Bisphosphonate-induced Osteonecrosis of the Jaws: Review, Clinical Implications and Case Report

The introduction of bisphosphonates has increased in the last decade following their indication for metastatic bone diseases, osteoporosis, hypercalcaemia of malignancy and Paget’s disease. Although bisphosphonates have been used clinically for more than three decades there have been no documented long-term complications of their effects on the jaws until recently, where there is now growing evidence of the influence of bisphosphonates on osteonecrosis of the jaws. The aim of this paper is to report a case of this newly described complication, to review this phenomenon, including the clinical implications and to reiterate current clinical guidelines for management of patients in which bisphosphonate therapy is indicated. To the best of our knowledge this is the first reported case of bisphosphonate-induced necrosis of the jaw in South Africa.     

Evaluation of the differentiation potential of WB-F344 rat liver epithelial stem-like cells in vivo. Differentiation to hepatocytes after transplantation into dipeptidylpeptidase-IV-deficient rat liver.

After intrahepatic transplantation into livers of adult syngeneic German-strain Fischer 344 rats that are deficient for the bile canalicular enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV), cultured WB-F344 rat liver epithelial cells (without exogenous marker genes) integrate into hepatic plates and differentiate into hepatocyte-like cells that are morphologically and functionally indistinguishable from mature hepatocytes. In this model system, the differentiated progeny of transplanted WB-F344 cells are identified among the DPP-IV-negative host hepatocytes by their expression of bile canalicular DPP-IV enzyme activity. DPP-IV-positive hepatocyte-like cells also expressed other markers of hepatocytic differentiation, including albumin, transferrin, and alpha-1-antitrypsin, suggesting that the progeny of transplanted WB-F344 cells express a complete hepatocyte differentiation program. These results complement our previous studies indicating WB-F344 cells can serve as stem-like precursor cells for differentiated hepatocytes and strengthen the suggestion that WB-F344 rat liver epithelial cells represent the cultured counterpart of liver stem-like hepatocyte progenitor cells present in the normal adult rat liver.     

Lymph Node Mesenchymal and Endothelial Stromal Cells Cooperate via the RANK-RANKL Cytokine Axis to Shape the Sinusoidal Macrophage Niche

1. Download : Download high-res image (251KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image