Rare Case of Buccal Exostosis in Edentulous Mandibular Body Region

Buccal exostoses are benign, broad-based surface masses of the facial aspect of the maxilla and less commonly, the mandible. It is believed that this is one way, bone responds to stresses applied to it. They begin to develop in the early adulthood and may slowly enlarge over the years. To the best of our knowledge, it is the second reported case of single buccal exostosis in mandibular molar region and first of its kind in edentulous mandible. The following paper presents a very rare and unique case of buccal-sided mandibular molar exostosis in an edentulous mandible of an old female and its surgical management

Semantic Search Approach in Cloud

With the approach of cloud computing, more and more information data are distributed to the public cloud for economic savings and ease of access. But, the encryption of privacy information is necessary to guarantee the security. Now a days efficient data utilization, and search over encrypted cloud data has been a great challenge. Solution of existing methods depends only on the keyword of submitted query and didn�t examine the semantics of keyword. Thus the search schemes are not intelligent and also omit some semantically related documents. To overcome this problem, we propose a semantic expansion based similar search solution over encrypted cloud data. The solution of this method will return not only the exactly matched files, but also the files including the terms semantically related to the query keyword. In this scheme, a corresponding file metadata is constructed for each file. After this, both the encrypted file metadata set and file collection are uploaded to the cloud server. With the help of metadata set file, the cloud server maintains the inverted index and create semantic relationship library (SRL) for the keywords set. After receiving a query request from user , this server firstly search out the keywords that are related to the query keyword according to SRL. After this, both the query keyword and the extensional words are used to retrieve the files to fulfill the user request. These files are returned in order according to the total relevance score. Our detailed security analysis shows that our method is privacy-preserving and secure than the previous searchable symmetric encryption (SSE) security definition. Experimental evaluation demonstrates the efficiency and effectives of the scheme

Parathyroid hormone gene polymorphism and sporadic idiopathic hypoparathyroidism

The pathogenetic mechanisms involved in the development of sporadic idiopathic hypoparathyroidism are currently under investigation. Although autoantibodies against the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) have been implicated to play a role, these could be demonstrated in only 49% of a group of 51 patients with sporadic idiopathic hypoparathyroidism that we previously studied. Therefore, we investigated 49 of these patients further, regardless of their antibody status, and looked for mutations in the section of the PTH gene sequence that coded for prepro-PTH as well as the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of the gene, which is believed to be involved in the stability of its mRNA. We also examined the relationship between the clinical manifestations of the disease and the occurrences of two commonly observed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the PTH gene. In 49 of the patients with idiopathic hypoparathyroidism and in 55 healthy controls, the SNPs were characterized by restriction analysis using DraII and BstBI enzymes. In a subset of these patients, exons 2 and 3 of the PTH gene (n = 37) and its 3'-UTR region (n = 40) were also sequenced. No mutations were observed in the segment of the PTH gene coding for the signal peptide, prohormone, or the 3'-UTR region. However, three well described SNPs were observed: 1) an A→G substitution in intron 1 in 35.1% of the patients; 2) a G→A substitution in intron 2, characterized by BstBI, in one or both alleles in 27%; and 3) a C→A substitution at codon 52 (CGA) of exon 3, characterized by DraII, in one or both alleles in 59.7% of the patients. There was no significant difference in the frequency of occurrence of these SNPs between the patient and the control groups. Furthermore, the mean age at onset of symptoms, body mass index, frequency of cataract, tetany, convulsion, basal ganglia calcification, serum calcium, inorganic phosphorus, and intact PTH were not significantly different between patients with and without the above-described SNPs. Thus, the data from this report demonstrate that in patients with sporadic idiopathic hypoparathyroidism, neither the clinical manifestations nor the biochemical indexes of the disease are related to the occurrence of mutations or SNPs in the PTH gene. Because neither patient nor control samples exhibited any variations in the sequence of their 3'-UTR regions, it is unlikely that mRNA instability is a factor in the pathogenesis of the disease. Additional studies are required to investigate the role of other genes and autoantigens that may be involved in the genesis of idiopathic hypoparathyroidism

Phenotype Frequencies of Autosomal Minor Histocompatibility Antigens Display Significant Differences among Populations

Minor histocompatibility (H) antigens are allogeneic target molecules having significant roles in alloimmune responses after human leukocyte antigen–matched solid organ and stem cell transplantation (SCT). Minor H antigens are instrumental in the processes of transplant rejection, graft-versus-host disease, and in the curative graft-versus-tumor effect of SCT. The latter characteristic enabled the current application of selected minor H antigens in clinical immunotherapeutic SCT protocols. No information exists on the global phenotypic distribution of the currently identified minor H antigens. Therefore, an estimation of their overall impact in human leukocyte antigen–matched solid organ and SCT in the major ethnic populations is still lacking. For the first time, a worldwide phenotype frequency analysis of ten autosomal minor H antigens was executed by 31 laboratories and comprised 2,685 randomly selected individuals from six major ethnic populations. Significant differences in minor H antigen frequencies were observed between the ethnic populations, some of which appeared to be geographically correlated

Do we really need to differentiate mesenchymal stem cells into insulin-producing cells for attenuation of the autoimmune responses in type 1 diabetes: immunoprophylactic effects of precursors to insulin-producing cells

Abstract Background Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a multifactorial autoimmune disorder where pancreatic beta cells are lost before the clinical manifestations of the disease. Administration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) or MSCs differentiated into insulin-producing cells (IPCs) have yielded limited success when used therapeutically. We have evaluated the immunoprophylactic potentials of precursors to insulin-producing cells (pIPCs) and IPCs in nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice to ask a basic question: do we need to differentiate MSCs into IPCs or will pIPCs suffice to attenuate autoimmune responses in T1D? Methods Bone marrow-derived MSCs from Balb/c mice were characterized following the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) guidelines. MSCs cultured in high-glucose media for 11 to 13 passages were characterized for the expression of pancreatic lineage genes using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Expression of the PDX1 gene in pIPCs was assessed using Western blot and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Triple-positive MSCs were differentiated into IPCs using a three-step protocol after sorting them for cell surface markers, i.e. CD29, CD44, and SCA-1. Nonobese diabetic mice were administered pIPCs, IPCs, or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) into the tail vein at weeks 9 or 10 and followed-up for 29–30 weeks for fasting blood glucose levels. Two consecutive blood sugar levels of more than 250 mg/dl were considered diabetic. Results MSCs grown in high-glucose media for 11 to 13 passages expressed genes of the pancreatic lineage such as PDX1, beta2, neurogenin, PAX4, Insulin, and glucagon. Furthermore, Western blot and FACS analysis for PDX-1, a transcription factor necessary for beta cell maturation, confirmed that these cells were precursors of insulin-producing cells (pIPCs). NOD mice administered with pIPCs were better protected from developing diabetes with a protective efficacy of 78.4% (p < 0.009); however, administration of IPCs gave protective efficacy of 55% at the end of 28–30 weeks. Conclusions Precursors to insulin-producing cells seem to have better potential to arrest autoimmune response in type 1 diabetes when administered before the onset of the disease in NOD mice. When translated to humans, autologous mesenchymal stem cells grown in high-glucose media for 10 to 13 passages may have beneficial effects in individuals at high risk of developing type 1 diabetes