The therapeutic properties of Ginseng have been known as popular Chinese midecine since time immemorial. It has been used in Korea, China, Tibet, Indonesia and India for thousands of years under various presentations, such as tes, tinctures, wines, pills, and unguents for the prevention of aging, tireness, headaches, amnesia, tuberculosis, diabetes, illness of the liver, heart, kidneys, nervous system etc. The main effective component of Ginseng has recently been considered to be saponins according to the chemical studies by Shibata's group and the pharmacological studies by Takagi et al., and also through the studies of Brekhman. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the response of topically applied Ginseng total saponin against inflammation. To induce the inflammation of skin the backs of 20 volunteers were treated with 10% sodium lauryl sulfate solution under occlusion for one hour. After removal of sodium lauryl sulfate. Gineseng total saponin ointment in various concentrations(2.5, 5, 10%) is topically applied under occlusion for 48 hours. Erythema on the areas treated with Ginseng total saponin ointment was significantly reduced than the control area. It is suggested that Ginseng total saponin has an anti-inflammatory effect on the inflammation of skin induced by sodium lauryl sulfate.
Aging ; Amnesia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; China ; Erythema ; Headache ; Heart ; Humans* ; India ; Indonesia ; Inflammation ; Kidney ; Korea ; Liver ; Nervous System ; Ointments ; Panax* ; Saponins* ; Skin* ; Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate ; Tibet ; Tuberculosis ; Volunteers ; Wine

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate possible menopause related changes in circulating insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) levels and their relationship with insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) plasma levels, osteocalcin(Ost) and urinary deoxypyridinoline(Dpd) in either surgical menopause or natural menopause, METHOD: Seventy-two postmenopausal women (surgical menopause 48, natural menopause 24) were invited to participate in this study. In all subjects plasma IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 levels were measSURED by radioimmunoassay and Ost and Dpd were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). RESULTS: No difference was found between mean IGFBP-3 plasma levels in the two groups studied(3,522 +/- 926 vs 3,854 +/- 569 ng/ml), while mean IGF-1 levels were significantly lower in natural menopause as compared with surgical menopause (natural 126 +/- 44 vs surgical 163 +/- 66 ng/ml, p=0.007). No difference was found between mean Ost levels in the two groups studied (natural menopause 8.0 +/- 2.9 vs surgical menopause 8,9 +/- 2.1 ng/ml, p=0.113) and mean Dpd levels in the two studied (natural menopause 6.8 +/- 2.3 vs surgical menopause 7.8 +/- 3.4 mM, p=0.213). CONCLUSION: IGF-1 was significantly lower in natural menopause as compared with surgical menopause, but no significant difference was found in IGFBP-3, Ost, and Dpd levels
Biomarkers* ; Carrier Proteins* ; Female ; Humans ; Insulin* ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3 ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Proteins* ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor I ; Menopause* ; Osteocalcin* ; Plasma ; Radioimmunoassay

BACKGROUND: It is well known that excessive thyroid hormone in the body is associated with bone loss. However, the mechanism by which thyroid hormone affects bone cell metabolism remains unclear. It has been shown that thyroid hormones stimulate osteoclastic bone resorption indirectly via some unknown mediators secreted by osteoblasts, This study was undertaken to determine if interleukin-6 (IL-6) or interleukin-11 (IL-l1) could be the mediator (s) of thyroid hormone-induced bone loss. METHODS: We treated primary cultured human bone rnarrow stromal cells with 3,5,3-triiodo-thyronine (T) and measured basal and interleukin-l (IL-1)-stimulated IL-6/IL-ll production. We also investigated the possible modulating effect of 17B-estradiol (17B-E2.) on thyroid hormone action. RESULTS: T3 at 10 (-12) ~ 10 (-8) M concentration, significantly increased the basal IL-6 production in a dose-dependent manner, and also potentiated the stimulatory effect of IL-1 on IL-6 production. However, T failed to elicit a detectable effect on basal or IL-1-stimulated IL-11 production. Treat#ment with l7B-E2. inhibited IL-1-stimulated IL-6 production, but the effects of T3 on IL-6 production were not affected by 17/B-E. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that thyroid hormone may increase bone resorption by increasing basal IL-6 production and potentiating IL-1-induced IL-6 production from osteoblast-lineage cells, and these effects were independent of estrogen status.
Bone Marrow* ; Bone Resorption ; Estradiol ; Estrogens ; Humans* ; Interleukin-1 ; Interleukin-11* ; Interleukin-6* ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells* ; Metabolism ; Osteoblasts ; Osteoclasts ; Osteoporosis ; Stromal Cells ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Hormones

