The effect of ginsenoside Rk1 in junctional protein of severe preeclamptic placenta / 대한산부인과학회지

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the differential expression of junctional proteins in the normal and preeclamptic human placenta and the effect of ginsenoside Rk1 in junctional proteins. METHODS: Placental tissues from 10 women with severe preeclampsia and 5 normal women were collected at the time of their cesarean section. Five of 10 preeclamptic women were complicated with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). Immunohistochemistry and Western blotting was employed to localize junctional proteins (zo-1, occludin and plakoglobin) positive cells. The placental explant culture was performed to investigate if Rk1 can attenuate the expression of junctional proteins (zo-1, occluding and plakoglobin) induced by deferoxamine-induced hypoxia. Rk1 was treated at the day 3 and Western blot analysis was performed for protein quantification. RESULTS: There was no different expression of zo-1 and plakoglobin among all the study groups. Occludin showed negative at the endothelial cells of the terminal villi in both normal and preeclampsia groups. At the endothelial cells of the stem villi, occludin was detected in both normal and severe preeclamptic placenta with normal fetal growth. However, severe preeclampsia with IUGR were decreased expression of occludin at the endothelial cells of the stem villi. When we administered Rk1 to the placenta treated with DFO, expression of occludin was not different. CONCLUSION: The placental expression of zo-1 and plakoglobin were not different among the study groups, while that of occludin was significantly decreased at the endothelium of stem villi in severe preeclampsia with IUGR. Rk-1 showed no effect on the placental junctional proteins. These results suggest that occludin may play a role in pathophysiology of fetal growth restriction in utero.

Application of Decision Tree for the Classification of Antimicrobial Peptide

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of decision tree for the classification of antimicrobial peptides. The classification was based on the activities of known antimicrobial peptides against common microbes including Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. A feature selection was employed to select an effective subset of features from available attribute sets.Sequential applications of decision tree with 17 nodes with 9 leaves and 13 nodes with 7 leaves provided the classification rates of 76.74% and 74.66% against E. coli and S. aureus, respectively. Angle subtended by positively charged face and the positive charge commonly gave higher accuracies in both E. coli and S. aureus datasets. In this study, we describe a successful application of decision tree that provides the understanding of the effects of physicochemical characteristics of peptides on bacterial membrane.

Clinical Review on Infective Endocarditis

A clinical analysis of infective endocarditis was done in 34 patients who were admitted to National Medical Center from march. 1972 to June. 1984, and the results were as follows. 1) There was no difference in ratio between sexes. The prevalence was highest in the 3rd decade. 2) The important preexisting heart diseases were rheumatic heart disease(32.4%), congenital heart disease(17.6%) and undefined cardiac condition(20.6%) in order of frequency. 3) The common symptoms and signs on admission were fever(88.3%), cardiac murmur(79.4%), malaise(70.6%), dyspnea (64.7%), palpitation(55.9%) and hepatosplenomegaly(55.9%). 4) The positive blood culture was obtained in 15(47%) of the cases. Those who had not received antibiotics before admission showed higher rate of positive culture(72.7%) than in those who had received(33.3%). 5) The laboratary findings revealed anemia(73.5%), leukocytosis(35.3%), increased ESR(73.5%), microscopic hematuria(61.8%) and positive CRP(100.0%). 6) The EKG findings showed normal(11.8%), sinus tachycardia(32.4%), LV hypertrophy(29.4%), non-specific ST-T change(20.6%) and AV block(14.7%). 7) Vegetation was detected by echocardiography in 43% of cases and the most frequently involved valve was aortic(66.7%). 8) The combination of penicillin and aminoglycoside was effective in 86.4% of patients so treated.