The objective of this study was to examine the effect of EGF on meiotic maturation and pronuclear (PN) formation of porcine oocytes. Prepubertal gilt cumulus-oocyte-complexes (COCs) aspirated from 2~6mm follicles of abbatoir ovaries were matured in TCM199 containing 0.1mg/ml cysteine, 0.5㎍/ml FSH and LH, and EGF (0, 5, 10, 20, 40 ng/ml) for 22 hr at 39℃ in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2 in air. They were then cultured for an additional 22hr without hormones. In Experiment 1, to examine the nuclear maturation at 44hr of culture, the expanded cumulus cells were removed by vortexing for 1 min in 3 mg/ml hyaluronidase. The oocytes were fixed in acetic acid: methanol (1:3, v/v) at least for 48 hr and stained with 1% orcein solution for 5 min. Nuclear status was classified as germinal vesicle (GV), germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD), prophase-metaphase I (PI-MI), and PII-MII under microscope. In Experiment 2, to investigate PN formation, oocytes were fertilized with Percoll-treated freshly ejaculated sperm (1 x10 5 cells/ml) in mTBM with 0.3% BSA and 2mM caffeine for 5hr, and cultured in NCSU-23 medium with 0.4% BSA. At 6hr of culture, the embryos were fixed in 3.7% formaldehyde for 48hr and stained with 10ug/ml propidium iodide for 30 min. PN status was classified as no or one PN (unfertilized), 2 PN (normal fertilized) and ≥3 PN (polyspermy). Differences between groups were analyzed using one-way ANOVA after arc-sine transformation of the proportional data. The rate of oocytes that had reached to PII-MII were significantly (P<0.05) higher in all groups added EGF than that of non-treated group (67%), but it did not differ among the all added groups (86%, 85%, 79% and 81%, in 5, 10, 20 and 40 ng/ml EGF, respectively). No differences on the incidence of 2PN were observed in all treated groups (25%, 30%, 33%, 29% and 29%, in 0, 5, 10, 20 and 40 ng/ml EGF, respectively), however, in non-treated group, polyspermy tended to be increased (66% vs 58%, 54%, 52% and 55%, 0 vs. 5, 10, 20, 40 ng/ml EGF, respectively). These results suggest that EGF can be effectively used as an additive for enhancing oocyte maturation and reducing the incidence of polyspermy in pig.

As in other areas of materials technology, the tendency towards light weight constructions becomes more and more important also for powder metallurgy. The development is mainly driven by the automotive industry looking for mass reduction of vehicles as a major factor for fuel economy. Powder metallurgy has to offer a number of interesting areas including the development of sintered materials of light metals. PM aluminium alloys with improved properties are on the way to replace ferrous pars. For high temperature applications in the engine, titanium aluminide based materials offer a great potential, e.g. for exhaust valves. The PM route using elemental powders and reactions sintering is considered to be a cost effective way for net shape parts production. Furthermore it is expected that lower costs for titanium raw materials coming from metallurgical activities will offer new chances for sintered parts with titanium alloys. The field of cellular metals expands with the hollow sphere technique, that can provide materials of many metals and alloys with a great flexibility in structure modifications. These structures are expected to be used in improving the safety (crash absoption) and noise reduction in cars in the near future and offer great potential for many other applications.

인체 트롬보포이에틴(hTPO)은 megakaryopoiesis 과정에 주요한 역할을 하는 사이토카인이다. 따라서 이러한 트롬보포이에틴을 유선조직에서 직접적으로 발현시키기 위하여 소 베타 카제인 프로모터, 인체 트롬보포이에틴 cDNA 및 네오유전자로 구성된 발현벡터를 구축하였다. 소 귀조직 세포로부터 유도된 섬유아세포에 lipoffctamine을 이용하여 발현벡터(pBT-L n대)의 삽입을 유도하였다. G4l8 저항성을 지닌 세포의 콜로니 형성을 유도하기 위하여 2주 이상 배양을 실시하였다. 형질전환 콜로니는 PCR에 의해 동정하였으며, 이들 콜로니를 핵치환 전까지 계속적으로 증식을 유도하였다. 형질전환 세포에 의해 재구성된 난자는 전기적인 융합과 calcium ionophore와 6-DMAP를 이용한 활성화를 실시하였으며, 체외에서 7일간 배양을 실시하였다. 총 35개의 콜로니를 PCR에 의해 분석한 결과, 이 중 29(82.9%)개가 형질전환된 콜로니였다. 형질전환된 세포로 재구성된 난자의 난할율 및 배반포로의 발달율은 65.1%와 23.8%로 나타났다. 형질전환된 세포로 재구성된 난자로부터 발달한 29개의 배반포 중 27개가 형질전환으로 확인되었다. 따라서 이러한 결과들은 형질전환 소 수정란을 형질전환된 세포를 이용한 체세포 복제 기법을 통해 효과적으로 생산할 수 있다는 것을 제시하고있다.

We have investigated the properties of the high-latitude cloud MBM 7 using the 3 mm transitions of CO, CS, HCN, HCO+,C3H2,N2H+, and SiO. The molecular component of MBM 7 shows a very clumpy structure with a size of ≤0.5 pc, elongated along the northwest-southeast direction, perpendicularly to an extended HI component, which could be resulted from shock formation. We have derived physical properties for two molecular cores in the central region. Their sizes are 0.1-0.3 pc and masses 1-2 M⊙ having an average volume density ~2×10 3 cm-3 at the peak of molecular emission. We have tested the stability of the cores using the full version of the virial theorem and found that the cores are stabilized with ambient medium, and they are expected not to be dissipated easily without external perturbations. Therefore MBM 7 does not seem to be a site for new star formation. The molecular abundances in the densest core appear to be much less (by about one order of magnitude) than the 'general' dark cloud values. If the depletions of heavy elements are not significant in the HLCs compared with those in typical dark clouds, our results may suggest different chemical evolutionary stages or different chemical environments of the HLCs compared with dense dark clouds in the Galactic plane.