Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) initiates potent immune responses by recognizing diacylated and triacylated lipopeptides. Its ligand specificity is controlled by whether it heterodimerizes with TLR1 or ...TLR6. We have determined the crystal structures of TLR2-TLR6-diacylated lipopeptide, TLR2-lipoteichoic acid, and TLR2-PE-DTPA complexes. PE-DTPA, 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, is a synthetic phospholipid derivative. Two major factors contribute to the ligand specificity of TLR2-TLR1 or TLR2-TLR6 heterodimers. First, the lipid channel of TLR6 is blocked by two phenylalanines. Simultaneous mutation of these phenylalanines made TLR2-TLR6 fully responsive not only to diacylated but also to triacylated lipopeptides. Second, the hydrophobic dimerization interface of TLR2-TLR6 is increased by 80%, which compensates for the lack of amide lipid interaction between the lipopeptide and TLR2-TLR6. The structures of the TLR2-lipoteichoic acid and the TLR2-PE-DTPA complexes demonstrate that a precise interaction pattern of the head group is essential for a robust immune response by TLR2 heterodimers.
Integrating sex as an important biological variable is imperative to enhance the accuracy and reproducibility of cell-based studies, which provide basic information for subsequent preclinical and ...clinical study designs. Recently, international funding agencies and renowned journals have been attempting to integrate sex as a variable in every research step. To understand what progress has been made in reporting of cell sex in the articles published in
since the analysis in 2013, we examined the sex notation of the cells in relevant articles published in the same journal in 2018. Of the 107 articles reporting cell experiments, 53 reported the sex of the cells, 18 used both male and female cells, 23 used male cells only, and 12 used female cells only. Sex omission was more frequent when cell lines were used than when primary cells were used. In the articles describing experiments performed using rodent primary cells, more than half of the studies used only male cells. Our results showed an overall improvement in sex reporting for cells in
articles from 2013 (25%) to 2018 (50%). However, sex omission and male bias were often found still. Furthermore, the obtained results were rarely analyzed by sex even when both male and female cells were used in the experiments. To boost sex-considerate research implementation in basic biomedical studies, cooperative efforts of the research community, funders, and publishers are urged.
Abstract We explored the association between the degree of adherence to recommendations and diabetes management in Korean adults who had type 2 diabetes for an average of 8 years. Subjects who met ...five or more lifestyle recommendations showed significantly lower blood lipid parameters and glycated hemoglobin than those who did not.
Sources of variation in nutrient intake have been examined for Western diets, but little is known about the sources of variation and their differences by age and sex among Koreans. We examined ...sources of variation in nutrient intake and calculated the number of days needed to estimate usual intake using 12 d of dietary records (DR). To this end, four 3 d DR including two weekdays and one weekend day were collected throughout four seasons of 1 year from 178 male and 236 female adults aged 20–65 years residing in Seoul, Korea. The sources of variation were estimated using the random-effects model, and the variation ratio (within-individual:between-individual) was calculated to determine a desirable number of days. Variations attributable to the day of the week, recording sequence and seasonality were generally small, although the degree of variation differed by sex and age (20–45 years and 46–65 years). The correlation coefficient between the true intake and the observed intake (r) increased with additional DR days, reaching 0·7 at 3–4 d and 0·8 at 6–7 d. However, the degree of increase became attenuated with additional days: r increased by 13·0–26·9 % from 2 to 4 d, by 6·5–16·4 % from 4 to 7 d and by 4·0–11·6 % from 7 to 12 d for energy and fifteen nutrients. In conclusion, the present study suggests that the day of the week, recording sequence and seasonality minimally contribute to the variation in nutrient intake. To measure Korean usual dietary intake using open-ended dietary instruments, 3–4 d may be needed to achieve modest precision (r>0·7) and 6–7 d for high precision (r>0·8).
