Hyperacute rejection (HAR) is the major obstacle to xenotransplantation. In HAR complement (C') cascade is activated following the binding of xenoreactive antibodies to the donor tissue. Complement receptor type 1 (CR1), the most efficient protein in inhibiting activated C's, was modified with membrane cofactor protein (MCP) to make a more efficient C'-inhibiting hybrid molecule. Modification was done by swapping the four active site short consensus repeats (SCRs) of MCP for the SCRs 8-11 of CR1. The hybrid molecule (CR1/MCP) was expressed on the surface of mouse L cells. When the complement inhibitory activity of the CR1/MCP protein was compared with that of the wild CR1 (wCR 1) protein, CR1/MCP's inhibitory activity was weaker than wCR1's. CR1/MCP protein's L cell protecting activity from complement's attack was more prominent in adherent state than in suspension state. From these results it was suggested that the conformational direction of MCP's inhibitory action on C' is different from that of CR1 and most of the MCP expression seems to be confined to the apical side but not to the basal side of the L cell in adherent state. The wCR1's expression seems to be present on all sides of the L cell. Finally, the inverted direction of SCRS-11 of CR1 or variable length of the serine-threoninrich structure of MCP could be tried to make other CR1/MCP variants with more powerful C' inhibitory activities.
Animals ; Antibodies ; Antigens, CD46 ; Catalytic Domain ; Complement System Proteins* ; Consensus ; Humans ; Mice ; Receptors, Complement ; Tissue Donors ; Transplantation, Heterologous

Crohn's disease is a chronic, nonspecific inflammatory process which most commonly involves the terminal ileum, but which can affect any region of the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the anus. When Crohn's disease does involve the upper gastrointestinal tract, there is nearly always concomitant disease in the small bowel or colon. However isolated gastric Crohn's disease is a rare entity, and gastroduodenal involvement in Crohn's disease has been considered unusual, having an incidence of 1.5 to 7.0%. Gastric Crohn's disease usually localizes to antrum of the stomach and or the pyloroduodenal junction. No single feature is pathognomonic of Crohn' disease, and the diagnosis is based on supportive clinical, radiographic, endoscopic, and pathologic findings. Crohn's disease is invariably a diagnosis of exclusion, so infectious, neoplastic, ischemic, infiltrative, and other inflammatory processes must be ruled out. Usually a patient with isolated Crohn's disease of the stomach will have the clinical symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and epigastric pain, and there will be radiographic evidence of a small contracted stomach (or occasionally, a huge dilated stomach). The treatment of stomach Crohn's disease is palliative and symptomatic. In this paper, we describe a patient with Crohn's disease who had diffuse involvement of the entire stomach without any evidence of involvement elsewhere in the gastrointestinal tract.
Anal Canal ; Colon ; Crohn Disease* ; Diagnosis ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Ileum ; Incidence ; Mouth ; Nausea ; Stomach* ; Upper Gastrointestinal Tract ; Vomiting

OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to evaluate the usefulness of New cervicography by comparing cervicographic finding with Papanicolaou smear and result of colposcopically directed biopsy. METHODS: This study group consisted of 189 patients who visited the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chung-Ang University Pildong Hospital from September 1998 to August 1999. All women simultaneously underwent Papanicolaou smear and New cervicography. If either method was positive, the patient was referred for colposcopically directed biopsy. RESULTS: The New cervicography was significantly more sensitive than the Papanicolaou smear(92.2% vs 60.8%, p<0.01), whereas the Papanicolaou smear was significantly more specific than the New cervicography(99.3% vs 75.0%, p<0.05). The false positive rate of New cervicography was 75%, significantly higher than 0.7% of Papanicolaou smear. There was no significant difference between the negative predictive value of cervicography and Papanicolaou smear. When New cervicography and Papanicolaou smear were used together, the sensitivity was significantly higher than Papanicolaou smear used alone(98.1% vs 60.8%, p<0.01) and false negative rate was significantly lower than Papanicolaou smear(1.9% vs 39.2%, p<0.01). However the specificity, positive predictive value of the combined test were lower than Papanicolaou smear. CONCLUSION: Cervicography is one of the Papanicolaou smear adjunctive tests and a useful method to detect cervical cancer. Our study confirms the previously suspected low sensitivity of Papanicolaou smear and demonstrate that cervicography is more sensitive than Papanicolaou smear and less specific. From the above results, when New cervicography and Papanicolaou smear were used together, the detection rate of cervical cancer will be increased more easily since the cases missed by one method may be picked up by another.
Biopsy ; Female ; Gynecology ; Humans ; Mass Screening* ; Obstetrics ; Papanicolaou Test ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

It is known that the personality is the crucial factor in the treatment outcome of depression. The authors tried to identify the results of such studies and various components which determine the treatment outcome of depression. Nearly 60 papers published between the year 1990 and 2000 about the treatment of depression and personality were reviewed. Among them about 30 papers were selected to compere the research methods, results and discussions. The arguments and critics of the papers were discussed. In the many debates, the authors admitted the fact that premorbid personality trait influences the treatment outcome of depression negatively regardless of treatment method. Subtyping of depression is feasible along the presence of good or bad predictors of treatment outcome for depression. Differentiation of depression and personality seems to have no problem, however test of personality state before the development of psychiatric disorder such as depression is not amenable. For example, cluster A personality trait is often misunderstood as depression in clinical setting. In some cases cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in the treatment of depression accompanying personality disorder. The authors insist that the analysis of personality in the dimensional aspect rather than in the categorical aspect gives more information in the research of personality influencing the treatment outcome of depression. In addition, the reason why we understand the relationship between depression and personality were discussed.
Cognitive Therapy ; Depression* ; Personality Disorders ; Treatment Outcome

No abstract available.
Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone* ; Gonadotropins*

No abstract available.
DNA* ; Nucleic Acid Hybridization*

No abstract available.
Chorionic Gonadotropin* ; Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone* ; Gonadotropins* ; Humans* ; Progesterone* ; Superovulation*

No abstract available.
Fertilization in Vitro* ; Superovulation*

No abstract available.
Pregnancy*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Embryonic Structures* ; Mice*