Rheumatoid Arthritis and HLA Class II Genotypes in Korean / 대한정형외과연구학회지

To determine which HLA antigens are associated with rheumatoid arthritis in Korean, we studied the HLA class II genotypes in 40 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 35 normal healthy persons by the two step polymerase chain reaction. At first we designed 20 pairs of group specific primers followed by the alleles which have the same nucleotide sequences in the exon 2 region. We performed amplification reaction with these 20 pairs of primers for 32 cycles. Reaction products were electrophoresed and only specifically amplified products were reamplified for 15 cycles with total 76 pairs of allele specific primers. We typed the HLA class II genotypes with specific band patterns of each allele. The genotypes in patients were compared with those of normals. HLA-DR4 gave the highest relative risk for rheumatoid arthritis (RR=4), which was statistically significant (P0.05). Among HLA-DR4 subtypes, the frequency of Dwl4(0404) in patient group was relatively higher (19.2%) than that in normal control group(7.7%). The relative risk was high (2.85), although it was not statistically significant (P>0.05). From this study, HLA-DR4 was found to be highly associated while DRI was not associated with rheumatoid arthritis patients in Koreans.

Effect of Ginseng Saponin on Cultured Osteoblast / 대한정형외과학회잡지

Earlier work suggested that Ginseng saponin had an effect on healing of fracture and osteoporosis, hut there has heen no report on saponin effects on cultured osteoblast. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of saponin on cultured osteovlast of the mouse. Osteohlastic cells were isolated from periosteum-stripped parietal bones of neonatal rat calvaria, seeded at 4 x 10 4 cells/cm2 density, and cultured in standard medium and deficient medium, with addition of saponin (0(control), 10, 20, 50 microgram/ml concentration). Plating efficiency(adhesiveness), proliferation and the alkaline phosphatase activity of the osteohlasts were evaluated on 2 hours, days 2 and 7 of culture. Saponin was found to enhance the adhesiveness of seeded osteoblasts which were cultured with a deficient medium in comparison to the controls. It promoted cell proliferation of the osteoblasts cultured with a deficient medium in comparison to the controls. There was also a significantly enhanced increase of alkaline phosphatase levels in the presence of saponin during culture with deficient medium in comparison to the controls. In summary, the results showed that the saponin increased adhesiveness, proliferation and the alkaline phosphatase activity of the osteoblast cultured only in deficient medium.