The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly impacted adolescent health, highlighting the need for effective health promotion strategies. This qualitative study analyzed adolescent health concerns during the pandemic and explored management strategies through focus group interviews (FGIs).FGIs were conducted on November 23 and 25, 2023, with six secondary school nutrition teachers, six educational supervisors, and six adolescent students. Semi-structured questions were used to explore five key domains: health behaviors, factors contributing to health problems, social support, perceived health beliefs, and health education. The FGI recordings were transcribed, and Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis method was applied to classify and categorize the data. To ensure the reliability and validity of the study, all processes were meticulously documented, and member checking and triangulation were conducted. The analysis revealed that adolescents faced reduced physical activity, irregular eating habits, school lunch disruptions, social isolation, worsening obesity, mental health challenges, and decreased engagement in health-promoting behaviors. Nutrition teachers and educational supervisors emphasized the importance of the food environment in schools and policy support, whereas adolescent students. highlighted motivation and accessibility as the key factors for adopting healthy behaviors. Based on these findings, strengthening social support, expanding health education, and establishing a national support system are essential for improving adolescent health. This study has implications for policy and education to address adolescent health challenges during a pandemic and serves as a foundation for future health promotion strategies.

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly impacted adolescent health, highlighting the need for effective health promotion strategies. This qualitative study analyzed adolescent health concerns during the pandemic and explored management strategies through focus group interviews (FGIs).FGIs were conducted on November 23 and 25, 2023, with six secondary school nutrition teachers, six educational supervisors, and six adolescent students. Semi-structured questions were used to explore five key domains: health behaviors, factors contributing to health problems, social support, perceived health beliefs, and health education. The FGI recordings were transcribed, and Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis method was applied to classify and categorize the data. To ensure the reliability and validity of the study, all processes were meticulously documented, and member checking and triangulation were conducted. The analysis revealed that adolescents faced reduced physical activity, irregular eating habits, school lunch disruptions, social isolation, worsening obesity, mental health challenges, and decreased engagement in health-promoting behaviors. Nutrition teachers and educational supervisors emphasized the importance of the food environment in schools and policy support, whereas adolescent students. highlighted motivation and accessibility as the key factors for adopting healthy behaviors. Based on these findings, strengthening social support, expanding health education, and establishing a national support system are essential for improving adolescent health. This study has implications for policy and education to address adolescent health challenges during a pandemic and serves as a foundation for future health promotion strategies.

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly impacted adolescent health, highlighting the need for effective health promotion strategies. This qualitative study analyzed adolescent health concerns during the pandemic and explored management strategies through focus group interviews (FGIs).FGIs were conducted on November 23 and 25, 2023, with six secondary school nutrition teachers, six educational supervisors, and six adolescent students. Semi-structured questions were used to explore five key domains: health behaviors, factors contributing to health problems, social support, perceived health beliefs, and health education. The FGI recordings were transcribed, and Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis method was applied to classify and categorize the data. To ensure the reliability and validity of the study, all processes were meticulously documented, and member checking and triangulation were conducted. The analysis revealed that adolescents faced reduced physical activity, irregular eating habits, school lunch disruptions, social isolation, worsening obesity, mental health challenges, and decreased engagement in health-promoting behaviors. Nutrition teachers and educational supervisors emphasized the importance of the food environment in schools and policy support, whereas adolescent students. highlighted motivation and accessibility as the key factors for adopting healthy behaviors. Based on these findings, strengthening social support, expanding health education, and establishing a national support system are essential for improving adolescent health. This study has implications for policy and education to address adolescent health challenges during a pandemic and serves as a foundation for future health promotion strategies.

