PURPOSE AND BACKGROUND: Recently several clinical studies suggested that maternal treatment with magnesium sulfate had protective effects against cerebral palsy in premature infants. But previous studies with differing perinatal animal models resulted in inconclusive results with regard to magnesium neuroprotection. Our purpose was to study the neuroprotective effect of magnesium sulfate and optimal dosage on hypoxicischemic brain damage in the newborn rat. METHOD: Seven-day-old rats(n=68) underwent right carotid ligation, followed by 3 hours of hypoxia(8% oxygen in 92% nitrogen). Rats received magnesium sulfate immediately before and again after hypoxia(two doses, 150mg-600mg/kg/dose, n=39), or saline solution(n=29). Severity of injury was assessed 5 days later, by visual evaluation of ipsilateral hemisphere infarction and by measurement of bilateral hemispheric cross sectional areas. RESULTS: Magnesium sulfate pre-treatment reduced the incidence of liquefactive cerebral infarction and atrophy from 80.8% in controls to 22.2% with magnesium sulfate(450 mg/kg/dose, P<0.05). Quantitation of hemispheric areas confirmed these findings. Percent protection based on inter-hemisphere area differences by pre-treatment with magnesium sulfate 450mg/kg/dose ranged from 71.1%(hippocampus) to 90.8%(striatum). However higher dose of magnesium(600mg/kg/dose) did not attenuate hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in the newborn rat but increased mortality. CONCLUSION: Pretreatment of magnesium sulfate has neuroprotective effects against hypoxia-ischemia in the newborn rat and adequate dose of magnesium sufate is important to protect the brain. Magnesium pretreatment may be an effective strategy to decrease the severity of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in the adequate dose.
Animals ; Atrophy ; Brain ; Brain Injuries ; Cerebral Infarction ; Cerebral Palsy ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant, Newborn* ; Infant, Premature ; Infarction ; Ligation ; Magnesium Sulfate* ; Magnesium* ; Models, Animal ; Mortality ; Neuroprotective Agents* ; Oxygen ; Rats*

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Humans

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Humans ; Male*

No abstract available.
DNA* ; Humans* ; Papilloma* ; Respiratory System*

The estimation of age is an important issue in forensic science, and the forensic community has attempted many times to establish methods for solving this issue. Aging leads to alterations in tissues and organs at the molecular level. These alterations at the molecular level may aid forensic scientists to estimate the age of a living person or a dead body. Initially, the focus was on the genetic components of aging, but recently, epigenetic mechanisms have emerged as the key contributors to the alterations in genome structure and function that accompany aging. In particular, DNA methylation is one of the best-understood mechanisms, and it has been suggested as a promising biomarker for age estimation in many studies. In this review, we summarize the recent studies on age-associated DNA methylation changes in different tissues and discuss its possible and practical applications in forensics.
Aging ; DNA ; DNA Methylation ; Epigenomics ; Forensic Sciences ; Genome ; Humans

Kinship testing in forensic casework is largely based on a likelihood ratio (LR) approach with short tandem repeat (STR) markers; however, in order to efficiently identify potential relatives in a specific population, the threshold values for kinship prediction should be determined by analyzing the kinship index distributions of the population in question. In this study, 250,000 DNA profiles were simulated using allele frequencies at 20 autosomal STR loci in Koreans, then the LRs were calculated for true close relatives and unrelated pairs. The LR distributions in related and unrelated pairs under a given relationship were compared in 2 sets of 13 Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and 20 STR profiles. Using 13 CODIS STRs, true relatives in parent/child and full-sibling relationships were sufficiently discriminated from unrelated pairs with LR thresholds of 1,000 and 100, respectively. However, the CODIS STRs lacked the discriminatory power to differentiate between related and unrelated pairs in uncle/nephew and first cousin relationships due to high false-positive and false-negative rates with a LR threshold of 10. Increasing the number of STR loci to 20 increased discrimination of close relatives, but high false results remained in uncle/nephew and first cousin relationships. The kinship index data from this study will help make decisions on various kinship testing and familial searching in Koreans.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; DNA ; Gene Frequency ; Humans ; Microsatellite Repeats

No abstract available.
Dyspnea* ; Hypothyroidism*

In the present study, culture conditions to secrete proteinases from C. albicans, C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis were examined. All three Candida species were found to secrete proteinases from acceleration phase to stationary phase, although the proteinase activities in culture filtrate were maximal during late exponential or early stationary phase. The proteinase activity in the culture filtrate of C. albicans cells grown at 30'C, was much higher than those grown at either 20 or 37'C. In culture of C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis, the highest activity was found in culture filtrate grown at 37C. C. albicans secreted proteinases well in medium at initial pH 4.0-7.0. The optimal initial pH of medium for proteinase secretion was 7.0 for C. tropicalis and 5.0-6.0 for C. parapsilosis. All three Candida species secreted proteinases to greater amount in aerobic state. The most effective carbon source for proteinase secretion was xylose, glucose, maltose and sucrose for C. albicans, xylose for C. tropicalis and trehalose for C. parapsilosis. The effects of proteins, hydrolyzed proteins, ammonium sulfate as a sole nitrogen source on proteinase secretion were examined. Bovine serum albumin was the most effective nitrogen source of those tested and a little proteinase activity was detected in the culture filtrates when yeast cells were incubated in the medium containing ammonium sulfate. C. parapsilosis secreted proteinases to greater amount than the other Candida species in all nitrogen sources under study, indicating that C. parapsilosis proteinase would not be a inducible but a constitutive enzyme.
Acceleration ; Ammonium Sulfate ; Candida albicans* ; Candida* ; Carbon ; Glucose ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Maltose ; Nitrogen ; Peptide Hydrolases* ; Serum Albumin, Bovine ; Sucrose ; Trehalose ; Xylose ; Yeasts