Salivary counts of Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus in patients with and without cleft lip and/or palate undergoing orthodontic treatment: A meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To conduct a systematic review with meta-analysis to assess if cleft lip and palate (CLP) patients undergoing orthodontic treatment have a higher colonization of Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus than patients without this condition. METHODS: Five electronic databases were searched systematically. The inclusion criteria were as follows: randomized clinical trials, non-randomized, or quasi-randomized controlled trials, prospective and retrospective studies published until March, 2021; articles that evaluated S. mutans and Lactobacillus profile in patients with and without cleft lip and palate undergoing orthodontic treatment. The random-effect model was used to perform the analysis of all the data collected. Statistic heterogeneity was evaluated with I2 test. RESULTS: In this systematic review, 2 cohort studies were included. The data analysis from 160 patients revealed that patients without cleft lip and palate had 4.5 times more predisposition to oral colonization with S. mutans than CLP patients. No statistical significant difference was found between these patients for colonization with Lactobacillus. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the limitations in the included studies, this systematic review suggested that CLP patients have a lower predisposition to oral colonization with S. mutans when compared to healthy patients.

Maintaining essential microtubule bundles in meter-long axons: a role for local tubulin biogenesis?

Axons are the narrow, up-to-meter long cellular processes of neurons that form the biological cables wiring our nervous system. Most axons must survive for an organism's lifetime, i.e. up to a century in humans. Axonal maintenance depends on loose bundles of microtubules that run without interruption all along axons. The continued turn-over and the extension of microtubule bundles during developmental, regenerative or plastic growth requires the availability of α/ß-tubulin heterodimers up to a meter away from the cell body. The underlying regulation in axons is poorly understood and hardly features in past and contemporary research. Here we discuss potential mechanisms, particularly focussing on the possibility of local tubulin biogenesis in axons. Current knowledge might suggest that local translation of tubulin takes place in axons, but far less is known about the post-translational machinery of tubulin biogenesis involving three chaperone complexes: prefoldin, CCT and TBC. We discuss functional understanding of these chaperones from a range of model organisms including yeast, plants, flies and mice, and explain what is known from human diseases. Microtubules across species depend on these chaperones, and they are clearly required in the nervous system. However, most chaperones display a high degree of functional pleiotropy, partly through independent functions of individual subunits outside their complexes, thus posing a challenge to experimental studies. Notably, we found hardly any studies that investigate their presence and function particularly in axons, thus highlighting an important gap in our understanding of axon biology and pathology.

[High blood pressure prevalence in Oporto sedentary and regular exercise practicing people]. / Prevalência do diagnóstico de hipertensão arterial em pessoas sedentárias e em praticantes de exercício físico, na cidade do Porto.

INTRODUCTION: The association between the lack of exercise and prevalence of high blood pressure (HBP) is a well known fact. The non-pharmacological treatment for HBP includes regular aerobic exercise practicing. METHODS: A total of 900 individuals, aged above 40, resident in Oporto, representing the 15 parishes of the city, were approached to answer a questionnaire about exercise habits and diagnosis of HBP. The exercise practitioner was defined as the one who practices aerobic exercise for a minimal period of 30 minutes at least 3 times a week. For data analysis non-parametric tests (Pearson's Chi-Square) were used through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. RESULTS: The HBP prevalence in the sample was 39.67% (Confidence Interval (IC) 95%, 36,46% to 42,87%). The HBP prevalence in the exercise practitioners was inferior to the one of the non-practitioners (13,78% vs 25,89%, p < 0,001). This result is valid to the male 33,5% vs 51,6%, p < 0,001) and female population (27,1% vs 51,9%, p < 0,001), as well as to the population without the most frequent HBP-related comorbidities (21,8% vs 44,6%, p < 0,001). CONCLUSIONS: The HBP prevalence in the population resident in Oporto city is higher in the non-practitioners of regular exercise. The HBP prevalence, in both sexes, is higher in the non-practitioners of exercise. Finally, we can also conclude that the studied comorbidities don't bias the obtained results because the group of individuals who don't have them the HBP prevalence is still higher in the group of sedentary.