Yoon Hwan Chang

This study assessed the association of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in a highly HBV-endemic area. The prevalence of either HBV or HCV infection in 235 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was compared with that of an age- and sex-matched hospital control group of 235 patients. The prevalence of HBV infection was higher in B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (15.5%) than control (8.1%), but the prevalence of HCV infection in the non-Hodgkin's

Piperlongumine, a natural alkaloid isolated from the long pepper, selectively increases reactive oxygen species production and apoptotic cell death in cancer cells but not in normal cells. However, the molecular mechanism underlying piperlongumine-induced selective killing of cancer cells remains unclear. In the present study, we observed that human breast cancer MCF-7 cells are sensitive to piperlongumine-induced apoptosis relative to human MCF-10A breast epithelial cells. Interestingly, this o

Extraction of high-quality RNA is a crucial step in gene expression profiling. To achieve optimal RNA extraction from frozen blood, the performance of three RNA extraction kits- TRI reagent, PAXgene blood RNA system (PAXgene) and NucleoSpin RNA blood kit (NucleoSpin)- was evaluated. Fifteen blood specimens collected in tubes containing potassium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and stored at -80°C for approximately 5 years were randomly selected. The yield and purity of RNA, RIN (RNA integ

Redd1 is a stress response protein that functions as a repressor of mTORC1, a central regulator of protein translation, resulting in the inhibition of cell growth and metabolism. However, paradoxically, high Redd1 expression favors cancer progression and generates resistance to cancer therapy. Herein, we revealed that constitutive overexpression of Redd1 induced HSP27 and HSP70 expression in lung cancer cells. The expression of Redd1, HSP27 and HSP70 was highly increased in lung cancer tissues c

To gain more insight into the immunophenotypic and cytogenetic changes in acute leukaemia at relapse, 99 Korean patients treated at a single institution were studied: acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML, n=46), acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL, n=44) and biphenotypic and mixed leukaemia (n=9). Immunophenotypic changes at relapse were observed in 51 of 99 patients (51.5%) with almost even distribution in AML and ALL. Overall expression of aberrant markers on leukaemic cells was more frequent at re

As the activation of autophagy contributes to the efficacy of many anticancer therapies, deciphering the precise role of autophagy in cancer therapy is critical. Here, we report that the dual mTORC1/2 inhibitors PP242 and OSI-027 decreased cell viability but did not induce apoptosis in the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines H460 and A549. PP242 induced autophagy in NSCLC cells as demonstrated by the formation of massive vacuoles and acidic vesicular organelles and the accumulation of

Abstract Background: New-onset pancytopenia or bicytopenia presents a diagnostic challenge and often leads to an invasive bone marrow (BM) aspiration and biopsy. There have been several studies that determined the distribution of BM diagnoses in patients with new-onset cytopenia. However, most of these studies were performed in nations, where the nutritional and environmental status is significantly different than that of Korea. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the distribution