Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma agonist suppresses human telomerase reverse transcriptase expression and aromatase activity in eutopic endometrial stromal cells from endometriosis / 대한생식의학회지

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) agonist on the cell proliferation properties and expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) and aromatase in cultured endometrial stromal cell (ESC) from patients with endometriosis. METHODS: Human endometrial tissues were obtained from women with endometriosis and healthy women (controls) using endometrial biopsy. Isolated ESCs were cultured and the cell proliferation was measured by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay and expression of hTERT, aromatase, and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 by western blotting according to the addition of rosiglitazone (PPARgamma agonist). RESULTS: We demonstrate that the cultured ESCs of endometriosis showed hTERT protein overexpression and increased cellular proliferation, which was inhibited by rosiglitazone, in a dose-dependent manner. At the same time, PPARgamma agonist also inhibited aromatase and COX-2 expression, resulting in decreased prostaglandin E2 production in the ESCs of endometriosis. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that PPARgamma agonist plays an inhibitory role in the proliferative properties of eutopic endometrium with endometriosis by down-regulation of hTERT and COX-2 expression; this could be a new treatment target for endometriosis.

Sigmoidovesical Fistula Caused by Diverticulitis Detected with Sigmoidoscopy / 대한소화기학회지

Enterovesical fistular is an abnormal communication between the intestine and the bladder. It represents a rare complication of intestinal diverticulitis, colorectal malignancy, bladder cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, radiotherapy, and trauma. The most common etiology is diverticular disease. A 70-year-old man came to our hospital due to frequent urinary tract infection, dysuria, pneumaturia and fecaluria. Sigmoidoscopy revealed a large diverticulum with impacted stool at the sigmoid colon. When the scope was inserted into the site, the patient complained of severe urgency and pneumaturia. CT scan was performed. 1.5 cm sized fistular tract between the sigmoid colon and bladder was noted. According to the endoscopy and CT finding, the diagnosis of colovesical fistula was made. The patient underwent surgical intervention. At laparotomy, there were multiple diverticula and fistular tract was noted.

Clinical characteristics of obese boys and girls in a high school: focused on abdominal fat indices, fatty liver and carotid intima-media thickness / 소아과

PURPOSE: Our study aimed to evaluated sex differences in clinical features of obese high school students. METHODS: One hundred three obese high school students (body mass index [BMI]> or =85th percentile) and 51 control students (BMI<85th percentile) were enrolled in this study. Anthropometric measurements were performed. Fasting serum glucose, insulin, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and high-sensitive C-reactive protein were measured. Abdominal fat thickness, degree of fatty liver, and carotid intima-media thickness were measured by ultrasound. RESULTS: In control and obese groups, waist circumference was significantly longer in boys but body fat mass was significantly higher in girls. In the control group, total cholesterol and LDL-C were higher in girls. In the obese group, however, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and triglyceride were higher and HDL-C was lower in boys. Preperitoneal fat thickness was significantly higher in obese girls. In obese group, the degree of fatty liver was significantly higher in boys. Carotid intima-media thickness was not significantly different between boys and girls. CONCLUSION: Obese adolescents had distinguishable sex differences in body measurements, metabolic abnormalities, abdominal fat thickness and fatty liver. We can infer that these characteristics may extend into adult obesity.

Prognostic Factors Affecting the Results of the Surgery for Cervical Myelopathy / 대한정형외과학회잡지

