Endodontic microsurgery and prosthodontic treatment of a permanent anterior concrescence: A case report.

Concrescence is a rare dental anomaly in which two adjacent teeth are united only by their cementum. Concrescence most frequently occurs in molars, especially a third mandibular molar and a supernumerary tooth. It is rarely seen in the maxillary anterior teeth. This case report is the first in the literature which details the successful treatment of a concrescence between the maxillary central incisor and a supernumerary tooth through multidisciplinary therapy. The treatment plan included root canal treatment, endodontic microsurgery, and prosthodontic treatment.

Effect of Twinlight Laser on the Attachment of Human Gingival Fibroblasts to the Root Surface In Vitro.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of subgingival scaling and root planing with the Twinlight laser, Er: YAG laser, and hand instrumentation on the removal of endotoxin and attachment of human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) to cementum surfaces in vitro. MATERIAL AND METHODS Single-rooted teeth extracted for periodontal disease were collected and divided into 3 groups: group A, root planing with Gracey curet no. 5/6; group B, irradiation with Er: YAG laser; group C, irradiation with Er: YAG laser and Nd: YAG laser. Endotoxins were determined by the limulus amebocyte lysate test. Cell attachment and proliferation of HGFs on root specimens were evaluated by cell counting kit-8 assay. The root surface and cell morphology were observed by scanning electron microscope. RESULTS A flat root surface with scratches was found in group A, Group B had a homogeneous rough morphology without carbonization, and group C had a non-homogeneous rough morphology with ablation. The endotoxin concentration was highest in group A (P<0.05) and lowest in group C (P>0.05). HGFs cultured in group B showed significantly increased adhesion and proliferation compared with groups A and C (P<0.05). HGFs in group B were well attached, covered densely by pseudopodia. HGFs in group A were round with poor extension and short pseudopodia, while the cells in the group C were in narrow, triangular, or polygonal shapes. CONCLUSIONS Twinlight laser-assisted periodontal treatment effectively improved the biocompatibility of root surface and promoted the attachment and proliferation of fibroblasts by removing calculus and reducing the concentration of endotoxins.

Near-Infrared Afterglow Luminescent Aggregation-Induced Emission Dots with Ultrahigh Tumor-to-Liver Signal Ratio for Promoted Image-Guided Cancer Surgery.

Afterglow imaging through the collection of persistent luminescence after the stopping of light excitation holds enormous promise for advanced biomedical uses. However, efficient near-infrared (NIR)-emitting afterglow luminescent materials and probes (particularly the organic and polymeric ones) are still very limited, and their in-depth biomedical applications such as precise image-guided cancer surgery are rarely reported. Here, we design and synthesize a NIR afterglow luminescent nanoparticle with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics (named AGL AIE dots). It is demonstrated that the AGL AIE dots emit rather-high NIR afterglow luminescence persisting over 10 days after the stopping of a single excitation through a series of processes occurring in the AIE dots, including singlet oxygen production by AIE luminogens (AIEgens), Schaap's dioxetane formation, chemiexcitation by dioxetane decomposition, and energy transfer to NIR-emitting AIEgens. The animal studies reveal that the AGL AIE dots have the innate property of fast afterglow signal quenching in normal tissues, including the liver, spleen, and kidney. After the intravenous injection of AGL AIE dots into peritoneal carcinomatosis bearing mice, the tumor-to-liver ratio of afterglow imaging is nearly 100-fold larger than that for fluorescence imaging. The ultrahigh tumor-to-liver signal ratio, together with low afterglow background noise, enables AGL AIE dots to give excellent performance in precise image-guided cancer surgery.

A Scalable Graph Neural Network Method for Developing an Accurate Force Field of Large Flexible Organic Molecules.

An accurate force field is the key to the success of all molecular mechanics simulations on organic polymers and biomolecules. Accurate correlated wave function (CW) methods scale poorly with system size, so this poses a great challenge to the development of an extendible ab initio force field for large flexible organic molecules at the CW level of accuracy. In this work, we combine the physics-driven nonbonding potential with a data-driven subgraph neural network bonding model (named sGNN). Tests on polyethylene glycol, polyethene, and their block polymers show that our strategy is highly accurate and robust for molecules of different sizes and chemical compositions. Therefore, one can develop a parameter library of small molecular fragments (with sizes easily accessible to CW methods) and assemble them to predict the energy of large polymers, thus opening a new path to next-generation organic force fields.

miR-140-3p enhanced the osteo/odontogenic differentiation of DPSCs via inhibiting KMT5B under hypoxia condition.