No abstract available.
Polycystic Kidney Diseases*

No abstract available.
Osteoarthritis*

No abstract available.
Lung* ; Microbubbles*

Upper gastrointestinal(UGI) bleeding was critical disease that was commonly found in emergency department and needed more early diagnosis and rapid treatment for decreasing mortality and morbidity. It's causes and frequencies here affected by many factors, but the majorities were caused by peptic ulcers and esophageal-gastric varices. With development of economy and medical services, new drugs and endoscopic interventions, the treatment of patients with UGI bleeding was more improved. So I would like to evaluate the change of causes and frequencies of UGI bleeding and the associated clinical findings. A total of 1,546 patients presented with UGI bleeding in emergency department of Yeungnam university hospital during the five years from Jan. 1991 to Dec. 1995 were clinically reviewed by charts and compared with previous seven years report from Jan. 1984 to Dec. 1990 in the same hospital. The ratio of male to female was 6.1:1 and slightly increased in comparison with previous seven years. The incidences in 6th and 5th decades were highest(54.4%) as like as previous seven years. Age distribution of duodenal ulcer bleeding, Mallory-Weiss tear and acute gastric mucosal lesion were developed in lower decades than the others. The causes of UGI bleeding were caused by esophageal varix(45.4%), peptic ulcer(38.8%), Mallory-Weiss tear(4.3%), gastric cancer(3.8%), others(3.1%), acute gastric mucosal lesion(2.7%), undetermined causes(1.8%) in defending order of frequencies. The proportion of esophageal varices was increased from 36.6% to 45.4%, but that of peptic ulcer was relatively decreased from 47.6% to 38.8%. And the annual distribution of varices was increased, however the annual distribution of peptic ulcers was increased. Although the ranking of annual distribution of gastric ulcers and duodenal ulcers were not changed compared to previous study and the frequency of gastric ulcers was increased since 1992, but additional follow-up was needed. Seasonal variations were found that upper gastrointestinal bleeding was increased in fall and peptic ulcer bleeding was increased significantly in summer and fall, however, varix bleeding was less frequent in summer time as like as previous seven years. Emergency endoscopic examination was performed within 6 hours far 54.5%, 24 hours for 90.8% and this reacts were to be like previous results, 57.5% and 90.7% respectively. Findings of emergency endoscopic examination were active bleeding focus(21.2%), blood clot(7.9%), exposed vessels(13.3%), flat blood spot(6.4%) and lesion without evidence of bleeding(51.3%). Endoscopic findings of active bleeding were easily seton when examination was perfomed within 24 hours. Blood transfusion was performed in 67.3% with average 2.1 units. When the causes of bleeding were due to varix and marginal ulcer, more amounts of blood were transfused than the others. In previous seven years, blood transfusions were performed in 71.2% with average 5 units and more amounts of blood were transfused in gastric cancer and varix bleeding.
Age Distribution ; Blood Transfusion ; Duodenal Ulcer ; Early Diagnosis ; Emergencies ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Esophageal and Gastric Varices ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Mallory-Weiss Syndrome ; Mortality ; Peptic Ulcer ; Seasons ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Stomach Ulcer ; Varicose Veins

No abstract available.
Adenocarcinoma, Clear Cell* ; Vagina*