Publications by authors named "Sun-Kyong Lee"

Article Synopsis
  • - Angiogenesis is the process of forming new blood vessels, which is vital for organ development, but how it's controlled at the genetic level is not fully understood.
  • - Research shows that the gene FOXC1 is crucial for the growth of blood vessels in the retina; its loss affects certain amino acid transporters and reduces activity of the mTOR pathway, which is important for cell growth.
  • - FOXC1 is necessary not only for retinal blood vessel formation but also for the function of pericytes, essential for the blood-retina barrier, highlighting its potential as a target for therapies aimed at retinal vascular diseases.
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Objective: This study investigates the interaction between message framing and point-of-reference (self vs. others) for vaccine benefits on young adults' COVID-19 vaccine confidence and intentions. It also examines how COVID-19-related health beliefs-such as perceived severity of COVID-19 and perceived benefits of obtaining the vaccine to protect others-mediate these interactions.

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Limbal epithelial stem cells are not only critical for corneal epithelial homeostasis but also have the capacity to change from a relatively quiescent mitotic phenotype to a rapidly proliferating cell in response to population depletion following corneal epithelial wounding. Pax6 mice display many abnormalities including corneal vascularization and these aberrations are consistent with a limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) phenotype. FoxC1 has an inhibitory effect on corneal avascularity and a positive role in stem cell maintenance in many tissues.

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Employing the stressor-strain-outcome framework, this study demonstrates that COVID-19 information overload on social media exerts a significant effect on the level of fatigue toward COVID-19-related messages. This feeling of message fatigue also makes people avoid another exposure to similar types of messages while diminishing their intentions to adopt protective behaviors in response to the pandemic. Information overload regarding COVID-19 on social media also has indirect effects on message avoidance and protective behavioral intention against COVID-19, respectively, through the feeling of fatigue toward COVID-19 messages on social media.

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Intestinal ischemia underlies several clinical conditions and can result in the loss of the intestinal mucosal barrier. Ischemia-induced damage to the intestinal epithelium is repaired by stimulation of intestinal stem cells (ISCs), and paracrine signaling from the vascular niche regulates intestinal regeneration. Here, we identify FOXC1 and FOXC2 as essential regulators of paracrine signaling in intestinal regeneration after ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury.

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COVID-19 vaccines have been developed and administered in the United States. Despite evidence from clinical trials for the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines, many individuals are still hesitant or even unwilling to receive one. The purposes of this study are (1) to examine characteristics associated with those willing and unwilling to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and (2) to illuminate the reasons behind their willingness and unwillingness to receive the vaccine using both quantitative and qualitative data.

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The current study examined various types of misinformation related to the COVID-19 vaccines and their relationships to vaccine hesitancy and refusal. Study 1 asked a sample of full-time working professionals in the US (n = 505) about possible misinformation they were exposed to related to the COVID-19 vaccines. Study 2 utilized an online survey to examine U.

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The impact of Cajal-Retzius cells on the regulation of hippocampal circuits and related behaviors is unresolved. Here, we directly address this issue by impairing the glutamatergic output of Cajal-Retzius cells with the conditional ablation of vGluT2, which is their main vesicular glutamate transporter. Although two distinct conditional knockout lines do not reveal major alterations in hippocampal-layer organization and dendritic length of principal neurons or GABAergic cells, we find parallel deficits in specific hippocampal-dependent behaviors and in their putative underlying microcircuits.

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Key Points: By taking advantage of calcium imaging and electrophysiology, we provide direct pharmacological evidence for the functional expression of TRPV1 channels in hippocampal Cajal-Retzius cells. Application of the TRPV1 activator capsaicin powerfully enhances spontaneous synaptic transmission in the hippocampal layers that are innervated by the axons of Cajal-Retzius cells. Capsaicin-triggered calcium responses and membrane currents in Cajal-Retzius cells, as well as layer-specific modulation of spontaneous synaptic transmission, are absent when the drug is applied to slices prepared from TRPV1 / animals.

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In contrast to their near-disappearance in the adult neocortex, Cajal-Retzius cells have been suggested to persist longer in the hippocampus. A distinctive feature of the mature hippocampus, not maintained by other cortical areas, is its ability to sustain adult neurogenesis. Here, we have investigated whether environmental manipulations affecting hippocampal postnatal neurogenesis have a parallel impact on Cajal-Retzius cells.

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α-Synuclein has a crucial role in synaptic vesicle release and synaptic membrane recycling. Although its general expression pattern has been described in the cerebellum, the precise cerebellar structures where α-synuclein is localized are poorly understood. To address this question, we used α-synuclein immunohistochemistry in adult mice cerebellar sections.

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Large dense-core vesicles (LDCVs), containing neuropeptides, hormones, and amines, play a crucial role in the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and synaptic modulation. In some secretory cells, LDCVs show activity-dependent potentiation (ADP), which represents enhancement of subsequent exocytosis, compared with the previous one. Here we report the signaling mechanism involved in ADP of LDCV release.

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Extracellular nucleotides exert a variety of biological actions through several kinds of P2 receptors in many tissues and cell types. We found that treatment with nucleotides increases intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) in SK-N-BE(2)C human neuroblastoma cells with a following order of potency: UDP > UTP > ADP >> ATP. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis showed that specific mRNAs coding for human P2Y1, P2Y4, and P2Y6 receptors were expressed in the cells, but Northern blot analysis revealed that P2Y6 receptors were the predominant type.

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