ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Rhus verniciflua Stokes (RV) has traditionally been used in Korea as an indigenous food (Rhus chicken soup) and as an herbal medicinal plant. While the anticancer, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties of RV have been actively studied in the medical field, its antioxidant effects in the skin that resist the reactive oxygen species in keratinocytes and fibroblasts is less understood. OBJECTIVE: We designed to evaluate the effects of R. verniciflua Stokes extract (RVE) on the photo-aged skin by an in vitro experiment using human fibroblasts and an in vivo experiment using a photo-aged murine model. METHODS: For the in vitro experiments, human fibroblasts irradiated with ultraviolet (UV) B were treated with RVE or vehicle, and the growth levels and the expression level of type 1 procollagen were compared. For the in vivo experiment, photo-aged mice irradiated with UVB and UVA were administered drinking water with or without RVE, and histological changes and the expression level of type 1 procollagen and matrix metalloprotease (MMP)-13 were compared. RESULTS: In vitro experiments using fibroblasts irradiated with UVB showed that RVE promoted growth and significantly increased the expression of type 1 procollagen as compared to the control group. In the photo-aged mice, RVE increased collagen content in the dermis and promoted the synthesis of type 1 procollagen without any visible decrease in MMP-13 as compared to control group. CONCLUSION: In addition to the previously reported antioxidant effects of RVE, oral intake of RVE effectively inhibited photo-aging in hairless mice by enhancing collagen synthesis.
Subject(s)
Animals , Humans , Mice , Aging , Antioxidants , Chickens , Collagen , Dermis , Drinking Water , Fibroblasts , In Vitro Techniques , Keratinocytes , Korea , Mice, Hairless , Plants, Medicinal , Procollagen , Reactive Oxygen Species , Rhus , SkinABSTRACT
No abstract available.
Subject(s)
Humans , Doxycycline , Penicillin G Benzathine , SyphilisABSTRACT
Livedoid vasculopathy is a hyalinizing vascular disease characterized by thrombosis and ulceration of the lower extremities. It can be caused by an alteration in control of coagulation with the formation of thrombi within dermal blood vessels. We report a case of livedoid vasculopathy with hyperhomocysteinemia due to MTHFR mutation, which is treated by folic acid and which also showed very unusual clinical manifestations. A 38-year-old male visited the department of dermatology with a 1 year history of purplish-brown purpura with punched-out ulcers on both lower legs. He had a history of homocysteinemia due to methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) mutation. The histopathologic findings of the lesional skin revealed dense superficial and deep perivascular and perifollicular infiltrates of lymphocytes and fibrin deposition within the vessels in the dermis. On the basis of clinical and pathological findings, livedoid vasculopathy with hyperhomocysteinemia due to MTHFR mutation was diagnosed and improved by the treatment of 1 mg of folic acid daily.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Blood Vessels , Dermatology , Dermis , Fibrin , Folic Acid , Hyalin , Hyperhomocysteinemia , Leg , Lower Extremity , Lymphocytes , Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (NADPH2) , Purpura , Skin , Tetrahydrofolates , Thrombosis , Ulcer , Vascular DiseasesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The incidence of cutaneous malignant tumors and premalignant lesions has recently increased according to extended life span, social and medical environment changes. However, a few clinical data have been reported on the survey of cutaneous malignant tumors and premalignant lesions in Gangwon province. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence and clinical patterns of cutaneous malignant tumors and premalignant lesions in Gangwon province. METHODS: We reviewed 485 cases of cutaneous malignant tumors and premalignant lesions from January 1999 to December 2008, at the Department of Dermatology at Wonju Christian Hospital. RESULTS: The average annual incidence of cutaneous malignant tumors among the total number of outpatients was 0.51% and that of premalignant lesions was 0.48%. Both incidences tended to increase with time in 10 year intervals. The most common cutaneous malignant tumor was basal cell carcinoma (47.98%), followed by squamous cell carcinoma (24.19%), extramammary paget's disease (7.26%), metastatic cancer (5.65%), malignant melanoma (4.44%), and lastly, lymphoma (4.44%). Among premalignant lesions, actinic keratosis (74.68%) and Bowen's disease (25.32%) were common. The mean age of onset was 67.53 years in cutaneous malignant tumors and 70.51 years in premalignant lesioins. The most common site for both, the cutaneous malignant tumors and premalignant tumors, was the face (63.97% and 81.43%, respectively). The ratio of men to women was 1.11:1 in cutaneous malignant tumors and 1:2.48 in premalignant lesions. CONCLUSION: The incidence of cutaneous malignant tumors and premalignant lesions has gradually increased in Gangwon province. This data will be made available for the study about the association of cutaneous malignant tumors and premalignant lesions.
