Cord blood is one of the promising sources of hematopoietic stem cell and the public cord blood bank should cryopreserve only high quality, conforming cord blood units for transplantation. Cryopreserved cord blood units have several advantages over other hematopoietic stem cell sources such as bone marrow or mobilized peripheral stem cells; cord blood is in the ready-to-use state after the necessary testing and cause less graft-versus-host disease due to cellular immaturity. The limiting factor is the restricted cell number, which resulted in delayed engraftment and immunologic reconstitution. Selection of cord blood for patients is determined by two criteria: the number of total nucleated cell and the matching of human leukocyte antigen. The cord blood inventory required for any given ethnicity is determined by HLA diversity. In terms of growing interest of cord blood as a stem cell source, we reviewed the current status of cord blood related issues in Korea.
Bone Marrow ; Cell Count ; Fetal Blood ; Fibrinogen ; Graft vs Host Disease ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Humans ; Korea ; Leukocytes ; Stem Cells ; Transplants

PURPOSE: Cysteinyl leukotrienes are important inflammatory mediators in the pathogenesis of asthma; therefore interruption of cysteinyl leukotrienes by leukotriene receptor antagonists improves clinical symptoms in the management of patients with mild to moderate asthma. We evaluated whether clinical response to montelukast, a leukotriene receptor antagonist, in childhood asthma was predicted by genotypes of leukotriene C4 synthase (LTC4S) promoter gene polymorphism. METHODS: An 8-week prospective, open trial of montelukast was carried out in 161 children with mild to moderate asthma. Genotyping of LTC4S gene polymorphism was determined by restriction fragment length polymorphism. RESULTS: The distribution of the LTC4S genotypes AA, AC, and CC was 70.8 percent, 23.6 percent, and 5.6 percent, respectively in asthma group and 74.0 percent, 22.6 percent, and 3.4 percent, respectively in control group. A statistically significant difference in the distribution of LTC4S genotype was not observed between the asthma and the control groups, and there was no significant difference between the LTC4S genotype and asthma severity. The responders to montelukast were significantly prevalent in the mild asthma group (P< 0.05). There was no significant difference in the distribution of the responders compared to non-responders within genotype in the total asthma group or the moderate asthma group. However, the responsiveness for montelukast was significant difference within genotype for both AA and AC/CC in the mild asthma group: The AA genotype was more included in the responder group (P< 0.05). CONCLUSION: In the mild persistent asthma group, the A allele of LTC4S polymorphism may be regarded as a predictable factor for clinical response to montelukast. However, LTC4S polymorphism was not significantly associated with the clinical response to montelukast in asthmatic children.
Alleles ; Asthma* ; Child ; Genotype ; Humans ; Leukotriene Antagonists ; Leukotriene C4* ; Leukotrienes ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Prospective Studies ; Receptors, Leukotriene

The present study was aim to evaluate the association between very long chain saturated fatty acids (VLSFAs) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in Korean population. The study population were recruited from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey VI (2013). Using the cross-sectional study design, socio-demographic factors, medical history, and clinical measurements were investigated according to quartiles of VLSFAs intake. The associations between each and sum of VLSFAs intake and MetS were assessed by logistic regression. The result indicated that higher intake of VLSFAs was significantly associated with favorable metabolic status, including lower levels of circulating triglyceride (TG) (p < 0.05). Additionally, subjects with higher intake of arachidic acid and total VLSFAs were negatively associated with MetS risk compared to subjects with lower intake of those fatty acids (p < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary VLSFAs intake was associated with metabolic risk factors and lower risk of MetS in Korean population.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Fatty Acids* ; Korea* ; Logistic Models ; Nutrition Surveys* ; Risk Factors ; Triglycerides

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a major cause of acquired coronary artery diseases in childhood. The serum levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-3 and MMP-9 in KD have been reported to be significantly higher than other diseases. Several studies have demonstrated that MMP-3 5A/6A polymorphism and MMP-9 C-1562T polymorphism modify each transcriptional activity in allele specific manner. We hypothesized that these polymorphisms may play a role as a risk factor for development of coronary artery lesions (CAL) in KD. Eighty-three patients, diagnosed with KD in Cheju National University Hospital from January 2000 to February 2004, were divided into two groups according to the presence of CAL. Genotyping of MMP-3 and MMP-9 gene polymorphisms were determined by restriction fragment length polymorphism. With regard to MMP-3 gene polymorphism, the KD with CAL group had a higher frequency of 6A/6A genotype than control group (p=0.0127) and the KD without CAL group (p=0.0036). However, no significant differences in the allele and genotype distributions of the MMP-9 polymorphism were observed. These findings suggest that MMP-3 6A/6A genotype may be an independent risk factor for CAL formation in KD.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Alleles ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Coronary Arteriosclerosis/enzymology/etiology/*genetics ; Female ; Gelatinase B/genetics ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome/*complications ; *Polymorphism, Genetic ; Promoter Regions (Genetics)/*genetics ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Risk Factors ; Stromelysin 1/*genetics

