Poor Masticatory Capacity and Blood Biomarkers of Elevated Cardiovascular Disease Risk in the Community: The Paris Prospective Study III.

[Figure: see text].

Recalled body silhouette trajectories over the lifespan and oral conditions in adulthood: A cross-sectional analysis of the Paris Prospective Study 3.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between life-course body silhouette changes and oral conditions in adulthood. METHODS: At study recruitment (2008-2012), 5430 adults underwent a full-mouth clinical examination and recalled their body silhouettes at ages 8, 15, 25, 35 and 45. Life-course trajectories of body silhouettes were computed using group-based trajectory modelling. Gingival inflammation, dental plaque, masticatory units, numbers of healthy, missing, decayed and filled teeth at study recruitment were clustered. The associations between body silhouette trajectories and clusters of oral conditions were assessed by multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: The final analysis included 4472 participants. Five body silhouette trajectories were established: lean-stable (30.0%), lean-increased (19.3%), moderate stable (18.1%), lean-marked increased (25.8%) and heavy stable (6.7%). Three clusters of oral conditions were identified: optimal oral health and preserved masticatory capacity (70.0%, cluster 1), moderate oral health and moderately impaired masticatory capacity (25.4%, cluster 2) and poor oral health and severely impaired masticatory capacity (4.7%, cluster 3). Participants with a lean-increased trajectory were 58% more likely than those with a lean-stable trajectory to be in cluster 3 (aOR 1.58 [95% CI 1.07; 2.35]) relative to cluster 1, independently of covariates measured at study recruitment and including age, sex, smoking, socioeconomic status, BMI, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cholesterol and triglycerides. CONCLUSIONS: A life-course lean-increased body silhouette trajectory is associated with higher likelihood of poor oral health and severely impaired masticatory capacity in adulthood.

Implantation of engineered human microvasculature to study human infectious diseases in mouse models.

Animal models for studying human pathogens are crucially lacking. We describe the implantation in mice of engineered human mature microvasculature consisting of endothelial and perivascular cells embedded in collagen hydrogel that allows investigation of pathogen interactions with the endothelium, including in vivo functional studies. Using Neisseria meningitidis as a paradigm of human-restricted infection, we demonstrated the strength and opportunities associated with the use of this approach.

The Potential of FGF-2 in Craniofacial Bone Tissue Engineering: A Review.

Bone is a hard-vascularized tissue, which renews itself continuously to adapt to the mechanical and metabolic demands of the body. The craniofacial area is prone to trauma and pathologies that often result in large bone damage, these leading to both aesthetic and functional complications for patients. The "gold standard" for treating these large defects is autologous bone grafting, which has some drawbacks including the requirement for a second surgical site with quantity of bone limitations, pain and other surgical complications. Indeed, tissue engineering combining a biomaterial with the appropriate cells and molecules of interest would allow a new therapeutic approach to treat large bone defects while avoiding complications associated with a second surgical site. This review first outlines the current knowledge of bone remodeling and the different signaling pathways involved seeking to improve our understanding of the roles of each to be able to stimulate or inhibit them. Secondly, it highlights the interesting characteristics of one growth factor in particular, FGF-2, and its role in bone homeostasis, before then analyzing its potential usefulness in craniofacial bone tissue engineering because of its proliferative, pro-angiogenic and pro-osteogenic effects depending on its spatial-temporal use, dose and mode of administration.

Microvascular maturation by mesenchymal stem cells in vitro improves blood perfusion in implanted tissue constructs.

Blood perfusion of grafted tissue constructs is a hindrance to the success of stem cell-based therapies by limiting cell survival and tissue regeneration. Implantation of a pre-vascularized network engineered in vitro has thus emerged as a promising strategy for promoting blood supply deep into the construct, relying on inosculation with the host vasculature. We aimed to fabricate in vitro tissue constructs with mature microvascular networks, displaying perivascular recruitment and basement membrane, taking advantage of the angiogenic properties of dental pulp stem cells and self-assembly of endothelial cells into capillaries. Using digital scanned light-sheet microscopy, we characterized the generation of dense microvascular networks in collagen hydrogels and established parameters for quantification of perivascular recruitment. We also performed original time-lapse analysis of stem cell recruitment. These experiments demonstrated that perivascular recruitment of dental pulp stem cells is driven by PDGF-BB. Recruited stem cells participated in deposition of vascular basement membrane and vessel maturation. Mature microvascular networks thus generated were then compared to those lacking perivascular coverage generated using stem cell conditioned medium. Implantation in athymic nude mice demonstrated that in vitro maturation of microvascular networks improved blood perfusion and cell survival within the construct. Taken together, these data demonstrate the strong potential of in vitro production of mature microvasculature for improving cell-based therapies.