Characteristics of respondents according to type and frequency of social participation.

<p>Characteristics of respondents according to type and frequency of social participation.</p

Association of dental health status with number of social activities determined by ordinal logistic regression.

<p>OR = odds ratio; CI = confidence interval.</p>a<p>Odds ratio adjusted for sex, age, marital status, current medical history, activity of daily living, educational attainment, and annual equivalent income.</p>b<p>Population-attributable fraction.</p

Characteristics of respondents.

<p>Characteristics of respondents.</p

Association of dental health status with type and frequency of social participation determined by ordinal logistic regression.

<p>OR = odds ratio; CI = confidence interval.</p>a<p>Odds ratio adjusted for sex, age, marital status, current medical history, activity of daily living, educational attainment, and annual equivalent income.</p>b<p>Population-attributable fraction.</p

Relative abundance of total subgingival plaque-specific bacteria in salivary microbiota reflects the overall periodontal condition in patients with periodontitis

<div><p>Increasing attention is being focused on evaluating the salivary microbiota as a promising method for monitoring oral health; however, its bacterial composition greatly differs from that of dental plaque microbiota, which is a dominant etiologic factor of oral diseases. This study evaluated the relative abundance of subgingival plaque-specific bacteria in the salivary microbiota and examined a relationship between the abundance and severity of periodontal condition in patients with periodontitis. Four samples (subgingival and supragingival plaques, saliva, and tongue coating) per each subject were collected from 14 patients with a broad range of severity of periodontitis before periodontal therapy. The bacterial composition was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing using Ion PGM. Of the 66 species-level operational taxonomic units (OTUs) representing the mean relative abundance of ≥ 1% in any of the four niches, 12 OTUs corresponding to known periodontal pathogens, including <i>Porphyromonas gingivalis</i>, were characteristically predominant in the subgingival plaque and constituted 37.3 ± 22.9% of the microbiota. The total relative abundance of these OTUs occupied only 1.6 ± 1.2% of the salivary microbiota, but significantly correlated with the percentage of diseased sites (periodontal pocket depth ≥ 4 mm; r = 0.78, P < 0.001), in addition to the abundance of subgingival plaque microbiota (r = 0.61, P = 0.02). After periodontal therapy, the total relative abundance of these 12 OTUs was evaluated as well as before periodontal therapy and reductions of the abundance through periodontal therapy were strongly correlated in saliva and subgingival plaque (r = 0.81, P < 0.001). Based on these results, salivary microbiota might be a promising target for the evaluation of subgingival plaque-derived bacteria representing the present condition of periodontal health.</p></div

Correlation of the total relative abundance of the 12 SUBP-specific OTUs in SL and SUBP samples, or the percentage of sites with periodontal pockets (≥4 mm depth).

<p>The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and the P value are shown in the upper or upper left side of the diagram. The gray line depicts the regression line.</p

Correlation of total relative abundance shift of the 12 SUBP-specific OTUs in SUBP samples with that in SL samples following periodontal therapy.

<p>The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and the P value are shown in the upper side of the diagram.</p

Relative abundance distribution of the 66 OTUs whose mean relative abundances in the pre-therapy samples from any of 4 niches exceeded 1%.

<p>The relative abundances of each OTU were normalized to a mean of 0 with standard deviation of 1 (z-score normalization) and are represented by the blue gradient in each grid (light = low abundance; dark = high abundance). The OTUs were ordered based on the result of a hierarchical cluster analysis using the Bray-Curtis distance, which is depicted as a dendrogram on the left side of the diagram. The 12 OTUs belonging to cluster III were characteristically more predominant in SUBP as compared to microbiota from the other three niches. It is displayed in the box with a broken line. Oral taxon IDs were given in parentheses following bacterial names.</p

HCV NS5A Protein Containing Potential Ligands for Both Src Homology 2 and 3 Domains Enhances Autophosphorylation of Src Family Kinase Fyn in B Cells

<div><p>Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects B lymphocytes and induces mixed cryoglobulinemia and B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The molecular mechanism for the pathogenesis of HCV infection-mediated B cell disorders remains obscure. To identify the possible role for HCV nonstructural 5A (NS5A) protein in B cells, we generated the stable B cell lines expressing Myc-His tagged NS5A. Immunoprecipitation study in the presence or absence of pervanadate (PV) implied that NS5A was tyrosine phosphorylated by pervanadate (PV) treatment of the cells. Therefore we examined pull-down assay by using glutathione S-transferase (GST)-fusion proteins of various Src homology 2 (SH2) domains, which associates with phosphotyrosine within a specific amino acid sequence. The results showed that NS5A specifically bound to SH2 domain of Fyn from PV-treated B cells in addition to Src homology 3 (SH3) domain. Substitution of Arg¹⁷⁶ to Lys in the SH2 domain of Fyn abrogated this interaction. Deletion mutational analysis demonstrated that N-terminal region of NS5A was not required for the interaction with the SH2 domain of Fyn. Tyr³³⁴ was identified as a tyrosine phosphorylation site in NS5A. Far-western analysis revealed that SH2 domain of Fyn directly bound to NS5A. Fyn and NS5A were colocalized in the lipid raft. These results suggest that NS5A directly binds to the SH2 domain of Fyn in a tyrosine phosphorylation-dependent manner. Lastly, we showed that the expression of NS5A in B cells increased phosphorylation of activation loop tyrosine in the kinase domain of Fyn. NS5A containing ligand for both SH2 and SH3 domains enhances an aberrant autophosphorylation and kinase activity of Fyn in B cells.</p> </div

Structural analysis of the association of NS5A with the SH2 domain of Fyn in B cells.

<p>COS cells (A, C, E) or B cells (Ramos-T) (B) expressing different kinds of NS5A were stimulated with PV and subjected to pull-down assay using GST-Fyn-SH2. Binding proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE and analyzed with immunoblotting with anti-Myc mAb. The amount of GST-fusion proteins was confirmed by CBB staining. (D) COS cells expressing different kinds of NS5A mutants were stimulated with PV and subjected to immunoprecipitation. Precipitated proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE and analyzed with immunoblotting with anti-pTyr (PY20) and anti-Myc mAbs. Molecular sizing markers are indicated at left in kilodalton. The results were representative of three independent experiments.</p