PURPOSE: This study was performed to investigate and define the factors affecting the results of surgery for a cervical myelopathy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy-eight cervical myelopathy cases, who underwent surgery from Jan. 1991 to Sep. 2001, were retrospectively reviewed. The patients were composed of developmental stenosis in 9, spondylosis in 21, OPLL in 12, HIVD in 34 and trauma in 2 cases. The causes of the disease, age, onset, pre-op JOA score, pre-op and post-op spinal canal diameter, Pavlov ratio and cord diameter and signal changes of cord on MRI were examined. The mean follow-up period was two years. The clinical results were evaluated according to the JOA score. Statistical analysis was made using the Pearson correlation coefficient and the Kruskal-Wallis method. RESULTS: The mean pre-op and post-op JOA score were 11.2 and 14.8 respectively. The mean recovery rate was 68.0%. The preoperative JOA score showed a positive correlation with recovery rate, and age, sagittal diameter and transverse area of the cord on MRI correlated negatively with the recovery rate. The result was poorer the higher the level involved. Patients with signal changes in the cord on MRI had a poor outcome after surgery. CONCLUSION: The prognostic factors affecting the results of the surgery for cervical myelopathy were age, pre-op JOA score, disease level, and sagittal diameter, transverse area and the signal changes in the cord on MRI.

A Case of Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome with del (4) (p15.2) / 대한임상병리학회지

Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS) is a congenital anomaly associated with partial deletion of distal short arm of chromosome 4, characterized by distinct facial anomalies ("Greek-Helmet"), mental and growth retardation and midline defects. The deletion of 2.2Mb area of 4p16.3 is thought to be the critical for WHS. It is reported that the sizes of 4p deletions are variable and the clinical findings are different from classic WHS according to the deleted portion. Recently proximal interstitial deletions have been infrequently reported. On fetal ultrasonography, a fetus of this case was found to have intrauterine growth retardation and multiple somatic anomalies including cleft palate, cleft lip, club foot, and hypoplastic thoracic cage with cardiomegaly, hypoplasia of right kidney and small stomach. At 36th week of gestation, the female baby was born by normal vaginal delivery, and her body weight was only 2.1kg. In spite of vigorous resuscitative measures, she died of respiratory failure on the second day of life. Karyotype was 46,XX,del (4) (p15.2). It is supposed that the size of deleted 4p in patients with WHS doesn't have substantial influence on the phenotype of the disease if the critical region in 4p16.3 is also deleted.

Effects of Oxygen Free Radical on the In-vitro Development of Human Embryos / 대한산부인과학회잡지

INTRODUCTION: In human IVF-ET only a few oocytes develop to be good quality embryos depending on the incubation conditions and the quality of ovum and sperm, while the rest show abnormal morphology due to unequal cell division or fragmentation of the cell. Fragmented embryos limit developmental potential and rarely result in implantation. Such abnormal embryo development have been reported to be due to genetic defects or inadequate culture environment. This in-vitro environment differs from in-vivo conditions in that the oxygen concentration is higher(20 %) and in such conditions, the mouse embryos show a higher ROS in simple culture media. ROS is believed to cause damage to the cell membrane and DNA fragmentation in somatic cells. This study was conducted to ascertain the level of ROS within embryos and morphological features of cell damage induced by ROS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 53 human oocytes and embryos(31 fragmented and 10 nonfragmented embryos, 12 unfertilized oocytes) were obtained in IVF-ET programs. The relative intensity of ROS within embryos was reassured using 2,7-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCHFDA ; Molecular Probes, USA) by Quanti cell 500(Imaging Co. UK), and DNA fragmentation was observed via TEM(Zeiss EM 902A, Germany) and ApopTag kit(Oncor Co. USA). RESULTS: The ROS levels was significantly higher in fragmented embryos(72.21 +/- 9.62) compared to nonfragmented embryos(31.30 +/- 3.50, p<0.05) and unfertilized oocytes(30.75 +/- 2.67, p<0.05). Apoptosis was only observed in fragmented embryos, and was absent in nonfragmented embryos. Also the DAPI staining showed that the nuclei of fragmented embryos were broken up into irregular shapes, and the EM showed confirmation of apoptotic bodies and cytoplasmic condensation in the fragmented blastomeres. CONCLUSION: We conclude that there is a direct relationship between increased ROS and apoptosis, and that further studies should be undertaken.