Due to their anatomical, physiological and genetic similarities, pig is attractive animal model in biomedical research. In the recent stem cell research era, porcine derived stem cells also gain attention due to its use for the preclinical application of human. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been studied by many researchers over decade, and their prospect for clinical application is recognized. Although porcine derived MSCs (pMSCs) have confirmed to be differentiated into various types of cells, such as osteocyte, chondrocyte, neuronal cell, cardiomyocyte and pancreatic β cell, few report has been studied regarding hepatocyte differentiation in vitro. The present study was therefore aimed for bone marrow MSCs derived from pig femur to differentiate into hepatocyte. The cells were confirmed as MSCs by characterizing their morphology, lineage differentiation capacity and surface phenotype. They showed spindle like morphology and adipocytic, osteoblastic, and chondrocytic differentiation potentials and displayed positive expression of mesenchymal markers CD29, CD44 and CD90 while lacked the expression of hematopoietic marker CD45. Under appropriate differentiation conditions, MSCs displayed hepatocyte-like morphology depending on duration of differentiation. The differentiated MSCs into hepatocyte expressed hepatocyte-specific genes including hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 (HNF4), albumin (ALB), alpha fetoprotein (AFP), alpha-1-anti trypsin (A1AT). They also showed hepatocyte-like function, glycogen storage which is identified by PAS staining. Taken together, it concluded that the bone marrow MSCs have the potential to differentiate into hepatocyte. Further studies are needed on additional hepatocytic functional assays, such as low density lipoprotein (LDL) uptake and urea synthesis of differentiated MSC.

Pulmonary embolism (PE) still has a high associated mortality. Anticoagulation should be continued until the benefit of preventing recurrent PE is outweighed by the risks of bleeding. Furthermore, D-dimer values and residual clot burden may predict recurrent thromboembolic events in patients that have completed anticoagulation therapy. The authors describe the case of a 69-year-old female who suffered multiple recurrent PE on aspirin, her medical history included idiopathic PE, and she had been on anticoagulant for a considerable time before switching to aspirin. It is important the possibility of recurrent PE be borne in mind to prevent secondary prevention, and that other treatment options be considered in cases of recurrent PE.

A total of 1,830 soybean collections were grown in the field and characterized for 10 morphological traits to determine the diversity and relationship within and among geographical regions. Phenotypic variation was found within all regions for most characters. The Shannon-Weaver diversity index ranged from 0.49 to 0.62 across regions, and 0.09 to 1.00 across characters. Canonical discriminant analysis and clustering of the canonical means delineated 3 regional clusters: (ⅰ) Kyunggi, Chungchong, Kangwon, Chulla, and Kyungsang; (ⅱ) Heilongjiang; and (ⅲ) Jilin, Manchuria, central China, south China, Others (China), Hokkaido, Honshu, and Others (Japan).

The experiment was carried out to study the variations and geographical distribution of β -amylase isozyme by isoelectric focusing (IEF) within Korean, Chinese and Japanese soybean land races. In pH 3-10 gel of IEF, the amylase of soybean accessions was separated into low pI group isozymes (TEX>Sp1 b) and high pI group isozymes(Sp1 a). In pH4-6.5 gel, isoelectric points were at 5.07, 5.15, 5.25, 5.40, and 5.94, and h, j, and k bands also were found. The distribution of Sp1 a allele (high pI type) was 29.3% in soybean accessions from Korea, 10.1 % in those from China, and 6.9% in Japanese accessions. The percentage of Sp1 a) allele was the highest in soybean accessions from Kyungsang province (35 %) in Korea, then central China (32 %) in China, and Honshu (10%) in Japan