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Supplementary Tables 1-3 from A Sex-Specific Association between a 15q25 Variant and Upper Aerodigestive Tract Cancers

Background: Sequence variants located at 15q25 have been associated with lung cancer and propensity to smoke. We recently reported an association between rs16969968 and risk of upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) cancers (oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, larynx, and esophagus) in women (OR = 1.24, P = 0.003) with little effect in men (OR = 1.04, P = 0.35).Methods: In a coordinated genotyping study within the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology (INHANCE) consortium, we have sought to replicate these findings in an additional 4,604 cases and 6,239 controls from 10 independent UADT cancer case–control studies.Results: rs16969968 was again associated with UADT cancers in women (OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.08–1.36, P = 0.001) and a similar lack of observed effect in men [OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.95–1.09, P = 0.66; P-heterogeneity (Phet) = 0.01]. In a pooled analysis of the original and current studies, totaling 8,572 UADT cancer cases and 11,558 controls, the association was observed among females (OR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.12–1.34, P = 7 × 10−6) but not males (OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.97–1.08, P = 0.35; Phet = 6 × 10−4). There was little evidence for a sexdifference in the association between this variant and cigarettes smoked per day, with male and female rs16969968 variant carriers smoking approximately the same amount more in the 11,991 ever smokers in the pooled analysis of the 14 studies (Phet = 0.86).Conclusions: This study has confirmed a sex difference in the association between the 15q25 variant rs16969968 and UADT cancers.Impact: Further research is warranted to elucidate the mechanisms underlying these observations. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 20(4); 658–64. ©2011 AACR.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has seen a violent and fast spread worldwide. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a predominantly respiratory transmission through droplets and aerosol with serious implications for dental settings. This article is based on recent research, guidelines issued by relevant authorities, as well as on the authors’ experience acquired through their involvement in setting up an emergency dental care hub in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, during the COVID-19 lockdown. The present article aims to provide a brief description of COVID-19 implications in dental office and to recommend preventive protocols for dental practitioners to ensure a safe and healthful workplace. The recommendations for infection control presented in this article address the specific risks of exposure to SARS-CoV-2. The article provides a special customized guideline covering patient triage and entrance into the dental practice, personnel protection, dental treatment, and after-treatment management. The implementation of strict preventive measures has been found to be efficient in the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 contamination because no infections have been reported among our staff or patients. COVID-19 is a major emergency worldwide marked by a rapid evolution and warranting a need for further assessment of the implications of COVID-19 outbreak in dental practice.

Due to the important advancement and the accumulation of new evidence on the periodontitis-cardiovascular disease (CVD) relationship as well as the major medical, economic and social burden caused by both diseases this chapter aims to review existing epidemiological and pathogenetic links related to this topic. Also, this chapter aims to highlight the impact of the periodontitis-CVD relationships on clinical practice and on the preventive approaches targeting to decrease the impact of periodontitis on CVD. Periodontitis is an infectious disease eliciting local and general inflammation, which leads to periodontal destruction and systemic involvement. Several pathways could explain the link between periodontitis and CVD such as bacteraemia, chronic persistent systemic inflammation and oxidative stress. The first step in the treatment of periodontitis addresses the elimination of microbial components, which lead to a decrease in local and systemic inflammation. Periodontal therapy seems to positively impact CVD. Specialists should inform patients with CVD on the negative impact of periodontitis on their systemic status and refer patients to the periodontist for an extensive examination as routine management of CVD. Some possible risks of periodontal therapy should be considered in patients undergoing antithrombotic medication.

