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Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute self-limited vasculitis of infants and children that manifests as fever and signs of mucocutaneous inflammation. Coronary artery aneurysms develop in approximately 15-25% of untreated children. Although the etiology of KD is largely unknown, epidemiologic data suggest the importance of genetic factors in the susceptibility to KD. In order to identify genetic variants that influence KD susceptibility, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using Affymetrix SNP array 6.0 in 186 Korean KD patients and 600 healthy controls; 18 and 26 genomic regions with one or more sequence variants were associated with KD and KD with coronary artery lesions (CALs), respectively (p

Resistance to Phytophthora Blight of Commercial Pepper Cultivars in Korea Byung-Soo Kim*, Tae-Ryong Kwon, Ji-Eun Hwang, Jae-Moo Lee, Dong-Guen Park, Joon-Hyung Ahn and Hye-Yeon Kim Department of Horticultural Science, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 702-701, Korea Youngyang Pepper Experiment Station, Gyeongsangbuk-do Agricultural Research and Extension Services, Yeongyang 764-803, Korea Current address: Punggi Ginseng Experiment Station, Gyeongsangbuk-do Agricultural Research and Extension Services, Yeongju 750-871, Korea (Received on July 20, 2010; Accepted on July 25, 2010)

This study compared the network of rehabilitation for the disabled during the Roh, Moo-hyun administration and the Lee, Myung-bak administration. Through such effort, how the public social activity related to rehabilitation for the disabled has changed through time was observed and the future network level of rehabilitation for the disabled was considered. The analysis was conducted using the social network analysis method and it was found that the Roh, Moo-hyun administration’s network showed better network density and centrality level compared to the Lee, Myung-bak administration, and also showed better balance between the government and the private sectors. Based on such results, this study was concluded by suggesting a community where the government and private sectors can regulate the network level together on the same grounds.

Kawasaki disease (KD) is often complicated by coronary artery lesions (CALs), including aneurysms. Because of the complications associated with KD, this disorder is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children from developed countries. To identify genetic loci that confer a higher risk of developing CALs, we performed a case-control association study using previous genome-wide association study data for samples from KD cases only (n=186) by grouping KD patients without CALs (control: n=123) vs KD patients with extremely large aneurysms (diameter5 mm) (case: n=17). Twelve loci with one or more sequence variants were found to be significantly associated with CALs (P1 × 10(-5)). Of these, an SNP (rs17136627) in the potassium intermediate/small conductance calcium-activated channel, subfamily N, member 2 (KCNN2) at 5q22.3 was validated in 32 KD patients with large aneurysms (diameter5 mm) and 191 KD patients without CALs (odds ratio (OR)=12.6, P(combined)=1.96 × 10(-8)). This result indicates that the KCNN2 gene can have an important role in the development of coronary artery aneurysms in KD.

High-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy is the highly effective and standard treatment for Kawasaki disease (KD). However, ~20 % of KD patients have persistent fever or recurrence of fever after the initial IVIG treatment, which increases the risk for coronary artery lesions (CALs). Furthermore, the mechanism of IVIG resistance in KD patients still is unknown. The number of CC chemokine ligand 3-like 1 (CCL3L1) gene copies is reported to be associated with KD and IVIG resistance in Japanese patients. In addition, the authors observed significant upregulation of the CCL3L1 gene expression after in vitro immunoglobulin treatment in B cell lines derived from KD patients. Therefore, this study of 459 KD patients and 496 healthy control subjects tested whether the number of CCL3L1 gene copies is associated with a risk of KD, CALs, and/or IVIG resistance in Korean KD patients. However, the number of CCL3L1 gene copies was not associated with KD (P = 0.18), CAL formation (P = 0.062), or the IVIG resistance (P = 0.90). Therefore, the results indicate that the number of CCL3L1 gene copies does not have a role in susceptibility to KD or CALs nor with IVIG resistance in Korean KD patients.