Vulnerable populations in healthcare facilities are more sensitive to exposure to indoor air pollutants, and therefore are more affected by such pollutants than the general population. This was the underlying reason why studies of indoor air pollutant concentration distribution and health risk assessment have been conducted targeting facilities, such as daycare centers, medical facilities, elderly care facilities, and postnatal care centers. However, previous studies have mainly focused on daycare and medical facilities for their research, and relatively speaking, studies conducted on the other venues are lacking. Therefore, this study aims to present the current status of indoor air quality and perform a health risk assessment in regard to Formaldehyde exposure at postnatal care centers and elderly care facilities. Here, the study focused on facilities that had undergone pollution level inspections from January 2017 to December 2021. A total of 81 postnatal care centers and 48 elderly care facilities were selected as the subject of the study. Then, the study utilized concentrations of five elements (CO2, HCHO, PM10, PM2.5, TBC) to determine the status of indoor air quality of both postnatal care centers and elderly care facilities. For health risk assessment, HCHO concentration was used. The investigation demonstrated that the yearly average concentration of the five elements stood within the indoor air quality maintenance standards, and the ratio of PM2.5 to PM10 in the two types of facilities was distributed as high as about 70%. In addition, the study showed that HCHO and TBC demonstrated a positive correlation when the relationship between indoor temperature and humidity with the five elements was examined. The health risk assessment showed that the cancer risk level of postnatal care center users stood below 10-6, below the level that is perceived as an acceptable risk. The cancer risk of workers from both postnatal care centers and elderly care facilities and elderly care facility users exceeded the acceptable risk level of 10-6, but was shown to be below 10-4, the maximum acceptable risk.

Spermatogonial stem cells are self-renewal and differentiate into sperm in post-pubertal mammals. There exists a balance between the self-renewal and differentiation in the testes. Spermatogonial stem cells make up only 0.03% of testicular cells in adult mice. These cells maintain sperm production by differentiating after puberty. Therefore, analyzing the expression of genes associated with spermatogenesis is critical for understanding differentiation. The present study aimed to establish the postnatal period of cells in relation to spermatogenesis. To study the expression of differentiated and undifferentiated marker genes in enriched spermatogonial stem cells, in vitro culture was performed and cells from pup (6–8-day-old) and adult (4-months-old) testicular tissues were isolated. As a result, undifferentiated genes, Pax7, Plzf, GFRa1, Etv5 and Bcl6b , were highly increased in cultured spermaotogonial stem cells compared with pup and adult testicular cells. On the other hands, differentiated gene, c-kit was highly increased in adult testicular cells, Also Stra8 gene was highly increased in pup and adult testicular cells. This study provides a better understanding of spermatogenesis-associated gene expression during postnatal periods.

본 연구의 목적은 출산 전 필라테스 운동과 프로바이오틱스 섭취가 출산 후 여성의 장내미생물, 신체구성, 혈중지질, 비만호르몬, 염증성 사이토카인에 미치는 영향을 알아보는데 있다. 총 15명의 임산부를 운동+프로바이오틱스섭취군(PEX, n=5), 운동군(EX, n=5), 대조군(CON, n=5)으로 구분하였다. PEX 집단과 EX 집단은 8주 동안 주 2회 필라테스 운동에 참여하였고 준비운동 10분, 본 운동 30분, 정리운동 10분으로 실시하였으며, PEX 집단은 매일 공복에 프로바이오틱스 1 캡슐을 섭취하였다. 그 결과 출산 후 PEX 집단의 체지방 및 WHR 수치가 감소하였다. 장내미생물의 변화는 비피도박테리움, 락토바실러스, 클로스트리디움, 퍼미큐테스, 박테리오데스의 구성 수준에서 집단 간 유의한 차이가 나타나지 않았다. 비만 호르몬과 염증성 사이토카인의 변화는 PEX 집단에서 사후 렙틴, IL-6, TNF-a 수치가 감소하는 것으로 나타났고, 혈중 지질 수준에서는 차이가 없었다. 결론적으로 출산 전 필라테스와 프로바이오틱스 병행 처치는 출산 후 여성의 복부지방 감소에 효과적이며 염증 및 비만 관련 호르몬에 긍정적인 영향을 주어 산후 빠른 회복에 도움이 될 것이다.

