SPARC, secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine, is a extracellular matrix-associated protein implicated in the modulation of cell adhesion, migration, cell cycle regulation, and angiogenesis. SPARC is expressed in fibrocytes and endothelial cells involved in tissue repair and invasive malignant tumors in the gastrointestinal tract, breast, lung, kidney, adrenal cortex, ovary, and brain. This study was aimed to characterize the different expression of SPARC in the thyroid follicular adenomas and follicular carcinomas. Immunohistochemical staining was performed in paraffin-embedded tissues of 25 follicular adenomas and 15 follicular carcinomas of the thyroid gland. Immunohistochemically, SPARC was not expressed in the 19 follicular adenoma and 2 follicular carcinoma but highly expressed in the 6 follicular adenoma and 13 follicular carcinoma. These findings suggest that SPARC is a potential diagnostic marker of follicular carcinoma and is helpful to distinguish follicular carcinoma from follicular adenoma without vascular or capsular invasion.
Adenoma* ; Adrenal Cortex ; Brain ; Breast ; Cell Adhesion ; Cell Movement ; Cysteine ; Endothelial Cells ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Kidney ; Lung ; Ovary ; Thyroid Gland*

BACKGROUND: The clinical behavior of vitiligo has not been clearly understood and hypothesis concerning the pathogenesis of the disease has been confusing and contradictory though autoimmune mechanisms have been considered important by many authors. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the clinical features and pathogenesis of vitiligo. METHODS: We investigated clinical features of vitiligo in 1315 patients, and also compared the clinical course and features of non-segmental type(type A) and segmental type(type B) vitiligo patients to see whether the two types of vitiligo have a different pathogenic mechanism. RESULTS: Previously reported clinical patterns of the disease were reviewed and compared with our data, and the different clinical findings between the two types which supported the hypothesis of Koga et al. that type A and type B vitiligo had a different pathogenesis and autoimmune mechanisms played a role only in type A were shown. CONCLUSION: We investigated the clinical characteristics of vitiligo in Korea and showed that the type A vitiligo might have a different pathogenic mechanism with type B.
Clinical Study* ; Humans ; Korea ; Vitiligo*

Compared with osteosarcoma of bone, primary osteosarcoma of the soft tissue is very rare. Extraskeletal osteosarcoma is also a highly malignant pleomorphic sarcoma composed of cells exhibiting primarily osteoblastic, and to a lesser extent, chondroblastic differentiation. A case of extraskeletal osteosarcoma in the right sole is presented in a 67 year old male. The patient had noticed a progressively enlarging soft tissue mass, during about 14 months. This sarcoma was located in the soft tissues without attachment to the skeleton, as determined by examination of the X-Ray findings. The mass of right plantar portion was simply excised and pathologically confirmed to be an extraskeletal osteosarcoma. The clinical and pathological features of this sarcoma are described, and brief review of the literature is made.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the role of CT and MR imagings in the diagnosis aortic dissection and differentiation between the true and false lumen. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively studied forty patients with aortic dissection(AD) diagnosed imagings or surgery. Of the forty patients, 19 were examined with only CT, 14 with CT and MR, and 7 with MI~: Our points of view were(1) the classification of AD according to configuration of intimal flap by cross-sectional imaging, (2) differentiation between the true and false lumens, (3) the course of the false lumen, and (4)! detectability of the origin of major branch vessels of the abdominal aorta. RESULTS: The classification by corss-sectional imaging were crescentic(65%), circumferential(15%), flat(12%), and irregular(8%) type, in which false negative diagnosis was made in 1 case of crescentic and circumferential type, respectively. In 2 case of flat type and 1 case of irregular type, the differentiation between the true and false lumen was impossible with CT. The course of the false lumen in descending thoracic aorta revealed countrclock wise rotation(66%), clockwise rotation(5%) or fixed(29%) apperance. MR imaging was superior to CT in the detection of the origin of major branch vessels of the abdominal aorta. The determination of the origin of major branches of abdominal aorta arising from the true and false lumen were impossible in 2 cases in which only CT was done. CONCLUSION: Diagnosis of crescentic and circumferential types of AD with narrow and thrombosed false lumen was problematic in both CT and MR with no difference of diagnostic accuracy between the two modalities. The differentiation between the true and false lumen was difficult in flat and irregular types with only CT. Therefore, when surgical treatment is considered as in type B aortic dissection, MR imaging is recommended in order to determine the origin of major branch vessels.
Aorta, Abdominal ; Aorta, Thoracic ; Classification ; Diagnosis* ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Retrospective Studies

