Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease of the supportive tissues surrounding the teeth, and is characterized by irreversible destruction of the gingiva, periodontal ligament (PDL), and alveolar bone, which results in the loss of teeth. In the present study, we elucidated the correlation between periodontitis and apelin (APLN), an adipokine and a regulatory peptide, respectively, which are involved in inflammation and bone remodeling. The expression of APLN is negatively correlated with periodontitis progression in gingival tissue. In addition, treatment with TNF-α downregulated the expression of APLN in PDL cells and gingival fibroblasts, indicating the protective role played by APLN against periodontitis progression. The overexpression of APLN or treatment with exogenous APLN suppressed the TNF-α- mediated catabolic gene expression of MMP1, IL6 , and PTGS2 in PDL cells. Moreover, the inhibition of the APLNAPJ axis by ML221, an APJ inhibitor, induced catabolic gene expression in PDL cells. Thus, the results of this study provided evidence to support APLN as a regulatory factor of the inflammatory response during periodontitis.

Salmonellae are gram-negative bacilli of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Gastroenteritis was the most frequent clinical sign and osteoarticular infection like septic arthritis were extremely scarce in a patient with Salmonella infection. An immunocompromised state are known risk factors for development of septic arthritis due to Salmonella. The treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has recently seen a paradigm shift with the introduction of biological therapy. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha antagonist (anti TNF-α) have especially been able to play major roles in the treatment of RA. But there is concern that this will result in an increased incidence of infection. There have been few reports of Salmonella infection following anti TNF-α in a RA patient. Here, we report a rare case of septic arthritis of the left knee by Group B non-typhoidal Salmonella in a RA patient who was receiving etanercept therapy. The patients was treated with arthroscopy guided irrigation and debridement, and administration of intravenous antibiotics (ciprofloxacin) for 4 weeks. Since then, he achieved a full recovery from the infection.

Korean Sophora japonica has been found to posses an anti-inflammatory activity. In this study, Korean Sophora japonica extract, rutin, was used to know whether rutin inhibits to produce inflammatory mediators NO and TNF-α from the mouse peritoneal macrophages that were treated an inflammatory agent LPS. The rutin-1 hr pretreated macrophages were incubated with LPS for 0.5~5 hrs, and then collected the supernatant and the cell lysate for measurements of the level of iNOS, NO, TNF-α mRNA, TNF-α, and p-NF-kB. Minimal and maximal effective doses of the rutin on them were 1 and 100μg/ml, respectively. The maximal effective dose of rutin certainly inhibted the productions of iNOS, NO, TNF-α mRNA, TNF-αand p-NF-kB from the LPS-treated macrophages (p〈0.0001). Its ED50 for inhibition of TNF-α mRNA and p-NF-kB was 5μg/ml, and for iNOS, NO, and TNF-α was 10μg/ml. The rutin did not have any cytotoxic effect. As the results, the Sophora japonica rutin could be a good candidate for an anti-inflammatory action.