In this study, we measured the concentration of Particulate Matter(PM10), Formaldehyde(HCHO), and Total Bacteria Count (TBC) at two facilities: day care centers, and postnatal care centers located in the cities of Gyeonggi, Gangwon, Jeolla and Gyeongsang from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2015. PM10 concentration was similar to the day care centers and postnatal care centers. HCHO concentration was the highest in the postnatal care centers. TBC concentration was the highest in the day care centers. Comparing the different cities, PM10 concentration was the highest in Gyeonggi, HCHO concentration was the highest in Gyeonggi, and TBC concentration was the highest in Gyeonggi. As a result of HCHO's risk assessment, it was found that adults exceeded the carcinogenicity tolerance of 10−6 specified by the US EPA. This study is expected to be helpful in preventing damage to health from the contaminated indoor air at sensitive facilities, and can be used as basic data for indoor air quality management.

문둥이박쥐(Eptesicus serotinus)의 생후 발성발달 특징을 파악하기 위하여 임신한 암컷 3개체로부터 총 4개체의 새끼 박쥐를 확보하여 발성변화를 분석하였다. 녹음 및 분석은 생후 1일부터 40일까지 수행하였으며, 펄스 지속시간 (PD), 펄스 간격(PI), 최고 주파수(PF), 시작 주파수(FMAX), 종료 주파수(FMIN), 대역폭(BW)에 대하여 측정하였다. 새끼 박쥐는 생후 초기에 가장 다양한 패턴의 음성을 발산하였으며, 연령이 증가함에 따라서 점차 어미와 유사해졌다. PD와 PI는 연령이 증가할수록 감소하였으며, 반면 PF, FMAX, FMIN, BW는 증가하였다. PF, FMAX, FMIN, BW는 생후 10일에서 20일 사이에 가장 큰 변화가 확인되었으며, PD는 생후 30일에서 40일 사이에 가장 큰 변화가 확인되었다. 따라서 진동수의 발성과 관련이 있는 발성근육의 수축 능력은 생후 20일경 가장 발달하게 되며, 발성시간과 관련된 발성근육의 이완 능력은 생후 30일에서 40일 사이에 가장 발달하는 것으로 판단된다. 본 연구에 이용된 새끼 개체들은 생후 40일차에도 비행이 확인되지 않았으나 발성음은 어미와 유사하게 나타났다. 따라서 이러한 결과는 새끼 박쥐의 발성 발달은 비행행동 또는 비행과 관련된 근육의 발달을 필수적으로 동반하는 것은 아니라는 것을 보여주는 결과라 판단된다.

Muscular satellite cell (SC), which is stem cell of postnatal pig, is an important for study of differentiation into adipogenesis, myogenesis, and osteoblastogenesis. In this study, we isolated and examined from pig muscle tissue to determine capacity in proliferate, differentiate, and expression of various genes. Porcine satellite cells (PSC) were isolated from semimembranosus (SM) muscles of 90∼100 days old pigs according to standard conditions. The cell proliferation increased in multi-potent cell by Masson’s, oil red O, and Alizarin red staining respectively. We per-formed the expression levels of differentiation related genes using real-time PCR. We found that the differentiation into adipocyte increased expression levels of both fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) and peroxisome proliferator- acti-vated receptor gamma (PPARγ) genes (p<0.01). Myocyte increased the expression levels of the myosin heavy chain (MHC), myogenic factor 5 (Myf5), myogenic regulatory factor (MyoD), and Myogenic factor 4 (myogenin) (p<0.01). Osteo-blast increased the expression levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (p<0.01). Finally, porcine satellite cells were indu-ced to differentiate towards adipogenic, myogenic, and osteoblastogenic lineages. Our results suggest that muscle satellite cell in porcine may influence cell fate. Understanding the progression of PSC may lead to improved strat-egies for augmenting meat quality.

Mullerian inhibiting substance (MIS) is a member of the TGF-β (transforming growth factor-β) family whose members play key roles in development, suppression of tumour growth, and feedback control of the pituitary-gonadal hormone axis. MIS is expressed in a highly tissue-specific manner in which it is restricted to male Sertoli cells and female granulose cells. The serum levels of MIS in prenatal and postnatal ICR mice were measured using the enzymelinked immuno-solvent assay (ELISA) using the MIS/AMH antibody. Mice were grouped by age: the significant periods were at the onset of development. During sex organ differentiation, no remarkable difference between female and male foetus MIS serum levels (both<0.1 ng/ml) was observed. However, MIS serum levels in pregnant mice markedly changed (4.5～12.2 ng/ml). After birth, postnatal female and male mice serum MIS levels changed considerably (male: <0.1～138.5 ng/ml, female: 5.3～103.4 ng/ml), and the changing phase were diametrically opposed (male: decreasing, female: fluctuating). These findings suggest that MIS may have strong associations with not only develop- ment but also puberty. For further studies, establishing the standard MIS serum levels is of importance. Our study provides the basic information for the study of MIS interactions with reproductive organ disability, cancer, and the effect of other hormone or menopause. We hypothesise that if MIS is regularly injected into middle-age women, meno- pause will be delayed. We detected that serum MIS concentration curves change with age. The changing phase is different between males and females, and this difference is significant after birth. Moreover, MIS mRNA is expressed during the developmental period (prenatal) and also in the postnatal period. This finding indicates that MIS may play a significant role in the developmental stage and in growth after birth.