Oral administration of antigen has long been used in the induction of immune tolerance in various animal models of autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Alleveation of arthritogenic symptoms has been reported from RA patients who received oral administration of type II collagen (CII) without side effects, however its rather inconsistent therapeutic efficacy and variation among patients calls for more detailed investigation on the mechanism of oral tolerance to be settled as regular treatment for RA. In an attempt to understand the immunogenic processes underpinning tolerance induction by orally administered CII, we analyzed changes in the expression of costimulatory molecules and STAT/SOCS signaling messengers in the mouse model of collagen induced arthritis (CIA). We found thatin the spleen of CIA mice, that has been undergone repeated oral feeding of CII prior to the induction of arthritis, showed increased promortion of CTLA4 expressing lymphocytes than in the spleen of PBS fed control. On the other hand, cells expressing CD28 or ICOS were decreased in the spleen of tolerized mice. Tolerance induction by oral CII administration also enhanced the expression of STAT6 in both RNA and protein level, while not affecting the expression of STAT3. The expression of SOCS3, which hasbeen known to transmit STAT-mediated signals from Th2 type cytokines, remained unchanged in the spleen of tolerized mice. Interestingly transcript of SOCS1, which has been associated with Th1 related pathways, was only visible in the spleen of tolerized but not of control mice, suggesting that as in the case of IL-6 signaling, it may exert a feed back inhibition toward the Th1 type stimulation.
Administration, Oral* ; Animals ; Arthritis* ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Autoimmune Diseases ; Collagen ; Collagen Type II* ; Cytokines ; Hand ; Humans ; Immune Tolerance ; Interleukin-6 ; Lymphocytes ; Mice* ; Models, Animal ; RNA ; Spleen

BACKGROUND: To determine the molecular structure of type II collagen-specific T-cell receptors associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: We generated CII-specific T-cell lines of 8 RA patient s by prolonged in vitro culture with bovine CII (bCII) and the immunogenic peptide (256-270) of human CII. The proliferation response towards CII stimulation was measured from the uptake of 3 H-thymidine. Changes in the secretion of Th 1 and Th2 cytokines in the culture supernatent were measured by ELISA. The TCR clonotypes of these T-cells were examined by RT-PCR/ SSCP analyses of all 22 V beta chains. RESULTS: T-cells from patients' tissue exhibited strong proliferation index upon CII stimulation, which was maintained up to 6 months in the culture. The secretion of INF-gamma from these T-cells increased along with the duration of culture time, while the amount of IL-4 production did not show significant changes. The SSCP band patterns of patients' T-cells appear as discrete bands unlike the smeary streak produced from normal samples. Some SSCP bands, each representing selected expansion of a TCR containing certain subtype of V beta peptides, appeared to be identical in more than one patients. Among these, the expansion of SSCP band representing the V beta 14 CDR3 region persisted after switching the antigen to the immunogenic human peptide (256-270). CONCLUSION: CII-reactive T-cells expressing distinct CDR3 motifs are selectively expanded in the peripheral blood and synovial fluid of RA patients, and their persistent proliferation upon CII stimulation, as well as the production Th 1-type cytokines, may play pivotal roles in RA pathogenesis.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid* ; Cytokines ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Interleukin-4 ; Molecular Structure ; Peptides ; Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational ; Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell ; Synovial Fluid ; T-Lymphocytes*

