Changes in bacterial number at different sites of oral cavity during perioperative oral care management in gastrointestinal cancer patients: preliminary study

Objective: The objective of this study was to clarify differences in bacterial accumulation between gastrointestinal cancer patients who underwent severely invasive surgery and those who underwent minimally invasive surgery. Material and Methods: We performed a preliminary investigation of gastrointestinal cancer patients who were treated at the Department of Surgery, Takarazuka Municipal Hospital, from 2015 to 2017 (n=71; 42 laparoscopic surgery, 29 open surgery) to determine changes in bacterial numbers at different sites of the oral cavity (tongue dorsum, gingiva of upper anterior teeth, palatoglossal arch), as well as mouth dryness and tongue coating indices. Specifically, patients received professional tooth cleaning (PTC), scaling, tongue cleaning, and self-care instruction regarding tooth brushing from a dental hygienist a day before the operation. Professional oral health care was also performed by a dental hygienist two and seven days after surgery. Oral bacteria numbers were determined using a bacterial counter with a dielectrophoretic impedance measurement method. Results: The number of bacteria at all three examined sites were significantly higher in the open surgery group when compared to the laparoscopic surgery group on the second postoperative day. Relevantly, bacterial count in samples from the gingiva of the upper anterior teeth remained greater seven days after the operation in patients who underwent open surgery. Furthermore, the dry mouth index level was higher in the open surgery group when compared to the laparoscopic surgery group on postoperative days 2 and 7. Conclusions: Even with regular oral health care, bacterial numbers remained high in the upper incisor tooth gingiva in gastrointestinal cancer patients who received open surgery. Additional procedures are likely needed to effectively reduce the number of bacteria in the gingival area associated with the upper anterior teet

Loss of function of an Arabidopsis homologue of JMJD6 suppresses the dwarf phenotype of acl5, a mutant defective in thermospermine biosynthesis

In Arabidopsis thaliana, the ACL5 gene encodes thermospermine synthase and its mutant, acl5, exhibits a dwarf phenotype with excessive xylem formation. Studies of suppressor mutants of acl5 reveal the involvement of thermospermine in enhancing mRNA translation of the SAC51 gene family. We show here that a mutant, sac59, which partially suppresses the acl5 phenotype, has a point mutation in JMJ22 encoding a D6-class Jumonji C protein (JMJD6). A T-DNA insertion allele, jmj22-2, also partially suppressed the acl5 phenotype while mutants of its closest two homologs JMJ21 and JMJ20 had no such effects, suggesting a unique role for JMJ22 in plant development. We found that mRNAs of the SAC51 family are more stabilized in acl5 jmj22-2 than in acl5

Effect of heat exposure on the growth and developmental competence of bovine oocytes derived from early antral follicles

In dairy cows, low fertility caused by summer heat stress continues into the cooler autumn season. This can be caused by impaired oocyte quality in small growing follicles during summer. Here, we subjected oocyte-cumulus-granulosa complexes (OCGCs) derived from early antral follicles (0.5-1 mm) to in vitro growth (IVG) culture under two different temperature settings (the control and heat shock groups), and evaluated effects of heat exposure on growth and developmental competence of oocytes, factors affecting the developmental competence of oocytes (steroidogenesis of granulosa cells, oxidative stress in oocytes, and cell-to-cell communication between oocytes and somatic cells). Oocyte diameters after culture were smaller in the heat shock group. Although nuclear maturation and cleavage rates were similar between the groups, blastocyst rates were lower in the heat shock group (0.0%) than in the control group (27.7%), and reduced glutathione (GSH) levels in oocytes were lower in the heat shock group. Supplementation of cysteine, which stimulates GSH synthesis, increased GSH level and improved blastocyst rate of heat shocked oocytes (27.9%). These results suggest that heat exposure impairs the growth and developmental competence of oocytes in early antral follicles through GSH depletion, which can induce low fertility during summer and the following autumn

The diversity of Zn(II) coordination networks composed of multi-interactive ligand TPHAP(-) via weak intermolecular interaction

Kinetic state networks can be trapped by multi-interactive ligands via weak intermolecular interactions. Self-assembly of a tripyridyl multi-interactive ligand K+ TPHAP(-) (potassium 2,5,8-tri(4'-pyridyl)-1,3,4,6,7,9-hexaazaphenalene) and ZnI2 produced seven types of networks depending on the solvent systems (MeOH/additive solvent): [ZnI(TPHAP)]center dot 3.5CH(3)OH (1) (from MeOH/DMA), [ZnCl0.5I0.5(TPHAP)H2O]center dot 7H(2)O (2) (from MeOH/DMA + water), [ZnI(TPHAP)]center dot 3PhOH center dot 2CH(3)OH (3) (from MeOH/phenol ( 50%)), [ZnI(TPHAP)]center dot 2PhNO(2)center dot 6CH(3)OH (from MeOH/nitrobenzene) (5), [ZnI(TPHAP)CH3OH] 3PhNH(2) (6) (from MeOH/aniline), and [(ZnI)(2)(TPHAP)(HCON(CH3)(2))(3)(CH3OH)2](+)[(ZnI2)(2)(TPHAP)(HCON(CH3)(2))]- (HCON(CH3)(2))center dot 4CH(3)OH (7) (from MeOH/DMF). All structures were characterized by single crystal X-ray structure determination. Each topology was analyzed by TOPOS. The structures were categorized into two-or three-periodic structure. The structural features of each network were explained by the weak intermolecular interactions between TPHAP(-) and guest molecules. We demonstrated the multi-interactivity of TPHAP(-) which can recognize slight differences of the weak intermolecular interactions.open1158sciescopu