Associations of pretreatment parameters with changes during orthodontic treatment.

OBJECTIVES: To examine whether pretreatment conditions of a patient can determine alveolar bone changes after orthodontic treatment. SETTING AND SAMPLE POPULATION: Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images were obtained from 44 patients (17 male and 27 female, 14.02 ± 1.29 years). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Buccal bone height (BBH), buccal bone thickness (BBT), and molar angulation (MA) of right and left maxillary molars and intermolar distance (ID) were measured using the CBCT images obtained before and after orthodontic treatment using conventional brackets and self-ligating conventional brackets. RESULTS: There was a significant change only in BBH after treatment. All posttreatment parameters had significant positive correlations with the corresponding pretreatment parameters (r2  = 0.376-0.719, P < 0.001). Most of the changes had significant negative correlations with the corresponding pretreatment parameter (r2  = 0.054-0.249, P < 0.03). The results were not significantly influenced by the different bracket types. CONCLUSION: The current findings suggest that the CBCT-based morphological information about dentition and oral bone conditions of patients can provide a better pretreatment plan to estimate the results of orthodontic treatment.

Inhibition of Pro-inflammatory and Anti-apoptotic Biomarkers during Experimental Oral Cancer Chemoprevention by Dietary Black Raspberries.

Oral cancer continues to be a significant public health problem worldwide. Recently conducted clinical trials demonstrate the ability of black raspberries (BRBs) to modulate biomarkers of molecular efficacy that supports a chemopreventive strategy against oral cancer. However, it is essential that a preclinical animal model of black raspberry (BRB) chemoprevention which recapitulates human oral carcinogenesis be developed, so that we can validate biomarkers and evaluate potential mechanisms of action. We therefore established the ability of BRBs to inhibit oral lesion formation in a carcinogen-induced rat oral cancer model and examined potential mechanisms. F344 rats were administered 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4NQO) (20 µg/ml) in drinking water for 14 weeks followed by regular drinking water for 6 weeks. At week 14, rats were fed a diet containing either 5 or 10% BRB, or 0.4% ellagic acid (EA), a BRB phytochemical. Dietary administration of 5 and 10% BRB reduced oral lesion incidence and multiplicity by 39.3 and 28.6%, respectively. Histopathological analyses demonstrate the ability of BRBs and, to a lesser extent EA, to inhibit the progression of oral cancer. Oral lesion inhibition by BRBs was associated with a reduction in the mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory biomarkers Cxcl1, Mif, and Nfe2l2 as well as the anti-apoptotic and cell cycle associated markers Birc5, Aurka, Ccna1, and Ccna2. Cellular proliferation (Ki-67 staining) in tongue lesions was inhibited by BRBs and EA. Our study demonstrates that, in the rat 4NQO oral cancer model, dietary administration of BRBs inhibits oral carcinogenesis via inhibition of pro-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic pathways.