No abstract available.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Estrogens*

Human assisted reproductive technology programs have been being developed marvelously during this decade. However, implantation rates following embryo replacement remain low, regardless of increased fertilization rates by ICSI. One proposed possibility limiting the successful implantation is an impaired hatching caused by suboptimal culture conditions. As to improve the hatching potential of blastocysts, assisted hatching by an artificial alteration of zona pellucida(ZP) have been done in many laboratories using the various methods. We tried to investigate whether the supplementation of proteases into culture media has any effect on development, zona structure, and/or hatching of mouse embryos. Supplementation of either pronase E(PE) or proteinase K(PK) in culture media did not affect development up to blastocyst but significantly increased hatching rate. And we observed the alteration of ultrastructure and casein binding properties of ZP in mouse embryos. Also we investigated the effects of protease on development of human embryos and pregnancy rates in human ART program. From July 1994 to December 1996, 792 cycles(for study I) and 1095 cycles(for study II) undergoing the IVF-ET program in MizMedi Hospital were randomly selected for BAH. The concentrations of proteases used in this study were 1microgram/ml PE, 0.1microgram/ml PK and 1microgram/mlPE+0.1microgram/ml PK in HTF with 0.5% human serum albumin(HSA), and in vitro fertilized embryos were cultured for 24 hours. We analyzed the efficiency and stability of biochemical assisted hatching(BAH) according to the clinical profiles of patients and fertilization methods. After cultured in HTF with proteases for 24 hours of human embryos, the thinning in zona pellucida of embryos was observed but its development was not disturbed. Also, clinical pregnancy rates were higher in the PE, PK and PE+PK groups than the control group without proteases(36.0%(32/89), 35.3%(36/102), 35.1%(39/111) vs. 25.5%(125/490), p<0.05). The live birth rate in the PE, PK and PE+PK groups were increased than control, and the abortion rate were not different. They were showed a effect and safety of proteases treatment in human embryos. We selected PE as BAH for study II because of slightly better embryonic morphology and pregnancy rate. In patients over 35 years old, clinical pregnancy rates of the BAH group was higher than that of the control group(31.4%(58/185) vs. 22.2%(51/230); p<0.05). And in the cases with few oocytes retrieval, or less than 3 cycles of IVF-ET, clinical pregnancy rates of the BAH group was significantly higher than that of the control group(36.8%(86/234) vs. 27.2%(93/342), p<0.05; 36.8%(148/402) vs. 29.9%(168/562), p<0.05). In BAH groups, the clinical pregnancy rate was similar between conventional IVF and ICSI group. From above results, it is suggested that improved hatching by protease treatment is due to physiological alteration of ZP structure, giving rise to the similar hatching process to that in vivo. We suggest that BAH using protease is a simple, safe and economic technique compared to the other known assisted hatching techniques in human ART program.
Abortion, Induced ; Adult ; Animals ; Blastocyst ; Caseins ; Culture Media ; Embryonic Structures* ; Female ; Fertilization ; Herpes Zoster ; Humans* ; Live Birth ; Mice ; Oocytes ; Peptide Hydrolases ; Pregnancy Rate ; Pronase ; Reproductive Techniques, Assisted ; Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic ; Zona Pellucida

This study was undertaken to document the effect of transforming growth factor-beta2 (TGF-beta2(TGF-beta2) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on the proliferation of pig retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE). Whereas bFGF increased the proliferation, TGF-beta2 showed the inhibitory effect on the proliferation The inhibitory effect of TGF-beta2 disappeared in RPE subcultured with 10ng/ml of bFGF. Both TGF-beta2- and bFGF-specific antisense oligonucleotides blocked the autocrine effect of the growth factors. PLC-71 -specific antisense oligonucleotide inhibited the effect of TGF-beta2 and bFGF. Genistein inhibited the effect of TGF-beta2 and bFGF in dose-dependent man, ner. The data suggest the involvement. of in PLC-/1 and tyrosine kinase in signalling.
Epithelial Cells* ; Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 ; Genistein ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Oligonucleotides, Antisense ; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases ; Retinaldehyde* ; Transforming Growth Factor beta2*

