No abstract available.
Cyclophosphamide* ; Humans* ; Stomach Neoplasms*

Animals ; Cartilage ; Cell Proliferation ; Femur ; Humans ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Male ; Osteoblasts ; Osteoclasts ; Osteogenesis ; Paraffin ; Rats ; Transforming Growth Factor beta

Generalized granuloma annulare is manifested by numerous, symrnetrical, shiny, normal-skin colored, discrete or confluent, papular eruption on the sunexposed areas, mostly in females of past middle age. Up to date, a variety of therapeutic approaches have been tried with inconsistent results. Recently several agents have been reported to be inconsistent results. Recently several agents have reported to be effective in the treatment of genealizecl granuloma annulare. Of these, dapsone has been used with favorable respones. The fact dapsone can inhibit the lysosomal enzyme release and the mononuclear cell-rnediated rnyeloperoxidase cytotaxicity would account for its effect in granuloma annulare even in part. We observed a case of generalized granulare in a 49-year old man, who had had numerous normal-skin colored or faintly violaceous, flattopped papular eruption on the sun-exposed areas for 3 years. He was treated successfully with dapsone 100mg a day for about 22 months.
Dapsone* ; Female ; Granuloma Annulare ; Humans ; Middle Aged

BACKGROUND: Dermatophytosis is usually caused by a contact of the skin with the infective particles in the environment. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the extent and severity of environmental contamination by dermatophytes. METHOD: In addition to physical examination on the residents of 46 families in a rural town in Kyungpook Province, clinical material and house dust samples were cultivated for dermatophytes. RESULTS: Among 114 persons from the 46 families, dermatophytosis was detected in 33 persons(28.9%). The most frequent clinical type was tinea pedis. Trichophyton rubrum and T. mentagrophytes were etiologic agents. In 22 families (47.8%), T. rubrum (16 families, 34.8%) and T. mentagrophytes (6 families, 13.0%) were isolated from the skin lesions. The remaining 24 families (52.2%) were free from dermatophytosis. T. rubrum was detected in the house dust samples from 40(86.9%) of the 46 families, with a density of 34.0 colonies/g, the highest among isolates.; T. mentagrophytes, from 32(69.6%); Microsporum canis, from 1(0.2%); 3(6.5%) were without any dermatophytes. T. rubrum was isolated from the house dust of 15(93.7%) out of 16 families having tinea patients infected with the same fungus, and T. mentagrophytes in 5(83.3%) out of 6. Each case was frequently detected together with other dermatophytes. T. mentagrophytes subtypes were isolated from house dust singly in 19(41.3%), and in twos and threes in 13(28.3%) of the 46 families. Even in the families of the patient(s) with the fungus, the subtypes were not always identical with those from house dust. In a mating study with a total of 210 strains of T. mentagrophytes, 130 out of 136 (including 6 indeterminate) strains of granulosum-asteroides form turned out to be Arthroderma vanbreuseghemii " - ". But all the 70 strains of the powdery, persicolor and downy forms that showed strong sexual stimulation by tester strains, were "+". CONCLUSION: House dust was extensively and markedly contaminated by dermatophytes in a rural town. Further study is needed to evaluate the distribution of mating types of the members of T. mentagrophytes complex in a clinical setting.
Arthrodermataceae* ; Dust* ; Fungi ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Humans ; Microsporum ; Physical Examination ; Skin ; Tinea ; Tinea Pedis ; Trichophyton

Kerion celsi caused by Trichophyton(T.) rubrum is rare endemically and there has been no report of it in Korean literatures. We report a case of karion celsi caused by T. rubrum in a 71-year-old male, who showed anindurated, swollen, boggy mass exuding pus on the right parietal scalp for about 7 weeks. The colonies and microconidia were identified as T. rubrum by fungus culture in potato dextrose agar. After administration of itraconazole for 11 weeks, the lesion was healed and the regrowing of new hairs was observed.
Adult* ; Agar ; Aged ; Fungi ; Glucose ; Hair ; Humans ; Itraconazole ; Male ; Rabeprazole ; Scalp ; Solanum tuberosum ; Suppuration ; Tinea Capitis* ; Trichophyton*