The increase in quality standards in the automotive industry requires specifications to be propagated across the supply chain, a challenge exacerbated in domains such as acoustics, where the quality can be subjective. In a cooperation with ThyssenKrupp Presta AG, we quantify the vibroacoustical influence of ball nut assemblies (BNA) on steering gear by iteratively maximizing the correlation of their order spectra under orthogonality constraints in the canonical correlation analysis (CCA) framework. We specifically propose the fusion of both information sources and the consideration of the setting as a multi-view problem, with the steering gear order spectra as a noisy view of the BNA order spectra. We further show that the performance metric of the binary BNA vibroacoustic quality classification can be improved with respect to the currently used method by employing new, machine learning based classification methods which make use of the maximally correlated CCA encodings of the BNA. The fusion of an additional, up to date unusable information source, namely unlabeled data from scrapped BNA, allows the solving of the resulting semi-supervised learning problem, further increasing the BNA vibroacoustic quality classification performance.

Background and Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the effects of two different anti-inflammatory drugs (ketoprofen and prednisone) combined with an antibiotic (amoxicillin + clavulanic acid) and periodontal surgery on dental and periodontal parameters in patients with severe chronic periodontitis. In addition, salivary stress expressed by cortisol levels was assessed. Materials and Methods: An interventional study was performed on 22 periodontal subjects and 19 clinical healthy controls. The patients were divided in four groups, depending on treatment planning, as follows: eight patients received prednisone and antibiotherapy, associated with surgical periodontal therapy, seven patients received ketoprofen and antibiotherapy, associated with surgical periodontal therapy (group II), seven patients received only prednisone. Periodontal healthy patients underwent routine scaling and polishing. Bleeding on probing (BOP), dental mobility and salivary cortisol (ng/mL) were assessed before and after treatment. The means and standard deviations for the salivary cortisol levels (SCLs), dental and periodontal parameters were calculated for all groups using each patient as a unit of analysis. Results: Data analyses showed that the two different anti-inflammatory drugs associated with or without surgical therapy were efficient on inflammation periodontal parameters (BOP, dental mobility). Prednisone treatment alone was associated with a significant decrease of SCLs between pretreatment and post-treatment. Conclusions: In the present study, the effects of either of the anti-inflammatory drugs on inflammation evolution and salivary stress were comparable in patients undergoing antibiotherapy and surgical periodontal therapy.

Periodontal medicine is a broad term commonly used to define the relationship between periodontitis and systemic health. Periodontitis is a highly prevalent, chronic multifactorial infectious disease, induced by the dysbiotic biofilm that triggers a persistent systemic inflammation and recurrent bacteremia. There is a growing body of scientific evidence that suggests the potential implication of periodontitis in the causation and progression of various systemic disease and conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, adverse pregnancy outcomes and cancer. Some studies consider periodontitis as an independent risk factor for preterm birth, growth restriction, low birth-weight and pre-eclampsia. However not all studies support the association. Despite sparse scientific data, some studies indicate that individuals with periodontitis are at increased risk for cancer development, due to the increased inflammatory burden sustained by the presence of periodontal pathogens. This chapter emphasis the relationship between periodontitis and adverse pregnancy outcomes and the underlying mechanisms that link peridontitis to oral carcinogenesis.

Today’s world is fast-paced and so is technology. Almost every little device is somehow ”smart”, i.e., it collects data and provides some features. In order to cope with this development, the need for efficient optimization techniques grows steadily. In this work, we consider the maintenance process of smart meter devices, i.e., devices that collect data about electricity consumption. These smart meters are installed in private homes and need to be maintained from time to time. The maintenance is conducted by service operators of electricity companies. Since house owners have to be informed about the service at least two weeks prior, the procedure of planning shifts can be performed in advance. We develop and compare two solution approaches for determining shifts for service operators and evaluate the performance and stability of the generated tours with different metrics.

In the supply chain of the automotive industry the propagation of high quality standards is required. In the daily operations of steering system suppliers, the analysis of End of Line (EOL) vibroacoustic measurements encoded as order spectra for ball nut assemblies (BNA) is indispensable. Our goal is to find quality windows for the given BNA order spectra to detect faulty components. Due to the difficult interpretation of heuristic solutions, we use a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation to analyze the solution quality of a genetic algorithm for the aforementioned problem. We prepare a carefully constructed benchmark set, which reflects the behavior of real-world EOL order spectra. In the provided computational study, we demonstrate the efficiency of the MILP approach on our benchmark instances with up to 945 order spectra, each consisting of 260 spectral orders.

