Preliminary evaluation of the utility of optical coherence tomography in detecting structural changes during photobiomodulation treatment in patients with atrophic-erosive oral lichen planus

INTRODUCTION: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a common oral inflammatory condition. Against symptomatic atrophic-erosive OLP, topical steroids, or photobiomodulation (PBM) are deployed. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides a real-time, non-invasive, tissue investigation. Aim of this study was to evaluate modifications of OCT pattern in patients with painful atrophic-erosive OLP, before and after treatment with PBM, comparing those results with patients treated with topical steroid. METHODS: Two groups of 20 OLP patients were evaluated. Group A underwent two daily application of 0.05% clobetasol propionate for 8 weeks; group B was treated with eight weekly PBM sessions using a 980/645 nm diode laser. OCT scans were performed before and after treatment, and six months after end of the proposed protocol. Changes of width of stratified epithelium (EP) and lamina propria (LP) were quantified. RESULTS: After 8-weeks, both groups experienced a significant increase of EP width (p  0.05). After six months, significant increase of EP width remained only in group B (p = 0.01), with no significant decrease of LP mean width in both groups (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Increase of EP and decrease of LP might be explained as consequence of clobetasol and PBM ability to promote epithelial healing, and to reduce interface inflammation. When investigated with OCT, clobetasol appears to provide more significant short-term structural changes, whereas PBM might guarantee long-term alterations

In-vivo usefulness of optical coherence tomography in atrophic-erosive oral lichen planus: Comparison between histopathological and ultrastructural findings

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a common premalignant chronic inflammatory disorder. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) provides a real-time, non-invasive, and in-situ optical signature using light of varying wavelengths to examine tissue. Aim of the present study was to assess the possible role of OCT as diagnostic tool for atrophic-erosive OLP by examining OCT scans of healthy buccal mucosa, and comparing their ultrastructural features with those of a buccal mucosa affected by atrophic-erosive OLP, using their histopathological counterparts as the gold standard. Through grayscale (enface scan) and an application in which the vascularization of the tissue is visible (dynamic scan), it was possible to distinguish the healthy from the lichenoid pattern from 20 controls (12 M; 8 F; mean age: 41.32 years) and 20 patients with histologically confirmed atrophic-erosive OLP (7 M; 13 F; mean age: 64.27 years). In detail, mean width of stratified squamous epithelium (EP) and lamina propria (LP) were evaluated. Among controls, EP and LP showed a mean width of 300 (±50) and of 600 (±50) μm respectively; among cases, disruption of membrane basement prevented from any measurement. Furthermore, a differential pattern of EP and LP emerged between the two groups: a light-grayish, hypo-reflective, homogeneous area of EP recurring in controls turned into a hyper-reflective, non-homogeneous area among cases. Dynamic scan showed a differential profile of LP vascularization, varying from a hypo-reflective red area with small blood vessels in the control group, to a hypo/hyper-reflective area, completely overrun by a denser, wider blood flow amid OLP cases. Although histopathological examination remains the gold standard for OLP diagnosis, OCT could be a potentially helpful tool for the clinician and the pathologist, since it allows analysis of the vascularization of the sample without adversely affecting histological processing

Two loop electroweak corrections to Bˉ→Xsγ\bar B\rightarrow X_s\gamma and Bs0→μ+μ−B_s^0\rightarrow \mu^+\mu^- in the B-LSSM

The rare decays $\bar B\rightarrow X_s\gamma$ and $B_s^0\rightarrow \mu^+\mu^-$ are important to research new physics beyond standard model. In this work, we investigate two loop electroweak corrections to $\bar B\rightarrow X_s\gamma$ and $B_s^0\rightarrow \mu^+\mu^-$ in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the SM with local $B-L$ gauge symmetry (B-LSSM), under a minimal flavor violating assumption for the soft breaking terms. In this framework, new particles and new definition of squarks can affect the theoretical predictions of these two processes, with respect to the MSSM. Considering the constraints from updated experimental data, the numerical results show that the B-LSSM can fit the experimental data for the branching ratios of $\bar B\rightarrow X_s\gamma$ and $B_s^0\rightarrow \mu^+\mu^-$. The results of the rare decays also further constrain the parameter space of the B-LSSM.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures, Published in EPJ

Supersymmetric constraints from Bs -> mu+mu- and B -> K* mu+mu- observables

We study the implications of the recent LHCb limit and results on Bs -> mu+mu- and B -> K* mu+mu- observables in the constrained SUSY scenarios. After discussing the Standard Model predictions and carefully estimating the theoretical errors, we show the constraining power of these observables in CMSSM and NUHM. The latest limit on BR(Bs -> mu+mu-), being very close to the SM prediction, constrains strongly the large tan(beta) regime and we show that the various angular observables from B -> K* mu+mu- decay can provide complementary information in particular for moderate tan(beta) values.Comment: 30 pages, 14 figure

Control of somatosensory cortical processing by thalamic posterior medial nucleus: A new role of thalamus in cortical function

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Current knowledge of thalamocortical interaction comes mainly from studying lemniscal thalamic systems. Less is known about paralemniscal thalamic nuclei function. In the vibrissae system, the posterior medial nucleus (POm) is the corresponding paralemniscal nucleus. POm neurons project to L1 and L5A of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in the rat brain. It is known that L1 modifies sensory-evoked responses through control of intracortical excitability suggesting that L1 exerts an influence on whisker responses. Therefore, thalamocortical pathways targeting L1 could modulate cortical firing. Here, using a combination of electrophysiology and pharmacology in vivo, we have sought to determine how POm influences cortical processing. In our experiments, single unit recordings performed in urethane- anesthetized rats showed that POm imposes precise control on the magnitude and duration of supra- and infragranular barrel cortex whisker responses. Our findings demonstrated that L1 inputs from POm imposed a time and intensity dependent regulation on cortical sensory processing. Moreover, we found that blocking L1 GABAergic inhibition or blocking P/Q-type Ca2+ channels in L1 prevents POm adjustment of whisker responses in the barrel cortex. Additionally, we found that POm was also controlling the sensory processing in S2 and this regulation was modulated by corticofugal activity from L5 in S1. Taken together, our data demonstrate the determinant role exerted by the POm in the adjustment of somatosensory cortical processing and in the regulation of cortical processing between S1 and S2. We propose that this adjustment could be a thalamocortical gain regulation mechanism also present in the processing of information between cortical areas.This work was supported by a grant from Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (BFU2012- 36107

QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories : challenges and perspectives

We highlight the progress, current status, and open challenges of QCD-driven physics, in theory and in experiment. We discuss how the strong interaction is intimately connected to a broad sweep of physical problems, in settings ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to strongly coupled, complex systems in particle and condensed-matter physics, as well as to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We also discuss how success in describing the strong interaction impacts other fields, and, in turn, how such subjects can impact studies of the strong interaction. In the course of the work we offer a perspective on the many research streams which flow into and out of QCD, as well as a vision for future developments.Peer reviewe

Consensus guidelines for the use and interpretation of angiogenesis assays

The formation of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis, is a complex process that plays important roles in growth and development, tissue and organ regeneration, as well as numerous pathological conditions. Angiogenesis undergoes multiple discrete steps that can be individually evaluated and quantified by a large number of bioassays. These independent assessments hold advantages but also have limitations. This article describes in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro bioassays that are available for the evaluation of angiogenesis and highlights critical aspects that are relevant for their execution and proper interpretation. As such, this collaborative work is the first edition of consensus guidelines on angiogenesis bioassays to serve for current and future reference