Transcription Factor Sp1 Is Involved in Expressional Regulation of Coxsackie and Adenovirus Receptor in Cancer Cells

Coxsackie and adenovirus receptor (CAR) was first known as a virus receptor. Recently, it is also known to have tumor suppressive activity such as inhibition of cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. It is important to understand how CAR expression can be regulated in cancers. Based on an existence of putative Sp1 binding site within CAR promoter, we investigated whether indeed Sp1 is involved in the regulation of CAR expression. We observed that deletion or mutation of Sp1 binding motif (−503/−498) prominently impaired the Sp1 binding affinity and activity of CAR promoter. Histone deacetylase inhibitor (TSA) treatment enhanced recruitment of Sp1 to the CAR promoter in ChIP assay. Meanwhile, Sp1 binding inhibitor suppressed the recruitment. Exogenous expression of wild-type Sp1 increased CAR expression in CAR-negative cells; meanwhile, dominant negative Sp1 decreased the CAR expression in CAR-positive cells. These results indicate that Sp1 is involved in regulation of CAR expression

Spontaneous left external iliac vein rupture

We report a 72-year-old female patient with spontaneous rupture of the left external iliac vein. She visited our hospital for abdominal and back pain. She had the abnormal finding of hemoperitoneum. We performed an emergency operation with diagnosis of left ovarian cyst rupture though she suffered from spontaneous rupture of the left external iliac vein. This case provides insight to the experience of spontaneous rupture of the left external iliac vein

Genome-wide genetic aberrations of thymoma using cDNA microarray based comparative genomic hybridization

BACKGROUND: Thymoma is a heterogeneous group of tumors in biology and clinical behavior. Even though thymoma is divided into five subgroups following the World Health Organization classification, the nature of the disease is mixed within the subgroups. RESULTS: We investigated the molecular characteristics of genetic changes variation of thymoma using cDNA microarray based-comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) with a 17 K cDNA microarray in an indirect, sex-matched design. Genomic DNA from the paraffin embedded 39 thymoma tissues (A 6, AB 11, B1 7, B2 7, B3 8) labeled with Cy-3 was co-hybridized with the reference placenta gDNA labeled with Cy-5. Using the CAMVS software, we investigated the deletions on chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13 and 18 throughout the thymoma. Then, we evaluated the genetic variations of thymoma based on the subgroups and the clinical behavior. First, the 36 significant genes differentiating five subgroups were selected by Significance Analysis of Microarray. Based on these genes, type AB was suggested to be heterogeneous at the molecular level as well as histologically. Next, we observed that the thymoma was divided into A, B (1, 2) and B3 subgroups with 33 significant genes. In addition, we selected 70 genes differentiating types A and B3, which differ largely in clinical behaviors. Finally, the 11 heterogeneous AB subtypes were able to correctly assign into A and B (1, 2) types based on their genetic characteristics. CONCLUSION: In our study, we observed the genome-wide chromosomal aberrations of thymoma and identified significant gene sets with genetic variations related to thymoma subgroups, which might provide useful information for thymoma pathobiology.ope

The outcome of percutaneous stent implantation in congenital heart disease: experience of a single institute

PurposeThe efficacy of percutaneous stent implantation for congenital heart disease (CHD) in Korea, where stent availability is limited, has not been determined. This study evaluated the acute and midterm results of stent implantation in different CHD subgroups.MethodsStents were implanted in 75 patients with 81 lesions: (1) pulmonary artery stenosis (PAS) group, 56 lesions in 51 patients; (2) coarctation of the aorta (CoA) group, 5 lesions in 5 patients; (3) Fontan group, 13 lesions in 12 patients; (4) ductal stent group, 3 lesions in 3 patients; and (5) other CHD group, 4 lesions in 4 patients. Mean follow-up duration was 2.1 years (0.1–4 years). Medical records were reviewed retrospectively.ResultsThe minimum lumen diameter (MLD) in PAS and CoA increased from 5.0±1.9 mm and 8.4±1.6 mm to 10.1±3.6 mm and 12.3±2.5 mm, respectively (P<0.01). In the PAS group, pressure gradient decreased from 25.7±15.6 mmHg to 10.4±10.1 mmHg, and right ventricular to aortic pressure ratio from 0.56±0.21 to 0.46±0.19. In the CoA group, the pressure gradient decreased from 50±33 mmHg to 17±8 mmHg. In the ductal stent group, the MLD of the ductus increased from 2.3 mm to 4.3 mm and arterial oxygen saturation from 40%–70% to 90%. No deaths were associated with stent implantation. Stent migration occurred in 3 patients, but repositioning was successful in all. Stent redilation was performed successfully in 26 cases after 29±12 months.ConclusionPercutaneous stent implantation was safe and effective, with acceptable short and mid-term outcomes in Korean CHD patients

Associations of alcohol consumption and physical activity with lean type 2 diabetes mellitus among Korean adults: A prospective cohort study.

Data on the association between alcohol consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have accumulated, but little has been reported about this association in terms of lean T2DM. The present study analyzed 10-year longitudinal data to investigate the association between alcohol consumption and T2DM risk among lean individuals. This prospective study included 2,366 male and female Koreans aged 40-69 years who were free of DM and had a body mass index (BMI) 60g/day among alcohol drinkers. No protective effect of moderate alcohol consumption <16 g/day on T2DM risk was observed. Age, parental history of DM, and physical inactivity were also significant risk factors for lean T2DM. Alcohol consumption of at least 2 units/day increased T2DM risk among lean individuals. Abstaining from alcohol and physical activity may be beneficial for the prevention of lean T2DM

The relation between immunologic variables and symptom factors in patients with major depressive disorder

Abstract Background The associations between depression and immunity were investigated by measuring the scores of Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) and peripheral lymphocyte parameters in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods Forty-nine patients with MDD were recruited and their clinical symptoms are evaluated with 17-item HRSD which was factorized using the confirmatory factor analysis (i.e., depression factor, insomnia factor, and anxiety factor). Basic immunologic variables such as CD4, CD8, and CD56-positive cell numbers were measured by flow cytometry. Natural killer cell activity (NKCA) was also assessed by ELISA method using K-562 cells as target cells. All patients were treated for 4 weeks with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Immunologic and clinical variables were measured both at baseline and after medication. Results CD8-positive cell number was increased (p < .05) and CD4/CD8 ratio was decreased (p < .01) after medication. NKCA showed a significant positive correlation with anxiety factor scores of HRSD (p < .05) at baseline. However, except NKCA, there was no correlation between other immunologic measures and symptom factors. Conclusion These results suggest that immunologic measure such as NKCA may be an important variable for symptom of MDD such as anxiety during acute depressive state

Power Spectral Deviation-Based Voice Activity Detection Incorporating Teager Energy for Speech Enhancement

In this paper, we propose a robust voice activity detection (VAD) algorithm to effectively distinguish speech from non-speech in various noisy environments. The proposed VAD utilizes power spectral deviation (PSD), using Teager energy (TE) to provide a better representation of the PSD, resulting in improved decision performance for speech segments. In addition, the TE-based likelihood ratio and speech absence probability are derived in each frame to modify the PSD for further VAD. We evaluate the performance of the proposed VAD algorithm by objective testing in various environments and obtain better results that those attained by of the conventional methods