Melatonin, the primary hormone produced by the pineal gland, is intensely assessed for its anticancer properties. This study aimed to reveal the clinical significance of serum melatonin levels in predicting the severity of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). For this purpose, 40 male patients with OSCC and 30 healthy subjects were enrolled in this study. The serum levels of melatonin were determined by ELISA. The results revealed that the melatonin concentrations were significantly lower in the patients with OSCC compared with the controls (18.2 vs. 47.6 pg/ml, P

The use of porphyrinic compounds for photodynamic therapy (PDT) in cancer is well documented, but the aggregation tendency in physiologically-relevant media impedes on their medical use. The present study argues for the use of atomic force microscopy (AFM) for the evaluation of the aggregation tendency in terms of topography, self-similarity (fractal behavior) and textural properties of some promising A3B-type porphyrinic compounds, previously described by our group. It was found that the samples are isotropic and rough enough to favor cell adhesion. Despite having different aggregation tendencies, the P and Zn(II)P compounds (5 µM) were similarly incorporated into tumour cells (HT-29 human colon carcinoma and U-87 MG human glioblastoma), as demonstrated by flow cytometry data. Results suggest that there might be an aggregation, “window” that does not impede on the interaction of the investigated porphyrins with tumor cells.

In the daily operations of ThyssenKrupp Presta AG, ball nut assemblies (BNA) undergo a vibroacoustical quality test and are binary classified based on their order spectra. In this work we formulate a multiple change point problem and derive optimized quality intervals and thresholds for the order spectra that minimize the number of incorrectly classified BNA. We pursue a multiobjective goal: the first objective function maximizes the Cohen Kappa metric, while the second objective function reduces the number of employed order intervals. The proposed approach is based on a genetic algorithm and incorporates prior information on the correlation structure of BNA and steering gear vibroacoustics, gained via canonical correlation analysis. The computational experiments show a reduction of both the number of employed order intervals and the costs arising from falsely classified BNA parts with respect to the current production setting, ensuring thus a high practical relevance of our suggested approach.

The purpose of this article is to present the study of a new miniplate designed to keep the maximum strains developed in the cortical bone near the fracture line during accidental biting to values below the threshold causing bone resorption. Designed to offer maximum fracture stability with minimal implanted volume and patient intrusion, the design uses a novel approach to account for the effects of the distance from the fracture line to the nearest screws. Its geometry minimizes the peak forces that can develop during most cases of mandible biomechanical loadings. A three-dimensional (3D) osteosynthesis finite element model for a human mandible confirmed the operational effectiveness of the miniplate. It also provided numerical estimates for the strains and screw forces in the cortical surface during incisor bites with clinically relevant forces of 200 N. Two prototypes, 0.6 mm and 0.8 mm in thickness, were repeatedly tested on fractured sheep mandibles, fixed in a purpose-built jig, to loads up to 150% of the maximum forces developed by human patients. The tests indicated good fracture stability, and the proof tests carried for each of the two prototypes terminated at more than 350 N due to failure of the loading cable and respectively, secondary mandible fractures occurring away from the miniplate.

The increase in quality standards in the automotive industry requires specifications to be propagated across the supply chain, a challenge exacerbated in domains where the quality is subjective. In the daily operations of ThyssenKrupp Presta AG, requirements imposed on the vibroacoustic quality of steering gear need to be passed down to their subcomponents. We quantify the influence of ball nut assemblies on the steering gear by finding optimal encodings of their respective vibroacoustic signals, iteratively maximizing the correlation of their order spectra under orthogonality constraints. We compare the performance of linear and non-linear variants of this approach known as Canonical Correlation Analysis and establish the superiority of the neural network based variant in terms of attainable correlation. The practical relevance of our findings is guaranteed, since the visualization of the weights enables the identification of core influence areas.

