Unraveling the Link between Periodontitis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Challenges and Outlook

Periodontitis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) are chronic inflammatory conditions, characterized by microbial dysbiosis and hyper-immunoinflammatory responses. Growing evidence suggest an interconnection between periodontitis and IBD, implying a shift from the traditional concept of independent diseases to a complex, reciprocal cycle. This review outlines the evidence supporting an Oral-Gut axis, marked by a higher prevalence of periodontitis in IBD patients and vice versa. The specific mechanisms linking periodontitis and IBD remain to be fully elucidated, but emerging evidence points to the ectopic colonization of the gut by oral bacteria, which promote intestinal inflammation by activating host immune responses. This review presents an in-depth examination of the interconnection between periodontitis and IBD, highlighting the shared microbiological and immunological pathways, and proposing a multi-hit hypothesis in the pathogenesis of periodontitis-mediated intestinal inflammation. Furthermore, the review underscores the critical need for a collaborative approach between dentists and gastroenterologists to provide holistic oral-systemic healthcare.Comment: Total Words: 7,016 Figures: 3 Tables: 2 Reference: 34

The sea urchin seawi and other argonaute family of proteins: it’s a small RNA world after all

A fundamental question in studying embryonic development is to understand the regulation and integration of major developmental events, such as cell proliferation, cell specialization, cell interaction, and cell movement. Regulation of protein transcription, translation, and signaling during development can be modeled by the developmental gene regulatory network (GRN). In the sea urchin GRN, the animal-vegetal axis is established by polarized expression or localization of cell-fate determinants, such as beta-catenin nuclear localization in vegetal cells and bep4 expression in animal cells. Over the last decade, the discovery of small non-coding RNA as an effector of epigenetic, post-transcriptional, and translational regulation has led to reconsideration of the GRN. In this thesis, we investigated the role of argonaute/piwi and their association with small non-coding RNA in sea urchin development. We characterized the sea urchin argonaute/piwi proteins, examining their developmental expression profiles, characterizing the proteins present in seawi-associated MT-RNP complexes, and examining the small non-coding RNA populations in eggs, embryos, adult tissues, and MT-RNP complexes. We show seawi, sea urchin piwi, is expressed in germline lineage and stem cells in development, and seawi predominately associates with piRNA. Within the seawi-associated population of piRNAs, there are specific sets of piRNA sequences, which are complementary to the mRNA of cell-fate determinants bep4 and beta-catenin. These results lead to the potential for small non-coding RNA regulation of GRNs in sea urchin development. We also show that mi- and piRNAs are present in sea urchin sperm. This suggests that sperm has the ability to provide small non-coding RNAs to regulate embryonic developmental events. This finding challenges the current theory of sperm serving only as the delivery system for the paternal genome and provides new insight for a novel paternal regulation.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Ling-shiang Chuan

Falsely decreased HbA1c in a type 2 diabetic patient treated with dapsone

Glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is an important indicator of glycemic control. The current recommendation for glycemic control based on HbA1c values has been widely accepted. However, HbA1c values depend on the lifespan of erythrocytes and the assay methods used. Here, we report the case of a patient with type 2 diabetes with unusual falling of HbA1c due to interference from dapsone treatment for leukocytoclastic vasculitis. He was a 52-year-old man, who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus 5 years previously and who had been treated in our hospital in the past 3 years. Glycemia was controlled by sulfonylurea and metformin. During the 3-years follow-up period, HbA1c dropped significantly during the addition of dapsone treatment, although plasma glucose levels remained stable. HbA1c levels were raised after discontinuation of dapsone. With rechallenge of dapsone usage, HbA1c decreased again. We conclude that dapsone may be the cause of artificially low HbA1c. Other measurements to monitor glycemic control should be considered when dapsone is used for the treatment of concurrent disorders, such as autoimmune disease and pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia

Various Microscopic Methods for Investigating the Venuloid Idioblasts of Pteris grevilleana Wall.

