PURPOSE: To establish new in vitro model systems that better reflect in vivo condition, multicellular tumor spheroids(MTS) and raft culture were developed using cell lines of squamous cell carcinoma(SCCHN) of the head and neck. In these 3-dimensional systems, the expression of cell surface molecules which are important for modulation of physiology of tumor cells were studied with or without the treatment of interferon(IFN)-gamma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four SCCHN cell lines were used for MTS and raft culture. The effects of interferon-gamma on SCCHN cells were examined by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: All cell lines formed MTS, but only Tu-138 showed a good stratification at the air-liquid interface in the raft culture system. Immunohistochemical studies of MTS using monoclonal antibodies revealed a strong staining for MHC class I, no staining for MHC-DR, a weak patch expression of ICAM-1 and a central strong staining for integrin a 6. Staining patterns were similar for the raft cultures except integrin a 6(intense full-thickness positivity). In both systems, IFN-gamma enhanced the expression of MHC-DR and ICAM-1. No significant change was found in the expression of MHC class I and integrin a 6. CONCLUSIONS: MTS and raft culture system were established successfully from the SCCHN cell lines. IFN-gamma can modulate the surface molecules of tumor cells in the 3-dimensional culture systems.
Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell* ; Cell Line ; Head* ; Immunohistochemistry ; Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 ; Interferon-gamma ; Neck* ; Physiology

OBJECTIVE: 1) To compare prolactin responses to (and related clinical manifestations of) haloperidol, risperidone, and other atypical antipsychotics (clozapine, olanzapine, quetiapine, zotepine) with data from previous reports. 2) To investigate the association between changes in serum prolactin levels after the administration of antipsychotics and 44-bp insertion/deletion polymorphism in 5-HT transporter-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) in Korean schizophrenics. METHODS: The subjects were 136 patients diagnosed schizophrenic according to the DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia who had taken antipsychotics for at least 3 months. The 136 patients consisted of the following 82 taking haloperidol (48 males and 34 females), 25 taking risperidone (14 males and 11 females), and 29 taking other atypical antipsychotics (18 males and 11 females). We measured serum prolactin concentrations by radioimmunoassay and investigated the clinical manifestations. We examined the genotype distribution and allele frequency of the 5-HTTLPR in all subjects by polymerase chain reaction of genomic DNA with primers flanking the promoter regions of the 5-HTT gene. Chi-square test, ANOVA and tukey test were used for statistical analysis with SAS 8.1 and p values of 0.05 or less were regarded as significant difference. RESULTS: Serum prolactin levels of patients taking haloperidol and risperidone were significantly higher than those taking other atypical antipsychotics (p<0.05). Females showed significantly higher prolactin levels than males (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in the genotype distribution and allele frequency of 5-HTTLPR among groups taking haloperidol, risperidone, and other atypicals. There was also no significant difference in genotype distribution and allele frequency of 5-HTTLPR between male and female schizophrenic patients. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that there was no association between serum prolactin levels after the administration of antipsychotics and 5-HTTLPR polymorphism in Korean schizophrenics.
Antipsychotic Agents* ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; DNA ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Haloperidol ; Humans ; Male ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Prolactin* ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Radioimmunoassay ; Risperidone ; Schizophrenia ; Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins ; Serotonin*

OBJECTIVE: A Comparison of QTc prolongation for various antipsychotics and an analysis of QTc prolongation for the various types of serotonin transporter polymorphism were performed. METHOD: EKG was checked, followed by QTc measurement as Bazett's correction, and the serotonin transporter polymorphism was examined in 110 chronic schizophrenia patients were performed EKG before 24 weeks ago. We defiened QTc prolongation as over 450ms. The risk factor of sudden cardiac death were defiend as QTc prolongation and or 60ms in delta value. RESULT: The prevalence of QTc prolongation in this study was 7.3%, and the prevalence of over 60ms was 4.5%. Patients who had the risk factors were 10(9.1%). 6/52 who prescribed atypical antipsychotics and 2/58 who prescribed haloperidol showed QTc prolongation. The prevalence who had the risk factor of sudden cardiac death were 16% in atypical antipsychotics group, 3.4% in haloperidol group. QTc prolongation were observed more frequently in l/l type than s/s type. l allele frequency were 50% in QTc prolongated group, 19% in not prolongated group. l allele had an association with QTc prolongation(p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of QTc prolongatin was frequent in chronic schizophrenia patients who were prescribed atypical antipsychotics. It has strong association with l allele of 5-HTTLPR.
Alleles ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Death, Sudden, Cardiac ; Electrocardiography ; Gene Frequency ; Haloperidol ; Humans ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Schizophrenia ; Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins

Anaplasmosis is a tick-borne, non-contagious, zoonotic disease caused by Anaplasma spp., which include Anaplasma marginale, A. centrale, A. phagocytophilum, A. platys, A. ovis, and A. bovis. Recently, in Korea, the prevalence of Anaplasma spp. has been investigated in some animals, such as dogs, horses, goats, cats, and Korean water deer. In cattle, A. marginale is the most virulent species and regarded as the typical type of species. However, data on the seroprevalence of Anaplasma spp. in cattle in Korea during the last decade is limited. This study was designed to investigate the seroprevalence of bovine anaplasmosis in Korea. From 2010 to 2013, blood samples were collected from 568 cattle. Forty animals (7.0%) tested seropositive for Anaplasma spp. by cELISA. Despite that current bovine anaplasmosis seropositivity rate in the Gyeongsangbuk-do is lower than those in tropical countries, anaplasmosis needs to be regarded as a concerning disease. The identification of the specific Anaplasma species infecting cattle in this province requires additional molecular studies. Moreover, further monitoring and control programs for bovine anaplasmosis is required, and the information from this study will be beneficial to develop these programs.
Anaplasma marginale ; Anaplasma ; Anaplasmosis ; Animals ; Antibodies ; Cats ; Cattle ; Deer ; Dogs ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Goats ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Horses ; Korea ; Prevalence ; Seroepidemiologic Studies ; Sheep ; Water ; Zoonoses