Introduction. The clinical use of bioactive materials for bone augmentation has remained a challenge because of predictability and effectiveness concerns, as well as increased costs. The purpose of this study was to analyse the ability to integrate bone substitutes by evaluating the immunohistochemical expression of the platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecules, vascular endothelial growth factor, collagen IV, laminin, and osteonectin, in the vicinity of bone grafts, enabling tissue revascularization and appearance of bone lamellae. There is a lack of in vivo studies of inflammatory-driven angiogenesis in bone engineering using various grafts. Methods. The study was performed in animal experimental model on the standardized monocortical defects in the tibia of 20 New Zealand rabbits. The defects were augmented with three types of bone substituents. The used bone substituents were beta-tricalcium phosphate, bovine hydroxyapatite, and bioactive glasses. After a period of 6 months, bone fragments were harvested for histopathologic examination. Endothelial cell analysis was done by analysing vascularization with PECAM/CD31 and VEGF and fibrosis with collagen IV, laminin, and osteonectin stains. Statistical analysis was realized by descriptive analysis which was completed with the kurtosis and skewness as well as the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney statistical tests. Results. The discoveries show that the amount of bone that is formed around beta-tricalcium phosphate and bovine hydroxyapatite is clearly superior to the bioactive glasses. Both the lumen diameter and the number of vessels were slightly increased in favor of beta-tricalcium phosphate. Conclusion. We can conclude that bone substitutes as bovine bone and beta-tricalcium phosphate have significant increased angiogenesis (and subsequent improved osteogenesis) compared to the bioactive glass. In our study, significant angiogenesis is linked with a greater tissue formation, indicating that in bone engineering with the allografts we used, inflammation has more benefic effects, the catabolic action being exceeded by the tissue formation.

Background: Head and neck cancer (HNC) risk is elevated among lean people and reduced among overweight or obese people in some studies; however, it is unknown whether these associations differ for certain subgroups or are influenced by residual confounding from the effects of alcohol and tobacco use or by other sources of biases. Methods: We pooled data from 17 case-control studies including 12 716 cases and the 17 438 controls. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated for associations between body mass index (BMI) at different ages and HNC risk, adjusted for age, sex, centre, race, education, tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption. Results: Adjusted ORs (95% CIs) were elevated for people with BMI at reference (date of diagnosis for cases and date of selection for controls) =18.5 kg/m2 (2.13, 1.75-2.58) and reduced for BMI >25.0-30.0 kg/m2 (0.52, 0.44-0.60) and BMI =30 kg/m2 (0.43, 0.33-0.57), compared with BMI >18.5-25.0 kg/m2. These associations did not differ by age, sex, tumour site or control source. Although the increased risk among people with BMI =18.5 kg/m2 was not modified by tobacco smoking or alcohol drinking, the inverse association for people with BMI > 25 kg/m2 was present only in smokers and drinkers. Conclusions: In our large pooled analysis, leanness was associated with increased HNC risk regardless of smoking and drinking status, although reverse causality cannot be excluded. The reduced risk among overweight or obese people may indicate body size is a modifier of the risk associated with smoking and drinking. Further clarification may be provided by analyses of prospective cohort and mechanistic studies. © The Author 2010; Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association. All rights reserved.

