Protein Fractions from Korean Mistletoe ( Viscum Album coloratum

Mistletoe (Viscum Album coloratum) has been known as a medicinal plant in European and Asian countries. Recent data show that biological activity of mistletoe alleviates hypertension, heart disease, renal failure, and cancer development. In this study, we report the antidiabetic effect of Korean mistletoe extract (KME). KME treatments enhanced the insulin secretion from the pancreatic β-cell without any effects of cytotoxicity. PDX-1 and beta2/neuroD known as transcription factors that regulate the expression of insulin gene were upregulated by treatment of the KME protein fractions isolated by ion-exchange chromatography after ammonium sulfate precipitation. Furthermore, these KME protein fractions significantly lowered the blood glucose level and the volume of drinking water in alloxan induced hyperglycemic mice. Taken together with the findings, it provides new insight that KME might be served as a useful source for the development of medicinal reagent to reduce blood glucose level of type I diabetic patients

Protective Effect of Heme Oxygenase-1 on High Glucose-Induced Pancreatic β-Cell Injury

BackgroundGlucose toxicity that is caused by chronic exposure to a high glucose concentration leads to islet dysfunction and induces apoptosis in pancreatic β-cells. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) has been identified as an anti-apoptotic and cytoprotective gene. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether HO-1 up-regulation when using metalloprotophyrin (cobalt protoporphyrin, CoPP) could protect pancreatic β-cells from high glucose-induced apoptosis.MethodsReverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was performed to analyze the CoPP-induced mRNA expression of HO-1. Cell viability of INS-1 cells cultured in the presence of CoPP was examined by acridine orange/propidium iodide staining. The generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) was measured using flow cytometry. Glucose stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) was determined following incubation with CoPP in different glucose concentrations.ResultsCoPP increased HO-1 mRNA expression in both a dose- and time-dependent manner. Overexpression of HO-1 inhibited caspase-3, and the number of dead cells in the presence of CoPP was significantly decreased when exposed to high glucose conditions (HG). CoPP also decreased the generation of intracellular ROS by 50% during 72 hours of culture with HG. However, decreased GSIS was not recovered even in the presence of CoPP.ConclusionOur data suggest that CoPP-induced HO-1 up-regulation results in protection from high glucose-induced apoptosis in INS-1 cells; however, glucose stimulated insulin secretion is not restored

Barrier protection via Toll-like receptor 2 signaling in porcine intestinal epithelial cells damaged by deoxynivalnol

Additional file 2. IPEC-J2 cells pretreated with TLR2 ligand maintained the expression of MCP-1, GM-CSF and TLR2 against DON exposure. IPEC-J2 cells pretreated with or without TLR2 ligand for 24 h were exposed to DON. (A) The bar graph showed the mRNA levels of porcine mcp-1, gm-csf measured using real time-PCR at 1 and 6 h after DON exposure (n = 3). (B) The mRNA levels of porcine tlr2 were measured using real-time quantitative PCR analysis at 6 h. NT represents no treatment. Expression of each mRNA was presented relative to the expression of housekeeping gene, gapdh (n = 3). *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001, determined by one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s posttest

Sirolimus- Versus Paclitaxel-Eluting Stents for the Treatment of Coronary Bifurcations Results From the COBIS (Coronary Bifurcation Stenting) Registry