Dietitians in various fields have used food exchange lists for food preparations. However ie seems that the present food exchange lists are complicated, thus they cause many problems for dietitians to use in the fields. Therefore this study evaluated to the extent of awareness and utilizations of KDA food exchange lists in dietitians and also collected dietitian's opinions for revising food exchange lists such as serving size, serving calories, and for unifying food guidelines and dietary and dietary guidelines for Korean to one simple guideline. 192 dietitians who presently work in urban and rural areas were recruited and data based on survey were collected. As results, most of dietitians(87.5%) knew well about food exchange lists, but only 7.8% of them always would use food exchange lists for menu planing, 56.3% of dietitians did not use it at all and 34.4% occasionally use it. And 88.0% of dietitians wanted to revise food exchange lists totally or partially, 69.8% of dietitians hoped to amend various calories per one serving in food exchange lists to one serving calorie. The desirable on serving calorie was selected as 100kcal(51%) or 50kcal(38%) by dietitians. The dietitians in this study understood very well dietary guidelines(86.5%) and food guidelines(88.5%) for Korean, and 66.1% dietitians wanted to unify both guidelines. In case of unification of guidelines, dietitians answered that 7~8 items(30%) or 5~6 items(27%) should be included in guideline. In the question about reference value for daily allowance, most dietitians(56%) satisfied with the present various reference values for various generation while 28% of dietitians wanted to change to have one reference value (standard with 2000kcal, adult female). This study will provide basic informations for revising or adjustment of food exchange list and dietary or food guidelines for Korean.
Adult ; Hope ; Humans ; Nutrition Policy* ; Nutritionists* ; Reference Values ; Serving Size*

No abstract available.
Gait* ; Humans ; Spinal Cord Diseases*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Cats* ; Reflex*

No abstract available.
Gastric Stump*

The authors performed 19 cases of percutaneous automated discectomy using Nucleotome between Feb, 1988 and Jan, 1993. The mean age was 33 years ranging from 20 to 56 years. Eleven of the patients were men and eight were women. One level nucleotomy was done in 14 cases, two level in 4 cases and three level in 1 cases. Overall success rate was 63%. No intraoperative and postoperative complications occurred except transient back pain in 3 cases.
Back Pain ; Diskectomy* ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Postoperative Complications

The 21st century is considered as the era of Biotechnology (BT). Recently, the regenerative medicine using stem cells has been recognized as the future medicine, especially for the devastating diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases, heart disease, diabetes, infertility and liver diseases. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are at the center of the stem cell research due to its ability to proliferate unlimitedly without differentiation (self-renewal) and to differentiate into the derivatives of all three germ layers including germ cells with appropriate treatments (pluripotency). A total of 173 hESC lines have been derived since the first derivation by Thomson et al. in 1998, and 70 hESC lines are currently available for distribution including hESC line (Miz-hES1) established at the MizMedi Hospital. The major goal of hESC research is to provide basic and clinical clues for cell replacement therapy, whose targets are aforementioned incurable diseases. One of the landmarks in hESC research is the derivation of a hESC line from a cloned human blastocyst, which has recently been done by Korean scientists. This made it possible to overcome the issue of immune-mediated rejection following cell replacement therapy using hESCs. Guided differentiation of hESCs into specific cell types by treating growth factors and drugs or by genetic manipulation by using overexpression or an RNAi knockdown system is one of the most active research areas. Combined efforts towards the guided differentiation of hESC into specific cell types and the cloning of hESC from a cloned human blastocyst will overcome a list of diseases hitherto considered to be incurable.
Biotechnology ; Blastocyst ; Clone Cells ; Cloning, Organism ; Embryonic Stem Cells* ; Germ Cells ; Germ Layers ; Heart Diseases ; Humans* ; Infertility ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Liver Diseases ; Neurodegenerative Diseases ; Regenerative Medicine ; Stem Cell Research* ; Stem Cells

No abstract available.
Animals ; Dizocilpine Maleate* ; Rats* ; Spinal Cord*