Wilson disease (WD) is a hereditary disease inhibiting copper release from the liver. Multi-organ manifestations involve the liver, nervous system, kidneys, eyes, heart, and skin. Elastic fiber damage is a complication of the most frequently used medication in the treatment of WD D-penicillamine (D-PCA). These changes have very rarely been described in the oral cavity. The article describes oral complications associated with WD and its treatment by D-PCA.Clinical, radiographic, and microscopic evaluation was done on two WD female patients (aged 28 and 53), treated by D-PCA, with clinical and pathological evidence for oral drug-related complications.The lesions included multiple small red papules of the lips, gingival enlargement, early onset periodontitis, and repeated oral candidiasis. Biopsies of oral mucosa (gingiva, buccal) exhibited in one case granulomatous inflammation, and in both cases, thick irregular clumps of tortuous, red-staining abnormal elastic fibers. The red lip papules resemble elastosis perforans serpiginosa (EPS). Similar lesions have been described in the skin, but never before in association with oral or perioral tissue. In addition to the oral lesions, one of the patients developed general intolerance to the drug and was switched to trientine hydrochloride.WD patients and others treated by D-PCA may develop oral and perioral complications, in some cases exhibiting features of damaged elastic fibers in the mucosa and periodontal apparatus. It is possible that this damage may be one of the factors responsible for poor periodontal health in WD patients. Recognition of the lesions can lead to replacement of the affecting therapeutic agent.

The authors report their experience using platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) therapy for the treatment of ten patients presenting bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ). The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of this therapy on recurrent BRONJ and to describe the clinical and histopathological/immunohistochemical staining features of PRF treatment. As such, we describe the method we used and report the results observed in the areas treated as well as side effects. The reported results recommend the safety and efficacy of PRF in treatment of BRONJ.

Cherubism is a familial benign fibro-osseous disease of the jaws. On radiography, the lesions exhibit bilateral multinuclear radiolucent areas. Histopathology reveals multinucleated giant cells in the background of proliferating fibrous connective tissue. Mutations in the SH3BP2 gene are identified as the cause of cherubism. A 12-year-old girl with prominence of the lower face was investigated. Her chief complaint was her facial appearance with asymmetrical swelling of the cheeks. Clinical and radiographic examinations, and biopsy, biochemical analysis and genetic investigations were performed.

Aim: For lower lip carcinoma, an incidence of 15% of cervical lymph node metastasis at presentation is generally accepted. This is an argument in favour of an expectant approach. The purpose of this study was to compare the results of the different approaches to the clinically negative neck: prophylactic neck dissection, prophylactic neck irradiation and follow-up. Material and method: The retrospective study included 200 patients with lower lip carcinoma. The following data were evaluated: (1) the incidence of cervical lymph node metastasis in patients with a clinically negative neck; and (2) pathological confirmation of cervical lymph node metastasis. Results: In the group undergoing prophylactic neck dissection, lymph node metastasis was found microscopically in 20% of the cases. More than half of the patients receiving prophylactic radiotherapy developed bulky neck lymph node metastases. Out of the patients attending the 2-year follow-up 64% developed a clinically positive neck. Cervical lymph node metastases in these patients was proven microscopically in 88% of cases. Conclusion: The high incidence of a clinically positive neck, along with the high incidence of neck node etastasis found in neck dissection specimens suggest that elective neck dissection is the treatment of choice for the neck in patients with lower lip carcinoma.

Background: Sequence variants located at 15q25 have been associated with lung cancer and propensity to smoke. We recently reported an association between rs16969968 and risk of upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) cancers (oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, larynx, and esophagus) in women (OR = 1.24, P = 0.003) with little effect in men (OR = 1.04, P = 0.35). Methods: In a coordinated genotyping study within the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology (INHANCE) consortium, we have sought to replicate these findings in an additional 4,604 cases and 6,239 controls from 10 independent UADT cancer case–control studies. Results: rs16969968 was again associated with UADT cancers in women (OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.08–1.36, P = 0.001) and a similar lack of observed effect in men [OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.95–1.09, P = 0.66; P-heterogeneity (Phet) = 0.01]. In a pooled analysis of the original and current studies, totaling 8,572 UADT cancer cases and 11,558 controls, the association was observed among females (OR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.12–1.34, P = 7 × 10−6) but not males (OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.97–1.08, P = 0.35; Phet = 6 × 10−4). There was little evidence for a sex difference in the association between this variant and cigarettes smoked per day, with male and female rs16969968 variant carriers smoking approximately the same amount more in the 11,991 ever smokers in the pooled analysis of the 14 studies (Phet = 0.86). Conclusions: This study has confirmed a sex difference in the association between the 15q25 variant rs16969968 and UADT cancers. Impact: Further research is warranted to elucidate the mechanisms underlying these observations. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 20(4); 658–64. ©2011 AACR.

