[Hong Seok-hoo's translation of "New Edition of Physiology Textbook"(1906) and its meanings].

Hong Seok-hoo, who took charge of Jejungwon, was successful in translating Jiro Tsuboi's book titled "New Edition of Physiology Textbook (1897)" in Japanese and publishing it with a title of "New Edition of Physiology Textbook" in 1906. Jiro Tsuboi, the original author of that book, was a doctor having majored in Hygienics in Germany and was also known to have done pioneering work in Hygienics and Occupational and Environmental Medicine in Japan. At that time, he wrote that book for the purpose of teaching his students at Ordinary Middle School and Normal School. Therefore, it was not intended as a Physiology textbook for medical students, but an introductory book explaining Physiology with a wide range of subjects including hygienic matters in a broader sense. Hong Seok-hoo made an almost complete translation of the "New Edition of Physiology Textbook." While editing the book, however, he changed some of the most Japanese-style contents to meet the Korean conditions then, and made up for some insufficient contents with reference to the original author's other books. Although it was not included in an original version of that book, he also compiled a physiology dictionary in order to help Korean readers acquire medical terms in a more systematic way. Just like other textbooks of Jejungwon, the "New Edition of Physiology Textbook" was also put into Korean only. Hong Seok-hoo accepted Japanese-style medical terms, but also changed some of them or coined new words, considering the Korean circumstances then. He seemed to do so in an effort to introduce Western medicine in a more independent way while overcoming his limitations of translation. In particular, this book criticized that a long-term use of cosmetics might cause a serious lead poisoning from a Christian viewpoint, saying that a God-created human body should be kept intact as it is. In addition, in the course of reediting premodern books, the term "Lord" was changed into "God," which is considered a kind of fusion between traditional values and missionary medicine. While translating books, Jejungwon could put such fusion into practice because it was a hospital established under the banner of the propagation of Christianity. Besides the "New Edition of Physiology Textbook," at least five physiology textbooks were also translated into Korean in the last years of Daehan Empire for the purpose of teaching students modern subjects like Physiology, Health and Hygienics in educational institutions including Boseong School, Hwimun School and Soongsil School. On the other hand, the "New Edition of Physiology Textbook" was first translated at the end of Daehan Empire in order to foster more professional doctors in medical schools compared to those schools. In this respect, by translating the "New Edition of Physiology Textbook," Jejungwon can be considered as playing a pioneering role in translating Physiology textbooks in the late Daehan Empire.

[The translation and its meanings of Materia Medica Part. I in the Jejungwon].

For more systematic medical education, Dr. O. R. Avison translated medical textbooks into Korean since he took charge of Jejungwon in 1893. The first book he chose was Anatomy of the Human Body. He, however, failed to see it published after losing its manuscript twice. Instead, Materia Medica Part. I was brought into the world first in 1905, for which he translated Materia Medica and Therapeutics written by John Mitchell Bruce from the U. K. At that time, this book was in widespread use in the English-speaking world as a textbook for pharmacology. It is also assumed that Avison used it as a textbook for his classes in Canada before coming to Korea. For the publication of Materia Medica Part. I, Avison did not translate Bruce's original text in full, but translated only the selected passages. He followed a principle of using Korean alphabets (Hangeul) only, but in combination with Chinese characters, if necessary. He put pharmacological terms into existing Korean equivalents or newly coined words, but also borrowed many from Japanese terms. That's because Japan moved faster to introduce Western medicine than Korea did, so that many pharmacological terms could be defined and arranged more systematically in Japanese. Moreover, Japan took such a favorable stance in the state of international affairs that many of Japanese-style terms could be introduced into Korea in most fields including medicine. By translating Materia Medica Part. I in cooperation with his disciple KIM Pilsoon after Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, Avison tried to lay groundwork for providing medical education in Korea based on the British-American medicine. It is assumed that he took an independent stance in selecting and translating Western medical textbooks on his own rather than simply accepting the existing Chinese translation of Western medical textbooks. Despite all his efforts, he might find it difficult to translate all the Western medical terms into Korean within a short period of time. Therefore, he seems to have had no choice but to accept Japanese medical terms as a complementary measure.

Development of a patient-derived xenograft model of glioblastoma via intravitreal injection in mice.

Currently, the two primary patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models of glioblastoma are established through intracranial or subcutaneous injection. In this study, a novel PDX model of glioblastoma was developed via intravitreal injection to facilitate tumor formation in a brain-mimicking microenvironment with improved visibility and fast development. Glioblastoma cells were prepared from the primary and recurrent tumor tissues of a 39-year-old female patient. To demonstrate the feasibility of intracranial tumor formation, U-87 MG and patient-derived glioblastoma cells were injected into the brain parenchyma of Balb/c nude mice. Unlike the U-87 MG cells, the patient-derived glioblastoma cells failed to form intracranial tumors until 6 weeks after tumor cell injection. In contrast, the patient-derived cells effectively formed intraocular tumors, progressing from plaques at 2 weeks to masses at 4 weeks after intravitreal injection. The in vivo tumors exhibited the same immunopositivity for human mitochondria, GFAP, vimentin, and nestin as the original tumors in the patient. Furthermore, cells isolated from the in vivo tumors also demonstrated morphology similar to that of their parental cells and immunopositivity for the same markers. Overall, a novel PDX model of glioblastoma was established via the intravitreal injection of tumor cells. This model will be an essential tool to investigate and develop novel therapeutic alternatives for the treatment of glioblastoma.

