Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.), a green leafy vegetable, is well known as a functional food due to its biological activities. Vascular calcification is associated with several disease conditions including atherosclerosis, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease (CKD), and is known to raise the risk of cardiovascular diseases related morbidity and mortality. However, there are no previous studies that have investigated the effects of fermented spinach exract (FSE) against aortic and its underlying mechanisms. Therefore, this study investigated the effects and action of possible mechanisms of FSE on inorganic phosphate (PI)-induced vascular calcification in ex vivo mouse aortic rings. PI increased vascular calcification through calcium deposition in ex vivo aortic rings. FSE inhibited calcium accumulation and osteogenic key marker, runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2), and bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 (BMP-2) protein expression in ex vivo aortic rings. And, FSE inhibited PI-induced extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and p38 phosphorylation in ex vivo aortic rings. These results show that FSE can prevent vascular calcification which may be a crucial way for the prevention and treatment of vascular disease association with vascular calcification.

Odontogenic keratocyst (OKC), also known as keratocystic odontogenic tumor, is a distinct clinicopathologic lesion that can be clearly identified by histologic examination. Clinically, OKC is characterized by a high recurrence rate. This report describes a rare case of OKC with mural calcification in the maxilla of a 47-year-old male patient. Orthopantomography and Cone Beam Computed Tomography showed full opacification with calcification and lateral wall resorption in the left maxillary sinus, destroying the sinus floor. Hard tissue deposits have rarely been reported in the connective tissue walls of OKC. The importance of calcified material formation to the biological behavior of OKCs is unclear. Although its prognostic value has not been studied, the presence of calcification materials does not appear to increase the risk of recurrence. Study of a number of samples would be needed to determine the nature of the correlation between the presence of calcified materials and recurrence.

Odontogenic keratocyst (OKC), also known as keratocystic odontogenic tumor (KCOT), is an emerging odontogenic tumor originating from the dental lamina. It is an aggressive lesion with a squamous epithelium and a recurrence rate of 15-35%.1 Radiologically, there is a clear, smooth, or shell-like border showing a unilocular or multifocal, polycystic radiographic picture. Hard tissue formation in OKC is a very rare phenomenon and occurs in the form of dystrophic calcification, cartilaginous tissue or dentinoid.2 In this article, we report the case of OKC with calcification. OKC with radiopaque lesion is very rare, these are considered as dystrophic calcification, dentinoid formation, ossification. The incidence of dystrophic calcification in recurrent OKC is low, so it can be inferred that the recurrence rate of OKC with dystrophic calcification is lower than that of conventional OKC.

The mammary gland tumor (MGT) is the most common neoplasia in intact female dogs. Of these, 50% are malignant and metastasis to the other sites are often occurred. Therefore, it is very important for decision of treatment plan and prognosis to differentiate benign tumor from malignancies. Calcification of MGT is a very important imaging finding. The purpose of this study was to investigate the radiological and computed tomographic images of the MGT and the morphology and distribution of calcifications in the MGT using the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System classification. A total of 42 dogs with MGT were included in this study. The dogs were divided into two groups into benign and malignant groups based upon histologic or cytologic results. The appearance of calcification in the tumor on radiographs and CT images was analyzed for the HU value of pre- and post-contrast injection, margin, surface, and shape of the tumor and the lymph node abnormalities. On radiographs, the positive predictive value of malignant and benign tumors was 72.72 and 85.71%, respectively. On CT examinations, the positive predictive value of malignant and benign tumors was the same value of 83.33%. The maximum diameter of the tumor and the presence of abnormal lymph nodes on CT images showed a strong correlation with malignancies. Therefore, it is thought that radiographs and CT provide useful information for evaluating MGT in dogs.

중심부 석회화를 동반한 간내 담관암은 국외에서 1예 보고 되었을 정도로 매우 드문 증례이며, 담관내 석회화 소견을 보이는 환자의 감별진단에 있어서 간내 담도암에 대한 고려 와 조직검사가 필요할 것으로 판단되어 중심부 석회화가 동반된 간내 담관암 증례를 보고하는 바이다.

