Trends in Mortality and Morbidity of Uterine Cervix, Female Breast, and Ovarian Cancer in Korea.

In Korea, leading causes of death have dramatically changed from infectious diseases to chronic degenerative illnesses, including malignant neoplasms since 1960. However, little is known about the long-term trends of female malignancies in Korea. This study was conducted to find epidemiological evidence of changes in mortality and morbidity of uterine cervix, female breast, and ovarian cancer through a long-term trends analysis with data representative of the Korean population. Age-standardized mortality rates of three female malignancies were markedly increasing throughout the observation period. Increment ratios in mortality were about two to five during the period 1981-1990. As a proxy estimate of incidence, age-standardized admission rates of female malignancies, as well as proportion index of admission due to each cancer to total admissions, showed a similar increasing trend from 1981 to 1990 in Korea. These results are highly suggestive of the view that both the mortality and morbidity for uterine cervix. female breast, and ovarian cancer must be increasing during the ten-year period since 1981 in Korea. Of the female malignancies, it is most likely that morbidity and mortality of uterine cervix cancer begin to decline after the end of the 19805 in Korea. Particularly noteworthy was a shift of the prevalent age for uterine cervix cancer to older women

Recombinant mussel proximal thread matrix protein promotes osteoblast cell adhesion and proliferation

BACKGROUND: von Willebrand factor (VWF) is a key load bearing domain for mamalian cell adhesion by binding various macromolecular ligands in extracellular matrix such as, collagens, elastin, and glycosaminoglycans. Interestingly, vWF like domains are also commonly found in load bearing systems of marine organisms such as in underwater adhesive of mussel and sea star, and nacre of marine abalone, and play a critical load bearing function. Recently, Proximal Thread Matrix Protein1 (PTMP1) in mussel composed of two vWF type A like domains has characterized and it is known to bind both mussel collagens and mammalian collagens. RESULTS: Here, we cloned and mass produced a recombinant PTMP1 from E. coli system after switching all the minor codons to the major codons of E. coli. Recombinant PTMP1 has an ability to enhance mouse osteoblast cell adhesion, spreading, and cell proliferation. In addition, PTMP1 showed vWF-like properties as promoting collagen expression as well as binding to collagen type I, subsequently enhanced cell viability. Consequently, we found that recombinant PTMP1 acts as a vWF domain by mediating cell adhesion, spreading, proliferation, and formation of actin cytoskeleton. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that both mammalian cell adhesion and marine underwater adhesion exploits a strong vWF-collagen interaction for successful wet adhesion. In addition, vWF like domains containing proteins including PTMP1 have a great potential for tissue engineering and the development of biomedical adhesives as a component for extra-cellular matrix

Production of Transgenic Cloned Miniature Pigs with Membrane-bound Human Fas Ligand (FasL) by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Cell-mediated xenograft rejection, including NK cells and CD8+ CTL, is a major obstacle in successful pig-to-human xenotransplantation. Human CD8+ CTL and NK cells display high cytotoxicity for pig cells, mediated at least in part by the Fas/FasL pathway. To prevent cell-mediated xenocytotoxicity, a membrane-bound form of human FasL (mFasL) was generated as an inhibitor for CTL and NK cell cytotoxicity that could not be cleaved by metalloproteinase to produce putative soluble FasL. We produced two healthy transgenic pigs harboring the mFasL gene via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). In a cytotoxicity assay using transgenic clonal cell lines and transgenic pig ear cells, the rate of CD8+ CTL-mediated cytotoxicity was significantly reduced in transgenic pig's ear cells compared with that in normal minipig fetal fibroblasts. Our data indicate that grafts of transgenic pigs expressing membrane-bound human FasL control the cellular immune response to xenografts, creating a window of opportunity to facilitate xenograft survival

Ecologic correlation Study on Nutrients/Foods Intake and Mortal ity for Female Breast Cancer in Korea

In order to investigate the possible role of dieta-ry factors on the recent increase in mortality for female breast cancer in Korea, an ecologic correlation study between per capita intakes of nutrients and foods and the mortality for female breast cancer during the last 10 years was conducted. In spite of the possibility of an ecologic fallacy, the age-adjusted mortality rates for female breast cancer were positively correlated with protein from animal source, total lipid, total animal foods, animal foods to total intake, fresh fish and shellfish, milk and milk products, and meat and meat products. The rates were inversely associated with energy from cereal, total carbohydrate, vegetable foods to total intake, total vegetable foods, daily intake of cereals and grain products, and starch and starch roots. These results suggest that an increased intake of protein- and fat-rich foods rather than carbohydrate-rich foods or vegetables might be associated with the increase in mortality for breast cancer during the last 10 years in Korea

Evaluation of the Satisfaction and Usefulness of a Web-Based Educational Program for Breast Cancer Patients

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based breast cancer educational program which consists of special features such as flash animations and online counseling as well as 7 different categories of information on breast cancer. The effectiveness of the program was analyzed in terms of its function and content. A total of 147 women with breast cancer who visited the website for at least 30 minutes and a minimum of 3 visits, participated in the survey