compared with that of PB type patients(T-score: p=0.014, Z-score: p=0.018).
Bone Density ; Bone Diseases, Metabolic ; Female ; Humans ; Korea* ; Leprosy* ; Osteoporosis* ; Prevalence* ; Public Health ; Republic of Korea

Torsades de pointes, a polymorphic ventricular tachycardia associated with prolonged QT interval, is a well-known life-threatening arrhythmia, which has been found to be induced by various causes such as drugs, electrolyte imbalances, and severe bradycardia. Cisapride is a gastrointestinal prokinetic drug, which is widely used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease or other functional gastrointestinal disorders. Cisapride can cause torsades de pointes and cases of torsedes de pointes induced by cisapride have been reported in other countries. Cases of torsades de pointes associated with antihistamine drugs have been reported in Korea, however, cisapride-induced torsades de pointes case has not been reported. We report a case of 31 year-old female patient who experienced repeated loss of consciousness due to cisapride-induced torsades de pointes.
Adult ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Bradycardia ; Cisapride* ; Female ; Gastroesophageal Reflux ; Gastrointestinal Diseases ; Humans ; Korea ; Tachycardia, Ventricular ; Torsades de Pointes* ; Unconsciousness