A 57 years old female complained of severe pain on the right temporomandibular joint (TMJ) area. Her right condyle had been partly resected under surgical operation 13 years ago due to condyle hypertrophy, thereafter she felt dull pain on TMJ area and recently the lesion became severely swelled and painful leading to cancer phobia. The present radiological views showed slightly enlarged and sclerosed condyle with increased radiopacity, but its articular sliding function was almost disable during mouth opening. The patient’s TMJ lesion was carefully managed with conservative physiotherapy and pain treatment. The microsection of condyle head obtained from the previous operation was re-evaluated histologically, and it was finally diagnosed as osteochondrosis dissecans (OCD), exhibiting hyperplastic proliferation of cartilage in condyle head and marked vascular dilatation in epiphyseal zone. This abnormal cartilage tissue was distinguishable from normal cartilage tissue found in the peripheral cartilaginous cap of the same microsection. The involved cartilage cap showed thick hypertrophic chondrocyte zone with horizontal and vertical clefts accompanying diffuse hyaline degeneration. The superficial fibrous zone of cartilage cap was thickened and frequently peeled off, while lower hypertrophic zone of cartilage cap was highly cellular and proliferative. Consequently, the endochondral ossification became aberrant and resulted pre-mature apoptosis of many hypertrophic chondrocytes, followed by diffuse and mild inflammatory reaction in the underlying marrow tissue. Therefore, it was suggested that this hypertrophic condyle lesion, OCD, be differentiated depending on radiological and histological features from ordinary condyle hyperplasia, osteochondroma, and osteoarthritis, and that the pathological confirmation of OCD may provide a reliable modality for dental and medical treatment of chronic and painful TMJ lesion.

Calcipex II has been widely used for root canal irrigation in endodontic treatment. It is a product of calcium oxide-based water soluble paste containing fine granular resin materials1). It was known that these granular materials were hardly dissolved in tissue and subsequently elicited foreign body granuloma by recruiting macrophages. Sometimes serious complications involving regional osteomyelitis and maxillary sinusitis were followed in long time after the endodontic treatment using Calcipex II materials2,3). And then the removed surgical specimen should be carefully examined to detect whether there exists Calcipex II material-related foreign body reaction or not. As the fine granular materials are too small in size, about 1 μm in diameter, and slightly translucent, it is difficult to find out the fine granular materials scattered throughout the granulomatous lesion even in the high magnification view. Here, we firstly found that the fine granular materials of Calcipex II showed bright birefringence under the polarizing microscope, and that the Calcipex II granules dispersed in chronic granulomatous lesion could be easily detected by their bright birefringence. The present study demonstrated a case of peri-implantitis involved with Calcipex II granule-related periapical granuloma, exhibiting numerous bright birefringence spots in the polarizing microscope observation.

Natural biopolymers such as collagen and fibrin have been widely used in bone regenerative applications. Despite the frequent use, their comparative biological propertiesis are largely unknown. In a previous study, we found the superiority of fibrin to collagen in the adsorption of serum proteins and the proliferation and differentiation of cultured osteoblasts. In this study, we used an in vivo model to evaluate how effectively fibrin supports bone regeneration, as compared with collagen. Collagen and fibrin were placed in critical size defects made on rat calvarial bones. Compared with collagen, fibrin supported substantially more new bone tissue formation, which was confirmed by micro-CT measurement and histological analyses. The cells in the regenerative tissues of the fibrin-filled defects were immunostained strongly for Runx2, while collagen-placed defects were stained weakly. These in vivo results demonstrate that fibrin is superior to collagen in supporting bone regeneration

The role of Cl channels in regulatory volume decrease (RVD) in human salivary gland acinar cells was examined using a whole-cell patch clamp technique. Human tissues were obtained from healthy volunteers or from patients with oromaxillofacial tumors. During the measurements, K+-free solutions were employed to eliminate contamination of whole-cell conductance by K+ currents. When the cells were exposed to a 70% hypotonic solution, outward-rectifying currents, which were not observed in the resting state, were found to have significantly increased both in human labial and parotid gland acinar cells. The amplitudes of the currents were reduced in a low CI bath solution. Furthermore, the addition of 100μM 5-Nitro-2- (3-phenyl propylamino) benzoic acid (NPPB) or 100μM 4,4'-diisothio cyanatostilbene-2,2'-disulphonic acid (DIDS), known to partially block Cl channels, significantly inhibited these currents. Its outward-rectifying current profile, shift in reversal potential in a low Cl bath solution and pharmacological properties suggest that this is a Cα2+ independent, volume activated Cl current. We conclude therefore that volume activated Cl channels play a putative role in RVD in human salivary gland acinar cells.

Most of mucous retention phenomena occurred in the mucous secretory glands, 1 e ‘ minor salivary gland, sublingual gland and submandibular gland. The mucous retention cyst from parotid gland has been very rarely reported in the literature As the parotid gland is composed of serous acini, the serous saliva is less likely to produce the retention phenomenon in the ducts or extraductal tissue. Here, a case of mucous retention cyst in parotid gland was demonstrated The patient of this case has been complaining of recurrent swelling of right cheek in parotid gland a'rea, and showed a feature of chronic sialadenitis or benign salivary gland tumor. The extravasated serous saliva was diffusely dispersed into the adjacent connective tissue, forming an ill-defined cyst cavity with hyalinized sclerotic luminal surface The inflammatory reaction was relatively mild compared to the extensive destruction of periglandular connective tissue However, the typical foamy macrophage was not seen but the infiltrated macrophages containing abundant eosi nophilic cytoplasm. The mucous retention phenomenon could be very rare in parotid gland, which is also easily distinguishable from chronic sialadenitis or benign tumor through path이ogical examination.