BACKGROUND: Some of the deficiencies in anterior pituitary function identified in subjects with macroadenomas appear to represent irrevemible necrosis of normal pituitary cells, and in addition reversible damage to viable glandular tissue and/or incomplete interruption of local circulation by compression of pituitary stalk may also contribute significantly to hypopituitarism. So anterior pituitary function may actually improve in some patients undergoing successful tumor resection or reduction in tumor size. Although direct comparisons of pituitary function among the various pituitary tumors are not presently available it was reported that there is some difference in the degree of pituitary impairment between patients with nonfunctioning macroadenoma(NFMA) and those with GH-secreting macroadenoma(GHMA).In this study, to investigate the difference in the degree of hypopituitarism we compared anterior pituitary function in subjects with NFMA to that in patients with GHMA. METHODS: In this retrospective study, preoperative and postoperative anterior pituitary function was assessed by clinical findings, basal hormone levels and/or combined pituitary stimulation test in 29 subjects with NFMA and in 24 subjects with GHMA. RESULTS: 1. There was no difference in age, sex, tumor size distribution between the two groups. 2. Preoperatively, NFMA patients had a higher prevalence of secondary hypothyroidism(34% vs. 5%; p(0.02) compared to subjects with GHMA. Patients with NFMA also had a higher prevalence of more severe pituitary failure compared with acromegalic patients; 48% of the patients in this group had more than one pituitary hormone axis impaired compared to 17% in the acromegalic group(p0.03). 3. Postoperatively, NFMA patients also had a higher prevalence of secondary hypoadrenalism (52% vs. 11%; p 0.01) compared with acromegalic patients. Additionally, the prevalence who had more than one pituitary hormone axis impaired was still greater in NFMA patients than in the acromegalic group(57% vs. 22%; p=0.054). 4. No correlation was found between the severity of pituitary failure and tumor size or extension in both groups before and after surgery. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that anterior pituitary function is relatively better preserved in patients with GHMA than those with NFMA and that this difference is independent of tumor size and extension. The mechanism underlying the lower rate of hypopituitarism in acromegalics with macroadenoma remains to be elucidated.
Adrenal Insufficiency ; Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Humans ; Hypopituitarism ; Necrosis ; Pituitary Gland ; Pituitary Neoplasms ; Prevalence ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and effect of various cryopreservation method on the survival and the cytoskeletal stability of metaphase II mouse oocyte. METHODS: Mouse ovulated oocytes were collected and cryopreserved by a modified slow-freezing method with 1.5 M 1,2-propanediol (PrOH)+0.1 M sucrose or by vitrification using cryo loop and EM grid with 40% ethylene glycol+0.6 M sucrose. Four hours after thawing, intact oocytes were fixed and stained with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated monoclonal anti-beta-tubulin antibody to visualize spindle and propidium iodide (PI) to visualize chromosome. Spindle morphology was classified as follows: normal (barrel-shaped), slightly and absolute abnormal (multipolar or absent). RESULTS: Survival rate of the frozen-thawed oocytes in vitrification group was significantly higher than that of slow-freezing group (62.7% vs. 24.4%, p<0.01). Vitrification with cryo loop showed significantly higher survival rate than that with EM grid (67.7% vs. 53.5%, p<0.05). On the other hand, proportion of normal spindle and chromosome configurations of the frozen-thawed oocytes between two vitrification group was not significantly different. CONCLUSION: For mouse ovulated oocytes, vitrification with cryo loop may be a preferable procedure compared to slow-freezing method. Further study should be needed to investigate developmental competency of frozen-thawed mouse oocytes.
Animals ; Cryopreservation* ; Fluorescein ; Hand ; Metaphase ; Mice* ; Oocytes* ; Propidium ; Propylene Glycol ; Sucrose ; Survival Rate ; Vitrification

No abstract available.
Arthritis*

BACKGROUND: The combination of psoralen and UVA (PUVA) as a model of photochemotherap, has been used in a wicle variety of cutaneous disorders such as psoriasis, vitiligo, mycosis fungoides and atopic dermatitis. The mechanism of PUVA of psoriasis is based on the fact. that PUVA causes photoconjugation of psoralens to DNA and a subsequent suppression of mitosis, DNA synthesis, and keratinocyte proliferation. Although PUVA apparently inhibits keratinocytie proliferation and is effective therefore in the treatment of psoriasis, PUVA increases pigmentations by stimulating melanocyte proliferation and melanin synthesis in vivo. OBJECTIVE: We tried to investigate the PUVA effects on the proliferation and different,iation in cultured human keratinoc tes and melanocytes. METHODS: We examined morphologic changes, and the number of the cultured human keratinocytes and melanoiytes and melanin contents in a control group and experimental group. (UVA group, 8-MOP group and PUVA group). i.e., UVA group was exposed to UVA at 60mJ, of. 8-MOP group was acJded at dose of 2 x 10 M to medium for 30 minutes. PUVA group was exposed to UVA at 60mJ, of after adding in 8 MOP at Zx 10 M for 30 minutes. RESULTS: 1. Morphologic changes of cultured human keratinocytes and melanocytes. There were no significent changes between the control group and the experimental groups in keratinocytes and melanocytes after 24, 48 and 72 hours culture. The number and length of meianocyte dendrites showecl no significant differences between the groups after 24, 48 and 72 hours culture(p>0.05). 2. Proliferation of cultured human keratinocytes and melanocytes 1) The number of keratinocytes in 8-MOP and PUVA groups decreased significantly more than in the control and LVA groups at 72nd hour after culture (p<0.01). 2) The number of melnocytes showed no differences between the groups at 72nd hour after culture (p>0.05). 3. Melanin contents in iultured human melanocytes The melanin contents increased significantly in the PUVA groups compared to that in the other groups at 72nd hour after culture (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: In culturel human keratinocytes, PUVA has no effect on the morphology and differentiation, hut inhibit proliferation. In cultured human melanocytes, PUVA has no effect on morphology and proliferation, but it increases the melanin contents.
Dendrites ; Dermatitis, Atopic ; DNA ; Ficusin ; Humans* ; Keratinocytes* ; Melanins ; Melanocytes* ; Methoxsalen ; Mitosis ; Mycosis Fungoides ; Pigmentation ; Psoralens ; Psoriasis ; Vitiligo

No abstract available.
Fingers*