Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how open contacts impact the natural teeth and dental implant prostheses. Materials and Methods: Following criteria were used to select 20 implant crowns with open proximal contacts as the experimental group (Group A): the restorations were delivered in Chosun University Dental Hospital between 2008 and 2018, the restorations are in the posterior region, opposing teeth are fixed dental prostheses, neighboring teeth are sound natural teeth, the patient had been on the maintenance program for at least 3 years. Another 20 implant crowns with closed proximal contacts were selected as the control group (Group B) using the same criteria. Between the two groups, dental caries and food impaction of the neighboring natural teeth and marginal bone-loss of the implants were compared and evaluated. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between Group A and Group B in the occurrence rates of dental caries, food impaction, and marginal bone-loss. The amount of marginal bone-loss, however, revealed statistically significant differences between the two groups, with Group A showing 0.80 ± 0.39 mm loss and Group B showing 1.1 ± 0.43 mm loss. Conclusion Implant prostheses with open contacts could be clinically considered in select cases as such restorations revealed no harmful effects on neighboring teeth and implant restorations within the perimeters of this study.

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), an important regulator of energy metabolism, is activated in response to cellular stress when intracellular levels of AMP increase. We investigated the neuroprotective effects of AMPK against scopolamine-induced memory impairment in vivo and glutamate-induced cytotoxicity in vitro. An adenovirus expressing AMPK wild type alpha subunit (WT) or a dominant negative form (DN) was injected into the hippocampus of rats using a stereotaxic apparatus. The AMPK WT-injected rats showed significant reversal of the scopolamine induced cognitive deficit as evaluated by escape latency in the Morris water maze. In addition, they showed enhanced acetylcholinesterase (AChE)-reactive neurons in the hippocampus, implying increased cholinergic activity in response to AMPK. We also studied the cellular mechanism by which AMPK protects against glutamate-induced cell death in primary cultured rat hippocampal neurons. We further demonstrated that AMPK WT-infected cells increased cell viability and reduced Annexin V positive hippocampal neurons. Western blot analysis indicated that AMPK WT-infected cells reduced the expression of Bax and had no effects on Bcl-2, which resulted in a decreased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. These data suggest that AMPK is a useful cognitive impairment treatment target, and that its beneficial effects are mediated via the protective capacity of hippocampal neurons.
Acetylcholinesterase ; Adenoviridae ; AMP-Activated Protein Kinases ; Animals ; Annexin A5 ; Apoptosis ; Blotting, Western ; Cell Death ; Cell Survival ; Energy Metabolism ; Hippocampus ; Memory ; Neurons ; Neuroprotective Agents ; Rats ; Scopolamine Hydrobromide ; United Nations

BACKGROUND: It has been generally known that the incidence of lung cancer is higher in the patients with idopathic pumonary fibrosis (IPF) than those in general population the reported incidences was variable from 4.8 to 43.2%. There were controversies on the most frequent cell type (squamous cell carcinoma vs. adenocarcinoma) and no study was done about the real concordance of cancer and the fibrotic lesion. And the pulmonary fibrosis may influence not only the development of cancer but also the treatment and prognosis of the cancer, but there was no report on that point. METHOD: Total 63 patients (66.8 ? 7.8 year, M:F=61:2) were diagnosed as IPF combined with lung cancer(IPF-CA) at Asan Medical Center. A retrospective analysis was done about the risk factors of the lung cancer, pulmonary function test, the site of cancer(especially the relationship of the cancer with the fibrotic lesion), the histologic types, and the stage of cancer. The histologic types were compared with these of 2,660 patients with lung cancer who were diagnosed at the same institute for the same period. The effect of IPF on the treatment of the cancer was evaluated with the survival time after the detection of lung cancer. RESULTS: The lung cancer was found in 63(22.9%) out of 281 patients with IPF. But in most of them(45 patients), lung cancer was detected at the same time with IPF and only in 18 patients, the cancer was diagnosed during the follow-up (25.2+/-17.7 months) of IPF. So in our study, 6.7% of patients with IPF developed lung cancer during the course of the disease. The age (66.8+/-7.84 vs. 63.4+/-11.1 years), percentage of smoker (88.9 vs. 67.2%), and the male gender (96.8 vs. 67.6%) were significantly higher in IPF-CA compared with lone IPF (p<0.05). The odds ratio of smoking was 4.7 compared with non smoking IPF controls. The lung cancer was located more frequently in the upper lobe and 55.5% was in the periphery of lung. The cancer was developed in the fibrotic lesion in 23 patients (35.9%), and in the majority of the patients, the cancer was separated from the fibrosis. The cell type of the lung cancer in IPF-CA was squamous cell carcinoma 34.9%, adenocarcinoma 30.2%, small cell carcinoma 19.0%, large cell undifferenciated carcinoma 6.3%, and others 9.5%. No significant difference in the distribution of histologic type of the lung cancer was found between IPF-CA and lone lung cancer. There was no significant difference in demographic features, cell types, location and the stage of the cancer between the group with concurrent IPF-CA and the group with cancer diagnosed during the follow up of IPF. There was a tendency (but statistically not significant : p=0.081) of higher incidence of adenocarcinoma among the cancers developed in the fibrotic area (43.5%) (F-CA) than in the cancers in non-fibrotic area (22.5%) (NF-CA). The prognosis of the patients with F-CA was poor (median survival : 4 months) compared with the patients with NF-CA (7 months, p=0.013), partly because the prevalence of severe IPF (the extent of fibrosis in HRCT ?50%) was higher in F-CA group. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that the lung cancer in the patients with IPF has similar features to the ordinary lung cancer.
Adenocarcinoma ; Carcinoma, Small Cell ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Fibrosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis* ; Incidence ; Lung Neoplasms* ; Lung* ; Male ; Odds Ratio ; Prevalence ; Prognosis ; Pulmonary Fibrosis ; Respiratory Function Tests ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking