Dental Stem Cells: Current research and future applications.

The literature on "dental stem cells" from 2002 to 2009 is composed of 936 works, mainly basic research articles, 159 reviews, 1 clinical study and only 6 case reports concerning endodontics and periodontology. After the year 2009 (1) the interest on this research topic has increased leading to 5177 new articles, including 757 reviews on different stem cell types, biomaterials and the possibility of "banking". The 46 clinical trials published in the last 9 years are clinical applications in periodontics and endodontics. However, still no definitive clinical guidelines are available (2,3). Regenerative therapy in endodontics, through the use of dental stem cells, is still an open question (4). The idea of healing the pulp instead of treating it by means of a conventional endodontic therapy is fascinating, but the current experimental protocol is limited to immature permanent teeth with pulp necrosis, which are a minority of endodontic treatments. Since 2005, with the first stem cell bank (Hiroshima University "Three Brackets") (5), attention has also been paid to the creation of private or university centres where it is possible to preserve autologous dental stem cells. In particular, due to the ease and natural availability, the interest is directed to SHED, Stem cells from Human Exfoliated Deciduous teeth (6). SHED are easy to collect, have excellent differentiation potential and, most importantly, are more cost-effective if compared with umbilical cord cells (5). For these reasons in 2008 the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the University of Bergen started to collect and store the exfoliated teeth of 100,000 children. To date there are several collection centres in the northern emisphere: USA (Bioeden, Stem Save, Store a Tooth), Europe (Bergen, Future Health), India (Stemade biotech), Japan (Teeth Bank, Advanced Center of Tissue Engineering, Hiroshima University and Nogoya University), Taipai (Taipai Medical University), and recently China (National Dental Stem Cells Bank) (7). Dental stem cells are readily and easily available and are a promising resource not just in dentistry but for regenerative medicine in general (8). This is confirmed by the literature, since 25% of papers on stem cells involve the study and dissemination of research on dental tissues-derived stem cells. Currently there are only a few registered clinical trials for stem cell applications in dentistry and the results are still unavailable. To date, there are no dental treatments involving harvested stem cells but this is definitely an emerging science that might lead to important outcomes in the future.

Effect of cisplatin on proteasome activity.

Cisplatin is a widely used chemotherapy drug which exerts cytotoxic activity by affecting both nuclear and cytosolic pathways. Herewith, we report, for the first time, that cisplatin inhibits proteasome activity in vitro. Cisplatin induces a dose dependent inhibition of the three enzymatic activities of proteasome (i.e., the chymotrypsin-like activity, the trypsin-like activity and the caspase-like activity). Moreover, cisplatin administration to neuroblastoma cells brings about a fast loss of proteasome particle activity, which is followed by a de novo synthesis of proteasome. Lastly, we report that the simultaneous administration of lactacystin and cisplatin enhances the cytotoxicity of cisplatin alone. The overall bulk of data opens to an intriguing scenario, concerning the biological effects of cisplatin in the control of cellular life, which goes beyond the well established genotoxic effect.

[The treatment of pectus excavatum: results of a mininvasive surgical technique on the first 50 patients]. / Il trattamento moderno del pectus excavatum: risultati della tecnica mini-invasivasui primi 50 pazienti.

AIM: Pectus excavatum is the commonest thoracic congenital malformation, but its treatment remains not well known. The authors present the results of the mini-invasive repair at G. Gaslini Institute of Genoa, Italy. METHODS: Nuss mini-invasive repair avoids anterior scars. The correction is achieved by the introduction under thoracoscopy of a retrosternal curve bar that is rotated by 180 degrees . Postoperatory pain is managed by an epidural catheter. In all the operated patients we evaluated the clinical pre-operatory parameters (spirometric, radiological and cardiological data), the surgical details and the results. RESULTS: Fifty patients were operated, 43 of them males, ranging from 7 and 22 years of age, with an average of 17 years of age. Only 8 of them were asymptomatic and required surgery for psychological reasons. The 74% presented some stress dyspnea. Some impairment in spirometric parameters were observed in 28% and mitral valve prolapse in 30%. The only significant intra-operative complication was a bleeding from a thoracic wall vessel that required a left emergency minimal thoracotomy. Postoperative complications were: 2 pneumothorax (drained for 24 hours), 2 transitory pulmonary atelectasis, 1 hemothorax in a patient with coagulation deficit, 3 wound problems (1 infection and 2 hematomas). The esthetical score after surgery, according to the patients, was 9.15 on average, in a scale from 1 to 10. None rated less than 7. The pain score with the same scale was rated 6.8 on average. CONCLUSION: The Nuss technique is safe and guarantees very satisfactory esthetical results.

Xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis is associated with higher tissue expression of monocyte chemotactic protein-1.

TOPIC: Xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis (XGP) is a chronic inflammation of the kidney characterized by destruction and replacement of its parenchyma with granulomatous tissue. It is associated with both chronic urinary obstruction and urinary tract infection (UTI). METHODS: We studied two children with chronic ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) and recurrent UTI nephrectomized for poor kidney function. An intraoperative renal biopsy was taken to relate the presence of infiltrating monocytes plus tubular atrophy to tissue expression of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) and epidermal growth factor (EGF). XGP was diagnosed by a pathologist in both cases. RESULTS: MCP-1 expression was significantly higher in the two patients compared with the controls or patients with uncomplicated UPJO. It also correlated with the extent of monocyte infiltration, whereas EGF was only significantly downregulated when compared with the controls. CONCLUSIONS: MCP-1 would seem to play a key role in the pathogenesis of XGP by mediating the recruitment of circulating monocytes or by cells resident in the interstitial space.