Disorders of Small and Large Intestine : Three Cases of Multiple Ulcers In The Gastrointestinal Tract Caused By Cytomegalovirus Infection

( Yun Jung Lee ),( Sung Hee Jung ),( Sung Hoon Lee ),( Hyang Le Lee ),( Hyeon Woong Yang ),( An Na Kim ),( Sang Woo Cha ) 대한소화기학회 2007 SIDDS Vol.9 No.-

Background Aims: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) can cause infections of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), advanced hematologic malignancies and receiving systemic corticosteroid therapy. Though it may affect any segment of the GI tract, it can found in the localized segment of the GI tract and the colon is the most common site of involvement. However, it is rare that CMV infection is associated with gastric and colonic ulcers simultaneously. Methods: We report our experience with three cases of CMV infection as causes of ulcers in the stomach, duodenum and colon at the same time. Results: The patients included a 37-year old man with AIDS, 60-year and 66-year old women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) receiving oral corticosteroid therapy. A man with AIDS presented with chronic diarrhea. One woman with RA complained of melena and hematochezia and the other suffered from recurrent adominal pain. The endoscopic examinations showed multiple, well-demarcated, variable sized ulcers in the stomach, multiple segments of the colon, and/or in the duodenum. The biopsied specimens showed CMV inclusion bodies from each parts of the GI tract. They were diagnosed with CMV infection and successfully treated with intravenous gancyclovir (5 mg/kg of body weight b.i.d).

Heterogeneity and genetic variations of serotypes O and Asia 1 foot-and-mouth disease viruses isolated in Vietnam

Le, Van Phan,Nguyen, Tung,Park, Jong-Hyeon,Kim, Su-Mi,Ko, Young-Joon,Lee, Hyang-Sim,Nguyen, Van Cam,Mai, Thuy Duong,Do, Thi Hoa,Cho, In-Soo,Lee, Kwang-Nyeong Elsevier 2010 Veterinary microbiology Vol.145 No.3

<P><B>Abstract</B></P><P>Six field foot-and-mouth disease viruses (FMDVs), including four serotype O and two serotype Asia 1 strains, were collected from endemic outbreaks in 2005, 2006, and 2007 from four different provinces in Vietnam. The viruses were isolated and genetically characterized for their complete genomic sequences. The genetic analysis based on the complete genomic coding sequences revealed that the four serotype O FMDVs were related to each other, sharing 95.2% nucleotide (nt) identity and 97.5–97.6% amino acid (aa) identity. Genetic analysis and a phylogenetic tree, based on the VP1 gene of FMDV, showed that the four present Vietnamese serotype O strains have a high level of identity with other serotype O representatives of the Mya-98 lineage of the Southeast Asian (SEA) topotype. The four viruses were all clustered into the Mya-98 lineage of the SEA topotype, sharing 92.3–95.6% nt and 93.4–96.7% aa identity. This finding of the Mya-98 lineage was different from previous reports that the Vietnamese serotype O strains belonged to the Cam-94 lineage of the SEA topotype and two other topotypes, Middle East-South Asia (ME-SA) and Cathay. For the two serotype Asia 1 FMDVs, the genetic analysis based on the complete genomic coding sequences as well as on the VP1 gene revealed that they belonged to two genogroups, IV and V. Of note, the As1/VN/QT03/2007 strain of genogroup V, isolated in 2007, was very closely related to the pandemic Asia 1 strain which caused FMD outbreaks in China (Asia1/WHN/CHA/06, FJ906802) and Mongolia (Asia1/MOG/05, EF614458) in 2005, sharing 99.0–99.3% nt and 99.5–100% aa identity. In contrast, the second strain As1/VN/LC04/2005 of genogroup IV, isolated in 2005, was closely related to all referenced Vietnamese serotype Asia 1 strains found in the GenBank databases, sharing 86.4–100% nt and 90.9–100% aa identity with each. This study is the first description of the full-length genomic sequence of Vietnamese FMDV serotypes O and Asia 1 and may provide the evidence of the concurrent circulation of different serotypes and subtypes of FMDV in recent years in Vietnam.</P>

Disorders of Small and Large Intestine : Relation Beetween Gastrointestinal Symptoms And Colonoscopic Findings In The Intestinal Behcet`s Disease

( Sung Hee Jung ),( Yun Jung Lee ),( Sung Hoon Lee ),( Hyang Le Lee ),( Hyeon Woong Yang ),( An Na Kim ),( Sang Woo Cha ) 대한소화기학회 2007 SIDDS Vol.9 No.-

Background/Alms: The frequency of intestinal involvement in Behcet`s disease is known to be 3~25% with geographic differences which is higher in East Asian patients including Koreans. We tried to find out the reliable gastrointestinal symptoms and laboratory data which can predict the verification of intestinal Behcet`s disease by colonoscopy. Methods: Between April 2004 and August 2007, 29 patients underwent colonoscopy among 186 patients who were diagnosed with complete or incomplete type Behcet`s disease at the department of rheumatology internal medicine, Eulji medical school hospital, Daejeon, Korea. We analyzed the relations among their symptoms, colonoscopic findings, and laboratory data, retrospectively using medical records. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The mean age of the 29 patients was 43.3 years; most (23/29) of them were female. Twenty two (75.9%) patients complained of gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain (41.1%), hematochezia, diarrhea, loose stool. On laboratory examination, mean Hb was 12.3 g/dL, ESR 31.8 mm/hr, and CRP 2.30 mg/dL. On colonoscopy, lesions were found in only 50% of the symptomatic patients. There was no significant relation with the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms and colonoscopic lesions (p>0.05). Hematochezia (p=0.004) and anemia (p=0.042) were strongly correlated to colonoscopic lesions unlike diarrhea, loose stool, abdominal pain, ESR, and CRP elevation Conclusions: We should consider the colonoscopic examination including terminal ileum to the Behcet`s disease patients who showed hematochezia and anemia for the early recognition of intestinal Behcet`s disease.

ANGPTL4 stabilizes atherosclerotic plaques and modulates the phenotypic transition of vascular smooth muscle cells through KLF4 downregulation

Cho Dong Im,Ahn Min Joo,Cho Hyang Hee,Cho Meeyoung,전주희,Kang Bo Gyeong,Lim Soo Yeon,Yoo Soo Ji,Kim Mi Ra,Kim Hyung Seok,Lee Su-Jin,Dat Le Thanh,Lee Changho,Kim Yong Sook,Ahn Youngkeun 생화학분자생물학회 2023 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.55 No.-

Atherosclerosis, the leading cause of death, is a vascular disease of chronic inflammation. We recently showed that angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) promotes cardiac repair by suppressing pathological inflammation. Given the fundamental contribution of inflammation to atherosclerosis, we assessed the role of ANGPTL4 in the development of atherosclerosis and determined whether ANGPTL4 regulates atherosclerotic plaque stability. We injected ANGPTL4 protein twice a week into atherosclerotic Apoe−/− mice and analyzed the atherosclerotic lesion size, inflammation, and plaque stability. In atherosclerotic mice, ANGPTL4 reduced atherosclerotic plaque size and vascular inflammation. In the atherosclerotic lesions and fibrous caps, the number of α-SMA(+), SM22α(+), and SM-MHC(+) cells was higher, while the number of CD68(+) and Mac2(+) cells was lower in the ANGPTL4 group. Most importantly, the fibrous cap was significantly thicker in the ANGPTL4 group than in the control group. Smooth muscle cells (SMCs) isolated from atherosclerotic aortas showed significantly increased expression of CD68 and Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4), a modulator of the vascular SMC phenotype, along with downregulation of α-SMA, and these changes were attenuated by ANGPTL4 treatment. Furthermore, ANGPTL4 reduced TNFα-induced NADPH oxidase 1 (NOX1), a major source of reactive oxygen species, resulting in the attenuation of KLF4-mediated SMC phenotypic changes. We showed that acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients with higher levels of ANGPTL4 had fewer vascular events than AMI patients with lower levels of ANGPTL4 (p < 0.05). Our results reveal that ANGPTL4 treatment inhibits atherogenesis and suggest that targeting vascular stability and inflammation may serve as a novel therapeutic strategy to prevent and treat atherosclerosis. Even more importantly, ANGPTL4 treatment inhibited the phenotypic changes of SMCs into macrophage-like cells by downregulating NOX1 activation of KLF4, leading to the formation of more stable plaques.

Enhanced drought tolerance of transgenic rice plants expressing a pepper methionine sulfoxide reductase B2 in chloroplast

Joung Sug Kim,Hyang-Mi Park,Kyong Mi Jun,Tae-Ho Lee,Duk-Ju Hwang,Sung-Dug Oh,Jong-Sug Park,Dae-Geun Song,Cheol-Ho Pan,Doil Choi,Yul-Ho Kim,Baek Hie Nahm,Yeon-Ki Kim 한국육종학회 2014 한국육종학회 심포지엄 Vol.2014 No.07

The perturbation of the steady state of reactive oxygen species due to biotic and abiotic stresses in a plant could lead to protein denaturation through the modification of amino acid residues, including the oxidation of methionine residues. Methionine sulfoxide reductases (MSRs) catalyze the reduction of methionine sulfoxide back to the methionine residue. To assess the role of this enzyme, we generated transgenic rice using a pepper CaMSRB2 gene under the control of the rice Rab21 promoter with/without a selection marker, the bar gene. A drought resistance test on transgenic plants showed that CaMSRB2 confers drought tolerance to rice, as evidenced by less oxidative stress symptoms and a strengthened PSII quantum yield under stress conditions, and increased survival rate and chlorophyll index after the re-watering. The results from immunoblotting using a methionine sulfoxide antibody and nano-LC-MS/MS spectrometry suggest that porphobilinogen deaminase (PBGD), which is involved in chlorophyll synthesis, is a putative target of CaMSRB2. The oxidized methionine content of PBGD expressed in E. coli increased in the presence of H2O2, and the Met-95 and Met-227 residues of PBGD were reduced by CaMSRB2 in the presence of dithiothreitol. An expression profiling analysis of the overexpression lines also suggested that photosystems are less severely affected by drought stress. Our results indicate that CaMSRB2 might play an important functional role in chloroplasts for conferring drought stress tolerance in rice