Regulatory role of primary cilia in oral and maxillofacial development and disease.

Primary cilia have versatile functions, such as receiving signals from the extracellular microenvironment, mediating signaling transduction, and transporting ciliary substances, in tissue and organ development and clinical disease pathogenesis. During early development (embryos within 10 weeks) in the oral and maxillofacial region, defects in the structure and function of primary cilia can result in severe craniofacial malformations. For example, mice with mutations in the cilia-related genes Kif3a and IFT88 exhibit midline expansion and cleft lip/palate, which occur due to abnormalities in the fusion of the single frontonasal prominence and maxillary prominences. In the subsequent development of the oral and maxillofacial region, we discussed the regulatory role of primary cilia in the development of the maxilla, mandible, Meckel cartilage, condylar cartilage, lip, tongue, and tooth, among others. Moreover, primary cilia are promising regulators in some oral and maxillofacial diseases, such as tumors and malocclusion. We also summarize the regulatory mechanisms of primary cilia in oral and maxillofacial development and related diseases, including their role in various signaling transduction pathways. For example, aplasia of submandibular glands in the Kif3a mutant mice is associated with a decrease in SHH signaling within the glands. This review summarizes the similarities and specificities of the role of primary cilia in tissue and organ development and disease progression in the oral and maxillofacial region, which is expected to contribute several ideas for the treatment of primary cilia-related diseases.

Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Ligusticum sinense, as a Chinese herb to treat toothache in China.

Ligusticum sinense is a popular herb in Chinese medicine. The circular double-stranded complete chloroplast genome of L. sinense was 146,342 bp in length, exhibiting a typical quadripartite structure. It contained a large single-copy region (LSC) of 91,788 bp, a small single-copy region (SSC) of 17,618 bp and two identical inverted repeat (IR) regions of 18,468 bp each. The overall nucleotide composition of chloroplast genome sequence is: A (30.8%), T (31.6%), C (19.2%), G (19.4%) and the total G + C content of 38.6%. The chloroplast genome contained 127 genes, including 83 protein-coding genes, 36 transfer RNA genes and 8 ribosomal RNA genes were annotated. The total of 15 genes duplicated in one of the IR, including 6 tRNA, 4 rRNA, and 5 protein-coding genes. The ML phylogenetic tree indicated that L. sinense is closely related to L. tenuissimum in the phylogenetic relationship.

The clinical outcomes of new hyaluronan nasal dressing: a prospective, randomized, controlled study.

BACKGROUND: Poor postoperative wound healing after endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) remains a significant problem. This study evaluates the efficacy and safety of a new absorbable hyaluronan hydrogel. METHODS: A prospective, randomized, controlled trial was conducted. Fifty-five patients with bilateral ESS were recruited and randomized to receive absorbable hyaluronan hydrogel in one side as treated and the opposite side without absorbable hyaluronan hydrogel as control. Clinical outcome measures were assessed at postoperative 1, 2, 4, 8, and 12 weeks. RESULTS: Fifty-four patients completed the study. Overall, absorbable hyaluronan hydrogel significantly promotes the reepithelization process and reduces the presence of obstructing synechia, nonobstructing synechia, edema, crust, and mild mucopurulent drainage (all p ≤ 0.0002). At all postoperative follow-up visits, the promotion in reepithelization is statistically significant at 2, 4, and 8 weeks, and the reductions in the presence of nonobstructing synechia, edema, crust, and mild mucopurulent drainage are all statistically significant except for the presence of crust at 12 weeks and mild mucopurulent drainage at 1 and 12 weeks. Although the presence of obstructing synechia at each follow-up visit between groups does not reach statistical significance, the incidence ranges from 5.56 to 12.96% in the control group and from 0 to 3.70% in the treated group. No adverse event related to treatment was observed. CONCLUSION: In this clinical study, data analyses suggest that this new absorbable hyaluronan hydrogel, as nasal dressing/packing after ESS is safe and promotes the postoperative reepithelization process and reduces the presence of synechia, edema, crust, and mild mucopurulent drainage.