Human stem cells have been isolated from embryos as well as diverse somatic tissues. Much efforts have been made to apply those stem cells for therapeutic purpose. Molecular dissection of "stemness" and differentiation process will provide us a clue to further understanding of stem cell biology. The fate of stem cell is determined in part by internal regulation mediated by transcriptional control. A set of genes related to specific functions might be expressed and suppressed upon external or internal signaling. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the complete gene expression profile that defines the stem cell. Moreover, we should verify the potential of therapeutic stem cells regarding differentiation, specific function, tumorigenecity, and toxicity rigorously before the clinical application. At present we have only limited information on "stemness" and differentiation into specific lineages. In the genome era, we can draw a molecular portrait on these functional and morphologic changes along the differentiation, trans-differentiation as well as de-differentiation using the DNA chip technology. We need to accumulate database for gene expression at various steps of stem cell differentiation, which will enhance our knowledge for research on and medical application of stem cell.
Biology ; Embryonic Structures ; Gene Expression ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Genome ; Genomics ; Humans ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Stem Cells* ; Transcriptome

No abstract available.
Female ; Humans ; Plasma* ; Pregnant Women*

No abstract available.
Endoscopy ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage*

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Choledochal Cyst* ; Cholestasis*

We conducted this cohort analytic study to determine whether women with unexplained elevations of maternal serum hCG at 15-18 weeks' gestation are at increased risk for pregnancy complications and adverse perinatal outcomes. The inclusion criteria were a singleton gestation, a confirmed gestational age, and an hCG level greater than 2.0 multiples of the median (MoM). The exclusion criteria were fetal anomalies, an abnormal karyotype, molar pregnancy, and an MSAFP level greater than 2.5 multiples of the median (MoM). A group of randomly selected women with hCG levels under 2.0 MoM served as controls. Patients with elevated levels of hCG had a significantly higher risk for PIH (17.9% versus 4.5%; P <.05) and preterm delivery (17.9% versus 3.5%; P<, 05) than control. But no significant differences were observed in the incidence of intrauterine growth restriction and low birth weight and in the newborn weight. We suggested that pregnancies with unexplained elevated hCG levels should be regarded as high-risk pregnancies. And these patients require careful monitoring with adequate obstetric management.
Abnormal Karyotype ; Chorionic Gonadotropin* ; Cohort Studies ; Female ; Gestational Age ; Humans* ; Hydatidiform Mole ; Incidence ; Infant, Low Birth Weight ; Infant, Newborn ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Complications ; Pregnancy Outcome* ; Pregnancy* ; Pregnancy, High-Risk

A twenty four-year-old female patient had suffered progressive dyspnea for 6 years until death. She denied any symptoms suggestive of connective tissue disease, or deep vein thrombosis. She suffered an episode of pontine infarct in 1995. Four years after diagnosis of primary pulmonary hypertension, she died of sudden death during hospitalization. Gross features of pulmonary arteries at autopsy were as follows: left main pulmonary artery showed dilation of the lumen and thickening of the wall, and right main pulmonary artery was markedly dilated and contained fresh thrombus. Hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections of lung tissue showed plexiform lesions of pulmonary arteries, complete luminal obliteration of pulmonary arterioles and dilated lesion of pulmonary arterioles, and capillaries. This patient represents a typical case with a primary pulmonary arteriopathy with plexiform lesions with thrombotic lesion, demonstrating the importance of thrombosis in situ in the pathogenesis of primary pulmonary hypertension. To our knowledge, this is the first autopsy report on the primary pulmonary hypertension in Korea.
Arterioles ; Autopsy ; Capillaries ; Connective Tissue Diseases ; Death, Sudden ; Diagnosis ; Dyspnea ; Female ; Hematoxylin ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary* ; Korea ; Lung ; Phenobarbital ; Pulmonary Artery ; Thrombosis ; Venous Thrombosis

Thin basement membrane nephropathy(TBMN) is defined histologically as follows: 1) By light rnicroscopy only minor abnormalities are detected in the glomeruli at most minor mesangial widening. 2) By electron microscopy, diffuse thinning of glomerular basement rnembrane is demonstrated. 3) By immunofluorescence, absence of immunoglobulins and complement components is demonstrated. 4) Alport's syndrome and systemic diseases that may affect the glomerular structure have been excluded. TBMN presented frequently with recurrent or persistent microscopic hematuria. Massive proteinuria such as in nephrotic syndrome rarely occurs in TBMN. We reported two cases of TBMN presented with typical minimal change nephrotic syndrome.
Basement Membrane* ; Complement System Proteins ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique ; Hematuria ; Immunoglobulins ; Microscopy, Electron ; Nephritis, Hereditary ; Nephrosis, Lipoid* ; Nephrotic Syndrome ; Proteinuria

No abstract available.
Canada* ; Gastrointestinal Tract*

PURPOSE: The Pediatric Risk of Mortality(PRISM) III score was developed from the Physiologic Stability Index(PSI) to assess pediatric ICU mortality and Provide an objective data as a severity index. Although the PRISM score has been applied to many comparisions and analyses in previous studies, there are few reports applied to pediatric intensive care patients in Korea. To evaluate the effectiveness of the PRISM III score as a severity index for expecting mortality and find important variables influencing mortality, we applied this scoring scale to pediatric neurologic patients admitted to the ICU and analyzed the data statistically. METHODS: Data collection was done by careful review of medical records and scored each clinical variable. The outcome at discharge was determined as non-survival, survival, and hopeless discharge. Determination of mortality in the hopeless discharge group was done within 48 hours after discharge by telephone interview. The study populations were classified into four groups; CNS infection(26 patients), acute encephalopathy(31 patients), status epilepticus(35 patients) and cerebrovascular disorder(4 patients). The difference of the PRISM III score between the survival group and non-survival group was compared by using the nonparametric Mann~Whitney test in the entire study population and for each diagnostic group. To confirm the degree of fitness between the actual mortality and Predicted mortality, the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test, a multiple logistic regression model was used. All clinical variables used for scoring were compared for survivals and non-survivals by the Chi-square test. f values <0.05 were considered significant. RESULTS: The PRISM III score was significantly higher in the non-survival groups than in the survival group. Predicted mortality from the PRISM III score has fitted to actual mortality According to the results of analyses in each diagnostic groups, the PRISM III score was higher in non-survivals of the acute encephalopathy and CNS infection groups, but statistically insignificant in the cerebrovascular disorders and status epilepticus groups. The important variables of the PRISM III score associated with mortality were mental state, Pupil reflex, systolic blood pressure, acidosis, blood sodium level blood creatinine level, blood glucose level, and PT/PTT. , CONCLUSION: The PRISM III score is helpful in predicting mortality in pediatric intensive care neurologic patients, especially those in the acute encephalopathy or the CNS infection groups. However, this score was not useful in the status epilepticus group, and insignificant in cerebrovascular group. Due to the smallness of the study group, more massive and comprehensive studies are needed as a follow up to this study.
Acidosis ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Cerebrovascular Disorders ; Creatinine ; Data Collection ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Critical Care* ; Interviews as Topic ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Medical Records ; Mortality* ; Pupil ; Reflex ; Sodium ; Status Epilepticus