No abstract available.
Amino Acid Sequence* ; HIV* ; Phenotype*

The CD8(+)CD28(+) T cells have known to mediate major histocompatibility complex class I-restricted cytolysis and to secret an HIV-1 inhibitory factor. As HIV infection lead to dramatic changes within the cellular immune system, the cellular cytotoxicities decrease in the duration of the HIV infection. To determine the importance of the cellular cytotoxicities in long-term nonprogression, we tried to compare CD28 expression on total T, CD4(+) T, and CD8(+) T cells as one of methods for cellular cytotoxicity measurements between long-term nonprogressor and normal person or between long-term nonprogressor and rapid progressor. The median percentages and counts of CD4(+) T cells of the norrnal, the long-term nonprogressor, and the rapid progressor groups were 39.9 and 0.96 * 10(9) cells/L, 24.6 and 0.58 * 10(9) cells/L, 9.9 and 0.15 * 10 cells/L, respectively. As a result of comparison of the cells having CD28 surface molecules on CD8(+) T cells in the long-term nonprogressor and the rapid progressor group, they showed over 5 times lower than that in the normal group. Especially, the long-term nonprogressor regarded to the healthy HIV-infected patient showed much lower CD28 expression on total T, CD4(+) T, and CD8(+) T cells than those of the normal person. The proportions of CD4'CD28 T and CD3CD28 T cell subsets showed the significant difference between the LTNP and the RP group. In conclusion, although HIV-infected patients were LTNPs having the steady CD4(+) T cell counts and no clinical symptoms, we suggested that HIV led to abnormality within the lymphocyte subsets such as the altered expression of CD28 molecules on various T cell subsets and this result would cause deficiency of host immune function and failure of control of HIV replication by anergy in T cell subsets.
Cell Count ; HIV ; HIV Infections ; HIV-1 ; Humans ; Immune System ; Lymphocyte Subsets ; Major Histocompatibility Complex ; T-Lymphocyte Subsets* ; T-Lymphocytes

No abstract available.
Coloring Agents* ; Plasma*

To examine AZT resistance of HIV-1 isolates from AZT treated or untreated Korean, several biological characteristics such as syncytium formation, HIV-1 reverse transcriptase activity and the p24 antigen production in MT-2 cells infected with 4 HRT_1 isolates were determined. As controls, we tested HIV-1 HTLV-IIIB and pre-drug isolate as AZT susceptible strains, in addition to HIV-1 RTMC/MT-2 and post-drug isolate as AZT resistant strains. When the inoculum size of HIV-1 was 300 TCID50well and 100 TCID50/well, the AZT susceptibility of AZT untreated HIV-1 isolates 8806 and 9571 were similar to that of HIV-1 HTLV-IIIB and AZT-susceptible HIV-1 strains. When we evaluated AZT resistance of isolates HRs-1 8812 and 9113 treated with AZT for 36 months by observation of syncytium formation, HIV-1 8812 showed resistance simillar to that of HIV-1 RTMC/MT-2 strain forming syncytium up to AZT 1microgram/ml, and HIV-1 9113 showed resistance identical with that of AZT-resistant HIV-1 strain which formed syncytium up to AZT 10 microgram/ml. Especially, when we evaluated AZT resistance by HIV-1 reverse transcriptase activty and the p24 antigen production, HIV-1 isolates 8812 and 9113 showed much higher resistance (>10 - 200 fold) compared with HN-1 RTMC/MT-2 and AZT-resistant HIV-1 strain.
Giant Cells ; HIV-1* ; Korea* ; Population Characteristics ; RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase ; Zidovudine*