PURPOSE: The goal of our study was to identify the incidence and clinical, neurophysiological and neuroradiological variables with predictive value for posttraumatic seizure(PTS). METHODS: The medical records of 625 children with head traumas under 15-year-old who were admitted to the Wonju Christian Hospital, from January, 1993 to January, 2002 were retrospectively reviewed. Among them, 472 patients were included in this study. The PTS patients were divided into early PTS, in whom seizure occurred within one week after head trauma and late PTS, in whom seizure occurred beyond the first week after head trauma. The injuries were classified into mild(Glasgow Coma Scale, GCS 13 to 15 or no brain CT abnormality and a brief hospital stay), moderate(GCS, 9 to 12, or a GCS above 12 and longer than 48-hour hospital stay, or brain CT abnormalites) and severe(GCS, below 9). The variables such as age, sex, duration of unconsciousness, GCS, brain CT scan finding, initial neurologic finding and anticonvulsant therapy were analyzed for risk factors of PTS. RESULTS: Early PTS was developed in 41(8.7%) patients, 35(77.8%) patients among them had a seizure within 24 hours after head trauma. Late PTS was developed in 17(3.6%) patients. The frequency and duration of PTS were not correlated with the latency of PTS. And there was correlation between the frequency and duration of PTS. The 82.9% of early PTS and the 76.5% of late PTS were generalized tonic-clonic seizure. There was a significant difference in the incidence of PTS by severity of head trauma. The incidence of PTS after mild head trauma(5.8%) was lower than after severe head trauma(29.9%). The risk factors of early PTS were unilateral hemorrhage, neurologic finding(hemiparesis and coma), GCS(under 12 score), and diffuse contusion. And the late PTS were the same as early PTS, except for diffuse contusion, and age factor(under 2 years was also significant). CONCLUSION: The incidence and risk factors of PTS were correlated with severity of head trauma.
Adolescent ; Brain ; Child* ; Coma ; Contusions ; Craniocerebral Trauma ; Gangwon-do ; Head ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Length of Stay ; Medical Records ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors* ; Seizures* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Unconsciousness

BACKGROUND: The elderly is known to have many different clinical laboratory data compared with the young adults. There have been rare studies comparing tumor markers and rheumatoid factors between young adults and the elderly in Korea. This study was conducted to evaluate the differences in tumor markers and rheumatoid factor between elderly and young adults. METHODS: We gathered 94 healthy elderly cases and 91 healthy young adults who have taken periodic health examination from November 1996 to February 1997 at one hospital. We compared the mean of rheumatoid factor and tumor markers between two groups and took multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: In the elderly, the mean of CEA and AFP are significantly higher than young adults. The number of abnormally elevated rheumatoid factor is significantly higher in elderly group, but in case of CEA the number of abnormal data is not significantly different. The CEA level is significantly high in smoker group than non smoker group. The factors that increase the CEA level are old age, smoking amount, albumin level. The factors that increase the AFP level are old age, hemoglobin level. The factor that increase the rheumatoid factor is old age only. CONCLUSION: When we interpretate the level of tumor markers and rheumatoid factor, we must consider the patient's age. Aging is a factor that is associated with CEA, AFP, rheumatoid factor.
Aged* ; Aging ; Humans ; Korea ; Rheumatoid Factor* ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Biomarkers, Tumor* ; Young Adult*

BACKGROUND: Flow cytometric crossmatching (FCXM) is widely used in hospitals performing solid organ transplantation. Pronase treatment of lymphocytes can increase the sensitivity and specificity of B-cell FCXM. However, it can also affect human leukocyte antigen (HLA) expression and results of FCXM. We treated lymphocytes with various concentrations of pronase and analysed the effect of the treatment on the FCXM results. METHODS: The peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from 10 renal transplant donors were treated with three different concentrations of pronase (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg/mL). The effects of pronase on median fluorescence intensity (MFI) values of AB serum (Fcγ receptor), HLA class I and II, and on the MFI ratio of HLA class I and II were analysed. RESULTS: In B-cell FCXM, the MFI values of AB serum (Fcγ receptor) and HLA class I were significantly decreased by the pronase treatment. The MFI ratio of HLA class II was significantly increased upon treatment with 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg/mL pronase (P<0.05, P<0.01, and P<0.01, respectively). In T-cell FCXM, the MFI ratio of HLA class I was significantly decreased by the pronase treatment (all P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: When performing FCXM, it is recommended that B-lymphocytes should be treated with 1.0 or 2.0 mg/mL pronase. In the case of T-lymphocytes, pronase treatment should be adopted with caution.
B-Lymphocytes ; Flow Cytometry ; Fluorescence ; Humans ; Leukocytes ; Lymphocytes ; Organ Transplantation ; Pronase* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; T-Lymphocytes ; Tissue Donors ; Transplants