Enhancement of lipopolysaccharide-stimulated cyclooxygenase-2 mRNA expression and prostaglandin E2 production in gingival fibroblasts from individuals with Down syndrome.

It is well known that Down syndrome (DS) is a premature ageing syndrome. Periodontal disease in individuals with DS develops rapidly and extensively in a relatively younger age bracket compared with that in healthy controls. The mechanisms involved in the periodontal inflammatory processes in DS patients are not fully understood. In the present study, the non-inflamed gingival fibroblasts isolated from seven patients with DS (DGF) and seven healthy controls (NDGF) were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) derived from Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans (A. a.). We measured the level of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production by DGF and NDGF by radioimmunoassay, and also measured the mRNA expression of cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) by using the real-time PCR method. We found the higher levels of LPS-stimulated COX-2 mRNA expression and PGE2 production in DGF when compared with those in NDGF. This study may indicate that overexpression of LPS-stimulated COX-2 induced a greater ability of DGF to produce PGE2, and that these phenomena may be responsible for the severer periodontal disease in DS patients.

New method for estimation of adult skeletal age at death from the morphology of the auricular surface of the ilium.

A new method for estimating skeletal age at death from the morphology of the auricular surface of the ilium is presented. It uses a multiple regression analysis with dummy variables, and is based on the examination of 700 modern Japanese skeletal remains with age records. The observer using this method needs only to check for the presence or absence of nine (for a male) or seven (for a female) features on the auricular surface and to select the parameter estimates of each feature, calculated by multiple regression analysis with dummy variables. The observer can obtain an estimated age from the sum of parameter estimates. It is shown that a fine granular texture of the auricular surface is typical of younger individuals, whereas a heavily porous texture is characteristic of older individuals, and that both of these features are very useful for estimating age. Our method is shown here to be more accurate than other methods, especially in the older age ranges. Since the auricular surface allows more expedient observations than other parts of the skeleton, this new method can be expected to improve the overall accuracy of estimating skeletal age at death.