BACKGROUND: Host genetic polymorphisms in the HIV-1 co-receptor CCR5 and CCR2b and SDF-1, ligand for co-receptor CXCR4, have been known to be associated with the resistance of HIV infection and/or the delayed disease progression in HIV-infected patients. METHODS: We examined the frequencies of SDF1-3'A and CCR2b-64I alleles of 354 Koreans including 100 HIV-uninfected persons, 13 discordant spouses of HIV-infected persons, and 241 HIV-infected persons. The genotyping assays of SDF1 and CCR2b genes were carried out by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. RESULTS: The frequencies of CCR2b-64I and SDF1-3'A alleles in Koreans were very high compared with Caucasians and blacks. Observed frequencies of CCR2b-64I and SDF1-3'A allelic variants were 25.1% and 28.7%, respectively. The frequency of the CCR2b-64I allele in Koreans was 2~4 times higher than those of other ethnic groups with the exception of Asian. The frequencies of CCR2b-64I and SDF1- 3'A genotypes did not show the significant difference between HIV-infected and uninfected Koreans. However, the prevalence of CCR2b-64I genotype of the LTNP group was about two times higher than that of the remainder group (P < 0.05). Four (45%) out of 9 LTNPs (long-term nonprogressors) showed having the SDF1-3'A allele and 7 (78%) out of 9 LTNPs carried the CCR2b-64I allele. 3 (33%) out of 9 LTNPs had both SDF1-3'A and CCR2b-64I alleles. But none of 5 RPs (rapid progressors) appeared to have both SDF1-3'A and CCR2b-64I alleles. CONCLUSION: The different genetic backgrounds in study populations may affect the disease progression and the AIDS epidemic in each country. Further studies need to define whether high frequencies of CCR2b-64I and SDF1-3'A allelic variants may affect the HIV disease progression.
African Continental Ancestry Group ; Alleles ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Chemokine CXCL12* ; Disease Progression ; Ethnic Groups ; Genotype ; HIV Infections* ; HIV* ; HIV-1 ; Humans ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Prevalence ; Spouses

OBJECTIVES: Exposure assessment is a major challenge faced by studies that evaluate the association between pesticide exposure and adverse health outcomes. The objective of this study was to investigate the reliability of information that farmers self-report regarding their pesticide use. METHODS: Twenty five items based upon existing questionnaires were designed to focus on pesticide exposure. In 2009 a self-administrated survey was conducted on two occasions four weeks apart among 205 farmers residing in Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces. For a reliability measure, we calculated the percentage agreement, the kappa statistics and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between the two reports according to the characteristics of the subjects. RESULTS: Agreement for ever-never use of any pesticide was 96.4% (kappa 0.61). For both 'years used' and 'age at the first use' of overall pesticides, high agreement was obtained (ICC: 0.88 and, 0.78, respectively), whereas those of 'days used' and 'hours used' were relatively low (ICC: 0.42 and, 0.66, respectively). The kappa value for the use of personal protective equipment ranged from 0.46 to 0.59, and hygiene activities came out at 0.19 to 0.37. The agreement for individual pesticide use ranged widely and there was relatively low agreement due to the low response rates. The reliability scores did not significantly vary according to gender, age, the education level, the types of crop or the years of farming. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support that carefully designed, self-reported information on ever-never pesticide use among farmers is reliable. However, the reliability of data on individual pesticide exposure may be unstable due to low response rates and needs to be refined.
Adult ; Agriculture/*statistics & numerical data ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Occupational Exposure/prevention & control/*statistics & numerical data ; *Pesticides ; Protective Clothing ; Self Report

This study attempted to calculate and investigate the incidence of hospitalized acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stroke in Korea. Using the National Health Insurance claim data, we investigated patients whose main diagnostic codes included AMI or stroke during 2006 to 2010. As a result, we found out that the number of AMI hospitalized patients had decreased since 2006 and amounted to 15,893 in 2010; and that the number of those with stroke had decreased since 2006 and amounted to 73,501 in 2010. The age-standardized incidence rate of hospitalized AMI, after adjustment for readmission, was 41.6 cases per 100,000-population in 2006, and had decreased to 29.4 cases in 2010 (for trend P < 0.001). In the case of stroke was estimated at 172.8 cases per 100,000-population in 2006, and had decreased to 135.1 cases in 2010 (for trend P < 0.001). In conclusion, the age-standardized incidence rates of both hospitalized AMI and stroke in Korea had decreased continuously during 2006 to 2010. We consider this decreasing trend due to the active use of pharmaceuticals, early vascular intervention, and the national cardio-cerebrovascular disease care project as the primary and secondary prevention efforts.
Acute Disease ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Hospitalization/*trends ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myocardial Infarction/*epidemiology ; Patient Readmission ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Sex Factors ; Stroke/*epidemiology ; Young Adult