Hypereosinophilia Presenting as Eosinophilic Vasculitis and Multiple Peripheral Artery Occlusions without Organ Involvement

We report here a case with hypereosinophilia and peripheral artery occlusion. A 32-yr-old Korean woman presented to us with lower extremity swelling and pain. Angiography revealed that multiple lower extremity arteries were occlusive. The biopsy specimen showed perivascular and periadnexal dense eosinophilic infiltration in dermis and subcutaneous adipose tissue. Laboratory investigations revealed a persistent hypereosinophilia. She was prescribed prednisolone 60 mg daily. Her skin lesion and pain were improved and the eosinophil count was dramatically decreased. After discharge, eosinophil count gradually increased again. Cyanosis and pain of her fingers recurred. She had been treated with cyclophosphamide pulse therapy. Her eosinophilia was decreased, but the cyanosis and tingling sense were progressive. The extremity arterial stenoses were slightly progressed. Skin biopsy showed perivascular eosinophilic infiltration in the dermis and CD40 ligand (CD40L) positive eosinophilic infiltration. The serum TNF-α was markedly increased. These results suggest that CD40L (a member of TNF-α superfamily) could play a role in the inflammatory processes when eosinophil infiltration and activation are observed. We prescribed prednisolone, cyclophosphamide, clopidogrel, cilostazol, beraprost and nifedipine, and she was discharged

Comparative assessment of physicochemical properties of unripe peach (Prunus persica) and Japanese apricot (Prunus mume)

Objective: To investigate the physicochemical properties of unripe peach-Prunus persica cv. Mibaekdo (Mibaekdo) and Prunus persica cv. Nagasawa Hakuho (Nagasawa Hakuho) as an alternative to food supplement while Japanese apricot (Prunus mume cv. Backaha) (Backaha) was used as a control sample. Methods: The unripe fruits were analyzed for soluble solid (°Brix), titratable acidity, pH, total polyphenol content, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, amygdalin content, free amino acid content, organic acid content, free sugar content, and α-amylase activities. Results: Total polyphenol content of unripe peach ranged between 137.27-151.64 μg/g whereas that of apricot was 160.73 μg/g. DPPH radical scavenging activities of Backaha was the highest (89.16%) followed by Mibaekdo (85.05%) and Nagasawa Hakuho (41.50%). The highest amount of oxalic acid (612.8 mg/100 g) was observed in Mibaekdo while that of Nagasawa Hakuho and Backaha were (184.6±18.1) and (334.8±16.1) mg/100 g, respectively. Amygdalin contents of Mibaekdo, Nagasawa Hakuho and Backaha were 486.61, 548.60 and 174.28 μg/g, respectively. Conclusions: The results suggest that the unripe fruit of peach has a significant biochemical potential of using as a food supplement with potential health benefit for human health

Enhancement of yield and nutritional value of soybean sprouts by persimmon fruit powder

Large amount of soybean sprouts has been produced for human consumption in Korea for a long time. Various techniques and production methods have been implied to enhance the quality and yield of soybean sprouts. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of persimmon fruit powder treatment on yield and nutritional value of soybean sprouts. The sprout yield was increased by 16% with the addition of 5% (w/v) persimmon fruit powder during seed soaking. Vitamin C and polyphenol content were significantly (p<0.05) increased. Similarly, essential as well as total amino acid content were also enhanced. However, the moisture content and DPPH radical scavenging potential of soybean sprout were not significantly affected. On the other hand, the mineral elements especially potassium and calcium content were reduced with the application of persimmon fruit powder. The results of the present study suggest that addition of persimmon fruit powder could improve the yield, vitamin C and amino acid content, and antioxidant potential of soybean sprouts.Key words: Persimmon fruit powder, nutritional value, soybean sprout, yield

Evaluation of Sequential Planting Method for Screening of Durable Resistance against Rice Blast in Rice Breeding Program

A sequential planting method was developed to screen rice plants with durable resistance against rice blast in a short time, and applied for several years in Korean rice breeding program. In this study, we showed the advantages of a sequential planting method compared to other pathogenicity tests. The correlation analysis among three pathogenicity tests and other factors demonstrated that durable resistance depended on the average of diseased leaf area and the number of compatible pathogens. Significant correlations were found in the nursery test but not in the field test result. In addition, we traced changes in the pathogen population during sequential planting stages through re-isolation of the pathogen. The portion of compatible pathogens was increased during sequential planting. Through this study, we provide an effective sequential planting method and direction of durable resistance in a breeding program

Selection of Representative Magnaporthe oryzae Isolates and Rice Resistant Gene Types for Screening of Blast-resistant Rice Cultivars

Rice blast is one of the most serious disease threatening stable production of rice. Breeding of resistant cultivars has been used as the most effective and useful method to controll rice blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae. To collect rice blast isolates in fields and test their pathogenicity on new cultivars are important for establishment of new resistant cultivars breeding program of rice. Pathotypes of Korean rice blast isolates have been categorized to Korean differential race system developed in 1985. However, it is little known about genetic background of Korean differential cultivars, so that it is hard to understand for relationship between each pathogen and each host plant at genetic level. In this study, we suggested necessity of a new differential system by analyzing pathogenic responses between 24 monogenic rice lines and 200 Korean rice blast isolates. In addition, we determined the nine representative resistant genes based on the resistance responses of the monogenic lines to rice blast isolates, indexed resistant responses of the monogenic lines to ten representative rice blast isolates and selected 30 Korean representative rice blast isolates proper to Korean system. We think the newly developed differential race system can be broadly used to select resistant cultivars to rice blast in Korea

Integrative Analyses of Uterine Transcriptome and MicroRNAome Reveal Compromised LIF-STAT3 Signaling and Progesterone Response in the Endometrium of Patients with Recurrent/Repeated Implantation Failure (RIF).