Contains fulltext : 97937.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) We conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in 3,772 affected individuals (cases) and 8,505 controls of European background from 11 studies and followed up 6 SNPs in 3 replication studies of 2,198 cases and 4,918 controls. Two loci on the regions of 2p21 and 11q13.3 were associated with RCC susceptibility below genome-wide significance. Two correlated variants (r(2) = 0.99 in controls), rs11894252 (P = 1.8 x 10) and rs7579899 (P = 2.3 x 10), map to EPAS1 on 2p21, which encodes hypoxia-inducible-factor-2 alpha, a transcription factor previously implicated in RCC. The second locus, rs7105934, at 11q13.3, contains no characterized genes (P = 7.8 x 10(1)). In addition, we observed a promising association on 12q24.31 for rs4765623, which maps to SCARB1, the scavenger receptor class B, member 1 gene (P = 2.6 x 10). Our study reports previously unidentified genomic regions associated with RCC risk that may lead to new etiological insights.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been successful in identifying common genetic variation involved in susceptibility to etiologically complex disease. We conducted a GWAS to identify common genetic variation involved in susceptibility to upper aero-digestive tract (UADT) cancers. Genome-wide genotyping was carried out using the Illumina HumanHap300 beadchips in 2,091 UADT cancer cases and 3,513 controls from two large European multi-centre UADT cancer studies, as well as 4,821 generic controls. The 19 top-ranked variants were investigated further in an additional 6,514 UADT cancer cases and 7,892 controls of European descent from an additional 13 UADT cancer studies participating in the INHANCE consortium. Five common variants presented evidence for significant association in the combined analysis (p≤5×10−7). Two novel variants were identified, a 4q21 variant (rs1494961, p = 1×10−8) located near DNA repair related genes HEL308 and FAM175A (or Abraxas) and a 12q24 variant (rs4767364, p = 2×10−8) located in an extended linkage disequilibrium region that contains multiple genes including the aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) gene. Three remaining variants are located in the ADH gene cluster and were identified previously in a candidate gene study involving some of these samples. The association between these three variants and UADT cancers was independently replicated in 5,092 UADT cancer cases and 6,794 controls non-overlapping samples presented here (rs1573496-ADH7, p = 5×10−8; rs1229984-ADH1B, p = 7×10−9; and rs698-ADH1C, p = 0.02). These results implicate two variants at 4q21 and 12q24 and further highlight three ADH variants in UADT cancer susceptibility., Author Summary We have used a two-phased study approach to identify common genetic variation involved in susceptibility to upper aero-digestive tract cancer. Using Illumina HumanHap300 beadchips, 2,091 UADT cancer cases and 3,513 controls from two large European multi-centre UADT cancer studies, as well as 4,821 generic controls, were genotyped for a panel 317,000 genetic variants that represent the majority of common genetic in the human genome. The 19 top-ranked variants were then studied in an additional series of 6,514 UADT cancer cases and 7,892 controls of European descent from an additional 13 UADT cancer studies. Five variants were significantly associated with UADT cancer risk after the completion of both stages, including three residing within the alcohol dehydrogenase genes (ADH1B, ADH1C, ADH7) that have been previously described. Two additional variants were found, one near the ALDH2 gene and a second variant located in HEL308, a DNA repair gene. These results implicate two variants 4q21 and 12q24 and further highlight three ADH variants UADT cancer susceptibility.