[Life and medical activities of Yun Ti Wang].

Yun Ti Wang studied medicine in England, different from other Korean medical doctors in early days. Yun, who entered medical school at Glasgow University in England in March 1919, graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine in October 1925, along with an England medical license. Yun began working as an instructor at Severance Medical College from November 1927, and received Doctor of Medicine from the College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists at Kyoto Imperial University in August 1936. After the Liberation, Yun began working as a faculty member at the medical school at Seoul University, and he also worked as a Chief of the Second Medical Clinic of the school from 1946. Yun made a great effort in order to build an integrated committee, eventually contributing to the launching of Joseon Medical Associates in 1947. He was also elected as a first president at Joseon Obstetrics and Gynecology Associates, which was organized at the same year as the Joseon Medical Associates. Yun entered military as an army surgeon in April 1949 and has worked there until he was appointed as a principal at the Army Medical School in September 1953. His contributions to the development of military medical services include the following: expansion of medical facilities in army, stable system of workforce in military medical service, launching of Medical Aid and establishment of Department of Medical Care, and introduction of new medical technologies in anesthesiology and neurosurgery, etc. The career of Yun can be largely divided into the field of gynecology and military medical services. In the gynecological field, Yun contributed to the settlement of obstetrics in Korea, by taking in charge of the obstetrics class at Severance following medical missionaries. As for the military medical services, he has contributed to the establishment of military medical system as well as to the opening of new academic areas. The impact of his activities on the establishment of military medical services is especially significant, since it was a field that no Korean citizens had access to during the colonization era.

Retinoic acid response element in HOXA-7 regulatory region affects the rate, not the formation of anterior boundary expression.

Since it is known that a 307 bp fragment of the position specific regulatory element of human HOXA-7 contains two (DR3 and DR5) retinoic acid response elements (RAREs) at its 3' end, we constructed several deletion constructs containing different numbers of RAREs and examined their effects in vitro and in vivo. The 5' deletion constructs, BM112 and OM213, retaining both RAREs, were highly responsible (about 8 fold induction) for RA in F9 teratocarcinoma cells, versus NM307 (4-5 fold). The construct NS218, with both RAREs deleted but retaining the 5' sequences lost RA responsibility completely, whereas NR271, with one RARE(DR5) deleted retained a 50% inducibility (2.5 fold). In vivo transgenic analysis revealed that the constructs NM307 and NR271, but not OM213 nor BM112, directed the position specific expression pattern. Sequence analysis revealed that HOXA-7 enhancer sequences, including the RARE repeat sequences, were well conserved in human, mouse and chick. Part of the RAREs overlaps with the CDX1 binding site, and sequences of the DR3 RAREs were identical in this species. Two GAGA binding sites were also found to be strictly conserved. Because OM213, which had one GAGA site disrupted but retaining both RAREs, did not direct anterior boundary formation in transgenic mice, these results suggest the importance of the 5' 94 bp region, including the GAGA binding site, in anterior boundary formation and the involvement of the RARE in the rate of expression not in anterior boundary formation.

A novel gene, Jpk, induces apoptosis in F9 murine teratocarcinoma cell through ROS generation.

A novel gene Jpk (Jopock) has been originally isolated through yeast 1 hybridization technique as a trans-acting factor interacting with the position-specific regulatory element of a murine Hoxa-7. Northern analysis revealed that the Jpk was expressed at day 7.0 post coitum (p.c.) during early gastrulation. Previously it has been shown that a trace amount of JPK protein led bacterial cells to death. In eukaryotic F9 cells, Jpk also led the cell to death-generating DNA ladder: fewer than 50% of the cells survived after 72-h transfection. Flow cytometric analysis with cells stained with each Annexin V/7-amino-actinomycin D (7-AAD), MitoTracker, and hydroethidine (HE) revealed that Jpk induced apoptotic cell death in a time-dependent manner, reduced mitochondrial membrane potential, and increased ROS (reactive oxygen species) production, respectively. Additionally, Jpk seemed to regulate the Bcl family at the transcriptional level when RT-PCR was performed. Although the precise mechanism is not clear, these results altogether suggest that Jpk is a potent inducer of apoptosis through generation of ROS as well as concomitant reduction of mitochondrial membrane potential.