Venuloid idioblasts are vein-like structures. In Pteris, they are long epidermal cells with very thick cell walls. In this study, venuloid idioblasts of Pteris grevilleana were investigated with various light microscopic (LM) and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) techniques and the main purposes of these microscopic techniques are summarized and discussed. To investigate the morphology and distribution of venuloid idioblasts, partial polarization LM technique and cryo-tabletop-SEM technique were used. The idioblasts had lobed margins, acute or round ends, and could be found on both upper and lower epidermis of fertile fronds and sterile fronds. They are distributed on veins, interveinal regions, and leaf margins, but not on costules, costae, and false indusia. By using histochemical staining and SEM with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS), it was confirmed that the idioblasts contained silicon. In addition, the venuloid-idioblast-like silica bodies were extracted by wet oxidation method. These indicate that the venuloid indioblast in P. grevilleana is a kind of spicular cell (long epidermal cells containing silica bodies, which are found in Adiantoids and Vittarioids)

Managing Vibration Training Safety by Using Knee Flexion Angle and Rating Perceived Exertion

Whole-body vibration (WBV) is commonly applied in exercise and rehabilitation and its safety issues have been a major concern. Vibration measured using accelerometers can be used to further analyze the vibration transmissibility. Optimal bending angles and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) evaluations have not been sufficiently explored to mitigate the adverse effect. Therefore, the aims of this study were to investigate the effect of various knee flexion angles on the transmissibility to the head and knee, the RPE during WBV exposure, and the link between the transmissibility to the head and the RPE. Sixteen participants randomly performed static squats with knee flexion angles of 90, 110, 130, and 150 degrees on a WBV platform. Three accelerometers were fixed on the head, knee, and center of the vibration platform to provide data of platform-to-head and platform-to-knee transmissibilities. The results showed that the flexion angle of 110 degrees induced the lowest platform-to-head transmissibility and the lowest RPE (p < 0.01). A positive correlation between RPE and the platform-to-head transmissibility was observed. This study concluded that a knee flexion of about 110 degrees is most appropriate for reducing vibration transmissibility. The reported RPE could be used to reflect the vibration impact to the head

Managing Vibration Training Safety by Using Knee Flexion Angle and Rating Perceived Exertion

Whole-body vibration (WBV) is commonly applied in exercise and rehabilitation and its safety issues have been a major concern. Vibration measured using accelerometers can be used to further analyze the vibration transmissibility. Optimal bending angles and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) evaluations have not been sufficiently explored to mitigate the adverse effect. Therefore, the aims of this study were to investigate the effect of various knee flexion angles on the transmissibility to the head and knee, the RPE during WBV exposure, and the link between the transmissibility to the head and the RPE. Sixteen participants randomly performed static squats with knee flexion angles of 90, 110, 130, and 150 degrees on a WBV platform. Three accelerometers were fixed on the head, knee, and center of the vibration platform to provide data of platform-to-head and platform-to-knee transmissibilities. The results showed that the flexion angle of 110 degrees induced the lowest platform-to-head transmissibility and the lowest RPE (p < 0.01). A positive correlation between RPE and the platform-to-head transmissibility was observed. This study concluded that a knee flexion of about 110 degrees is most appropriate for reducing vibration transmissibility. The reported RPE could be used to reflect the vibration impact to the head

Development of an objective mental workload assessment tool based on Rasmussen's skill–rule–knowledge framework

<div><p>It is important to monitor operators’ mental workload during the operation phase. Physiological measurement approaches could record the operator's mental data continuously, and might be less interruptive on the work activities. However, these methods often require the attachment of physical sensors, which are not unobtrusive in the physical sense. Furthermore, the individual difference makes calibrating to each individual tedious and requires trained persons to use. Often high noise-to-signal ratio data are hard to analyze. Due to these factors, physiological workload measurements are hardly widely applied in practical fields. In this study, an objective, non-intrusive and performance-based mental workload predictive model was proposed with high validity (<i>R</i>² = 0.51), which can be applied during the operation phrase. This model, developed based on the Rasmussen's skill–rule–knowledge framework, is comprised of two novel cognitive indices, the attention required index and uncertainty index. It can be used as the basis for establishing an early online warning system automatically. Furthermore, this model also predicts the types of error-prone tasks. This kind of information is expected to provide managers and supervisors with opportunities to intervene and improve tasks before error occurred. Finally, the predictive model proposed in this paper requires more practical application in fields to be completed.</p></div