Effects of oxygen tension and IGF-I on HIF-1α protein expression in mouse blastocysts.

Purpose: Hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) are key regulators of oxygen homeostasis in response to reduced oxygenation in somatic cells. In addition, HIF-1α protein can be also induced by insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) treatment in various cell lines under normoxic condition. However, the expression and function of HIF-1α in embryogenesis are still unclear.

Application of two different synthetic sequential media for the human IVF-ET program: a prospective, randomized, and comparative study.

Objective: Since IVF program was first established, various types of media and culture systems have been developed either in-house or commercially. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of in-house Maria Research Center (MRC) media to that of commercially available Sydney IVF media in human day 3 embryo transfer cycles.

Methods: Three hundred sixty nine couples were included in this prospective, randomized, and comparative study.

An Effective Method of Teaching Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Skills in Simulation-Based Training.

Purpose: In this study, we compared the effects of constructivist and traditional teaching strategies in teaching advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) skills during simulation-based training (SBT).

Methods: A randomized, pre- and post-test control group study was designed to examine this issue in 29 third-year emergency medical technician (EMT) students. Participants received SBT through constructivist SBT (CSBT) or traditional lecture-based SBT (TSBT) teaching strategies.

The Change of CPX Scores according to Repeated CPXs.

Purpose: Most medical schools have held clinical skills training programs recently. Despite these educational endeavors, few studies have attempted to address the effect of clinical skills assessments on clinical performance. This study investigated whether repeated experiences with the examination improved medical students' history-taking, physical exams, and patient-physician interactions (PPIs).

Effect of emotional intelligence on patient-physician interaction scores of clinical performance examination.

Purpose: The patient-physician interaction (PPI) is a critical part of the clinical encounter. Recent studies have emphasized the importance of the emotional intelligence (EI) of physician in the PPI. Despite emphasizing the EI, previous studies offer limited evidence regarding the effect of a student's EI on the PPI.

A systematic review of training that use an integrated patient simulator.

The purpose of this article is to systematically review the literature that describes training and assessment that use an integrated patient simulator (IPS). We also tried to determine how to train learners with simulators, plan, and perform research on simulator-based education. Literature searches were conducted to identify articles from PubMed, EMBASE, and KMbase that were related to training and assessment that use an IPS, published from January 1999 to September 2008.

MHC independent anti-tumor immune responses induced by Hsp70-enriched exosomes generate tumor regression in murine models.

The ideal cancer vaccine should work regardless of MHC types but currently the barrier generated by MHC specificity hampers the development of human cancer vaccines, requesting to identify strong immunogenic molecules that can induce anti-cancer immune responses without being affected by MHC polymorphism. Tumor-derived exosomes are small membrane vesicles containing tumor antigens as well as other immunologically important molecules such as MHC molecules and heat shock proteins (HSPs). Because of their potential immunogenicity, the plausible utility of tumor-derived exosomes as an MHC independent cancer vaccine was proposed.

Protective effect of diallyl disulfide on oxidative stress-injured neuronally differentiated PC12 cells.

The effects of diallyl disulfide (DADS), a garlic-derived compound, on the viability of neuronal cells and cell signals, including phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt, glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3), cytochrome c, caspase-3, and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), were investigated in PC12 cells neuronally differentiated by nerve growth factor. To evaluate the toxicity of DADS itself, nPC12 cells were treated with several concentrations of DADS, and 3,(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and trypan blue stain revealed that the viability was not affected by low concentration of DADS, up to 20 microM, but it was decreased at higher than this concentration. The levels of free radicals and membrane lipid peroxidation were significantly increased in nPC12 cells when treated with more than 50 microM DADS, and treatment of PC12 cells with 100 microM DADS killed the cells by inhibiting PI3K/Akt and by promoting activation of GSK-3 and caspase-3, release of cytochrome c, and cleavage of PARP.