Purpose: In high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the standard adjuvant therapy post-transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT). Intravesical gemcitabine, used as an alternative or second-line therapy amid BCG shortages, lacks outcome studies in the Korean population. Materials and Methods: Patients who received weekly intravesical gemcitabine for 6 weeks after TURBT from 2019 to 2022 were retrospectively investigated. Based on the American Urological Association risk classification, patients with high- or very high-risk NMIBC who refused cystectomy were included. Maintenance treatment was performed depending on their risk. Recurrence was defined as histologic confirmation on subsequent cystoscopic biopsies or TURBT. Disease free survival (DFS) was evaluated by the Kaplan–Meier method. Results: The study included 60 patients, comprising 45 high-risk (group 1) patients with a median age of 76 years and 15 very high-risk (group 2) patients with a median age of 68 years. Among them, 28 patients had previously received intravesical BCG.Over a median follow-up of 22 months, recurrence occurred in 31 patients in group 1 and 11 in group 2. The DFS rates of the highrisk group and the very high-risk group were 57.8% versus 40% at 1 year, 20.7% versus 21.3% at 2 years and 20.7% versus 21.3% at 3 years, respectively (p=0.831). Tis stage (p=0.042) and prostatic urethra invasion (p=0.028) were significant predictors of DFS.Cancer-specific mortality rates were 2.2% in group 1 and 6.7% in group 2 (p=0.441). Conclusions Similar DFS outcome between high-risk and very high-risk patients were observed based on short-term results in Korea. This finding is crucial for clinical practice; however, studies analyzing more patients and long-term outcomes are needed.

Neonatal cholestasis is caused by various forms of liver injury and has a complex etiological background. Among these, cases of severe cholestasis due to primary hemolytic disease are rare. Herein, we report a case in which thalassemia-induced severe hemolysis caused bile duct injury by hemosiderosis, with cholestasis occurring shortly after birth and lasting for >4 months. In addition, complete recovery of liver pathology was observed both biochemically and histologically. Hence, clinicians should consider hemolytic disease as a rare cause of neonatal cholestasis in the differential diagnosis of neonates as well as the advisability of conservative treatment based on case progression.

Evidence of the ethical appropriateness and clinical benefits of shared decision-making (SDM) are accumulating. This study aimed to not only identify physicians’ perspectives on SDM, and practices related to end-of-life care in particular, but also to gauge the effect of SDM education on physicians in Korea. Methods: A 14-item questionnaire survey using a modified Delphi process was delivered to nephrologists and internal medicine trainees at 17 university hospitals. Results: A total of 309 physicians completed the survey. Although respondents reported that 69.9% of their practical decisions were made using SDM, 59.9% reported that it is not being applied appropriately. Only 12.3% of respondents had received education on SDM as part of their training. The main obstacles to appropriate SDM were identified as lack of time (46.0%), educational materials and tools (29.4%), and education on SDM (24.3%). Although only a few respondents had received training on SDM, the proportion of those who thought they were using SDM appropriately in actual practice was high; the proportion of those who chose lack of time and education as factors that hindered the proper application of SDM was low. Conclusion: The majority of respondents believed that SDM was not being implemented properly in Korea, despite its use in actual practice. To improve the effectiveness of SDM in the Korean medical system, appropriate training programs and supplemental policies that guarantee sufficient application time are required.

Due to the inconsistent fluctuation of blood supply for transfusion, much attention has been paid to the development of artificial blood using other animals. Although mini-pigs are candidate animals, contamination of mini-pig T cells in artificial blood may cause a major safety concern. Therefore, it is important to analyze the cross-reactivity of IL-7, the major survival factor for T lymphocytes, between human, mouse, and mini-pig. Thus, we compared the protein sequences of IL-7 and found that porcine IL-7 was evolutionarily different from human IL-7. We also observed that when porcine T cells were cultured with either human or mouse IL-7, these cells did not increase the survival or proliferation compared to negative controls. These results suggest that porcine T cells do not recognize human or mouse IL-7 as their survival factor.

Supracricoid partial laryngectomy (SCPL) with cricohyoidoepiglottopexy (CHEP) or cricohyoidopexy (CHP) involves the removal of the whole thyroid cartilage, both true and false vocal cords, the ventricles, and the paraglottic spaces, sparing the cricoid cartilage, hyoid bone, and at least one functional and mobile cricoarytenoid unit. Reconstruction is performed by suturing of the cricoid cartilage up tightly to the hyoid bone, so trachea-releasing procedures are needed to prevent leakage at anastomosis site. In case of advanced tranglottic cancer invading tracheal tracheal wall, we need to perform additional circumferentrial tracheal wall resection. However, when we perform SCPL, circumferential resection of tracheal wall is limited because SCPL procedure itself needs releasing of tracheal length. We report a case of advanced transglottic cancer involving tracheal wall treated with induction chemotherapy and SCPL including tracheal wall resection with reconstruction of tracheal defect by sternocleidomastoid muscle flap covered with skin graft.

Supracricoid partial laryngectomy (SCPL) with cricohyoidoepiglottopexy (CHEP) or cricohyoidopexy (CHP) involves the removal of the whole thyroid cartilage, both true and false vocal cords, the ventricles, and the paraglottic spaces, sparing the cricoid cartilage, hyoid bone, and at least one functional and mobile cricoarytenoid unit. Reconstruction is performed by suturing of the cricoid cartilage up tightly to the hyoid bone, so trachea-releasing procedures are needed to prevent leakage at anastomosis site. In case of advanced tranglottic cancer invading tracheal tracheal wall, we need to perform additional circumferentrial tracheal wall resection. However, when we perform SCPL, circumferential resection of tracheal wall is limited because SCPL procedure itself needs releasing of tracheal length. We report a case of advanced transglottic cancer involving tracheal wall treated with induction chemotherapy and SCPL including tracheal wall resection with reconstruction of tracheal defect by sternocleidomastoid muscle flap covered with skin graft.

