Factors Affecting Dental Caries Experience in 12-Year-Olds,Based on Data from Two Polish Provinces

(1) Background: Dental caries is a chronic disease that affects a child’s dentition from the first stages of life. Several factors contribute to the development of the disease, including an improper diet. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify risk factors of dental caries in 12-year-old adolescents from Greater Poland and Lubusz Provinces (Poland). (2) Material and methods: The research was conducted in adolescents from five primary schools. A questionnaire consisted of close-ended questions on socioeconomic characteristics on family, diet, and oral hygiene habits. An assessment of the dentition was carried out in accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. In addition to cavitated carious lesions, incipient caries lesions were noted according to the International Caries Detection and Assessment System, adapted for epidemiological studies (ICDASepiDMFt). (3) Results: The mean number of teeth with untreated caries; removed due to caries; and restored because of caries (DMFt) was 1.52 ± 1.90, while the ICDASepiDMFt index amounted to 2.64 ± 2.55, respectively. Children who did not brush every day had significantly higher odds of having ICDASepiDMFt > 0 than children brushing at least once daily (OR = 10.32, 95% CI = 1.36–78.32, p = 0.0240). Adolescents who drank sweet carbonated drinks every day had significantly higher ICDASepiDMTt than children who drank sweet carbonated drinks less frequently (p = 0.0477). (4) Conclusions: The research revealed that dental caries indices of 12-year-old adolescents from Greater Poland and Lubusz Provinces depend mainly on oral hygiene behaviors. The only significant nutritional factor that differentiated the caries intensity was the daily consumption of sweet carbonated drinks.     

Effect of alcohol upon arrhythmias following nonpenetrating cardiac impact

The purpose of this study was to determine if alcohol worsens arrhythmias produced by nonpenetrating cardiac impact. Twenty-three dogs were studied. Twelve underwent nonpenetrating cardiac impact alone at 12 m/sec with a contact compression of 2 cm. Eleven underwent cardiac impact after having received intravenous alcohol (blood level of 197 +/- 37 mg/100 ml) (mean +/- SD). Three dogs experienced ventricular fibrillation immediately after impact and died: of these, two underwent impact alone and one underwent impact following ethanol. These three dogs were eliminated from the study. All of the dogs had some form of complex arrhythmia during the first 10 minutes of observation, the average cumulative duration of which during the first 10 minutes following trauma was greater among dogs that received ethanol. No complex arrhythmias other than ventricular premature contractions or ventricular tachycardia were observed after the first 10 minutes following impact. During the first 2 hours of observation following cardiac impact, dogs that received alcohol before trauma showed more single premature ventricular contractions (p less than 0.03), couplets (p less than 0.01), triplets (p less than 0.02), runs of 4-20 beats (p less than 0.05), and total number of premature ventricular contractions (p less than 0.05) than dogs that underwent trauma alone. Following the first 10 minutes, ventricular irritability increased with time until approximately 1 hour, and then there was a gradual reduction of the frequency of arrhythmias in both dogs that received alcohol and those that did not. In conclusion, nonpenetrating cardiac impact in dogs that previously received ethanol was associated with greater ventricular irritability than in dogs that underwent impact alone.     

Intracellular growth factor metabolism in proliferation of a brain tumor cell line

Brain tumor cells secrete platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-), and through local production of these growth factors, brain tumor cells may stimulate their own proliferation.Previously we have shown that several different clones of canine glioma cells secrete varying amounts of PDGF and TGF- which correlate within vitro cloning efficiency andin vivo tumorigenicity. In this study, intracellular trafficking of PDGF and TGF- was assessed by treatment of each clone with agents preventing vesicular degradation and secretion of growth factors. Clone 2 was more sensitive to these agents (chloroquine and monensin) than clone 5, resulting in retention of intracellular¹²⁵I-PDGF and¹²⁵I-TGF-. Furthermore, exogenous TGF- inhibited DNA-synthesis dramatically in clone 2 (compared with clone 5), presumably by interfering with intracellular growth factor receptor availability. This is supported by the fact that exogenous TGF- increased the number of its receptors on clone 2 cells, whereas surface receptors decreased on clone 5 cells treated with TGF-. These results illustrate the potential for autocrine growth factors to interact with their receptors intracellularly during neoplastic cell proliferation.     

Protein surface topology-probing by selective chemical modification and mass spectrometric peptide mapping.

Aminoacetylation of lysine residues and the modification of arginine by 1,2-cyclohexanedione to N7,N8-(dihydroxy-1,2-cyclohexylidene)arginine were used for probing the surface topology of hen-eggwhite lysozyme as a model protein. The molecular identification of lysine and arginine modification sites was provided by molecular weight determinations of modified and unmodified tryptic peptide mixtures (peptide mapping) using 252Cf plasma desorption mass spectrometry. At conditions of limited chemical modification, mass-spectrometric peptide-mapping analyses of lysozyme derivatives enabled the direct assignment of relative reactivities of lysine and arginine residues at different reaction times and reagent concentrations. The relative reactivities of lysine residues showed a direct correlation with their surface accessibilities from x-ray structure data. For the reaction with 1,2-cyclohexanedione, a selective modification at Arg-5, -125, -112, and -73 was identified, and an inverse correlation of relative reactivities with the surface accessibility ratios of the N7- and the N8-guanidino functions was obtained. By examination of the x-ray structural data of lysozyme, this selective modification was attributed to intramolecular catalysis because of the presence of neighboring proton acceptor groups, such as the Asp-119 carboxylate group for Arg-125 and the Trp-123 and Arg-125 carbonyl groups for Arg-5.     

