Bilirubin and risk of ischemic heart disease in Korea: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study

Christina Jeon,Ji-Young Lee,Sun Ju Lee,Keum Ji Jung,Heejin Kimm,Sun Ha Jee 한국역학회 2019 Epidemiology and Health Vol.41 No.-

OBJECTIVES: Bilirubin is an endogenous antioxidant that protects cells against oxidative stress. Increased plasma levels of bilirubin have been associated with a reduced risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD) in previous studies. Nonetheless, whether those associations reflect a true protective effect of bilirubin on IHD, rather than confounding or reverse causation, remains unknown. Therefore, we applied two-sample Mendelian randomization to evaluate the causal association between bilirubin levels and IHD risk in a Korean population. METHODS: A total of 5 genetic variants-TRPM8 (rs10490012), USP40 (rs12993249), ATG16L1 (rs2119503), SLCO1B1 (rs4149014), and SLCO1B3 (rs73233620)-were selected as genetic instruments for serum bilirubin levels using a community-based cohort, the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study, comprising 33,598 subjects. We then evaluated their impact on IHD using the Korean Cancer Prevention Study-II cohort. RESULTS: Among the 5 instrumental variables that showed significant associations with serum bilirubin levels, rs12993249 (USP40) showed the most significant association (p<2.36×10-105). However, we found no significant association between serum bilirubin levels and IHD. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated a consistent association, suggesting that our observations were robust. CONCLUSIONS: Using two-sample Mendelian randomization, we found no association between serum bilirubin levels and IHD. Further studies that confirm the observed interactions among other ethnicities are warranted.

Childhood Trauma, Parental Death, and Their Co-occurrence in Relation to Current Suicidality Risk in Adults: A Nationwide Community Sample of Korea

Jeon, Hong Jin,Lee, Christina,Fava, Maurizio,Mischoulon, David,Shim, Eun-Jung,Heo, Jung-Yoon,Choi, Hong,Park, Jae-Hyun by Lippincott Williams Wilkins 2014 The Journal of nervous and mental disease Vol.202 No.12

ABSTRACT: Although previous studies have suggested that childhood trauma and parental death are strongly associated with suicidality in adulthood, it is still unclear how these factors interact within the same population. A total of 1396 adults were recruited through nationwide multistage probability sampling in South Korea. Subjects were evaluated through face-to-face interviews using the Suicidality Module of the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview and the Early Trauma Inventory Self Report-Short Form. Among the 1396 adults, the group that experienced both childhood trauma and parental death had the highest current suicidality risks (F = 12.16, p < 0.0001) and lifetime suicide attempt (&khgr; = 35.81, p < 0.0001) compared with the other groups, which were only childhood trauma, only parental death, and neither. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that middle-to-high current suicidality risk and lifetime suicide attempt were significantly associated with concurrent childhood trauma and parental death (odds ratio, 3.64; 95% confidence interval, 1.99–6.65) as well as with only childhood trauma (odds ratio, 1.95; 95% confidence interval, 1.33–2.87), after adjusting for age, sex, education, marital status, household monthly income, and living area. Emotional abuse was the only type of childhood trauma significantly associated with higher current suicidality scores in those who experienced childhood parental death than in those who did not (F = 3.26, p = 0.041). Current suicidality risk and lifetime suicide attempt are associated with experiencing both parental death and trauma, especially emotional abuse, in childhood, whereas experiencing only childhood parental death is associated with neither.

Physical Activity Level and Colorectal Cancer Mortality : The Korean Metabolic Syndrome Mortality Study

Mok, Yejin,Jeon, Christina,Lee, Gyu Jang,Jee, Sun Ha SAGE Publications 2016 Asia-Pacific journal of public health Vol.28 No.7

Association between smoking and gout: a meta-analysis

Jee, Yongho,Jeon, Christina,Sull, Jae Woong,Go, Eunna,Cho, Sung Kweon Springer-Verlag 2018 Clinical rheumatology Vol.37 No.7

The effect of smoking on lung cancer: ethnic differences and the smoking paradox

Keum Ji Jung,Christina Jeon,Sun Ha Jee 한국역학회 2016 Epidemiology and Health Vol.38 No.-

The objectives of this review were to determine whether the smoking paradox still exists and to summarize possible explanations for the smoking paradox. Based on published data, we compared the risk of cigarette smoking for lung cancer in Western and Asian countries. We extracted data from the relevant studies about annual tobacco consumption, lung cancer mortality rates according to smoking status from each country, and possible explanations for the smoking paradox. A significantly greater risk of lung cancer death was found among current smokers in Asian countries than among nonsmokers, with relative risks (RRs) of 4.0 to 4.6 for Koreans, 3.7 to 5.1 for Japanese, and 2.4 to 6.5 for Chinese. Although a significantly greater risk of lung cancer was present among current smokers in Asian countries, the RRs in Asian countries were much lower than those reported in Western countries (range, 9.4 to 23.2). Possible explanations for the smoking paradox included epidemiologic characteristics, such as the smoking amount, age at smoking initiation, and the use of filtered or mild tobacco. The smoking paradox definitely exists, but may be explained by major epidemiologic characteristics. Therefore, the smoking paradox should not be interpreted as indicating that tobacco is safer or less harmful for Asians.

2012년 흡연으로 인한 건강보험 진료비 추정 연구

지선하 ( Sun Ha Jee ),정금지 ( Keum Ji Jung ),전티나 ( Christina Jeon ),김희진 ( Hee Jin Kim ),윤영덕 ( Young Duk Yun ),김일순 ( Il Soon Kim ) 한국보건정보통계학회(구 한국보건통계학회) 2014 보건정보통계학회지 Vol.39 No.1

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to estimate relative risk and attributable risk of 35 tobacco-related diseases and to compute total medical expenses on smoking by providing a cohort study with 20 years follow-up period. Methods: Smoking-attributable medical costs were calculated by applying the percentages of population attributable risks (PARs) to the estimated medical costs by the tobacco related diseases in 2012. In this study, PARs were obtained by using relative risks from the Korean Cancer Prevention Study and the previous studies, and population smoking prevalence surveyed in 1990 conducted by Korean Institute of Tuberculosis. Results: As a result, the medical expenses from tobacco use were 1,846,562,350,000 won (about 3.86% of total medical expenses). The top 5 medical expenses on tobacco-related diseases were ischemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, lung cancer, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, respectively. More than a half percent of total medical expenses (about one billion dollars) were spent from these five, tobacco-related diseases. Conclusions: While the harmful effect of smoking is expected to have a steady increase for a while, antismoking policy should be reinforced to reduce the risk of disease incidence, and the medical expenses for treating the tobacco-related diseases.

Axonal mRNA in uninjured and regenerating cortical mammalian axons.

Taylor, Anne M,Berchtold, Nicole C,Perreau, Victoria M,Tu, Christina H,Li Jeon, Noo,Cotman, Carl W The Society 2009 The Journal of neuroscience Vol.29 No.15

<P>Using a novel microfluidic chamber that allows the isolation of axons without contamination by nonaxonal material, we have for the first time purified mRNA from naive, matured CNS axons, and identified the presence of >300 mRNA transcripts. We demonstrate that the transcripts are axonal in nature, and that many of the transcripts present in uninjured CNS axons overlap with those previously identified in PNS injury-conditioned DRG axons. The axonal transcripts detected in matured cortical axons are enriched for protein translational machinery, transport, cytoskeletal components, and mitochondrial maintenance. We next investigated how the axonal mRNA pool changes after axotomy, revealing that numerous gene transcripts related to intracellular transport, mitochondria and the cytoskeleton show decreased localization 2 d after injury. In contrast, gene transcripts related to axonal targeting and synaptic function show increased localization in regenerating cortical axons, suggesting that there is an increased capacity for axonal outgrowth and targeting, and increased support for synapse formation and presynaptic function in regenerating CNS axons after injury. Our data demonstrate that CNS axons contain many mRNA species of diverse functions, and suggest that, like invertebrate and PNS axons, CNS axons synthesize proteins locally, maintaining a degree of autonomy from the cell body.</P>

암 발생예측 모형과 유전위험점수에 관한 고찰

정금지 ( Keum Ji Jung ),김소리울 ( Soriul Kim ),윤미욱 ( Miwuk Yun ),전티나 ( Christina Jeon ),지선하 ( Sun Ha Jee ) 한국보건정보통계학회(구 한국보건통계학회) 2014 보건정보통계학회지 Vol.39 No.1

Objectives: In genome-wide association studies (GWASs), single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that have been identified as cancer-associated loci are common, but they confer only small increases in risk. The question was whether combining multiple disease-related SNPs and the modest effects within Genetic Risk Score (GRS) may be useful in identifying subgroups that are at high risk of cancer. Methods: In this paper, we first reviewed articles that examined the predictability of GRS on cancer prediction models. Our data sources included a PubMed search of the literature published until February 2014. Secondly, we have calculated the GRS using the data example data with five SNPs related colorectal cancer (CRC) obtained from the Korean cancer prevention study II. Two approaches were used to calculate the GRS: a simple risk alleles count method (counted GRS) and a weighted method based on the genotype frequencies for each SNP and the effect sizes (allelic odds ratio or beta coefficient) from our study (weighted GRS). Results: Of 31 studies initially identified, 16 (135,110 participants) met the inclusion criteria. Among 16 articles, 7 studies were related to prostate cancer, 6 studies to breast cancer, and 3 studies to colon cancer and lung cancer. Fifteen studies except for one study concluded that in general, a genetic score may be helpful or useful in identifying the high risk group and particularly to determining the high risk individual among patients within a ‘‘gray zone’’ of cancer risk. The weighted GRS with age and sex (AUC=0.9333) had higher predictability on the CRC risk than the model with GRS alone (AUC=0.816). Conclusions: Although adding GRS improves prediction model performance, the clinical utility of these genetic risk models is limited. Nonetheless, the modelling suggests public health potential since it is possible to stratify the population into cancer risk categories, thereby informing targeted prevention and management.