Subject(s)
Female , Humans , Male , Age of Onset , Bowen's Disease , Carcinoma, Basal Cell , Carcinoma, Squamous Cell , Dermatology , Incidence , Keratosis, Actinic , Lymphoma , Melanoma , Outpatients , Paget Disease, ExtramammaryABSTRACT
Protein subcellular localization is concerned with predicting the location of a protein within a cell using computational methods. The location information can indicate key functionalities of proteins. Thus, accurate prediction of subcellular localizations of proteins can help the prediction of protein functions and genome annotations, as well as the identification of drug targets. Machine learning methods such as Support Vector Machines (SVMs) have been used in the past for the problem of protein subcellular localization, but have been shown to suffer from a lack of annotated training data in each species under study. To overcome this data sparsity problem, we observe that because some of the organisms may be related to each other, there may be some commonalities across different organisms that can be discovered and used to help boost the data in each localization task. In this paper, we formulate protein subcellular localization problem as one of multitask learning across different organisms. We adapt and compare two specializations of the multitask learning algorithms on 20 different organisms. Our experimental results show that multitask learning performs much better than the traditional single-task methods. Among the different multitask learning methods, we found that the multitask kernels and supertype kernels under multitask learning that share parameters perform slightly better than multitask learning by sharing latent features. The most significant improvement in terms of localization accuracy is about 25 percent. We find that if the organisms are very different or are remotely related from a biological point of view, then jointly training the multiple models cannot lead to significant improvement. However, if they are closely related biologically, the multitask learning can do much better than individual learning.
Subject(s)
Artificial Intelligence , Computational Biology/methods , Models, Biological , Proteins/metabolism , Subcellular Fractions/metabolism , Algorithms , Animals , Bacteria/metabolism , Databases, Protein , Fungi/metabolism , Humans , Proteins/chemistry , Species SpecificityABSTRACT
A cholesterol embolism is a systemic disease resulting from the occlusion of arteries by cholesterol crystals released from atheromatous plaques. It has been associated with inflammation, sheering forces from blood flow due to hypertension, aneurysm formation, infection, mechanical manipulation during surgery or vascular procedures, and anticoagulation. We report a case of a cutaneous cholesterol embolism in a 66-year old man who had purpuric skin lesions on both feet associated with diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and anticoagulation for a cerebral infarction.
Subject(s)
Aneurysm , Arteries , Cerebral Infarction , Cholesterol , Diabetes Mellitus , Embolism, Cholesterol , Foot , Hypertension , Inflammation , Plaque, Atherosclerotic , SkinABSTRACT
Milia are small, white to yellow, benign, superficial keratinous cysts. They are divided into primary or secondary cysts. Secondary milia are associated with disease, medication, and trauma. We report a case of a 45 year-old woman with grouped yellowish papules and brownish patches on her left ankle after bullous cellulitis. This case shows that bullous cellulitis may be one of the causes of secondary milia.
Subject(s)
Animals , Female , Humans , Ankle , Cellulitis , KeratinsABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Since 2005, the commercial patch test panel, the TRUE-test, has been available. However, there have been no reports regarding the results of the TRUE-test compared with previously used Korean Standard Series in Korea. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of the contact allergy, causative allergens, and source of allergens in patients who were diagnosed with allergic contact dermatitis, and to compare the findings with previously used Korean Standard Series. METHODS: We reviewed the results of the TRUE-test from 2005~2010 in Wonju Christian Hospital. We patch-tested 843 patients who were diagnosed with allergic contact dermatitis. The patch test reading was performed on day 2 and days 3 or 4, according to the patients' needs. Epidemiologic findings of patients and the results of the patch tests were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 843 patch-tested cases were compiled and analyzed. Of 843 patch-tested patients (male, 309; female, 534), 65.8% had at least 1 positive reaction and 30.2% at least 2 positive reactions. The highest age distribution was the 5th decade in females. The face, with the exception of the eyelids, ears, and lips, was the most frequently affected site (comprising 50.3%). The highest sensitization rates were found with nickel (29.1%), thiomersal (10.9%), and cobalt dichloride (9.7%). The lowest positivity included caine mix (0.7%), mercaptobenzothiazole (1.2%), and quinolone mix (1.2%). Metal allergens displayed higher positive rates than any other standard allergens. The overall prevalence was similar with a recent report in Korea. CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference in the overall prevalence of the most sensitized allergen compared with the reports about previously used Korean standard series.
Subject(s)
Female , Humans , Age Distribution , Allergens , Cobalt , Dermatitis, Allergic Contact , Dermatitis, Contact , Ear , Eyelids , Hypersensitivity , Lip , Nickel , Patch Tests , Prevalence , ThimerosalABSTRACT
Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa is a rare, chronic non-inflammatory bullous disease with a hereditary pattern of occurrence, and this disease easily produces bullae that heal with scarring and milium formation. A 13-month-old female baby was brought to the department of dermatology with multiple variable sized bullae and erythematous to dark brownish patches and crusts on both her feet. The histopathologic findings showed subepidermal non-inflammatory blisters and the electron microscopic findings showed vacuolization of the sublamina densa and broken anchoring fibrils. On the basis of the clinical and microscopic findings, she was diagnosed as having dominant dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. We report here on a case of dominant dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa with the clinical, histological and electron microscopic findings, as well as the family history of the patient.
Subject(s)
Female , Humans , Infant , Blister , Cicatrix , Dermatology , Electrons , Epidermolysis Bullosa Dystrophica , Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex , FootABSTRACT
A 52-year-old man presented with a brown to black nodule on his left cheek. Histological examination revealed nests of nevus cells throughout the upper and mid-dermis. An eosinophilic oval-shaped bony structure was found within the nevus. We report here on a case of nevus of Nanta combined with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.