BACKGROUND AND AIMSCardiovascular disease (CVD) and hypertension are the main causes of global death. We aimed to investigate the independent and combined effects of smoking and alcohol consumption ...on CVD risk among Koreans with elevated blood pressure (BP). METHODS AND RESULTSAdults aged 20-65 years with elevated BP and without pre-existing CVDs were selected from the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort version 2.0. We followed up 59,391 men and 35,253 women between 2009 and 2015. The association of CVD incidence with smoking pack-years and alcohol consumption was investigated using the multivariate Cox proportional hazard model. Among women, smokers (10.1-20.0 pack-years) and alcohol drinkers (≥30.0 g/day) had higher CVD risks (hazard ratio HR = 1.15, 95% confidence intervals CI 1.06-1.25, HR = 1.06, 95% CI 1.00-1.12, respectively) compared to each referent group. However, men who smoked exhibited an increased CVD risk only with pack-years >20.0 (HR = 1.09, 1.03-1.14 and HR = 1.18, 1.11-1.26 for smokers with 20.1-30.0 and ≥ 30.1 pack-years, respectively) compared to nonsmokers. In the combined groups of those smoking and consuming alcohol, only nonsmoking men consuming alcohol 1.0-29.9 g/day had a lower CVD risk than did nonsmoking, nondrinking men (HR = 0.90, 0.83-0.97). Women smoking 1.0-10.0 pack-years and consuming alcohol ≥30.0 g/day had a higher CVD risk (HR = 1.25, 1.11-1.41) than nonsmoking and nondrinking women. CONCLUSIONSmoking and alcohol consumption, independently and jointly, were associated with CVD risk in men and women. Women had a greater CVD risk than did men among Korean adults with elevated BP.
We have investigated the effect of Nafion and its resulting interaction with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on the solubility and dispersion properties of SWCNTs in bisolvent. Nafion was ...used as a polymeric dispersant, providing both electrostatic and steric stabilization in the preparation of a stable and homogeneous suspension of SWCNTs. A correlation was made between solubility and nanodispersion of SWCNTs. Optical spectroscopy showed that the solubility and nanodispersion of SWCNTs increased with the addition of 1-propanol and were greatest at a volume mixture of water/1-propanol of 80/20. We propose a mechanism of improved solubility and nanodispersion of SWCNTs, which is strongly correlated with the adsorption behavior of Nafion on SWCNTs, the surface potential of SWCNTs, and the solubility of Nafion in a liquid medium; amphiphilic Nafion enhances the dispersion of SWCNTs in the mixture of hydrophilic water and relatively hydrophobic 1-propanol.
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The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between dietary patterns and metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its risk components among Korean adults at risk of metabolic ...diseases. This cross‐sectional study included 280 subjects (152 men, 128 women) between 30 and 59 years of age recruited by the Bundang Jesaeng Hospital, Korea. MetS was defined based on Adult Treatment Panel III. Dietary data were collected using 3‐day food records. The percentage of energy intakes from 23 food groups was calculated, and a factor analysis was applied to identify dietary patterns. Four major dietary patterns were derived; “Grains, nuts and fruits (9.1%)”, “Bread, dairy and cereal, snacks (9.1%)”, “Meat and alcohol (7.1%)” and “Sweets, seasonings and oils (7.1%)”. In “Grains, nuts and fruits” pattern, participants in the highest quartile had lower odds ratios for MetS (OR: 0.43, 95% CI: 0.20–0.95) and high fasting glucose (OR: 0.42, 95% CI: 0.19–0.93) than those in the lowest quartile. Our study suggests that the “Grains, nuts and fruits” pattern has beneficial effects on the risk of MetS in Korean adults. This work was supported by the grant from the Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (no. PJ007211), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.