This study aimed to investigate the association between carotid artery calcification (CAC) on panoramic radiograph and intima-media thickeness (IMT) measured on ultrasound. Panoramic radiographs which were taken from dental patients aged 50 years and older who visited for dental treatment were screened for the presence of CAC. The study group was composed of seven patients (four males and three females, average age 74.4±4.2 yrs) with CAC detected on panoramic radiographs, and the control group eleven patients (seven males and four females, average age 64.5±10.1 yrs) without CAC. All the patients underwent carotid ultrasonography to measure carotid IMT. The IMT was compared between the groups by nonparametric analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The range of IMT of the study group was 1.10~2.0 mm, while that of the control group 0.60~1.10 mm. The mean of IMT was 1.50±0.34 mm in the study group and 0.85±0.14 mm in the control group, and there was statistically significant difference between the two groups (p<.01). In conclusion, CAC detected on panoramic radiograph might have an association with atherosclerosis

Whereas calcium deposition in soft tissues is not uncommon, highly-structured, identified as mature cancellous bone within soft tissues is not frequent. Here, we report an usual case of mature cancellous bone in cheek subcutaneous tissue in 15-year-old Korean male. Microscopically the cancellous bone was encompassed by epithelial cells, which was confirmed by immunohistochemical staining with cytokeratin AE1/3. The present mature cancellous bone in subcutaneous tissue could be originated from oral epithelium.

Myositis ossificans traumatica(MOT) in head and neck area is a rare non-neoplastic, heterotopic bone formation within a muscle, arising after trauma or surgery. Although the several case reports have described the occurrence of MOT in other muscles of oro-facial musculature, MOT has never been reported in mentalis muscle. We demonstrate a case of MOT occurred in mentalis muscle of a 64 years old male. He recently complained of a movable mass with no pain. He had experienced a hitting trauma on his right anterior mandible about 25 years ago. Since then, the trauma area has been asymptomatic. The lesion showed severe muscular degeneration, resulted in a pseudocystic change without epithelial lining. The ectopic ossification was closely associated with the fibrous fascia of adjacent muscles. The lesion contained a lot of basophilic materials admixed with atrophying cells, which were supposed to be derived from muscle parenchyma injured previously. It was presumed that the basophilic materials induced callus-like ossification in the fibro-muscular lesion, also recruited macrophages and fibroblasts. However, the ossification processes in MOT were predominantly characterized by dystrophic calcification without osteoblastic differentiation of mesenchymal cells. Even more, there appeared some skeletal muscle bundles which were calcified dystrophically. Therefore, we suggest the present case of MOT might be initiated by dystrophic calcification in the degenerating muscle tissue

The central granular cell odontogenic tumor is a rare benign odontogenic neoplasm of uncertain hisotogenesis characterized by varying amounts of eosinophilic granular cells and apparently inactive odontogenic epithelium with variable presence of calcified tissue. We present a case of central granular cell odontogenic tumor involving the maxilla of 35-year-old man with immunohistochemical characterization of granular cells. In microscopic view, the granular cells densely packed in sheets and lobules with abundant eosinophilic, granular cytoplasm and eccentric round-to-ovoid nuclei revealed immunoreactivity for vimentin, α1-antitrysin and CD68, and NSE but not for cytokeratin and S-100 protein while the interspersed odontogenic epithelial cells were positive for cytokeratin only. Granular cells also revealed strong PAS staining. Numerous concentric structured round to ovoid calcified aggregates were also noted. The lesion was treated with excision without recurrence for 8 years. Our immuohistochemical staining findings also suggest that the granular cells of central granular cell odontogenic tumor are mesenchymal in origin with possible histiocytic differentiation

Prostatic calculi are common finding in radiographic examination, however, the true incidence and the clinical significance are not clearly known. We investigated the prevalence of prostatic calculi and the relationship between prostatic calcification and urolithiasis. From a database, 305 consecutive subjects older than 30 years of age who had undergone regular health checks in our hospital from January 2007 to July 2009 were enrolled in this study. Prostatic calculi and urinary stones were confirmed by non-enhanced CT. According to the presence of prostatic calculi, they were divided into two groups and the relationship with urolithiasis was determined using statistical analysis. Among 305 male subjects, prostatic calculi were found in 97 (31.9%), which revealed a linear trend with aging (r=0.928, p=0.023), while asymptomatic upper urinary tract stones were found in 45 subjects (14.9%). A significant difference was observed in mean age (p<0.001), however, no difference was observed in prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HT), and body mass index (BMI). In the prostatic calculi group, 24 (24.7%) subjects had previously unknown urolithiasis, while only 21 subjects (10.1%) in the non-prostatic calculi group had urinary stones. The prevalence of urolithiasis was significantly higher in men with prostatic calcification than in those without prostatic calcification (OR=2.92, 95% CI: 1.53-5.58, p=0.001). No significant differences in serum chemistry were observed between the two groups. Among the 45 patients with urolithiasis, no significant differences were observed in the mean stone size according to the presence of prostatic calcification. Our data showed that prostatic calcification was prevalent up to approximately 31.9% and was frequently combined with upper urinary tract stones. These results indicate that evaluation for urolithiasis might be needed in patients with incidentally detected prostatic calcification.