Intimate two-way interactions between the implantation-competent blastocyst and receptive uterus are prerequisite for successful embryo implantation. In humans, recurrent/repeated implantation failure (RIF) may occur due to altered uterine receptivity with aberrant gene expression in the endometrium as well as genetic defects in embryos. Several studies have been performed to understand dynamic changes of uterine transcriptome during menstrual cycles in humans. However, uterine transcriptome of the patients with RIF has not been clearly investigated yet. Here we show that several signaling pathways as well as many genes and microRNAs are dysregulated in the endometrium of patients with RIF (RIFE). Whereas unsupervised hierarchical clustering showed that overall mRNA and microRNA profiles of RIFE were similar to those of endometria of healthy women, many genes were significantly dysregulated in RIFE (cut off at 1.5 fold change). The majority (~75%) of differentially expressed genes in RIFE including S100 calcium binding protein P (S100P), Chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 13 (CXCL13) and SIX homeobox 1 (SIX1) were down-regulated, suggesting that reduced uterine expression of these genes is associated with RIF. Gene Set Enrichment analyses (GSEA) for mRNA microarrays revealed that various signaling pathways including Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) signaling and a P4 response were dysregulated in RIFE although expression levels of Estrogen receptor α (ERα) and Progesterone receptor (PR) were not significantly altered in RIFE. Furthermore, expression and phosphorylation of Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) are reduced and a gene set associated with Janus kinase (JAK)-STAT signaling pathway is systemically down-regulated in these patients. Pairwise analyses of microRNA arrays with prediction of dysregulated microRNAs based on mRNA expression datasets demonstrated that 6 microRNAs are aberrantly regulated in RIFE. Collectively, we here suggest that dysregulation of several major signaling pathways and genes critical for uterine biology and embryo implantation may lead to uterine abnormalities in patients with RIF

Clinical Value of Ezrin Expression in Primary Osteosarcoma

PURPOSE: Ezrin is a membrane cytoskeletal linker protein and it is known to be associated with metastasis of primary osteosarcoma. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between an ezrin expression and several key clinical parameters and to elucidate its potential prognostic value for patients with osteosarcoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy patients with histologically confirmed osteosarcoma and who had no distant metastasis were enrolled between 1995 and 2005 at Yonsei Cancer Center, Severance Hospital, Korea. The clinical parameters were retrospectively reviewed and immunohistochemical staining (IHC) for ezrin was performed using the surgically resected specimens. RESULTS: Of the 70 tumor specimens, 39 (55.7%) revealed an ezrin expression. More of an osteoblastic histology and an elevated initial ALP level were observed in the ezrin positive patients than in the ezrin negative patients (p=0.008 and 0.001, respectively). The proportion of patients who favorably responded to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (≥or=90% necrosis) was significantly higher in the group of ezrin positive patients than that in the group of ezrin negative patient (72.2% vs 45.2%, respectively, p=0.024). The ezrin positive patients showed more frequent recurrence than did the ezrin negative patients (64.1% vs 35.5%, respectively, p=0.017). The patients with an ezrin expression also demonstrated poorer survival than did those patients without ezrin expression (5-year EFS: 31.7% vs 61.3%, respectively, p=0.023, 5-year OS: 53.4% vs 71.0%, respectively, p=0.022). When comparing EFS according to both an ezrin expression and chemoresponsiveness, there were trends that the ezrin negative/chemoresponsive group showed the best 5-year EFS (71.4%), followed by the ezrin negative/chemoresistant group (52.9%), the ezrin positive/chemoresponsive group (38.1%) and the ezrin positive/chemoresistant group (13.6%). These trends were statistically significant (p=0.036). CONCLUSION: The expression of ezrin by IHC staining was found in 55.7% of the patients with metastasis-free osteosarcoma. Immunoreactivity to ezrin is a negative prognostic factor for survival for the patients suffering with osteosarcoma. Identifying an ezrin expression might offer a valuable piece of information when treating patients with primary osteosarcoma.ope

Engineering of Family-5 Glycoside Hydrolase (Cel5A) from an Uncultured Bacterium for Efficient Hydrolysis of Cellulosic Substrates

<div><p>Cel5A, an endoglucanase, was derived from the metagenomic library of vermicompost. The deduced amino acid sequence of Cel5A shows high sequence homology with family-5 glycoside hydrolases, which contain a single catalytic domain but no distinct cellulose-binding domain. Random mutagenesis and cellulose-binding module (CBM) fusion approaches were successfully applied to obtain properties required for cellulose hydrolysis. After two rounds of error-prone PCR and screening of 3,000 mutants, amino acid substitutions were identified at various positions in thermotolerant mutants. The most heat-tolerant mutant, Cel5A_2R2, showed a 7-fold increase in thermostability. To enhance the affinity and hydrolytic activity of Cel5A on cellulose substrates, the family-6 CBM from <i>Saccharophagus degradans</i> was fused to the <i>C</i>-terminus of the Cel5A_2R2 mutant using overlap PCR. The Cel5A_2R2-CBM6 fusion protein showed 7-fold higher activity than the native Cel5A on Avicel and filter paper. Cellobiose was a major product obtained from the hydrolysis of cellulosic substrates by the fusion enzyme, which was identified by using thin layer chromatography analysis.</p></div