Estimation of postmortem death interval from autopsied tongue tissue: A cross-sectional study.

CONTEXT: Estimation of time since death is the preliminary step in any postmortem examination. Although there are various physiological methods to conclude the postmortem, interval histological changes can be applied to obtain precision. However, the utility of oral tissues for such an event is still evolving. AIMS: The present study was conducted to assess the efficacy of postmortem histological changes that occur in tongue to conclude the postmortem interval (PMI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: After obtaining institutional human ethical committee, tongue tissue was collected for during routine autopsy procedure. The study comprised twelve autopsied tongue tissues. The tissue specimens were subjected to routine laboratory tissue processing procedure and the histological changes were evaluated. CONCLUSION: This is the first study of this kind in the scientific literature to explore the tongue tissue to estimate the PMI. There were definite changes in the epithelium and the connective tissue of the tongue, and these features were highly remarkable at various postmortem time intervals.

Enzymatic antioxidants and its role in oral diseases.

Antioxidants are substances that when present at very low concentration inhibits the oxidation of a molecule. It has the capacity to nullify the ill effects of oxidation caused by free radicals in the living organisms. The unpaired electrons of these free radicals are highly reactive and neutralize the harmful reactions of human metabolism. Protection of the body against free radicals is provided by some enzymes which come under a distinctive group, concerned solely with the detoxification of these radicals. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and catalase are the key enzymatic antioxidants of this defense system by which the free radicals that are produced during metabolic reactions are removed. This review highlights the mechanism of action of enzymatic antioxidants SOD, GPX and catalase and its role in oral disease.

Evaluation of wound healing activity of ferulic acid in diabetic rats.

In diabetic patients, there is impairment in angiogenesis, neovascularisation and failure in matrix metalloproteineases (MMPs), keratinocyte and fibroblast functions, which affects wound healing mechanism. Hence, diabetic patients are more prone to infections and ulcers, which finally result in gangrene. Ferulic acid (FA) is a natural antioxidant found in fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes, rice bran and sweet corn. In this study, wound healing activity of FA was evaluated in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats using excision wound model. FA-treated wounds were found to epithelise faster as compared with diabetic wound control group. The hydroxyproline and hexosamine content increased significantly when compared with diabetic wound control. FA effectively inhibited the lipid peroxidation and elevated the catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione and nitric oxide levels along with the increase in the serum zinc and copper levels probably aiding the wound healing process. Hence, the results indicate that FA significantly promotes wound healing in diabetic rats.

Molecular predictors in the early diagnosis of oral cancer.

Human beings are being subjected to a variety of disease processes, a majority of which can be cured. However, cancer remains an endangering disease that affects various body parts. Though cancers can be prevented by various therapeutic modalities, the patient survival and the prognosis are questionable, as they are detected at very late stages. The aim of improving the prognosis lies in an early detection of the cancer, which can be brought about by an analysis of the changes in the cellular biomolecules.

Estimation of age using aspartic acid racemisation in human dentin in Indian population.

AIM: The quest to identify an accurate method of age estimation, had lead to the evaluation of aspartic acid racemisation in hard tissues of the human remains using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Our study is aimed at the applicability of the racemisation technique to use dentin as the sample to estimate the age in South Indian sub-population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-six non-carious teeth from living individuals distributed among 6 age groups (6 each), sexes (18 each) and jaws (18 each) were analysed for dextro (d) and levo (l) forms of aspartic acid using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique and their racemisation ratio were calculated for each tooth sample. RESULTS: High correlation was obtained between the aspartic acid racemisation rates in dentin and age of the individual with an error limited to ±3 years. Racemisation rates in teeth did not significantly differ between the sexes or jaws. CONCLUSION: The d-aspartic acid accumulation in dentin is synchronous with the aging of an individual and can be used as an accurate method of age estimation in our population.

Recent advances in selective alpha1-adrenoreceptor antagonists as antihypertensive agents.

Hypertension is one of the most serious health problems of the modern world with a continuous rise in the number of patients. Selective alpha(1)-adrenoreceptor antagonists though have many advantages and uses in the management of arterial hypertension, their lack of specificity at the level of alpha(1)-adr subtypes leads to multiple side effects. Existence of multiple alpha(1)-adr subtypes holds great promise for the discovery and development of more specific and selective drug molecules, targeting only one alpha(1)-adr subtype at a time and thus relative freedom from side effects. Herein, the research done on the discovery and evaluation of a variety of chemically diverse structures as selective antagonists of alpha(1)-adr and alpha(1)-adr subtypes in recent years has been reviewed.