Women with PCOS without HA are common in Korea and are less likely to have metabolic dysfunction, insulin resistance and elevated BP. PCOS without HA may be a mild phenotype of PCOS. Therefore, women with PCOS in Korea could have a reduced likelihood of having metabolic syndrome compared with women of other ethnicities.

Recently, reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been studied as a regulator of differentiation into specific cell types in embryonic stem cells (ESCs). However, ROS role in human ESCs (hESCs) is unknown because mouse ESCs have been used mainly for most studies. Herein we suggest that ROS generation may play a critical role in differentiation of hESCs; ROS enhances differentiation of hESCs into bi-potent mesendodermal cell lineage via ROS-involved signaling pathways. In ROS-inducing conditions, expression of pluripotency markers (Oct4, Tra 1-60, Nanog, and Sox2) of hESCs was decreased, while expression of mesodermal and endodermal markers was increased. Moreover, these differentiation events of hESCs in ROS-inducing conditions were decreased by free radical scavenger treatment. hESC-derived embryoid bodies (EBs) also showed similar differentiation patterns by ROS induction. In ROS-related signaling pathway, some of the MAPKs family members in hESCs were also affected by ROS induction. p38 MAPK and AKT (protein kinases B, PKB) were inactivated significantly by buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) treatment. JNK and ERK phosphorylation levels were increased at early time of BSO treatment but not at late time point. Moreover, MAPKs family-specific inhibitors could prevent the mesendodermal differentiation of hESCs by ROS induction. Our results demonstrate that stemness and differentiation of hESCs can be regulated by environmental factors such as ROS.

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This work was supported by a grant from the Korean Health Technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (A111539). None of the authors has any conflicts of interest to declare.

ObjectiveTo investigate: the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Korean women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and the relationship between vitamin D status and clinical or metabolic features in this group.MethodsWe recruited 38 women with PCOS using the Rotterdam criteria. A total of 109 premenopausal control women were matched with patients based on age and body mass index. Serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D concentrations less than 20 ng/mL were classified as frank vitamin D deficiency. Since vitamin D may play a significant role in metabolic disturbances in women with PCOS, correlations between clinical or metabolic parameters and vitamin D status were analyzed separately in patients and controls.ResultsWomen with PCOS showed no differences in the level of 25-hydroxy vitamin D (19.6±6.6 ng/mL in patients vs. 20.1±7.4 ng/mL in controls, respectively, p=0.696) or prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (57.9% in patients vs. 56.5% in controls, respectively, p=0.880). In addition, we did not find any correlations between serum vitamin D level and clinical or metabolic profiles in either PCOS patients or controls.ConclusionOur study found no differences in the absolute level of serum vitamin D between PCOS patients and matched controls. Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was equally common among both patients and controls. Additionally, we did not find any correlations between serum vitamin D level and clinical or metabolic profiles, suggesting that the role of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of PCOS is not yet clear.

Non-obese NAFLD is more prevalent in women with polycystic ovary syndrome than in those without. In non-obese patients with polycystic ovary syndrome, hyperandrogenemia may be an independent risk factor for non-obese NAFLD.

The manipulation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) requires refined skills. Here we introduce both mechanical and enzymatic transfer methods for hESCs depending on experimental purpose. We use the mechanical transfer method for maintenance of hESC lines. Although the method is laborious and time-consuming, the technique permits efficient transfer of undifferentiated hESCs and results in similar clump sizes. We implement the enzymatic transfer method when we need the bulk production of cells for various experiments. The enzyme-treated expansion rapidly produces greater amounts of hESCs within a limited time frame. However, the cell clumps vary in size, and there is a probability that both the differentiated and undifferentiated cells will be transferred. In cases in which there are differentiated colonies, the combination of two methods allows mass production of hESCs by excluding differentiated colonies from passage by manual selection before enzyme treatment. Stem Cells 2005;23:605-609

ObjectiveThe aim of the present study was to examine the relationship among male age, strict morphology, and sperm chromatin structure and condensation.MethodsSperm samples from a total of 100 men underwent semen analysis, and sperm chromatin structure and condensation were assessed with toluidine blue (TB) and aniline blue (AB) tests.ResultsPrevalence of strict morphology of less than 4%, and abnormal sperm chromatin structure and condensation did not show any statistically significant differences according to male age (p=0.605, p=0.235, and p=0.080). No significant correlation was demonstrated among age of male partners, strict morphology, and abnormal sperm chromatin structure using TB and AB tests. However, abnormal sperm chromatin condensation was positively associated with sperm chromatin structure (r=0.594, p=0.000) and showed negative correlation with strict morphology (r=-0.219, p=0.029).ConclusionThe tests for sperm chromatin condensation showed a significant association with strict morphology. Further study is needed to elucidate the relationship between clinical outcome and sperm chromatin tests.