We investigated the clinical aspect and immunologic parameters of childhood and adult vitiligo in our clinics and made a comparative study. The childhood vitiligo showed the following results : similar incidence of clinical patterns with adults except for the lower incidence of the acrofacial type than in adults ; less involvement in the extent of lesion of disease than in adults ; higher incidence of family history than with adults ; of the precipitating factors, trauma is the main one whereas emotional stress is for adults ; higher association with halo nevi than adults ; and lower incidence of serum autoantibodies than adults. We have ascertained that childhood vitiligo is a distinct subset of vitiligo, showing the above features which will be studied in more patients in a long term follow-up clinical study.
Adult ; Autoantibodies ; Clinical Study ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Nevus, Halo ; Precipitating Factors ; Stress, Psychological ; Vitiligo

Several observation suggest that the antimelanocyte autoantibodies could play a role in melanocyte destruction. Some experiments indicate that melanocyte antibodies from patients with vitiligo can kill melanocyte in vitro. In these experiments, we demonstrated that vitiligo patient's sera containing antimelanocyte antibodies can lyse cultured human melanocytes by complement activation. Melanocyte cytotoxicity was measured using the ethidium bromide/ acridine orange viability assay. Significant melanocyte cytotoxicity was seen in sera from patients with both active and inactive vitiligo(p<0.01). Melanocyte cytotoxicity measured with complement-mediated cytotoxicity decreased after systemic steroid treatment(p<0.05) ; however melanocyte cytotoxicity showed no significant change with systemic PUVA therapy.
Acridine Orange ; Antibodies ; Autoantibodies* ; Complement Activation ; Ethidium ; Humans ; Melanocytes ; PUVA Therapy ; Vitiligo*

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention among male nurses in South Korea. METHODS: Data were collected in May, 2013 and a total of 150 male hospital nurses participated in this study. Job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention were measured using a structured questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS/WIN 20.0 for windows. RESULTS: There were statistically significant correlations between job satisfaction and organizational commitment (r=.74, p<.001), job satisfaction and turnover intention (r=-.56, p<.001), and organizational commitment and turnover intention (r=-.69, p< .001). There was a statistically significant difference in job satisfaction of participants according to education, work unit, and salary. Organizational commitment showed significant difference according to age, education, work unit, and salary. Turnover intention was significantly different according to duration of employment in the hospital, and salary. The most influential factor for turnover intention was organizational commitment (beta=-.69, p<.001). This factor accounted for 47.8% of the variance in turnover intention. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that to reduce turnover intention for men in nursing, it is necessary to increase job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.
Education ; Employment ; Humans ; Intention* ; Job Satisfaction* ; Korea ; Male ; Nurses, Male* ; Nursing ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits

In the past, bioinformatics was often regarded as a difficult and rather remote field, practiced only by computer scientists and not a practical tool available to biologists. However, the various on-going genome projects have had a serious impact on biological sciences in various ways and now there is little doubt that bioinformatics is an essential part of the research environment, with a wealth of biological information to analyze and predict. Fully sequenced genomes made us to have additional insights into the functional properties of the encoded proteins and made it possible to develop new tools and schemes for functional biology on a proteomic scale. Among those are the yeast two-hybrid system, mass spectrometry and microarray: the technology of choice to detect protein-protein interactions. These functional insights emerge as networks of interacting proteins, also known as "pathway informatics" or "interactomics". Without exception it is no longer possible to make advances in the signaling/regulatory pathway studies without integrating information technologies with experimental technologies. In this paper, we will introduce the databases of protein interaction worldwide and discuss several challenging issues regarding the actual implementation of databases.
Biological Science Disciplines ; Biology ; Computational Biology ; Genome ; Mass Spectrometry ; Two-Hybrid System Techniques

