Characterization of the soft-tissue wall lining residual periodontal pockets and implications in periodontal wound healing

AIM To characterize the soft-tissue wall of remaining periodontal pockets for wound healing-related parameters versus healthy gingival crevices in the same individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS Gingival tissues collected from the diseased interface of pockets (GT biopsies) and from healthy gingival crevices (G biopsies) were subjected to RT$^{2}$-profiler PCR Array for wound healing-related markers and network analysis of differentially expressed genes. Lymphangiogenesis-related gene expression was determined by qRT-PCR. The migration potential of mesenchymal stem cells isolated from GT biopsies (GT-MSCs) and G biopsies (G-MSCs) was evaluated by the scratch- and the transwell migration assays. The total collagen protein content was determined in GT-MSCs and G-MSCs homogenates. RESULTS Gene-ontology analysis on significantly upregulated genes expressed in GT biopsies revealed enrichment of several genes involved in processes related to matrix remodeling, collagen deposition, and integrin signaling. No significantly expressed genes were seen in G biopsies. Regarding lymphangiogenesis-related genes, GT biopsies demonstrated greater expression for PROX1 than G biopsies (p = 0.05). Lower migration potential (p < 0.001), yet greater production of collagen protein (p = 0.05), was found for GT-MSCs over G-MSCs. CONCLUSION Differential expression patterns of various molecular pathways in biopsies and cell cultures of diseased versus healthy gingival tissues indicate a potential of the former for tissue remodeling and repair. CLINICAL RELEVANCE In the course of periodontitis, granulation tissue is formed within a periodontal defect in an attempt to reconstruct the site. Following treatment procedures periodontal granulation tissue remains inflamed but appears to retain healing potential

Latent Alignment with Deep Set EEG Decoders

The variability in EEG signals between different individuals poses a significant challenge when implementing brain-computer interfaces (BCI). Commonly proposed solutions to this problem include deep learning models, due to their increased capacity and generalization, as well as explicit domain adaptation techniques. Here, we introduce the Latent Alignment method that won the Benchmarks for EEG Transfer Learning (BEETL) competition and present its formulation as a deep set applied on the set of trials from a given subject. Its performance is compared to recent statistical domain adaptation techniques under various conditions. The experimental paradigms include motor imagery (MI), oddball event-related potentials (ERP) and sleep stage classification, where different well-established deep learning models are applied on each task. Our experimental results show that performing statistical distribution alignment at later stages in a deep learning model is beneficial to the classification accuracy, yielding the highest performance for our proposed method. We further investigate practical considerations that arise in the context of using deep learning and statistical alignment for EEG decoding. In this regard, we study class-discriminative artifacts that can spuriously improve results for deep learning models, as well as the impact of class-imbalance on alignment. We delineate a trade-off relationship between increased classification accuracy when alignment is performed at later modeling stages, and susceptibility to class-imbalance in the set of trials that the statistics are computed on

Idiopathic Sweet’s Syndrome with Oral Manifestations: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Sweetov sindrom ili akutna febrilna neutrofilna dermatoza, rijetka je kožna bolest nepoznate etiologije i patogeneze, povremeno udružena s malignitetom, a najčešće se javlja kod sredovječnih žena. Klinički su to bolne papule koje oblikuju plakove na koži te ustrajna vrućica i bolni zglobovi, a najdosljedniji je laboratorijski nalaz leukocitoza s neutrofilijom. Predstavljamo dobro dokumentiran slučaj pacijentice u dobi od 62 godine s idiopatskim Sweetovim sindromom, prvim prijavljenim slučajem s oralnim lezijama u Grčkoj te opisom kliničkih i histoloških nalaza i terapije. Također dajemo uvid u literaturu o slučajevima koji uključuju i oralne lezije.Sweet’s syndrome or acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis is an uncommon skin disease of unknown cause and pathogenesis, occasionally associated with malignancy, which is mostly occurring in middle aged women. Clinically, painful plaqueforming inflammatory papules on the skin are accompanied by high persistent fever and arthralgia and the most consistent laboratory findings are peripheral leukocytosis with neutrophilia. We present a well-documented case of a 62 year-old female patient, with idiopathic Sweet’s syndrome, the first reported in Greece with oral lesions, describing its clinical and histological findings and the treatment, and we also review the relative literature focusing on cases with oral involvement