The working mechanism of bisphosphonate on bone cells is unclear despite its powerful inhibitory activity on bone resorption. The differentiation and activation of osteoclasts are essential for bone resorption and are controlled by the stimulatory RANKL and inhibitory OPG molecules. Teeth exhibit a range of movement patterns during their eruption to establish their form and function, which inevitably accompanies peripheral bone resorption. Hence, the mandible, which contains the teeth during their eruption processes, is a good model for revealing the inhibitory mechanism of bisphosphonate upon bone resorption. In the present study, RANKL and OPG expression were examined immunohistochemically in the mandible of rats with developing teeth after alendronate administration (2.5 mg/kg). The preeruptive mandibular first molars at postnatal days 3 to 10 showed the developing stages from bell to crown. No morphological changes in tooth formation were observed after alendronate administration. The number of osteoclasts in the alveolar bone around the developing teeth decreased markedly at postnatal days 3, 7 and 10 compared with the control group. RANKL induced strong positive immunohistochemical reactions in the dental follicles and stromal cells around the mandibular first molar. In particular, many osteoclasts with strongly positive reactions to RANKL appeared above the developing mandibular first molars at postnatal days 3 and 10. Immunohistochemical reactions with RANKL after alendronate administration were weaker than the control groups. However, the immunohistochemical reactivity to OPG was stronger after alendronate administration, at postnatal days 3 and 10. These results suggest that alendronate may decrease bone resorption by regulating the RANKL/OPG pathway in the process of osteoclast formation, resulting in a delay in tooth eruption.

Functional regulation of a specific tissue or organ is controlled by a number of ways, including local cell‐gcell interaction. Of several forms of cell‐gcell junctional complexes, gap junctions are caught a great attention due to a formation of direct linkage between neighboring cells. Gap junctions are consisted of connexin (Cx) isoforms. In the present study, we evaluated expressional profiling of Cx isoforms in the rat initial segment (IS) of the male reproductive tract at different postnatal ages. The presence and expression of 13 Cx isoform mRNAs were determined by semi‐gquantitative real‐gtime PCR analyses. A total of 8 Cx isoform mRNAs were detected in the IS of the male rats during postnatal development. The highest level of Cx30.3 mRNA was found at 5 months of age, while abundance of Cx31 mRNA was the highest at 1 year of age. Expression of Cx31.1 gene was relatively consistent during the postnatal development. Fluctuation of Cx32 and 37 gene expression was observed during the postnatal period. Significant elevation of Cx40 mRNA abundance was detected at 25 days of age and older ages. Expression patterns of Cx43 and 45 genes were similar with the highest level at 2 weeks of age, followed by gradual decreases at older ages. These results indicate differential regulation on expression of Cx isoforms in the rat IS during postnatal development. A complicated regulation of gene expression of Cx isoforms in the IS at different postnatal ages is suggested.

A cell frequently utilizes glucose as a fuel of energy and a major substrate of lipid and protein syntheses. A regulation of glucose movement into and out of the cells is precisely controlled by cooperative works of passive and sodium‐dependent active processes. At least 13 glucose cotransporter (Slc2a, GLUT) isoforms involve in passive movement of glucose in cells. The efferent ductules (EDs) play in a number of important functions for maintenance of male fertility. In the present study, using real‐time PCR analysis, we determined gene expression of five Slc2a isoforms in the EDs. In addition, we compared expression levels of these Slc2a isoforms according to postnatal development ages, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, and 3 months. Results from the current study showed that expression of Slc2a1, Slc2a3, and Slc2a5 mRNAs reached the highest levels at 1 month of age, followed by a transient decrease at 3 months of age. In addition, the level of Slc2a4 mRNA reminded at steady until 1 month of age and was significantly reduced at 3 months of age, whereas the highest level of Slc2a 8 mRNA was detected at 2 weeks of age. Data from the present study indicate a differential expression of various Slc2a isoforms in the ED according to postnatal ages. Thus, it is believed that glucose movement through the epithelial cells in the ED would be regulated by the coordinated manner among Slc2a isoforms expressed at a given age.

