The effects of hormone therapy on metabolic risk factors in postmenopausal Korean women.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to assess the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) among Korean postmenopausal women and to investigate the effect of hormone therapy status and reproductive characteristics on body composition and MetS risk factors. STUDY DESIGN: We performed a cross-sectional study involving a cohort of 2005 postmenopausal Korean women. We defined MetS using the modified National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) criteria proposed by the American Heart Association/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute guidelines. The criteria for abdominal obesity were adopted from the cut-offs suggested by the Korean Society for the Study of Obesity. Participants with three or more of the following conditions were classified as having MetS: waist circumference ≥ 85 cm; blood pressure ≥ 130/85 mmHg; fasting plasma triglycerides ≥ 150 mg/dl; high density lipoprotein cholesterol < 50 mg/dl; glucose ≥ 100 mg/dl and/or receiving treatment for their condition. RESULTS: The prevalence of MetS was 22.1% in the study population and increased with age. After adjusting for age and related reproductive characteristics, it was found that ever-use of hormone therapy (prior or current) was associated with decreased risk of postmenopausal MetS. Among individual risk factors for MetS, current hormone therapy seemed to be associated with decreased prevalence of abdominal obesity and better glucose metabolism and prior use of hormone therapy were associated with lower risk of abdominal obesity and high blood pressure. CONCLUSION: Postmenopausal hormone therapy is associated with decreased risk of MetS in postmenopausal Korean women.

Dissection of relationship between small heat shock proteins and mycobacterial diseases.

Mycobacteria belong to a genus which has membership ranging from saprophytes to deadly pathogens that cause several infectious diseases affecting a large population of the world. Among them, tuberculosis and leprosy are the major granulomatous mycobacterial diseases. While there are successes and failures in the fight against these infections, mechanisms of pathogenesis continue to be a challenge to clinicians and biologists alike. Though it is known that both host and bacterial factors are important in the pathogenicity versus protection, all the triggers and responses are not known. Among various bacterial factors, small heat shock proteins (sSHPs) could be important targets for drug development, immunomodulation and serodiagnosis. sSHPs are the molecular chaperones that are believed to act as mantle for the mycobacteria against host's immune attack and facilitate the survival of pathogen in host body. Best studied small heat shock proteins in M. tuberculosis are sSHP16.3 and Acr2 while in M. leprae, it is 18 kD protein antigen. In this review, works on various aspects of small heat shock proteins which fall in 10 to 19 kD range have been summarized and some thoughts about future road-map have been put into.

Anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 gene transfection of human articular chondrocytes protects against nitric oxide-induced apoptosis.

We stably transfected early passage chondrocytes with an anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 gene in vitro using a retrovirus vector. Samples of articular cartilage were obtained from 11 patients with a mean age of 69 years (61 to 75) who were undergoing total knee replacement for osteoarthritis. The Bcl-2-gene-transfected chondrocytes were compared with non-transfected and lac-Z-gene-transfected chondrocytes, both of which were used as controls. All three groups of cultured chondrocytes were incubated with nitric oxide (NO) for ten days. Using the Trypan Blue exclusion assay, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and flow cytometric analysis, we found that the number of apoptotic chondrocytes was significantly higher in the non-transfected and lac-Z-transfected groups than in the Bcl-2-transfected group (p < 0.05). The Bcl-2-transfected chondrocytes were protected from NO-induced impairment of proteoglycan synthesis. We conclude that NO-induced chondrocyte death involves a mechanism which appears to be subject to regulation by an anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 gene. Therefore, Bcl-2 gene therapy may prove to be of therapeutic value in protecting human articular chondrocytes.

Morphology and biology of parasite responsible for scuticociliatosis of cultured olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus.

Based on the arrangement and shape of the buccal structure, scuticociliates isolated from cultured olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus belonged to the family Uronematidae and showed many characteristics of Uronema marinum. There was variation in the morphometry of clinical isolates taken from different organs of infected flounder. However, the isolates did not show any significant difference in morphometry under cultured conditions. The ciliates were easily maintained in in vitro medium to which antibiotic agents had been added and which had been enriched with the raw brain tissue of a healthy olive flounder. The ciliates propagated in a wide range of both temperature (6 to 30 degrees C) and salinity (10 to 35 ppt).

Influence of female age on pregnancy outcome in in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer patients undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

PURPOSE: To determine the influence of female age on the outcomes of ICSI in IVF-ET patients. METHODS: One hundred and seventy-five couples underwent 352 cycles of ICSI. The quality of oocytes and embryos, fertilization rate, and pregnancy outcomes were retrospectively evaluated according to female age; < 30 years in Group A (49 cycles), 30-34 in Group B (177 cycles), 35-39 in Group C (97 cycles), and > or = 40 in Group D (29 cycles). RESULTS: The fertilization rates were not significantly different among the age groups. Significant negative linear correlations were observed between female age and the numbers of oocytes retrieved and embryos transferred, and cumulative embryo score. Clinical pregnancy rates were significantly decreased and spontaneous abortion rate increased with advancing age. CONCLUSIONS: Female age may be a prognostic indicator in ICSI program.

A new strain of Cryptocaryon irritans from the cultured olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus.

An obligate parasite, Cryptocaryon irritans, which is responsible for the white spot disease of marine fish is known to develop in the temperature regime over 19 degrees C. Recently, however, we found white spot disease of olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus during winter at water temperatures ranging between 12 and 16 degrees C in Korea. In the present study we isolated a C. irritans-like ciliate from the affected fish and investigated its reproductive characters to compare the newly found ciliate with typical C. irritans. The newly found ciliate had an additional process in the reproductive stage, characterized by a budding before palintomic division, and it showed a higher ability to carry out tomitogenesis at a low temperature (16 degrees C) than at a high temperature (24 degrees C). Nevertheless, the present ciliates still had much in common with typical C. irritans with respect to clinical, histopathological, and morphological characters, suggesting that it is a new strain of C. irritans, adapted to lower water temperature.

The outcome of sperm retrieval and intracytoplasmic sperm injection in patients with obstructive azoospermia: impact of previous tuberculous epididymitis.

PURPOSE: Our purpose was to investigate the influence of previous tuberculous epididymitis in patients with obstructive azoospermia on the outcome of sperm retrieval and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). METHODS: Eighty-eight cycles of ICSI were performed in 44 patients with obstructive azoospermia; 16 cycles (7 patients) with tuberculous obstructive azoospermia and 72 cycles (37 patients) with nontuberculous obstructive azoospermia. RESULTS: The rates of fertilization and embryo cleavage were comparable, and there was no significant difference in the clinical pregnancy rate per fresh transfer between the two groups. The rates of embryo implantation and clinical miscarriage were also comparable. CONCLUSIONS: Embryo quality and pregnancy outcome in sperm retrieval and ICSI were comparable in both the tuberculous and the nontuberculous obstructive azoospermia patients. Although there was a preponderance of testicular sperm used in the tuberculous obstructive azoospermia group, our results suggest that previous tuberculous epididymitis in patients with obstructive azoospermia does not affect the outcome of sperm retrieval and ICSI.