The Korean Intermittent Exotropia Multicenter Study (KIEMS) was a retrospective, cross-sectional and multicenter study for the investigation of intermittent exotropia involved 65 strabismus ...specialists from 53 institutions in Korea. Purpose of this study was to present ophthalmologic findings of intermittent exotropia from the KIEMS. Consecutive patients with intermittent exotropia of ≥ 8 prism diopters (PD) at distance or near fixation were included. Best-corrected visual acuity, cycloplegic refraction data, angles of deviation at several cardinal positions, ocular dominance, fusion control, oblique muscle function, and binocular sensory outcomes were collected. A total of 5385 participants (2793 females; age 8.2 years) were included. Non-dominant eye was more myopic than the dominant eye (- 0.60 vs. - 0.47 diopters, P < 0.001). Mean exodeviation angles were 23.5 PD at distance and 25.0 PD at near fixation. Basic type (86.2%) was the most, followed by convergence insufficiency (9.4%) and divergence excess (4.4%) types. Alternating ocular dominance and good fusion control were more common at near than at distance fixation. Good stereopsis at 40 cm was observed in 49.3% in Titmus stereo test (≤ 60 arcsec) and in 71.0% in Randot stereo test (≤ 63 arcsec). Intermittent exotropia was mostly diagnosed in childhood and patients with the condition showed relatively good binocular functions. This study may provide objective findings of intermittent exotropia in a most reliable way, given that the study included a large study population and investigated comprehensive ophthalmology examinations.
Korea has experienced exceptionally rapid economic developments. Even though the country has managed to maintain aspects of its traditional diet, dietary habits are changing, especially among ...adolescents. This study was carried out to identify prevailing dietary patterns among Korean adolescents and to compare the nutrient intakes and dietary behaviours between the patterns. A 3 d diet record, collected from 671 Korean adolescents aged 12–14 years in Seoul, Korea, was assessed. By cluster analysis, subjects were classified into a modified (69·9 %) and a traditional (30·1 %) dietary pattern group. The modified group consumed more bread, noodles, cookies and pizza/hamburgers compared with the traditional group, which consumed mainly rice and kimchi (fermented cabbage). The modified group had significantly higher intakes of all nutrients. It had a higher total daily energy intake (7719 kJ), a higher daily energy intake from fat (29·8 %) and a higher cholesterol intake (326 mg/d), compared with the traditional group (6686 kJ, 24·8 % and 244 mg/d, respectively). The modified group was more likely to consume fast foods, fried foods and carbonated beverages even though they consumed more fresh fruits and milk, while the traditional group was more likely to have a rice-based diet and not to skip breakfast. These results suggest that monitoring dietary behaviours of adolescents, especially in a society experiencing a nutrition transition, is necessary in order to identify both negative and positive changes in respect of risk factors for nutrition-related chronic diseases as well as for undernutrition.
Vitamin C Nutriture in Newly Diagnosed Diabetes SHIM, Jae Eun; PAIK, Hee Young; SHIN, Chan Soo ...
Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology,
2010, Volume:
56, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This study was performed to investigate the relationship between serum L-ascorbic acid, vitamin C intake, and diabetes in a nested case-control study. A cross-sectional survey of diet and health was ...conducted in 2,048 adults with an age of 30 y or older in Yonchon County, Korea. An oral glucose tolerance test was administered to all participants. One hundred cases of newly diagnosed diabetes were identified. Two healthy controls for each case matched with age, gender, drinking status, and smoking status were selected among the survey participants. L-Ascorbic acid levels were analyzed in fasting serum samples and one 24-h dietary recall was performed. Dietary vitamin C intake of persons with diabetes was 50.1±47.6 mg/d and that of controls was 55.1±41.1 mg/d. People with diabetes (22.3±16.8 μmol/L) have lower serum ascorbic acid levels than their controls (26.3±17.0 μmol/L) and the difference was significant by paired t-test (p<0.01). The association between diabetes and serum ascorbic acid level was still significant in non-smokers (24.2±17.8 μmol/L for the diabetes group and 29.5±16.7 μmol/L for the control group, p<0.01) but not in smokers (19.4±15.7 μmol/L for the diabetes group and 21.2±16.0 μmol/L for the control group). Our results suggest that diabetes and smoking interactively affect serum ascorbic acid levels. Since this population had poor nutritional status of vitamin C, further investigation of association between serum ascorbic acid level and diabetes and smoking by the level of vitamin C consumption is warranted.
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