Co-Infections with Cytomegalovirus and Human Herpesvirus Type 7 in Adult Polish Allogeneic Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients

Human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) is widespread around the world and may also be a possible cofactor for cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients. In case of viral diseases where specific treatment is available, real-time PCR assays constitute reliable diagnostic tools enabling timely initiation of appropriate therapy and rapid assessment of the efficacy of antiviral treatment strategies. The presence of CMV and HHV-7 was confirmed by the detection of viral DNA isolated from 1,027 plasma samples. A group of 69 allogeneic HSCT (alloHSCT) recipients was examined in early post-transplant period using quantitative real-time PCR methods. Within the study period, 62 % of patients had at least once CMV DNA-emia, while HHV-7 DNA was found in 43 % of subjects. Co-infection between these β-herpesviruses was detected in the plasma samples collected from 18 patients (26 %). Patients with concomitant HHV-7 DNA-emia had significantly higher number of CMV DNA copies compared with those without HHV-7 infection (1986 vs. 432 copies/ml, p < 0.001) but there was no difference in duration of CMV DNA-emia between these groups. On the other hand, while the load of HHV-7 DNA was comparable between patients with CMV DNA-emia and without CMV DNA-emia, the duration of HHV-7 DNA-emia was significantly longer in the first group (38.5 vs. 14 days, p < 0.001). HHV-7 DNA-emia is very frequently detected in Polish alloHSCT recipients. In those, who have subsequent CMV reactivation, the coexistence of the viruses may negatively affect the kinetics of infection with either of them. Therefore the investigation of concomitant HHV-7 DNA-emia could affect the prognosis of post-transplant patients suffering from CMV reactivation.     

Percutaneous coronary interventions in patients with transplanted heart coronary artery disease. Effects of intracoronary stent implantation on long-term results

BACKGROUND: Transplanted heart coronary artery disease (TxCAD) is the most frequent casue of death occuring > or =5 years after orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT). Considering three basic therapeutic approaches - percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), surgical revascularisation and retransplantation - PCI seems to be the superior method due to its safety and good short-term results, however, the long-term efficacy of PCI has been less well established. AIM: To evaluate long-term results of PCI in the treatment of OHT recipients with TxCAD. METHODS: The study group consisted of 20 patients (19 males, aged 24-63, median 45.5 years; 14 (70%) had before OHT), who underwent single or multiple PCI of significant coronary lesions, revealed by elective (n=17) or urgent (n=3) coronary angiography (CAG). The overall number of PCI procedures was 26, including 8 with stent implantation. procedures were performed 9-151 (median 61.5) months after OHT. Analysis of PCI results was based on the follow-up CAGs or autopsy in case of death. RESULTS: Follow-up time was 3-90 (median 28) months. At least one CAG was performed in 17 (85%) patients - the overall number of follow-up CAGs was 53. Progression of TxCAD was revealed by 33 (62%) CAGs - the decision to perform subsequent single or multiple PCI was undertaken in 22 (42%) patients. The overall number of re-PCI procedures was 38 (with stent implantation in 11 cases). Out of 38 PCI procedures without stent implantation, significant restenosis was found on control CAG in 16 (42%) patients, and out of 16 PCI with stents -- in 11 (69%) patients, including 8 haemodynamically significant lesions. TxCAD was the cause of 5 out of 9 deaths that occurred during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: PCI is unable to stop TxCAD development in the majority of patients. Stent implantation does not improve long-term results of TxCAD treatment.     

Isolation and characterization of human antigen-specific TCR alpha beta+ CD4(-)CD8- double-negative regulatory T cells

Down-regulation of immune responses by regulatory T (Treg) cells is an important mechanism involved in the induction of tolerance to allo-antigens (Ags). Recently, a novel subset of Ag-specific T-cell receptor (TCR)alpha beta+ CD4(-)CD8- (double-negative [DN]) Treg cells has been found to be able to prevent the rejection of skin and heart allografts by specifically inhibiting the function of antigraft-specific CD8+ T cells. Here we demonstrate that peripheral DN Treg cells are present in humans, where they constitute about 1% of total CD3+ T cells, and consist of both naive and Ag-experienced cells. Similar to murine DN Treg cells, human DN Treg cells are able to acquire peptide-HLA-A2 complexes from antigen-presenting cells by cell contact-dependent mechanisms. Furthermore, such acquired peptide-HLA complexes appear to be functionally active, in that CD8+ T cells specific for the HLA-A2-restricted self-peptide, Melan-A, became sensitive to apoptosis by neighboring DN T cells after acquisition of Melan-A-HLA-A2 complexes and revealed a reduced proliferative response. These results demonstrate for the first time that a sizable population of peripheral DN Treg cells, which are able to suppress Ag-specific T cells, exists in humans. DN Treg cells may serve to limit clonal expansion of allo-Ag-specific T cells after transplantation.