Could maternal serum MFG-E8 level predict adverse first trimester pregnancy outcome? A preliminary study.

BACKGROUND: Milk fat globule-epidermal growth factor 8 (MFG-E8) is expressed in the endometrial epithelium and its expression increases during the implantation process. Due to this knowledge, we aimed to investigate the maternal serum MFG-E8 levels on both healthy pregnant women in the first trimester and pregnant women complicated with missed abortion and threatened abortion in the first trimester. METHODS: This prospective, cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary referral hospital, department of obstetrics between July 2020 and February 2021 after ethical committee approval. The study population was consisted of 30 healthy pregnant women (HP) in the first trimester, 30 pregnant women suffering from threatened abortion (TA) in the first trimester and 30 pregnant women suffering from missed abortion (MA) in the first trimester. Maternal serum MFG-E8 levels were analyzed with enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Delivery and neonatal outcomes of the study population was evaluated. The continuous variables were compared among three groups with variance analysis with post hoc tests. The categorical variables were compared with chi-square and Fisher's exact tests where applicable. RESULTS: The mean age of the study population was 29.36 ± 5.31 years. There was no significant difference among three groups for parameters of age, body mass index, parity number, and gestational week. Despite being within normal ranges, the mean neutrophil and international normalized ratio values of the three groups showed statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). The mean maternal serum MFG-E8 levels of MA, TA, and HP groups were 270 ± 152.3, 414.7 ± 236.7, and 474 ± 222.5 ng/mL, respectively (p = 0.001). It was found that mean of MFG-E8 of the MA group was statistically significantly lower than those of the other two groups (p < 0.05). DISCUSSION: Although maternal serum MFG-E8 level seems to be a parameter that differ between live and nonlive pregnancies, studies with large number of cases are needed to discuss our results and to determine a cut-off value for prediction.

Effect of ozone pretreatment on the microleakage of pit and fissure sealants.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the effect of ozone pretreatment on the microleakage and marginal integrity of pit and fissure sealants placed with or without a self-etch 6th generation adhesive. STUDY DESIGN: Freshly-extracted, human third molars were randomly assigned into two main groups (n = 48): Group A: Fissures were pretreated with ozone; Group B: Fissures were left untreated. The teeth were further randomly divided into two subgroups (n = 24/each) so that half of teeth were sealed with a conventional fissure sealant (Fissurit F, Voco, Germany), while the remaining half received the same sealant bonded with a self-etch adhesive (Clearfil Protect Bond, Kuraray, Japan). Following thermal cycling (1000X), the specimens were subjected to dye penetration within 0.5% basic fuchsin for 24h. The extent of dye penetration was measured by image analysis. Kruskal Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests were used for statistical analysis of the data (p = 0.05). Two randomly-selected sections from each group were observed under SEM RESULTS: In all groups, ozone pretreatment significantly reduced the extent of microleakage (p < 0.001). SEM investigation demonstrated better adaptation of the sealants in ozone-pretreated groups. Clearfil Protect Bond did not improve the marginal seal of Fissurit F (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Ozone pretreatment favorably affected the marginal sealing ability of the tested fissure sealants.

Microleakage of newly developed glass carbomer cement in primary teeth.

OBJECTIVE: Glass carbomer cement represents a new generation of dental material, which mineralizes gradually into fluorapatite. The aim of this study was to evaluate the microleakage and marginal integrity of newly developed glass carbomer cement with and without protective surface coating (SC) in primary molars. METHODS: Standardized cavities were prepared on extracted human primary molars, and the teeth were randomly assigned into the following groups (n = 10/each): (1) conventional glass ionomer cement (GIC) without SC; (2) GIC with SC; (3) glass carbomer cement without SC; (4) glass carbomer cement with SC; and (5) compomer without SC. Following thermocycling (5 ± 2°C-55 ± 2°C, dwell time 15 s, 2000×), the specimens were immersed in 0.5% basic fuchsin solution, sectioned, and digitally photographed. Microleakage was evaluated quantitatively by using open-source image analysis toolkit (ImageJ), and the data were analyzed statistically by using Kruskal-Wallis and Conover's Multiple Comparison tests (P=.05). RESULTS: The greatest amount of dye leakage was observed in the uncoated glass carbomer specimens, followed by the uncoated glass ionomer group (P<.05). There was no significant difference between the microleakage values of coated glass ionomer, coated glass carbomer, and the compomer (P>.05). The following statistical ranking was observed among microleakage of the test materials: uncoated glass carbomer > uncoated glass ionomer > coated glass ionomer ≈ coated glass carbomer ≈ compomer. Uncoated glass carbomer exhibited severe internal ice crack-like lines. CONCLUSION: The use of the new glass carbomer cement without SC results in severe microleakage and catastrophic internal cracks.