Background: Lung dysfunction and high apolipoprotein B/apolipoprotein A-I (apoB/apoA-I) ratio are both recognized risk factors for cardiovascular disease. However, few studies have examined the association between the apoB/ApoA-I ratio and lung function. Therefore, we investigated whether this ratio is associated with decreased lung function in a large healthy cohort. Methods: We performed a cohort study on 68,418 healthy Koreans (34,797 males, mean age:38.1 years) who underwent a health examination in 2019. ApoB/apoA-I ratio was categorized into quartiles. Spirometric values at the fifth percentile in our population were considered the lower limit of normal (LLN), which was used to define lung function impairment. Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), using the lowest quartile as the reference, were estimated to determine lung function impairment. Results: Mean apoB/apoA-I ratio was 0.67 ± 0.21. Subjects with the highest quartile of this ratio had the lowest predicted forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1 %) and forced vital capacity (FVC%) after controlling for covariates (P < 0.001). However, FEV1 /FVC ratio was not significantly different among the four quartiles (P = 0.059). Compared with the lowest quartile (Q1, reference), the aORs (95% CI) for FEV1 % < LLN across increasing quartiles (from Q2 to Q4) were 1.216 (1.094–1.351), 1.293 (1.156–1.448), and 1.481 (1.311– 1.672) (P for trend < 0.001), respectively. Similarly, the aORs for FVC% < LLN compared with the reference were 1.212 (1.090–1.348), 1.283 (1.147–1.436), and 1.502 (1.331–1.695) with increasing quartiles (P for trend < 0.001). However, the aORs for FEV1 /FVC < LLN were not significantly different among groups (P for trend = 0.273). Conclusion High apoB/apoA-I ratio was associated with decreased lung function. However, longitudinal follow-up studies are required to validate our findings.

Background: Enlarged perivascular space (ePVS) is recently reported to be associated with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The topographical location of ePVS may relate to the underlying pathology; basal ganglia (BG)-ePVS has been associated with cerebral vascular diseases and centrum semi-ovale (CSO)-ePVS associated with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). However, the effects of ePVS on various neurological conditions remain still controversial. To investigate the clinical relevance of ePVS in neurodegenerative diseases, we tested relationships between ePVS and cognition, markers of SVD, vascular risk factors, or amyloid pathology. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 292 patients (133 AD dementia, 106 mild cognitive impairment, 39 other neurodegenerative diseases, 14 subjective cognitive decline) who underwent both amyloid positron emission tomography and brain magnetic resonance imaging. Vascular risk factors and cognitive tests results were collected. The ePVS in the BG and CSO, SVD markers and the volume of white matter hyperintensities were measured. Results: There were no significant differences in the severity and distribution of ePVS among clinical syndromes. Both BG- and CSO-ePVS were not related to cognitive function. Patients with lacunes were more likely to have high-degree BG-ePVS. High degree CSO-ePVS had an odds ratio (OR) for amyloid positive of 2.351, while BG-ePVS was a negative predictor for amyloid pathology (OR, 0.336). Conclusions Our findings support that ePVS has different underlying pathologies according to the cerebral topography. BG-ePVS would be attributed to hypertensive angiopathy considering the relation with SVD markers, whereas and CSO-ePVS would be attributed to CAA considering the association with amyloid pathology.

Purpose: Appropriate preclinical mouse models are needed to evaluate the response to immunotherapeutic agents. Immunocompetent mouse models have rarely been reported for gastric cancer. Thus, we investigated immunophenotypes and responses to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) in immunocompetent mouse models using various murine gastric cancer cell lines. Materials and Methods: We constructed subcutaneous syngeneic tumors with murine gastric cancer cell lines, YTN3 and YTN16, in C57BL/6J mice. Mice were intraperitoneally treated with IgG isotype control or an anti–programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) neutralizing antibody. We used immunohistochemistry to evaluate the tumor-infiltrating immune cells of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded mouse tumor tissues. We compared the protein and RNA expression between YTN3 and YTN16 cell lines using a mouse cytokine array and RNA sequencing. Results: The mouse tumors revealed distinct histological and molecular characteristics. YTN16 cells showed upregulation of genes and proteins related to immunosuppression, such as Ccl2 (CCL2) and Csf1 (M-CSF). Macrophages and exhausted T cells were more enriched in YTN16 tumors than in YTN3 tumors. Several YTN3 tumors were completely regressed by the PD-L1 inhibitor, whereas YTN16 tumors were unaffected. Although treatment with a PD-L1 inhibitor increased infiltration of T cells in both the tumors, the proportion of exhausted immune cells did not decrease in the non-responder group. Conclusion We confirmed the histological and molecular features of cancer cells with various responses to ICI. Our models can be used in preclinical research on ICI resistance mechanisms to enhance clinical efficacy.