Idiopathic Sweet’s Syndrome with Oral Manifestations: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Sweetov sindrom ili akutna febrilna neutrofilna dermatoza, rijetka je kožna bolest nepoznate etiologije i patogeneze, povremeno udružena s malignitetom, a najčešće se javlja kod sredovječnih žena. Klinički su to bolne papule koje oblikuju plakove na koži te ustrajna vrućica i bolni zglobovi, a najdosljedniji je laboratorijski nalaz leukocitoza s neutrofilijom. Predstavljamo dobro dokumentiran slučaj pacijentice u dobi od 62 godine s idiopatskim Sweetovim sindromom, prvim prijavljenim slučajem s oralnim lezijama u Grčkoj te opisom kliničkih i histoloških nalaza i terapije. Također dajemo uvid u literaturu o slučajevima koji uključuju i oralne lezije.Sweet’s syndrome or acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis is an uncommon skin disease of unknown cause and pathogenesis, occasionally associated with malignancy, which is mostly occurring in middle aged women. Clinically, painful plaqueforming inflammatory papules on the skin are accompanied by high persistent fever and arthralgia and the most consistent laboratory findings are peripheral leukocytosis with neutrophilia. We present a well-documented case of a 62 year-old female patient, with idiopathic Sweet’s syndrome, the first reported in Greece with oral lesions, describing its clinical and histological findings and the treatment, and we also review the relative literature focusing on cases with oral involvement

Retrograde movements determine effective stem cell numbers in the intestine

The morphology and functionality of the epithelial lining differ along the intestinal tract, but tissue renewal at all sites is driven by stem cells at the base of crypts(1-3). Whether stem cell numbers and behaviour vary at different sites is unknown. Here we show using intravital microscopy that, despite similarities in the number and distribution of proliferative cells with an Lgr5 signature in mice, small intestinal crypts contain twice as many effective stem cells as large intestinal crypts. We find that, although passively displaced by a conveyor-belt-like upward movement, small intestinal cells positioned away from the crypt base can function as long-term effective stem cells owing to Wnt-dependent retrograde cellular movement. By contrast, the near absence of retrograde movement in the large intestine restricts cell repositioning, leading to a reduction in effective stem cell number. Moreover, after suppression of the retrograde movement in the small intestine, the number of effective stem cells is reduced, and the rate of monoclonal conversion of crypts is accelerated. Together, these results show that the number of effective stem cells is determined by active retrograde movement, revealing a new channel of stem cell regulation that can be experimentally and pharmacologically manipulated.Peer reviewe

A Consumer BCI for Automated Music Evaluation Within a Popular On-Demand Music Streaming Service “Taking Listener’s Brainwaves to Extremes”

Part 9: Artificial Neural Network Modeling (ANNMO)International audienceWe investigated the possibility of a using a machine-learning scheme in conjunction with commercial wearable EEG-devices for translating listener’s subjective experience of music into scores that can be used for the automated annotation of music in popular on-demand streaming services.Based on the established -neuroscientifically sound- concepts of brainwave frequency bands, activation asymmetry index and cross-frequency-coupling (CFC), we introduce a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system that automatically assigns a rating score to the listened song.Our research operated in two distinct stages: (i) a generic feature engineering stage, in which features from signal-analytics were ranked and selected based on their ability to associate music induced perturbations in brainwaves with listener’s appraisal of music. (ii) a personalization stage, during which the efficiency of extreme learning machines (ELMs) is exploited so as to translate the derived patterns into a listener’s score. Encouraging experimental results, from a pragmatic use of the system, are presented