No abstract available.
Colon* ; Fibromatosis, Aggressive*

No abstract available.
Leiomyoma*

No abstract available.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast*

We studied the effects of hot water extract of Inonotus obliquos mushroom on the proliferation and apoptosis of the human colon adenocarcinoma, HT-29 and the human stomach adenocarcinoma, SNU-484 cell. Cells were maintained with Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium/Ham's F-12 nutrient mixture supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum at 37 degrees C in a humidified CO2. For the cell proliferation experiments, cells were seeded in 35 mm dishes, and were treated with the various concentrations of the extract for the different time course. Apoptosis was measured by caspase-3 activity. When we incubated HT-29 cells for 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours after treatments, the cell proliferation was more suppressed with more treatment time. In case of the human stomach cancer cell, SNU484, the extract significantly decreased the cell number. Thus, the treatment of 1.5 mg/ml extract decreased almost half of the cell number. Caspase-3 activity in HT-29 was increased by the treatment of mushroom extracts. In SNU484, caspase-3 activity tended to increase in proportion to the amounts of the extracts and the treatment of Inonotus obliquos affected the activity a lot. Therefore, Inonotus obliquos is suggested for the prevention of gastro-intestinal cancer and strongly recommended for the treatment of stomach cancer.
Adenocarcinoma ; Agaricales ; Apoptosis ; Caspase 3* ; Cell Count ; Cell Line* ; Cell Proliferation ; Colon ; Eagles ; HT29 Cells ; Humans* ; Stomach ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Water

PURPOSE: Tamoxifen has been well known as an effective anti-tumor agent against breast cancer. The important role of bcl-2 and p53 proteins in tamoxifen-induced apoptosis of breast cancer cells has been suggested. However, the paradoxical fact that bcl-2 over-expression is assdegrees Ciated with better prognosis in clinic has not yet been clearly explained. To investigate this paradox, we analyzed the effect and dynamics of bcl-2 and p53 on the apoptosis after treatment of breast cancer cells with tamoxifen. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The human breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and MB MDA-468 were treated with 17-betaestradiol (E2) and tamoxifen. RESULTS: Following tamoxifen treatment, MCF-7 cells underwent apoptosis accompanied by reduced bcl-2 expression. E2 pre-treatment led to the inhibition of tamoxifen-mediated apoptosis and bcl-2 down-regulation. When MB MDA-468 cells were treated with E2 or tamoxifen, bcl-2 and p53 protein expression did not change and apoptosis did not develop. CONCLUSION: We observed that the down-regulation of bcl-2 by tamoxifen treatment can facilitate the apoptosis of breast cancer cells without p53 mutations. This finding was consistent with clinical experiences in which bcl-2 positive tumors were assdegrees Ciated with more indolent phenotypes in breast cancer.
Apoptosis* ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Cell Line* ; Down-Regulation ; Humans* ; MCF-7 Cells ; Phenotype ; Prognosis ; Tamoxifen

The expression of P-glycoprotein in gynecological tissues was studied by immunohistochemical staining methods. Aspects of study included the expression of P-glycoprotein in different tissues throughout the clinical treatment regimen, the relationship between the expression of P-glycoprotein and the degree of pathologic malignancy, and the expression of P-glycoprotein in cancerous tissue before and after chemotherapy. Studies were based on patients who were admitted to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Chungnam National University Hospital from January 1988 to December 1993. Tissue samples collected prior to chemotherapy included 34 ovarian cancers, 73 cervical cancers, and 11 endometrial cancers. Pre and post-chemotherapy tissue samples included 11 ovarian cancers and 15 cervical cancers. Normal tissue samples included 12 from the ovaries, 15 from the cervix, and 10 from the endometrium. RESULTS ARE AS FOLLOWS:1. p-glycoprotein was mainly found in the cytoplasm of both normal tissue cells and cells of tissues prior to chemotherapy. After chemotherapy it was found more intensely in the cell membrane than in the cytoplasm. 2. For normal tissue, p-glycoprotein was found in 25% of ovarian tissues, 33.3% of uterine cervical tissues, and 40.0% of endometrial tissues. 3. For cancerous tissues prior to chemotherapy, p-glycoprotein was found in 45.5% of ovarian cancer cases, 47.9% of uterine cervical cancer cases, and 45.5% of endometrial cancer cases. There was no statistically meaningful difference in these rates in cancerous versus normal tissues. 4. The expression of P-glycoprotein in cancerous tissues prior to chemotherapy was not related to histologic type. 5. For ovarian cancer tissue, p-glycoprotien was expressed in 45.5% of cases prior to chemotherapy, and 54.4% of cases subsequent to chemotherapy. For uterine cervical cancer tissue, p-glycoprotein expression rates before and after chemotherapy was 46.7% and 60.0% respectively and there was a statistically meaningful difference(p<0.05). 6. There was no relationship between P-glycoprotein expression in cancer tissues after chermotherapy and the presence of cisplatin in chemotherapeutic drugs. 7. For uterine cervical cancer tissues prior to chemotherapy, there was no relationship between the degree histologic differentiation and the expression of P-glycoprotein. 8. For cancerous tissues there was no relationship between clinical stage and the expression of P-glycoprotein. In conclusion, the expression of P-glycoprotein was identified in the tissues before the drug exposure. However, there was no relationship between the expression of P-glycoprotein and hlstologic type, clinical stage, and effectiveness of chemotherapy, This may be related to P-glycoprotein inducing a cellular resistance to chemotherapeutic agents, although the importance of this resistance is thought to be small. Further studies of P-glycoprotein are needed to delineate its role in cellular anticancer drug resistance.
Cell Membrane ; Cervix Uteri ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Cisplatin ; Cytoplasm ; Drug Resistance ; Drug Therapy ; Endometrial Neoplasms ; Endometrium ; Female ; Gynecology ; Humans ; Obstetrics ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Ovary ; P-Glycoprotein* ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate shame-related adjectives in the Korean language and to explore the factor structure of these adjectives. METHODS: Shame-related words were extracted from an adjectives checklist, the Korean Dictionary, the Korean Synonym Dictionary, and various shame scales developed by Western investigators. A questionnaire (the Korean Shame Scale: KSS) was constructed from 62 selected adjectives, and administered to 210 college students and 204 adults. The subjects also completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Brief-Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, the Revised Cheek & Buss Shyness Scale, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. RESULTS: A principal component analysis of the KSS data revealed a four factor structure: mortification, modesty, shyness, and embarrassment. All except the modesty factor showed significant correlations with depression, fear of negative evaluation, social avoidance and distress, and shyness. The college student group reported experiencing a shame-related distressful emotion more frequently than the adult group. CONCLUSION: Shame was found to be a complex psychological construct composed of quite different emotions. These emotions not only included painful feelings and uncomfortable self-consciousness, but were also related to personality traits and interpersonal attitudes.
Adult ; Checklist ; Cheek ; Depression ; Factor Analysis, Statistical ; Humans ; Principal Component Analysis ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Research Personnel ; Shame ; Shyness ; Social Desirability ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate shame-related adjectives in the Korean language and to explore the factor structure of these adjectives. METHODS: Shame-related words were extracted from an adjectives checklist, the Korean Dictionary, the Korean Synonym Dictionary, and various shame scales developed by Western investigators. A questionnaire (the Korean Shame Scale: KSS) was constructed from 62 selected adjectives, and administered to 210 college students and 204 adults. The subjects also completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Brief-Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, the Revised Cheek & Buss Shyness Scale, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. RESULTS: A principal component analysis of the KSS data revealed a four factor structure: mortification, modesty, shyness, and embarrassment. All except the modesty factor showed significant correlations with depression, fear of negative evaluation, social avoidance and distress, and shyness. The college student group reported experiencing a shame-related distressful emotion more frequently than the adult group. CONCLUSION: Shame was found to be a complex psychological construct composed of quite different emotions. These emotions not only included painful feelings and uncomfortable self-consciousness, but were also related to personality traits and interpersonal attitudes.
Adult ; Checklist ; Cheek ; Depression ; Factor Analysis, Statistical ; Humans ; Principal Component Analysis ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Research Personnel ; Shame ; Shyness ; Social Desirability ; Weights and Measures

