Successful Fecal Microbiota Transplantation as an Initial Therapy for Clostridium difficile Infection on an Outpatient Basis.

A 64-year-old woman developed diarrhea after taking clindamycin for a dental infection. We diagnosed her with Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and performed fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) as the initial therapy using colonoscopy on an outpatient basis. The frequency of her bowel movements decreased from 10 times per day to two times per day three days after the procedure. The key component of FMT is to restructure the protective microbiome of the natural intestinal flora. We consider that FMT could be used as an effective first-line therapy for CDI if the efficacy and safety of this procedure is established in the future.

Stimulation of reparative dentin formation by ex vivo gene therapy using dental pulp stem cells electrotransfected with growth/differentiation factor 11 (Gdf11).

Dental pulp progenitor/stem cells have the capacity to differentiate into odontoblasts and they provide a potential for dentin repair and regeneration by gene therapy. To develop a successful ex vivo gene therapy to induce reparative dentin formation rapidly and effectively after treatment of caries, we developed a three-dimensional pellet culture system of pulp cells electrotransfected with growth/differentiation factor 11 (Gdf11). The viability after electrotransfection was more than 85%, and the efficiency was about 70% as determined by flow cytometry. After 10 days of culture, the total amount of type I and type III collagen was 3-fold higher in the pEGFP-Gdf11-transfected pellet than in the control. Real-time RT-PCR analysis demonstrated that the expression of markers of odontoblast differentiation (alkaline phosphatase, dentin matrix protein 1 [Dmp1], dentin sialophosphoprotein [Dspp], enamelysin, and phosphate-regulating gene with homologies to endopeptidases on X-chromosome [Phex]) was increased in the pEGFP-Gdf11-transfected pellet compared with the control on day 14. On the basis of this in vitro evaluation, an in vivo investigation in the dog was performed. Autogenous transplantation of Gdf11-transfected cells cultured as a pellet on amputated pulp stimulated reparative dentin formation. Thus, Gdf11 gene therapy may be potentially used in endodontic treatment in dentistry.