Background and Objectives: Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are the most primitive cells in spermatogenesis and are the only adult stem cells capable of passing on the genome of a given species to the next generation. SSCs are the only adult stem cells known to exhibit high Oct4 expression and can be induced to self-reprogram into pluripotent cells depending on culture conditions. Epigenetic modulation is well known to be involved in the induction of pluripotency of somatic cells. However, epigenetic modulation in self-reprogramming of SSCs into pluripotent cells has not been studied. Methods: and Results: In this study, we examined the involvement of epigenetic modulation by assessing whether selfreprogramming of SSCs is enhanced by treatment with epigenetic modulators. We found that second-generation selective class I HDAC inhibitors increased SSC reprogramming efficiency, whereas non-selective HDAC inhibitors had no effect. Conclusions We showed that pluripotent stem cells derived from adult SSCs by treatment with small molecules with epigenetic modulator functions exhibit pluripotency in vitro and in vivo. Our results suggest that the mechanism of SSC reprogramming by epigenetic modulator can be used for important applications in epigenetic reprogramming research.

This study was undertaken to assess levels of job stress, self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and job involvement as perceived by school dietitiansutrition teachers during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic and to determine the effects of these three factors. An online survey was sent from May 18 to May 26, 2021, to school dietitiansutrition teachers in Seoul with experience of foodservice operations during 2020; 250 responses were used for this analysis. Job demands contributed most to job stress, whereas human relations contributed most to job satisfaction. Job stress caused by COVID-19 had a negative impact on self-efficacy (P＜0.01) and job satisfaction (P＜0.01), but a positive impact on job involvement (P＜0.05). Self-efficacy positively impacted job involvement (P＜0.01) but did not significantly influence job satisfaction. However, job satisfaction during early COVID-19 positively impacted job involvement (P＜0.05). In conclusion, job stress associated with job requirements was greater during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic than before the pandemic guidelines are needed that enable school dietitiansutrition teachers to better cope with the job pressures generated by infectious diseases.

When epithelial cells are exposed to potentially threatening external stimuli such as allergens, bacteria, viruses, and helminths, they instantly produce “alarmin” cytokines, namely, IL-33, IL-25, and TSLP. These alarmins alert the immune system about these threats, thereby mobilizing host immune defense mechanisms. Specifically, the alarmins strongly stimulate type-2 immune cells, including eosinophils, mast cells, dendritic cells, type-2 helper T cells, and type-2 innate lymphoid cells. Given that the alarm-raising role of IL-33, IL-25, and TSLP was first detected in allergic and infectious diseases, most studies on alarmins focus on their role in these diseases. However, recent studies suggest that alarmins also have a broad range of effector functions in other pathological conditions, including psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, and cancer. Therefore, this review provides an update on the epitheliumderived cytokines in both allergic and non-allergic diseases. We also review the progress of clinical trials on biological agents that target the alarmins and discuss the therapeutic potential of these agents in non-allergic diseases.

Background: The use of cosmeceuticals, cosmetics that are medically proven to improve certain skin qualities, has been generalized to the public. While they were invented to selectively enhance targeted biophysical skin qualities, product selection is highly dependent on subjective perceptions rather than objective assessments. Objective: To evaluate whether subjective perceptions can accurately characterize one’s skin condition, especially in the Korean population, which shows a high interest in cosmetics and skin conditions. Methods: Biophysical parameter measurements were obtained from the 2018 International Skin Characteristics Data Bank Project conducted by the Foundation of the Korea Cosmetic Industry Institute. Participants were 220 healthy South Korean adults. Each participant was asked to evaluate their own skin type in terms of sensitivity, hydration, oiliness, roughness, and thickness. The same subjects were objectively examined using bioengineering devices for the related biophysical parameters. Significance was evaluated using the chi-squared test. Results: Oiliness showed a significant correlation between subjective and objective skin assessments. Although sensitivity, hydration, roughness, and thickness showed positive relationships, none were statistically significant. Interestingly, self-perceived skin texture was highly dependent on pore-induced bumpiness rather than intricate skin surface topology. Also, uneven skin texture tended to be perceived as thick skin. Conclusion Subjectively assessed skin types may limit the precise characterization of the skin’s properties. Therefore, biophysical measurements should be used to assess skin types, particularly with regard to sensitivity, hydration, roughness, and thickness. This Korean population showed no superiority at perceiving skin types compared to subjects of previous studies.