ObjectivesWe aimed to compare the long-term clinical outcomes of patients treated with sirolimus-eluting stents (SES) or paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES) for coronary bifurcation lesions.BackgroundThere are limited data regarding comparisons of SES and PES for the treatment of bifurcation lesions.MethodsPatients who received percutaneous coronary intervention for non-left main bifurcation lesions were enrolled from 16 centers in Korea between January 2004 and June 2006. We compared major adverse cardiac events (MACE [cardiac death, myocardial infarction, or target lesion revascularization]) between the SES and PES groups in patients overall and in 407 patient pairs generated by propensity-score matching.ResultsWe evaluated 1,033 patients with bifurcation lesions treated with SES and 562 patients treated with PES. The median follow-up duration was 22 months. Treatment with SES was associated with a lower incidence of MACE (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.53, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.32 to 0.89, p < 0.01) and target lesion revascularization (HR: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.31 to 0.97, p = 0.02), but not of cardiac death (HR: 2.77, 95% CI: 0.40 to 18.99, p = 0.62) and cardiac death or myocardial infarction (HR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.38 to 2.49, p = 0.94). After propensity-score matching, patients with SES still had fewer MACE and target lesion revascularization incidences than did patients with PES (HR: 0.52, 95% CI: 0.30 to 0.91, p = 0.02, and HR: 0.48, 95% CI: 0.25 to 0.91, p = 0.02, respectively). There was no significant difference in the occurrences of stent thrombosis between the groups (0.7% vs. 0.7%, p = 0.94).ConclusionsIn patients with bifurcation lesions, the use of SES resulted in better long-term outcomes than did the use of PES, primarily by decreasing the rate of repeat revascularization. (Coronary Bifurcation Stenting Registry in South Korea [COBIS]; NCT00851526

Impact of the Metabolic Syndrome on the Clinical Outcome of Patients with Acute ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction

We sought to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) in patients with acute myocardial infarction and its effect on clinical outcomes. Employing data from the Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry, a total of 1,990 patients suffered from acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) between November 2005 and December 2006 were categorized according to the National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel III criteria of MS. Primary study outcomes included major adverse cardiac events (MACE) during one-year follow-up. Patients were grouped based on existence of MS: group I: MS (n=1,182, 777 men, 62.8±12.3 yr); group II: Non-MS (n=808, 675 men, 64.2±13.1 yr). Group I showed lower left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (P=0.005). There were no differences between two groups in the coronary angiographic findings except for multivessel involvement (P=0.01). The incidence of in-hospital death was higher in group I than in group II (P=0.047), but the rates of composite MACE during one-year clinical follow-up showed no significant differences. Multivariate analysis showed that low LVEF, old age, MS, low high density lipoprotein cholesterol and multivessel involvement were associated with high in-hospital death rate. In conclusion, MS is an important predictor for in-hospital death in patients with STEMI

Dysnatremia, its correction, and mortality in patients undergoing continuous renal replacement therapy: a prospective observational study

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Abstract Background Although dysnatremia has been reported to be correlated with mortality risk, this issue remains unresolved in patients undergoing continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). Furthermore, it has not been determined whether change in or correction of sodium is related to mortality risk in this subset. Methods A total of 569 patients were prospectively enrolled at the start of CRRT between May 2010 and September 2013. The patients were divided into 5 groups: normonatremia (135–145 mmol/L), mild hyponatremia (131.1–134.9 mmol/L), moderate to severe hyponatremia (115.4–131.0 mmol/L), mild hypernatremia (145.1–148.4 mmol/L), and moderate to severe hypernatremia (148.5–166.0 mmol/L). The non-linear relationship between sodium and mortality was initially explored. Subsequently, the odds ratios (ORs) for 30-day mortality were calculated after adjustment of multiple covariates. Results The relationship between baseline sodium and mortality was U-shaped. The mild hyponatremia, moderate to severe hyponatremia, and moderate to severe hypernatremia groups had greater ORs for mortality (1.65, 1.91, and 2.32, respectively) than the normonatremia group (all P values < 0.05). However, later sodium levels (24 and 72 h after CRRT) did not predict 30-day mortality. Furthermore, the changes in sodium over 24 or 72 h, including the appropriate correction of dysnatremia, did not show any relationships with mortality, irrespective of baseline sodium level. Conclusions Sodium level at the start of CRRT was a strong predictor of mortality. However, changes in sodium level and the degree of sodium correction were not associated with the mortality risk in the patients with CRRT