Objective:To investigate the physical morphology of the root canal taper in human maxillary and mandibular permanent first molars.Methods: Forty maxillary and 44 mandibular extracted human permanent first molars were investigated.The roots were dissected transversely from their apical foramen vertical to the long axis of the root,and 1-mm-thick serial sections were made.The root apex side of each section was observed with a stereomicroscope at 30? magnification.The maximum and minimum canal diameters were measured at 0,1,2,and 3 mm from the apical foramen.The physical canal taper in the apical section was calculated.Results: 47.5%-60.0% of the narrowest diameter of root canals were present at the foramen,and 25.0%~42.5% located at the level of 1 mm from apical foramen.Almost all physical configurations of root canals in 3 mm apical region showed a bottleneck-like taper.Canal dia-meters increased rapidly at 1-2 mm with the biggest taper,and the taper had a bigger variance(0.07-0.35).The ring of shrunken bottleneck was formed at the level of 1 mm from apical foramen.The taper of canal in maximal diameter was larger than the one in minimal diameter.Conclusion: The physical morphology of bottleneck-like taper in apical canal was helpful to locate the canal apical stop in root canal treatment.

Objective To compare the reproducibility and reliability of facial soft tissue landmarks using a direct and an indirect placement methods in facial three-dimensional (3D) soft tissue assessment.Methods 3D coordinates of 37 soft tissue landmarks were obtained respectively in 35 normal healthy volunteers from 3D optical capture system and Materialise's interactive medical image control system (Mimics).Landmarks were affixed on the cutaneous surface (direct method) and marked on the 3D reconstructed craniofacial model (indirect method).Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) and paired t-tests were used to compare the reliability and reproducibility of facial landmarks between two placement methods.Results For the direct placement method,86.5 ％ landmarks had an ICC higher than 0.75.For the indirect placement method,75.7％ landmarks had an ICC higher than 0.75.The inter-observer variability using the direct placement method was (1.259±0.566) mm,which was significantly smaller (P＜0.05) than (1.420±0.638) mm obtained by the indirect placement method.Conclusions Compared with indirect method,direct method has higher reliability and reproducibility in evaluating facial soft tissue.

TBL (Team-based learning) model is a new teaching method.By evaluating the effect of TBL model in theory teaching on Chinese orthodontic postgraduate program in the department of Orthodontics,Guanghua School of Stomatology,Sun Yat-sen University,and comparing the traditional teaching model which centered on teachers,we have probed into the application experience of TBL teaching method in curriculum setting of preclinical theoretic learning in orthodontics postgraduate education.The result shows TBL has significantly enhanced students' enthusiasm for learning,sense of collaboration,and has improved the quality of education.TBL method is better,even though there is something that needs to be improved.

Bibliometrics ; Biochemistry ; Biotechnology ; China ; Journal Impact Factor ; Periodicals as Topic ; statistics & numerical data ; Science

OBJECTIVEThis paper aimed to determine the mRNA expression of osteoclast-related factors interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-12 (IL-12) p35, IL-12p40, matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), nuclear factor of activated T-cells cytoplasmic 1 (NFATcl), receptor activator of nuclear factor-KB (RANK), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) mRNA in murine macrophages infected by a periodontitis patient's own tissue nucleic acid. Another aim was to investigate the effects of a periodontitis patient's own tissue nucleic acid on the differentiation of macrophages into osteoclasts.

METHODSInflammatory periodontal tissue samples of chronic periodontitis patients were taken during periodontal flap surgery, and healthy gingival tissue samples were taken from orthodontic patients during tooth extractions. Total RNA from periodontal tissue was extracted and reversely transcribed into cDNA and then cryo-preserved until further use. First, specific sequence oligodeoxynucleotide MT0I at a concentration of 1 µg · mL⁻¹ was added in murine macrophage RAW264.7, and the cells were incubated for 3 hours. Cells with PBS (1 µg · mL⁻¹) were used as negative controls. The inflammatory periodontal tissue cDNA and healthy periodontal tissue cDNA (1 µg · mL⁻¹) was added subsequently. There were four experimental groups: healthy periodontal tissue cDNA+ RAW264.7, inflammatory periodontal tissue cDNA+RAW264.7, MT01+healthy periodontal tissue cDNA+RAW264.7, and MT01+inflammatory periodontal tissue cDNA+RAW264.7. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the mRNA expression of osteoclast-related factors IL-6, IL-12p35, IL-12p4O, MMP-9, NFATcl, RANK, and TNF-α mRNA after 3, 6, 12, and 24-hours.

RESULTSThe mRNA levels of osteoclast-related factors NFATc1, MMP-9, TNF-a, IL-6, IL-12p40, IL-12p35, and RANK in RAW264.7 were markedly upregulated with the treatment of periodontitis patient's own tissue nucleic acid. However, the mRNA expression of osteoclast-related factors was inhibited by use of an immunosuppressant MT01.

CONCLUSIONThe periodontitis patient's own tissue nucleic acid could promote the differentiation of murine macrophage into osteoclasts.