In order to know the degenerating state of postnatal cleft lip tissue, total 23 cases of lip biopsy obtained from cleft lip surgery were collected and examined pathologically. The cleft lip tissues characteristically disclosed epithelial hyperplasia (13/23), stromal myxoid degeneration (20/23), salivary gland degeneration (1/23), muscular degeneration (11/23), and sebaceous gland hyperplasia (15/23), melanocytic infiltration (5/23). The epithelial hyperplasia was marked with hyperkeratosis and basal hyperplasia, which was usually coincident with the myxoid degeneration of underlying connective tissue. The myxoid degeneration was diffuse in the deep connective tissue with chronic inflammatoryreaction, and followed by extensive muscular degeneration. The sebaceous gland hyperplasia was usually predominant in the skin area of the cleft lip. In this study the lip biopsy from 30years old patient still showed remarkable retrogressive degeneration of lip tissue. Therefore, it is considered that the postnatal cleft lip tissue is continuously degenerative, and its retrogressive change gradually affects the deterioration of perioral muscular structures, consequently resulted in the failure of lip functions as well as further bizarre malformation of oro-facial shape during the postnatal period. These data also indicate that the biopsy of postnatal cleft lip should be recommended to know its variable degenerating status and to perform the proper rehabilitation surgery of cleft lip.

Our previous research has identified granulin (grn) and p130 genes as sex steroidinducible genes in the rat hypothalamus, which might be involved in sexual differentiation of the brain. Phthalate esters that are used as plasticizers and also found at low levels in foods such as dairy products are often mentioned as suspected endocrine disrupters. The purpose of the present study is to elucidate whether perinatal exposure to dinbutyl phthalate (DBP), diisononyl phthalate (DINP) and di2ethylhexyl adipate (DEHA) affects hypothalamic sex steroidinducible genes. The present study assessed the effects of perinatal exposure to DBP, DINP and DEHA on sex steroid hormones levels and hypothalamic grn and p130 mRNA expressions at postnatal day (PND) 3 and 7. Pregnant rats were fed a soyfree diet containing 20, 200, 2,000 and 10,000 ppm of DBP, 40, 400, 4,000 and 20,000 ppm of DINP, or 480, 2,400 and 12,000 ppm of DEHA from gestational day (GD) 15 to GD 3 or 7. At PND 3 and 7, perinatal exposure to these chemicals did not substantially affect serum concentrations of testosterone and estradiol. At PND 3, the expression of grn mRNA levels in males was decreased by DEHA, and that of p130 was decreased by DBP, DINP and DEHA, though the effects were not dosedependent. At PND 7, the expression of grn gene in female pups was increased by higher doses of DBP and all the doses, except for 4,000 ppm, of DINP, while that in male pups decreased by 480 and 12,000 ppm of DEHA. Hypothalamic expression of p130 mRNA in males was increased by lower doses of DBP and all the doses of DINP, whereas that of females was decreased by 480 and 2,400 ppm of DEHA. These results suggest that these chemicals may affect the expression of grn and p130 genes by directly acting on the hypothalamus, thus leading to inappropriate expression of these genes.

The effects of postnatal exposure to octylphenol(OP) on the expressions of the steroidogenic enzymes and testosterone production were evaluated. Postnatal male mice (15-day-old) were injected with 2 or 20mg kg-l body weight (BW) of OP for 5 days and

The primary growth center (MdPGC) of human fetal mandible was conspicuously distinguished in the soft X-ray view of fetal mandibles.1) As the peripheral adaptive growth of mandible advanced during the postnatal period, the MdPGC became overshadowed by condensed cortical bone. However, in the well-processed radiograms of adult mandible a condensed radiopaque image, measuring 0.5-1.0 cm in diameter, can be observed below the apex of first premolar. In this study we aimed to trace a sclerotic sequela of mandibular primary growth center during postnatal period. Panoramic radiograms of two hundreds adults and soft X-ray views of thirty dry mandible were analyzed by statistical methods. The adult MdPGC was clearly distinguishable from the mental foramen. The area of MdPGC was seldom changed in the older persons, even in the edentulous mandibles. Additionally, the benign lesions of odontogenic cysts and tumors hardly destroyed the original structure of MdPGC, while the malignant tumors of squamous cell carcinoma and metastatic cancer rapidly destroyed and resolved the radiopaque area of the MdPGC.