Human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have emerged as an important source of stem cells in the tissue engineering, and hypoxia will change various innate characteristics of DPSCs and then affect dental tissue regeneration. Nevertheless, little is known about the complicated molecular mechanisms. In this study, we aimed to investigate the influence and mechanism of miR-140-3p on DPSCs under hypoxia condition. Hypoxia was induced in DPSCs by Cobalt chloride (CoCl2) treatment. The osteo/dentinogenic differentiation capacity of DPSCs was assessed by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, Alizarin Red S staining and main osteo/dentinogenic markers. A luciferase reporter gene assay was performed to verify the downstream target gene of miR-140-3p. This research exhibited that miR-140-3p promoted osteo/dentinogenic differentiation of DPSCs under normoxia environment. Furthermore, miR-140-3p rescued the CoCl2-induced decreased osteo/odontogenic differentiation potentials in DPSCs. Besides, we investigated that miR-140-3p directly targeted lysine methyltransferase 5B (KMT5B). Surprisingly, we found inhibition of KMT5B obviously enhanced osteo/dentinogenic differentiation of DPSCs both under normoxia and hypoxia conditions. In conclusion, our study revealed the role and mechanism of miR-140-3p for regulating osteo/dentinogenic differentiation of DPSCs under hypoxia, and discovered that miR-140-3p and KMT5B might be important targets for DPSC-mediated tooth or bone tissue regeneration.

A novel magnetic solid-phase extraction method for detection of 14 heterocyclic aromatic amines by UPLC-MS/MS in meat products.

The current study developed a cheap and effective method for the simultaneous extraction of 14 heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) in food matrix. Core-shell Fe3O4@PDA nanoparticles were constructed and acted as the magnetic solid-phase extraction adsorbent to separate and purify HAAs from meat products for the first time. Then, UPLC-MS/MS technique was employed to identify and quantify the HAAs easily. Fe3O4@PDA nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized successfully. Totally 14 HAAs were completely separated in 19.99 min with good regression coefficients. LODs and LOQs were in the range of 0.013-0.247 ng/g and 0.056-0.803 ng/g, respectively. The intra-day precisions and inter-day precisions were below 9%. Except for IQ[4,5-b], Phe-p-1, PhIP, other 11 types of HAAs (DMIP, 1,5,6-TMIP, IQ, IQx, MeIQ, MeIQx, 7,8-DiMeIQx, AαC, MeAαC, Harman, Norharman) could acquire relatively high recoveries (71.06%-108.49%). The proposed method was successfully devoted to the evaluation of HAAs levels in 8 commercial meat products to verify the adaptability.

Improvement of rBMSCs Responses to Poly(propylene carbonate) Based Biomaterial through Incorporation of Nanolaponite and Surface Treatment Using Sodium Hydroxide.

Poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) has aroused extensive attention in the biomaterial field because of its excellent biocompatibility and appropriate degradability, but surface hydrophobicity and bioinertness limit its applications for bone repair and tissue engineering. In this study, a bioactive PPC/laponite (LAP) nanocomposite (PL) was prepared by a melt-blending method, and a microporous surface on PPC and PL (PT and PLT) was created by sodium hydroxide (NaOH) treatment. The results demonstrated that the surface roughness, hydrophilicity, surface energy, and degradability as well as protein adsorption of PLT were obviously improved compared with PPC. Moreover, the degradability of PLT was remarkably enhanced with a slight increase of pH values in Tris-HCl solution. Furthermore, adhesion and proliferation as well as osteogenic differentiation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (rBMSCs) to PLT were significantly promoted compared with PPC. The results suggested that incorporating LAP into PPC obviously improved the surface performance of PL (with nanotopography), and surface treatment with NaOH further enhanced surface properties of PLT (with micronanotopography and hydrophilic groups), which significantly promoted responses of rBMSCs. In short, PLT displayed excellent cytocompatibility, which would have great potential for bone regeneration.

Cationic Polystyrene Resolves Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis, Obesity, and Metabolic Disorders by Promoting Eubiosis of Gut Microbiota and Decreasing Endotoxemia.

A pandemic of metabolic diseases, consisting of type 2 diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and obesity, has imposed critical challenges for societies worldwide, prompting investigation of underlying mechanisms and exploration of low-cost and effective treatment. In this report, we demonstrate that metabolic disorders in mice generated by feeding with a high-fat diet without dietary vitamin D can be prevented by oral administration of polycationic amine resin. Oral administration of cholestyramine, but not the control uncharged polystyrene, was able to sequester negatively charged bacterial endotoxin in the gut, leading to 1) reduced plasma endotoxin levels, 2) resolved systemic inflammation and hepatic steatohepatitis, and 3) improved insulin sensitivity. Gut dysbiosis, characterized as an increase of the phylum Firmicutes and a decrease of Bacteroidetes and Akkermansia muciniphila, was fully corrected by cholestyramine, indicating that the negatively charged components in the gut are critical for the dysbiosis. Furthermore, fecal bacteria transplant, derived from cholestyramine-treated animals, was sufficient to antagonize the metabolic disorders of the recipient mice. These results indicate that the negatively charged components produced by dysbiosis are critical for biogenesis of metabolic disorders and also show a potential application of cationic polystyrene to treat metabolic disorders through promoting gut eubiosis.