BACKGROUND: Phospholipase C(PLC) plays a central role in cellular signal transduction and is important in cellular growth, differentiation and transformation. There are currently ten known mammalian isozymes of PLC reported to this date. Hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate(PIP2) by PLC produces two important second messengers, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate(IP3) and diacylglycerol. PLC-gamma1, previously, was known to be activated mainly through growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase. Other mechanisms of activating PLC-gamma1 have been reported such as activation through tau protein in the presence of arachidonic acid in bovine brain and activation by IP3, phosphatidic acid, etc. Very recently, another PLC-gamma1 activator protein such as tau has been found in bovine lung tissue, which now is considered to be AHNAK protein. But there has been no report concerning AHNAK and its associated disease to this date. In this study, we examined the expression of the PLC-gamma1 activator, AHNAK, in lung cancer specimens and their paired normal. METHODS: From surgically resected human lung cancer tissues taken from twenty-eight patients and their paired normal counterparts, we evaluated expression level of AHNAK protein using immunoblot analysis of total tissue extract. Immunohistochemical stain was performed with primary antibody against AHNAK protein. RESULTS: Twenty-two among twenty-eight lung cancer tissues showed over expression of AHNAK protein(eight of fourteen squamous cell lung cancers, all of fourteen adenocarcinomal). the resulting bands were multiple ranging from 70 to 200 kDa in molecular weight and each band was indistinct and formed a smear, reflecting mobility shift mainly due to proteolysis during extraction process. On immunohistochemistry, lung cancer tissues showed a very heavy, dense staining with anti-AHNAK protein antibody as compared to the surrounding normal lung tissue, coresponding well with the results of the western blot. CONCLUSION: The overexpression of PLC-gamma1 activator protein, AHNAK in lung cancer may provide evidence that the AHNAK protein and PLC-gamma1 act in concerted manner in carcinogenesis.
Arachidonic Acid ; Blotting, Western ; Brain ; Carcinogenesis ; Humans* ; Hydrolysis ; Immunohistochemistry ; Inositol ; Isoenzymes ; Lung Neoplasms* ; Lung* ; Molecular Weight ; Phosphatidic Acids ; Phosphatidylinositols ; Phospholipases* ; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases ; Proteolysis ; Second Messenger Systems ; Signal Transduction ; tau Proteins

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cholera toxin B (CTB) is an effective immunomodulating agent. Mucosal tolerance is a well recognized method for inducing tolerance, but large amounts of antigen is needed. The dosage required can be dramatically reduced through coupling the antigen to the CTB. This study aimed to examine whether mucosal administration of house dust mite coupled to CTB (HDM-CTB conjugate) would modulate specific type 1 hypersensitivity in the murine model of allergic rhinitis and to evaluate the prophylactic and long-term therapeutic effects. MATERIALS AND METHOD: C57BL/6 mice were sensitized with Dermatophagoides farinae extract. After administration of HDM-CTB conjugate, several parameters of allergic response were evaluated. RESULTS: After mucosal adminstration of HDM-CTB conjugate, allergic symptoms, eosinophilic infiltration into nasal mucosa, specific IgE, and the splenic T cell proliferation after Dermatophagoides farinae allergen challenge were suppressed. CONCLUSION: These findings show that HDM-CTB conjugate has an anti-allergic effect in the murine model of allergic rhinitis and suggest that house dust mite allergy can be modulated with mucosal administration of allergen coupled to CTB.
Administration, Mucosal ; Animals ; Cell Proliferation ; Cholera Toxin ; Dermatophagoides farinae ; Dust* ; Eosinophils ; Hypersensitivity ; Immunoglobulin E ; Immunotherapy ; Mice* ; Nasal Mucosa ; Pyroglyphidae ; Rhinitis*

Background: Although respiratory tract infection is one of the most important factors triggering acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AE-COPD), limited data are available to suggest an epidemiologic pattern of microbiology in South Korea. Methods: A multicenter observational study was conducted between January 2015 and December 2018 across 28 hospitals in South Korea. Adult patients with moderate-to-severe acute exacerbations of COPD were eligible to participate in the present study. The participants underwent all conventional tests to identify etiology of microbial pathogenesis. The primary outcome was the percentage of different microbiological pathogens causing AE-COPD. A comparative microbiological analysis of the patients with overlapping asthma–COPD (ACO) and pure COPD was performed. Results: We included 1,186 patients with AE-COPD. Patients with pure COPD constituted 87.9% and those with ACO accounted for 12.1%. Nearly half of the patients used an inhaled corticosteroid-containing regimen and one-fifth used systemic corticosteroids. Respiratory pathogens were found in 55.3% of all such patients. Bacteria and viruses were detected in 33% and 33.2%, respectively. Bacterial and viral coinfections were found in 10.9%. The most frequently detected bacteria were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9.8%), and the most frequently detected virus was influenza A (10.4%). Multiple bacterial infections were more likely to appear in ACO than in pure COPD (8.3% vs. 3.6%, p=0.016). Conclusion Distinct microbiological patterns were identified in patients with moderate-to-severe AE-COPD in South Korea. These findings may improve evidence-based management of patients with AE-COPD and represent the basis for further studies investigating infectious pathogens in patients with COPD.