Once that Romania became part of the European Union, conditions regarding the activity in dentistry changed, and open borders are now a fact that we have to accept. The Romanian activity in dentistry developed a lot after the 1990, being a result of private dental practice – which covers over 98% and also of material resources of patients that were asking for more performing dental treatments. In order to be able to face all this, the dentists followed many of postgraduate specializations. We have to consider as well that the situation of the Romanian dentists is not the best, because they had to face the dentists that got their certificates in Eastern countries, where they only had to pay a fee and not pass an exam. Also, the Romanians that wanted to specialize abroad were not able to do that because the National Dentists’ Association was protecting their own colleagues.

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a relatively common disorder whose cause is still unknown. Oral cancer is preceded in most cases by pre malignant lesions-leukoplasia, submucous fibrosis and lichen planus. Free radicals and reactive oxygen species play important roles in both pathogenesis of lichen planus and carcinogenesis. Thus monitoring systemic and saliva compounds important for the antioxidant defence (oxidative balance) could be important for the clinician's treatment strategy. Thorough medical management and early active treatment are necessary to improve symptoms and might also be a relevant prevention strategy from squamous cell carcinoma risk, although data to fully support this statement still need investigation. The principal aim of this study was to determine the systemic uric acid, GGT, and albumin levels as well as the levels of uric acid and albumin in 20 patients diagnosed with lichen planus and 20 controls. Extensive medline search failed to reveal any study of this type. Our results showed a significant decrease of saliva (p < 0.005) uric acid and an increase in serum gamma glutamyl transpherase (GGT) (p < 0.01) as well as in the total antioxidant capacity of saliva in patient group with respect to the control one. The preliminary conclusion of our study is that uric acid, the most important salivary antioxidant and GGT could be considered in the future as useful markers of oxidative stress for elaboration of treatment strategy and monitoring.

The parotid histological structure includes acinar, ductal, and myoepithelial cells, surrounded by a connective stromal component. The parotid stroma is mostly regarded as an inert shell, consisting of septa, which divide the parenchyma. Telocytes were recently identified as a new stromal cell type in various organs, including exocrine pancreas. We aimed to evaluate telocytes presence in parotid stroma and whether their topographical features might support an involvement in parotid function modulation. Serial ultrathin sections of human and rat parotid glands were studied and compared by transmission electron microscopy. Two-dimensional concatenation of sequenced micrographs allowed the ultrastructural identification of parotid telocytes, with their specific long, thin, and moniliform prolongations (telopodes). Telocyte location appeared frequently as a strategic one, in close contact or vicinity of both secretory (acini and ducts) and regulatory (nerves and blood vessels) apparatuses. They were also found in the interacinar and the subductal stroma. Two previously reported telocyte markers (c-kit/CD117 and vimentin) were assayed by immunohistochemistry. Actin expression was also evaluated. Telocytes are making a network, especially by branching of their long telopodes. Elements of this telocyte network are interacting with each other (homocellular connections) as well as with other cell types (heterocellular connections). These interactions are achieved either by direct contact (stromal synapse), or mediated via shed microvesicles/exosomes. Since telocyte connections include both neurovascular and exocrine elements (e.g., acini and ducts), it is attractive to think that telocytes might mediate and integrate neural and/or vascular input with parotid function.

A nebulizer includes a piezoelectric transducer for aerosolizing a drug solution in a disposable cup module disposed above the transducer. Acoustic waves generated by the transducer propagate sequentially through transmitting medium, a first barrier, coupling medium, and a second barrier that forms part of the cup module, and into the interior of the cup module. The transducer at least partially comprises silver. The silver fluidly contacts the transmitting medium to discourage bacteria growth in the transmitting medium. The device includes electronics components that drive the transducer and measure an electrical characteristic associated with the transducer during operation. The electronics components measure changes in the electrical characteristic to determine when the drug solution level falls below a predetermined threshold, and deactivates the device accordingly.