Gene reg비 at i o n during the human craniofacial development is not well understood In effort to understand n ewly identifï ed genes that may play role(s) in the human craniofacial development, non-redundan t genes were isolated from the s ubtracted cDNA libra ry of human embryonal craniofacial tissues and examined their possible structu ral rolc in parallcl with thosc gcncs from isolatecl human c h o nclroc)πes cDNA library. Fifty genes were init ia ll y chosen from 398 clones iso latecl were used for selective dominant expression in both chondrocytes and the craniofacial sections of 10 weeks old human embryo by in situ hybridization method. Based upon the high levels 。f expression, we have identifi ecl seven unknown genes; ch89, ch96. ch129. ch 153. ch 276 ch285. and ch334 . In 。rder to unde rs tancl the possi ble role of these genes‘ the structural simulation of the expressed proteins were constructecl by Sybyl 6.6 program. Ch 276 gene was same with a clone, c14 0 1' f173. registered in GenBank(NM_022489) a nd is composed 0 1' 323 amino acids having a reverse s ignaling domain from the extra- cellular matrix(C-terminal) to cell membrane(N-terminal) and 12 turns of helical structure. Gene protein also r etains a famil iar fïbronectin binding domain(RGD). three s ites 0 1' Ca ion binding motifs. cAMP- and cGMP-dep endent protein kinase phos phorylation site, two regions of protein kinase C phosphorylation s ites. glyco- saminoglycan attachment s ite ancl N-glycosylation site. transmembrane and Al kaline Phosphatase active s ite domains This newly iclentifï ed human protein from human choncl rocytes cDNA library appearecl to be related to a known calcification s ignaling protein. was named as Ca lsin(Ch276) . Ch153 appeared to be related a family of anti-microbial peptide acting as an inflammation mediator and Ch334 clone as a zinc finger protein whose expression in creases in human adult ti ssue‘ These results suggest that these novel genes ident i!ï ed from human chondrocytes rnay provide a new path 0 1' embryonic cartilage development and human craniofacial development.

Al thou gh calcifi cation is a common finding in inflammatory salivary gland disorders , saliva ry gland tumour ra rely s hows calcifications. A case of clear cell mucoepidermoid carcinoma(MEC) of the hard pa late with extensive intra tumoural calcifïcations vis ible on computed tomog r때hy(CT) scans and histologic sections is described. The calci fï caLion in the sali va ry gland tumour 0 1' the palate recogni zed by a CT scan s hould be considered in the differential diagnosis of a MEC The mechanism of the i ntratumoural calcifi cation in our case is speculated to be a result of a secretory fu nction 0 1' the tumour cells

As pulp calcification occurs at least fifty percent of total teeth, the focal calcification in pulp chamber usually appears in all age groups. However, the pulp calcification is one of the important pathologic changes affecting the pulp vitality. In order to elucidate the mechanism of pulp calcification during the retrogressive degeneration of pulp tissue we performed an immunohistochemical study for proteases (MMP-3, MMP-10, and cathepsin-G), antiproteases (TIMP-1, α1- AT) and proteins involving tissue protection (TGase-2 and HSP-70). In the normal pulp tissue MMP-3 and MMP-10 were weakly expressed, but cathepsin-G and TIMP-1 were rarely expressed. Around the calcifying tissue of MMP-3, MMP- 10, and α1-AT were predominant, but TIMP-1 and cathepsin-G were sparsely expressed. On the other hands, TGase-2 and HSP-70 were condensed in the proximal fibrous tissue. These data suggest that the pulp calcification is related to retrogressive pulp degeneration, which could be resulted in the incomplete digestion of the degenerated stromal tissue by different proteases. We presume that the aberrant protease digestion of chronic pulpal pathosis, i.e., sclerotic fibrosis, chronic pulp degeneration, etc., may enhance the dystrophic calcification in dental pulp.