Journal of Korean medical science
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Mar 2014
Intimal hyperplasia in loop-injured carotid arteries is attenuated in transglutaminase 2-null mice.
Arterial restenosis frequently develops after open or endovascular surgery due to intimal hyperplasia. Since tissue transglutaminase (TG2) is known to involve in fibrosis, wound healing, and extracellular matrix remodeling, we examined the role of TG2 in the process of intimal hyperplasia using TG2-null mice. The neointimal formation was compared between TG2-null and wild-type (C57BL/6) mice by two different injury models; carotid ligation and carotid loop injury. ⋯ In situ activity of TG2 in the injured arteries steadily increased until 4 weeks compared to uninjured arteries. Taken together, intimal hyperplasia was significantly reduced in TG2-null mice, indicating that TG2 has an important role in the development of intimal hyperplasia. This suggests that TG2 may be a novel target to prevent the arterial restenosis after vascular surgery.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Mar 2014
Establishment of an orthotopic mouse non-muscle invasive bladder cancer model expressing the mammalian target of rapamycin signaling pathway.
We established an orthotopic non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) mouse model expressing the mammalian target of the rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. After intravesical instillation of KU-7-lucs (day 0), animals were subsequently monitored by bioluminescence imaging (BLI) on days 4, 7, 14, and 21, and performed histopathological examination. We also validated the orthotopic mouse model expressing the mTOR signaling pathway immunohistochemically. ⋯ The mTOR signaling pathway-related proteins were expressed in the bladder, and were correlated with the western blot results. Our results suggest successful establishment of an orthotopic mouse NMIBC model expressing the mTOR signaling pathway using KU-7-luc cells. This model is expected to be helpful to evaluate preclinical testing of intravesical therapy based on the mTOR signaling pathway against NMIBC.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Feb 2014
Differences in clinical manifestations and outcomes between adult and child patients with Henoch-Schönlein purpura.
We aimed to investigate differences in clinical manifestations and outcomes between adult and child patients with Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP), and to analyze the factors associated with poor prognosis for HSP nephritis. This retrospective 10-yr study enrolled 160 patients with HSP who visited Severance Hospital. Purpura was mostly detected in lower extremities, but purpura in upper extremities was more frequently observed in adults than children (41.7% vs 19.3%). ⋯ Our results showed several differences in the clinical features of HSP between adults and children. Adults with HSP had a higher frequency of renal insufficiency and worse renal outcomes than children. Renal insufficiency at diagnosis might be of predictive value for the progression to chronic renal failure in HSP patients.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Feb 2014
Sleep disturbances and glucoregulation in patients with type 2 diabetes.
We investigated the frequency of sleep disturbances and the association between sleep disturbances and glucoregulation in type 2 diabetic patients. The frequency of sleep disturbances in 614 type 2 diabetic patients was investigated using validated sleep questionnaires. There were 381 male and 233 female patients. ⋯ Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that there was no significant association between HbA1c and other sleep disturbances, such as poor sleep, insomnia, and short duration of sleep. Sleep disturbances were very common in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, whereas there was no association between poor or short sleep and glucoregulation. Awareness and identifying sleep complaints in such patients are necessary to improve their quality of daily life.