2014, Vol.27, No.2

Anatomy & Biological Anthropology 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.33

pISSN : 2671-5651 / eISSN : 2671-566X
https://journal.kci.go.kr/aba

A growing number of studies related to human remains in Korea highlight the need for developingprofessional ethics codes and laws that govern disposition and treatment of human remains. In order to providemodels for developing ethics codes and regulations relevant to the field of biological anthropology in Korea, thecurrent paper presents a review of ethics codes in the United States related to the procurement, curation, andstudy of human remains. In the first half of the paper, we provide a full treatment of ethics codes of majorprofessional organizations, including code definition, development, and revision. The latter half of the paper isdedicated to discussions of ethical issues surrounding a United States federal law, the Native American GravesProtection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), and a high-profile case of the Kennewick man, the Ancient One. These two examples will demonstrate the difficulty in anticipating ethical issues and unintended misconduct inthe course of research. NAGPRA and the Kennewick Man further emphasize three simple yet important takehomepoints for biological anthropologists and other professionals working with human remains: 1) to bereflective about potential ethical issues related to their research, 2) to be collaborative and encourage involvementof descendant communities at all stages of research, and 3) to be respectful of different worldviews of deathbetween (sub)cultures. Finally, we close our discussion with possible sources of ethical conflicts in Korea to helpprepare biological anthropologists as more excavations of human remains take place in Korea.

It has been known that the retromolar foramen is a rare anatomic variation observed in the retromolartriangle, a small triangular shaped region posterior to the mandibular third molar. Due to the neurovascularbundle passing through the retromolar foramen, this anatomical structure must be kept in mind during surgicalapproaches regarding the retromolar area and mandible. Therefore, the authors investigated the morphology ofretromolar triangle and the existence and location of retromolar foramen in Korean. And these results werecompared with that of other races. We used 308 sides of 154 Korean dry mandibles, unknown gender and age. The retromolar triangle presented predominantly a triangular shape (84.1%), and the maximum height and widthwere 13.7 mm and 7.1 mm, respectively. In 144 of the 308 sides, the retromolar foramen was observed (46.8%). The existence of the retromolar foramen was seen the same frequency in both sides, and based on a midsagittalline of the retromolar triangle, the retromolar foramen located in more buccal side (75%) than lingual side. Themean distance between the retromolar foramen and the distal edge of the last tooth were found to be 10.3 mm and6.9 mm, respectively for the second and third molars. According to the present study, the northeast Asiansincluding Korean population show the highest rate of the incidence of the retromolar foramen than other races. The findings suggest that practitioners should take the retromolar foramen into account in surgical proceduresinvolving the retromolar area to protect the patient from the complications such as bleeding or nerve damage.

O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine modification is an important post-translational modification,emerging as a novel regulatory mechanism in various cellular events. Recently, several studies have shown thatO-GlcNAcylation plays an essential role in human breast, lung, and colon cancers. With regard to skin cancers,the role of O-GlcNAcylation has yet to be elucidated. To investigate whether O-GlcNAcylation is linked tohuman skin tumor development, immunohistochemical analysis was performed to investigate the presence of OGlcNAcylationin various skin tumors. We evaluated the levels of O-GlcNAcylation, O-GlcNAc transferase, andO-GlcNAcase in 29 benign tumors, 12 premalignant tumors, and 26 malignant tumors in skin. Compared to thebenign tumors, premalignant and malignant tumors had increased patterns of O-GlcNAcylation. In addition, theO-GlcNAc transferase and O-GlcNAcase levels were higher in premalignant and malignant tumors than in benigntumors. Interestingly, O-GlcNAcase levels were significantly increased in premalignant tumors compared tobenign and malignant tumors. These results suggest that O-GlcNAcylation of proteins may play an important rolein the development of human skin tumors.