A national pharmacoepidemiological study of antibiotic use in Korean paediatric outpatients.

Background: Information on the use of antibiotics in Eastern Asian children is limited. The objectives of this study were to evaluate in Korean paediatric outpatients (1) the nationwide pattern of prescribing antibiotics according to age group and medical institution and (2) the adherence of antibiotic use for acute respiratory tract infections to both national guidelines and European antibiotic prescribing quality indicators.

Method: This population-based study used the national insurance reimbursement database for 2011.

Ethnic variability in the allelic distribution of pharmacogenes between Korean and other populations.

Objective: We examined the differences in allele frequencies for pharmacogenes among the Korean (KOR), Chinese (CHB), Japanese (JPT), Caucasian (CEU), and Nigerian (YRI) populations.

Methods: Fifty-seven pharmacogenes were selected from the imputed Korean Association REsource and HapMap databases. Minor allele frequencies were analyzed using the sample size-modified single nucleotide polymorphism-specific fixation index (FST) and the χ-test with Bonferroni's correction.

In vivo MR evaluation of the effect of the CCR2 antagonist on macrophage migration.

The CCR2 antagonist is a receptor antagonist for monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and is known to be a potential anti-inflammatory therapeutic agent. Recently used optimized labeling techniques for superparamagnetic iron oxide, macrophage homing, and recruitment toward the infection site can be observed on in vivo MRI. This study details the effect of the CCR2 antagonist on the macrophage migration and the feasibility of in vivo MRI for assessing the inhibition of chemotactic activity by the CCR2 antagonist.

Graft rejection in the xenogeneic transplantation of mice: diagnosis with in vivo MR imaging using the homing trait of macrophages.

Background: To evaluate the feasibility of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to depict the in vivo recruitment of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO)-labeled macrophages and to diagnose graft rejection in xenogeneic transplantation.

Methods: We transplanted the trachea of SD rat (xenogeneic) or C3H/HeN mouse (syngeneic) into the left thighs of six male C3H/HeN mice. The SPIO-labeled macrophage was administered through the tail vein 2 days (acute) or 14 days (chronic) after transplantation in each group.

TIMP-2 promotes cell spreading and adhesion via upregulation of Rap1 signaling.

We previously demonstrated that TIMP-2 treatment of human microvascular endothelial cells (hMVECs) activates Rap1 via the pathway of paxillin-Crk-C3G. Here, we show that TIMP-2 overexpression in hMVECs by adenoviral infection enhances Rap1 expression, leading to further increase in Rap1-GTP. TIMP-2 expression, previously reported to inhibit cell migration, also leads to cell spreading accompanied with increased cell adhesion.