Alopecia has emerged as one of the biggest interests in modern society. Many studies have focused on the treatment of alopecia, such as transplantation of hair follicles or inhibition of the androgen pathway. Hair growth is achieved through proper proliferation of the components such as keratinocytes and dermal papilla cells (DPCs), movement, and interaction between the two cells. The present study examined the effect of the hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway, which is an important and fundamental signal in the cell, on the morphology and the viability of human keratinocytes and DPCs. Upregulation of Hh signaling caused a morphological change and an increase in epithelium-mesenchymal transition-related gene expression but reduced the viability of keratinocytes, while the alteration of Hh signaling did not cause any change in DPCs. The results show the possibility that the regulation of Hh signaling can be applied for the treatment of alopecia.

Hedgehog (Hh) pathway plays a key role in development from invertebrate to vertebrate. It is known to be involved in cell differentiation, polarity, proliferation, including the development of vertebrate limb and the establishment of flies’ body plan. To investigate how the regulation of Hh pathway affects the development of parthenogenetic murine embryos, the parthenogenetically activated murine embryos were treated with either cyclopamine (Cyc), an antagonist of Hh pathway, or purmorphamine, an agonist of Hh pathway. While Cyc did not affect the blastocyst formation and its total cell number, the chemical reduced the hatching rate of embryos and the expression levels of Fn1 mRNA. The results of the present study show the possibility that Cyc may affect the development of embryos at blastocyst stage by blocking Hh pathway and this may cause detrimental effect to the embryos at peri-, and post-implantation stages.

Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling pathway plays a key role in the development of various vertebrate embryos and remains important in adults. Although Shh signaling pathway has widely been studied in post-implantation stage embryos, only few studies are reported about pre-implantation stage embryos. To investigate the effect of Shh on pre-implantation stage embryos, cyclopamine and purmorphamine were treated to embryos in culture. Cyclopamine acts as an antagonist of the hedgehog signaling because it has a high affinity to Smoothened, a key part of the hedgehog signaling pathway. On the other hand, purmorphamine activate Smoothened and acts as a Shh signaling agonist. The oocytes were collected after superovulation and parthenogenetically activated in Chatot, Ziomek, and Bavister medium (CZB) including 10 mM strontium for 5 hr. The activated oocytes were cultured in potassium simplex optimized medium (KSOM), KSOM with 5 uM of cyclopamine, KSOM with 1 uM of purmorphamine, or KSOM with both 5 uM of cyclopamine and 1 uM of purmorphamine. After 5.5 days in culture, there was no significant difference in blastocyst development among the four experimental groups. However, the hatching rate was increased in the groups containing purmorphamine, and the blastocysts of the purmorphamine-containing groups had higher total cell number than those of other two groups when the cells were counted after Hoechst33342 staining. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) shows the difference of gene expression level which are related to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Taken together, this study suggests that the increase of Shh has an effect on the increases of EMT-related genes and hatching rate of pre-implantation stage embryos, and this may improve implantation subsequently.

｢청구남승도｣를 대상으로 조선시대 명승유람놀이의 내용 및 특성을 살핀 본 연구의 결과는 다음과 같다. ｢청구남승도｣에 나타는 명승지의 도별(道別) 분포 결과 전국 팔도 명승을 고르게 안배하고자 했던 흔적이 잘 드러나 있다. 특히 조선시대 5악으로 알려진 삼각산을 비롯하여 금강산, 지리산, 묘향산 그리고 백두산이 모두 포함되고 있으며 천제단이 있는 마나산과 태백산이 포함되어 있는 것을 볼 때 강토에 대한 애착과 역사의식이 강하게 부각되고 있다. 또한 조선의 대표적 승경으로 회자되는 관동팔경 10개소가 모두 집경에 포함되고 있으며 평양, 공주, 부여, 경주, 개성 그리고 한양 등 우리나라의 고도(古都)의 명승지가 비중 있게 표시되고 있는 것으로 보아 명승고적을 모두 망라하고자 했던 의지가 잘 드러나고 있다. ｢청구남승도｣에 표기된 명승 중 2015년 3월 현재 국가지정문화재 ‘명승’으로 지정된 곳은 총 21개소로 확인되었다. ｢청구남승도｣에 표기된 명승지의 유형 분석 결과, 자연명승이 58(48.3%), 역사문화명승 62개소(51.7%)의 고른 비율을 보였으며 자연명승은 명산(名山)이 21(17.5%), 못이 7개소(5.8%), 대(대)가 6개소(5.0%), 강이 4개소(3.4%) 등의 순이었으며 역사문화명승은 누정 33개소(27.5%), 사찰 10개소(8.3%), 읍성과 관아 7개소(5.9%) 의 순위를 보였다. 남승도놀이는 전국의 명승을 익히고 팔도의 풍토⋅산물⋅인물 등을 이해할 수 있는 유람놀이로 자연 경승지와 고도(古都) 등 명승고적을 와유(臥遊)하면서 자연 및 문화경승지를 간접적으로 체험할 수 있는 놀이였다. 이 놀이는 한민족의 역사의식을 강조하면서 국토의 지리적 위치와 명승지에 대한 지식과 관심을 높이는 교육적 효과를 발휘했을 것으로 현 명승 활용에 시사점을 제시하고 있다.