Animals ; Cell Differentiation ; Cytokines ; metabolism ; Gene Expression ; Gingiva ; Humans ; Interleukin-12 Subunit p40 ; Interleukin-6 ; Macrophages ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 ; Mice ; Osteoclasts ; metabolism ; Periodontitis ; RNA, Messenger ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha

RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) is a newly-developed method in transcriptome research, it can afford more accurate transcription information and be more quickly by using Next-generation Sequencing (NGS) technology. RNA-Seq has been widely used in various biological fields. Genuine traditional Chinese medicines (TCM), with good quality and therapeutic effect, were always praised highly and used by famous physicians. The geo-herbalism formation of TCM is based on the product of the gene expression at specific space and time. So it has been a research hotspot to analyze the mechanism of biosynthesis through RNA-Seq in the study on the secondary metabolism of medicinal plant. This article mainly illustrates the RNA-Seq and its advantages, it also discusses the potential application in genuine TCM, and it can provide useful information for other researchers.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Gene Expression Profiling ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Plants, Medicinal ; genetics ; RNA ; Sequence Analysis, RNA ; Transcriptome

Objective To evaluate the quality of life and influencing factors in patients with breast cancer after breast-conserving surgery, so as to provide theoretical support for preoperative health education and postoperative rehabilitative intervention for these patients. Methods 120 breast conserving surgery (BSC) and 140 modified radical mastectomy (MRM) patients were assessed with Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B V4.0) one week after operation. Life quality was evaluated between the two groups, and the influencing factors were also analyzed. Results Postoperative breast cancer patients after breast conserving surgery were with good breast complementary attention, lower emotion state. The other scores of quality of life had no statistical difference. Influencing factors on the quality of life of breast cancer patients were anxiety state, relationship of family members, position of surgery and character type. Conclusions It suggests that nursing specialists should make out corresponding, scientific and reasonable nursing intervention schemes based on the characteristics of different groups of people to ease psychological burden, and elevate the quality of life effectively for postoperative breast conserving surgery patients.

Objective To evaluate the roles of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2),TLR4 and myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) in immune recognition and immune mediation in sporotrichosis by detecting their expressions in skin lesions of sporotrichosis.Methods Biopsy specimens were obtained from the skin lesions of 19 patients with sporotrichosis and normal skin of 12 healthy human controls.Immunohistochemistry was performed to observe the expressions of TLR4 and MyD88,and real-time fluorescence-based quantitative PCR to quantify the expressions of TLR2 and MyD88 mRNAs.Data were expressed as mean ± standard error.Statistical analysis was done with the SPSS17.0 software.Independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the parameters between the lesional and control specimens.A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.Results TLR4 and MyD88 were mainly observed in the whole epidermis except the stratum corneum as well as plasma cells and lymphocytes in the dermis and subcutaneous tissue in lesional skin.However,TLR4 was nearly absent and MyD88 was weakly expressed in the dermis and subcutaneous tissue in normal skin.The expression levels of TLR4 and MyD88 were significantly higher in the lesional skin than in the control skin (TLR4,63.767 ± 3.829 vs.5.167 ± 3.246,t =4.82,P ＜ 0.05; MyD88,57.236 ± 4.744 vs.10.588 ± 1.640,t =3.30,P ＜ 0.05).Similarly,the lesional skin showed significantly stronger expressions of TLR2 and MyD88 mRNAs compared with the normal skin (TLR2,1.974 ± 1.452 vs.1.430 ± 1.073,P ＜ 0.05; MyD88,2.028 ± 2.061 vs.0.688 ± 0.422,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Sporothrix may induce the development of sporotrichosis by interacting with host immune system via TLR signaling pathways.

Objective:To assess the characteristics change of sleep architecture in drug naive patients with schizophrenia,compared with healthy control.Methods:The key words including schizophrenia and sleep architecture (or sleep structure or sleep disturbance or polysomnogram and so on) were used to search literatures in MEDLINE,Embase,Springer,PsychINFO,google scholar,Wanfang data,published from 1980 to 2015.Fifteen studies that compared sleep architecture in drug naive patients with schizophrenia and healthy control were included.Literature quality evaluation was performed with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale.The meta-analysis was performed by using Stata13.0 software.Results:Compared to healthy control,the total sleep time decreased (P ＜ 0.01),the sleep latency increased (P ＜ 0.01),the sleep efficiency decreased (P ＜ 0.01),and the rapid-eye-movemem (REM) sleep latency increased (P ＜ 0.01) significantly in drug naive patients with schizophrenia.The proportion of stage1 was increased,and the proportions of stage4 and slow wave sleep stage were decreased,the differences between case and control were statistically significant.Conclusion:In the control of drug effects,patients with schizophrenia may have poorer sleep quality of be poorer than healthy controls,such as the decreased total sleep time,specifically slow wave sleep,prolonged sleep latency and decreased sleep efficiency.

Objective To analyze the mutations of causal genes in sixteen Chinese patients with suspicious Bartter syndrome,and follow up their treatment results.Methods Mutations were identified by the next generation sequencing and the multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA).Clinical and biochemical features at the first presentation as well as follow-up results were reviewed.Results 15 different CLCNKB gene mutations were identified in sixteen patients with BS,including 11 novel ones.A novel missense mutation and a novel small deletion were found from SLC12A1 gene.A novel gross deletion was found in CLCNKA gene.A recurrent missense mutation was identified from BSND gene.The whole gene deletion mutation of CLCNKB gene was the most frequent mutation (32％),and the rate of gross deletion was up to 50 percent in this group of Chinese patients.The most common clinical manifestations were development retardation (15/16),polydipsia and polyuria (15/16).All of the patients were detected with hypokalemia,hypochloremia and metabolic alkalosis.Indomethacin treatment had significant improvement to the stature and weight restoration.Conclusion The present study has found 19 mutations,including 14 novel ones,which enriches the human gene mutation database (HGMD) and provides valuable references to the genetic counseling and diagnosis of Chinese population.