In order to develop a protective carrier scaffolder for the external usage of medical and hygienic materials, three essential protective elements existing in nature, i.e., algin, cellulose, and calcium phosphate apatite, were investigated. The algin is a main skeletal component of sea weeds, the cellulose is of vegetables, and the calcium phosphate apatite is of vertebral animals. In the present study we select the agarose which is a derivative from algin, the cellulose fiber obtained from skin of sea squirt, calcium oxide purified from shell powder, and tricalcium phosphate apatite purchased commercially. Consequently, the agarose-cellulose hybrid was made by the hydrogen bonds intermediating the calcium phosphate apatite between agarose and cellulose molecules. As the calcium phosphate apatite is formed by the addition of calcium hydroxide into tricalcium phosphate solution, we used calcium oxide to accelerate the hybridization between the agarose and calcium phosphate apatite and also between the cellulose and calcium phosphate apatite. In the phase contrast microscopic observation the agarose-cellulose hybrid showed more compact matrix structure than the mixture of agarose and cellulose. The agarose-cellulose hybrid showed increased storage modulus but decreased loss modulus in Rheometer test compared to those of the other materials tested in this study, representing that the agarose-cellulose hybrid has the highest elasticity among them and similar water capacity to agarose. The agarose-cellulose hybrid showed the strongest antimicrobial effect in bacteria killing assay than the other materials, and also it showed a potent blood clotting effect but no immunological hypersensitivity on the human skin. From the above results we presumed that the nobel material, agarose-cellulose hybrid, is a compact scaffolding matrix which has proper elasticity, high capacity to hold substrates, and antimicrobial and blood clotting property potent enough to carry the bio-medical and hygienic materials for external treatment safely.

35 peri-implantitis recently referred for 10 years showed four types of inflammatory lesions, such as mild granulomatous lesion(n=5), severe granulomatous lesion(n=4), severe inflammatory fibrous scar tissue(n=15), severe abscess formation(n=11). However, the inflammatory lesions were usually localized at the peri-implant area accompanying compensatory hyperplasia of fibrous connective tissue. The fibrous scar and the necrotic abscess frequently occurred depend on the severity of inflammatory reaction. Among 30 cases of severe inflammatory lesions, only 2 cases involved condensing osteitis in adjacent alveolar bone. Thus, we suppose that the inflammatory progression of peri-implantitis could be partly inhibited by the hyperplastic fibrous stromal tissue stimulated by implant material. And more, the focal abscess formed around the implant can be easily drainaged through the fibrous tract of implant pathway, resulted in the chronic persistent inflammatory granulomatous lesion, that is contrast to the common socket granuloma after tooth extraction. However, depend on the degree of inflammatory reaction in the peri-implantitis the inflamed fibrous collagenous tissues, unregenerated graft materials, necrotic abscess and sequestra should be removed by surgical intervention and followed by antibiotic therapy, because the peri-implant tissue is as vivid as the normal periodontium for the inflammatory defense system. Therefore, we suggest that the inflammatory lesions of peri-implantitis be carefully treated to improve the prognosis for the following dental treatments

[n order to obtain the trlle expected DNA prod uct from PCR and RT-PCR using genornic DNA or cDNA reversely transcribed from mRNA. the PCR should be done in an appropriated condition. Sometimes the PCR was repeatedly fail ed. and cventllally the PCR product was turned out to be nonspecific and rudimentary . And more‘ t he PCR prodllctwas not reproducible even though careflll repeat of experiments. As the PCR was based on the exact primel hybridization. the condition of primer hybridization should be properly controlled by a nnealing temperatllre. But the selection of primer seqllences for targeting a specific gene is mostly important. A new method of primer eval uation is now available llsing DNA base pair polarity program. This study presents an example of PCR targeting to human Bax gene using genomic DNA. The DNA base pair polarity theory can di vide the genetic cord into propel DNA segments and calclllaLe their DNA base pair hybridization energy. Thus. mathematically the degree 0(' exact primer hybridization can be expected for the t r1l8 targeting of PCR. However, the DNA base pair polal'ityanalysis demonstrates that the more frequent number of DNA segment incl'eased the specificity of PCR. but decreased its sensitivity . While the greater polarity of DNA segment composed of increased nllmber of polarized DNA base pairs showed increased sensitivi ty 0 1' PCR. bllt relati vely decreased specificity of PCR. With the mllltiple analysis of PCR. especially for PCR cloning from the gDNA and cDNA, we found that the primers themselves showed secondary strllcture of partial hybridization between sameprimers or each pair primers. The DNA base pail‘ polarity signal can directly demonstrated symmetric sequences 0 1' each primer. and also can distinguish the dimmer formation from each pair primers. At least the symmetric seqllence of fOlll‘ base pairs dramatically showed the dimrner formation. On the other hand. in addi tion Lo the statlls of DNA base pair polarity the three-dimensional strllctllre of DNA dOllble helix targeted by the primer seqllences may affect the sensitivity and specificity of PCR detection. The present study introduced a new method of primer evalllation and selection in order to obtain abundant and exacL! y-trlle DNA product for genomic ffilltation analysis and gene expression profï le