In the past, bioinformatics was often regarded as a difficult and rather remote field, practiced only by computer scientists and not a practical tool available to biologists. However, the various on-going genome projects have had a serious impact on biological sciences in various ways and now there is little doubt that bioinformatics is an essential part of the research environment, with a wealth of biological information to analyze and predict. Fully sequenced genomes made us to have additional insights into the functional properties of the encoded proteins and made it possible to develop new tools and schemes for functional biology on a proteomic scale. Among those are the yeast two-hybrid system, mass spectrometry and microarray: the technology of choice to detect protein-protein interactions. These functional insights emerge as networks of interacting proteins, also known as "pathway informatics" or "interactomics". Without exception it is no longer possible to make advances in the signaling/regulatory pathway studies without integrating information technologies with experimental technologies. In this paper, we will introduce the databases of protein interaction worldwide and discuss several challenging issues regarding the actual implementation of databases.
Biological Science Disciplines ; Biology ; Computational Biology ; Genome ; Mass Spectrometry ; Two-Hybrid System Techniques

BACKGROUND: PUVA has been used effectively in the treat,ment of vitiligo, but the mechanism by which PUVA stimulat.es melanocyte proliferation in vitiligo is not known. Several mechanisms have been suggested to be involved in the process of repigmentation of vitiligo. First, UV light, with or without psoralen, directly stimulates the proliferation of melanocytes. Secondly, PUVA may act. on epidermal keratinocytes or dermal components to stimulate t,hem to release certain melanocyte growth st,inulation factors that enhance the proliferation of melanocytes in depigmented lesions. Thirdly, PUVA irnmunologically leads to the impairment of epidermal Langerhans cell function and alteration of circulating T and B cell function, which results in the suppression of the stimuli is for rnelanocyte destruction during the therapy. OBJECTIVE: To test, th hypothesis that PUVA induced repigmentation in vitiligo results from the stimulation of growth factors that induce melanocyte proliferation, and that PUVA may suppress the immune reacticin to melanocytes, especially in autoantibody synt,hesis, we examined the effects of sera on the growth of epidermal melanocytes and control cells, and t,he incidence of antibodies to melanocyte and melanoma cells(SK-Mel 2~3) in the sera of patients with vitiligo. We also had normal control individuals and studied the changes of the antibody titer in the sera of patients with vitiligo. METHODS: The rate of H thymidine uptake was estimat,ed in cultured melanocytes and fibroblasts t,reated by patients sera before and after PUVA treatment. SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting analysis were used to idcntify anti pigment cell autoantibodies and were compared to the titers of autoantibodies after PUVA. RESULTS: 1. Melanocyte and fibrablast proliferation was increased by PUVA treated sera. Their proliferation was in proportion to the duration of the PUVA treatment. Melanocytes proliferated more than fibroblasts. 2. Significant differences between vitiligo patients and normal controls were found in the inci dence of anti-pigment cell antibodies. The antibodies were predominantly directed to melanocyte antigens of 110 kD, 65 kD, 45 kD and melanoma cell antigens of 110 kD, 103 kD, 88kD, 70 kD, 56 kD, 41 kD. 3. The titer of anti piment cell antibodies showed a tendency to decrease after PUVA treat- ment in most patients regardless of clinical improvement. Conclusion ; PUVA treated sera induced proliferation of melanocytes and fibroblasts and the production of aut,oantibodies was suppressed against pigment cell antigens through irnmunosuppression, which might help in the repigmentation of vitiligo.
Antibodies ; Autoantibodies* ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Fibroblasts ; Ficusin ; Humans ; Immunoblotting ; Incidence ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Keratinocytes ; Melanocytes* ; Melanoma ; Thymidine ; Ultraviolet Rays ; Vitiligo*