BACKGROUND: Alveolar bone grafting is known to reduce nasal asymmetry by supporting a defective alar baseand a sunken nostril. However, there are no studies on details of changes in the upper lip with appropriatemeasurements.OBJECTIVE: To measure the change in the upper lip height and nostril sill after alveolar bone grafting.METHODS: Forty-six congenital unilateral cleft lip and alveolus (UCLA) patients (mean age 9.85 years). The patients underwent alveolar bone grafting with autogenous iliac bone grafts. The average bone graft volume was 2.98 cm3.Photographs of the frontal, lateral and basal views were obtained using standardized photographic techniques. The fixedposition points on the patients' faces were measured. Preoperative and postoperative upper lip height and projection, theproportion indexes of the nostril sill were compared.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The 6-month follow-up results showed that the height of the upper lip was increased,but no significant difference was found. The projection of the upper lip was more prominent, but there was not statisticallysignificant difference bbetween pre- and post-operation. The nostril sill was significantly elevated in three of four distanceitems. In conclusion, the height of the upper lip is elongated and the nostril sill is elevated after alveolar bone grafting inUCLA patients.

β-N-acetylglucosaminidases (NAGases) can convert natural substrates such as chitin or chitosan to N-acetyl-β-D glucosamine (GlcNAc) monomer that is wildly used in medicine and agriculture. In this study, the BcNagZ gene from Bacillus coagulans DMS1 was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant protein was secreted into the fermentation supernatant and the expression amount reached 0.76 mg/mL. The molecular mass of purified enzyme was 61.3 kDa, and the specific activity was 5.918 U/mg. The optimal temperature and pH of the BcNagZ were 75 °C and 5.5, respectively, and remained more than 85% residual activity after 30 min at 65 °C. The Mie constant Km was 0.23 mmol/L and the Vmax was 0.043 1 mmol/(L·min). The recombinant BcNagZ could hydrolyze colloidal chitin to obtain trace amounts of GlcNAc, and hydrolyze disaccharides to monosaccharide. Combining with the reported exochitinase AMcase, BcNagZ could produce GlcNAc from hydrolysis of colloidal chitin with a yield over 86.93%.
Acetylglucosamine ; Acetylglucosaminidase ; Bacillus coagulans ; Chitin ; Chitinases ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Recombinant Proteins/genetics*