Cariogenicity tests.

An American Dental Association Scientific Consensus Conference on Methods for the Assessment of the Cariogenic Potential (CP) of Foods was held in San Antonio, Texas, in 1985. The aim was to establish a scientific consensus regarding methods to assess the CP of foods. As a result, a sequential food-testing program was proposed involving Animal Caries, Human Plaque Acidity, and Demineralization/Remineralization Models. Two categories of CP--namely, no CP and low CP--were included. The test protocol has hardly been followed since, primarily because the category of low CP was not considered useful in dietary counseling. It is advocated that research into possible caries-preventive factors of food will be more beneficial for improvements of the oral health of the general population than assessments of low CP

Genetic effects on gene expression across human tissues.

Characterization of the molecular function of the human genome and its variation across individuals is essential for identifying the cellular mechanisms that underlie human genetic traits and diseases. The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project aims to characterize variation in gene expression levels across individuals and diverse tissues of the human body, many of which are not easily accessible. Here we describe genetic effects on gene expression levels across 44 human tissues. We find that local genetic variation affects gene expression levels for the majority of genes, and we further identify inter-chromosomal genetic effects for 93 genes and 112 loci. On the basis of the identified genetic effects, we characterize patterns of tissue specificity, compare local and distal effects, and evaluate the functional properties of the genetic effects. We also demonstrate that multi-tissue, multi-individual data can be used to identify genes and pathways affected by human disease-associated variation, enabling a mechanistic interpretation of gene regulation and the genetic basis of disease