Due to the inconsistent fluctuation of blood supply for transfusion, much attention has been paid to the development of artificial blood using other animals. Although mini-pigs are candidate animals, contamination of mini-pig T cells in artificial blood may cause a major safety concern. Therefore, it is important to analyze the cross-reactivity of IL-7, the major survival factor for T lymphocytes, between human, mouse, and mini-pig. Thus, we compared the protein sequences of IL-7 and found that porcine IL-7 was evolutionarily different from human IL-7. We also observed that when porcine T cells were cultured with either human or mouse IL-7, these cells did not increase the survival or proliferation compared to negative controls. These results suggest that porcine T cells do not recognize human or mouse IL-7 as their survival factor.

objective To explore the role of Xanthatin in the targets of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process using molecular docking method,and the effect on the target protein expression of HepG2 cells was detected by Western assay.Method Dhs,Vimentin,Snail and VEGFR3 are critical targets in EMT process,the spatial binding ability of Xanthium was evaluated by molecular docking method,compared with the corresponding endogenous substances:nicotinarnide adenine dinucleotide,Acetate ion,flavin adenine dinucleotide,and N-Acetyl-D-glucosamine.HepG2 cells were cultured,and the effects of Xanthatin of 1,5 and 20 mol/L concentrations on Dhs,Vimentin,Snail and VEGFR3 protein expression were detected by Western Blotting assay.Rusult Molecular docking show that Xanthatin has obvious affinity to key factors of EMT process such as Dhs,Vimentin,and VEGF-R3,higher than that of endogenous substance;and the affinity with Vimentin was less than that of endogenous substance;Western Blotting experiments proved the virtual results.The expression of Vimentin,Snail,VEGFR3 protein was significantly lowered,and the expression of e-cadherin was significantly raised.Conclusion The influence of Xanthatin to key factor e-cadherin,Vimentin,Snail,VEGFR3 are obvious,Which is likely to be a potential target.The results of computer virtual experiment and Western Blotting have certain similarity.Molecular virtual docking can pre hint the potential target factor.

Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. The aims of this study were to evaluate the association between polymorphisms in TFF gene family, TFF1, TFF2, and TFF3 and the risk of gastric cancer (GC) and GC subgroups in a Korean population via a case-control study. The eight polymorphisms in TFF gene family were identified by sequencing and genotyped with 377 GC patients and 396 controls by using TaqMan genotyping assay. The rs184432 TT genotype of TFF1 was significantly associated with a reduced risk of GC (odds ratio, [OR) = 0.45; 95% confidence interval, [CI] = 0.25-0.82; P = 0.009), more protective against diffuse-type GC (OR = 0.20; 95% CI = 0.05-0.89; P = 0.035) than GC (OR = 0.34; 95% CI = 0.14-0.82; P = 0.017) in subjects aged < 60 yr, and correlated with lymph node metastasis negative GC and diffuse-type GC (OR = 0.44; 95% CI = 0.23-0.86; P = 0.016 and OR = 0.20; 95% CI = 0.05-0.87; P = 0.031, respectively). In addition, a decreased risk of lymph node metastasis negative GC and diffuse-type GC was observed for rs225359 TT genotype of TFF1 (OR = 0.46, 95% CI = 0.24-0.88; P = 0.020 and OR = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.05-0.88; P = 0.033, respectively). These findings suggest that the rs184432 and rs225359 polymorphisms in TFF1 have protective effects for GC and contribute to the development of GC in Korean individuals.
Adult ; Aged ; Biomarkers, Tumor/*genetics ; Female ; Genetic Markers/genetics ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease/epidemiology/genetics ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Peptides/*genetics ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide/genetics ; Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics ; Reproducibility of Results ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Risk Assessment/methods ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Stomach Neoplasms/*epidemiology/*genetics ; Tumor Suppressor Proteins/*genetics

In the present study, the effects of different photoperiods on stress, immunity, and hematological parameters in ICR mice were evaluated. Fifty male ICR mice 7 weeks old (body weight, 27.3 +/- 2.5 g) were divided into five groups: DP-0 (0/24-h light/dark cycle), DP-6 (6/18-h light/dark cycle), DP-12 (12/12-h light/dark cycle), DP-18 (18/ 6-h light/dark cycle), and DP-24 (24/0-h light/dark cycle). During the experimental period, no significant differences in body weight or feed intake were observed between the groups. Hematological analysis revealed that white blood cell, red blood cell, and hemoglobin values for the DP-0 group were significantly different compared to those of the other groups. After 28 days, no significant difference in serum cortisol concentration was observed among the groups, but serum cortisol levels increased in a light exposure-dependent manner. Total serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentrations of the DP-0 and PD-6 groups were significantly increased compared to those of the other groups (P < 0.05), and serum total IgG levels decreased in a light exposure-dependent manner. Results of the present study indicated that various photoperiods affect hematological parameters and total serum IgG levels in ICR mice while having no significant effects on body weight, feed intake, or cortisol levels.
Animals ; Body Weight ; Erythrocytes ; Humans ; Hydrocortisone ; Immunoglobulin G ; Leukocytes ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred ICR* ; Photoperiod*