The avoidance of incriminated foods is one of the principal therapies for atopic dermatitis (AD). Recently, interferon (IFN)-gamma therapy has been tried in AD with limited success. The necessity of diet therapy for the success of IFN-gamma therapy in AD was evaluated. A total of 524 AD patients participated in this study and 316 patients among them were entered into open food challenge tests. As the first step, an elimination diet was administered to 43 AD patients and 30 AD patients were enrolled as an untreated control group. As the second step, 45 AD patients were treated by both IFN-gamma therapy and elimination diet alone, 30 AD patients by elimination diet alone, 50 AD patients by IFN-gamma therapy, and 43 AD patients as controls. Clinical severity reduced significantly by using only the elimination diet in 58.1% patients with varying degrees of AD. Elimination diet improved the clinical results of IFN-gamma therapy in AD. In regard to the food challenge test, 77.8% of AD patients showed an adverse reaction to at least one food. Diet therapy itself had therapeutic effects on AD and an elimination diet might be essential for the success of IFN-gamma therapy in AD.
Adolescence ; Adult ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Dermatitis, Atopic/drug therapy* ; Dermatitis, Atopic/diet therapy* ; Female ; Food Hypersensitivity/diet therapy ; Human ; Interferon Type II/therapeutic use* ; Male ; Treatment Outcome

Background: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a rare classic autoimmune disease where immunosuppressant therapies have been successful to reduce MG attributable mortality fairly well. However, patients with refractory MG (rMG) among the actively treated MG (aMG) are nonresponsive to conventional therapy and display high disease severity, which calls for further research. We aimed to determine survival, prognosis, and clinical feature of patients with rMG compared to non-rMG. Methods: Retrospective nationwide cohort study using Korea's healthcare database between 2002 and 2017 was conducted. Patients with rMG (n = 47) and non-rMG (n = 4,251) who were aged > 18 years, followed-up for ≥ 1 year, and prescribed immunosuppressants within 2 years after incident MG diagnosis were included. Patients with rMG were defined as administered plasma exchange or intravenous immunoglobulin at least 3 times per year after receiving ≥ 2 immunosuppressants. All-cause mortality, myasthenic crisis, hospitalization, pneumonia/ sepsis, and emergency department (ED) visits were measured using Cox proportional hazard models and pharmacotherapy patterns for rMG were assessed. Results: The rMG cohort included a preponderance of younger patients and women. The adjusted hazard ratio was 2.49 (95% confidence interval, 1.26–4.94) for mortality, 3.14 (2.25–4.38) for myasthenic crisis, 1.54 (1.15–2.06) for hospitalization, 2.69 (1.74–4.15) for pneumonia/sepsis, and 1.81 (1.28–2.56) for ED visits for rMG versus non-rMG. The immunosuppressant prescriptions were more prevalent in patients with rMG, while the difference was more remarkable before rMG onset rather than after rMG onset. Conclusion Despite the severe prognosis of rMG, the strategies for pharmacotherapeutic regimens were similar in those two groups, suggesting that intensive monitoring and introduction of timely treatment options in the early phase of MG are required.