Periodontal ligament and gingival fibroblasts participate in the production of TGF-β, interleukin (IL)-8 and IL-10

The aim of this study was to quantify and compare the production of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), interleukin (IL)-8 and IL-10 by human cultured periodontal ligament and gingival fibroblasts both obtained from the same donors challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Porphyromonas gingivalis. Fibroblasts were exposed to 0.1-10 µg/mL of LPS from P. gingivalis and after 24 h the supernatants were collected and analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). TGF-β protein production was upregulated in a concentration-dependent manner, mainly in gingival fibroblasts, which was statistically significant when challenged by 10 µg/mL LPS. Additionally, at this concentration, gingival fibroblasts had almost a two-fold increase in the amount of TGF-β when compared to periodontal ligament fibroblasts. Both periodontal ligament and gingival fibroblasts showed an increase in IL-8 production when challenged with 1 µg/mL and 10 µg/mL LPS. IL-10 production remained unaffected when challenged by any of the LPS concentrations tested in either periodontal ligament or gingival fibroblasts. Our results demonstrate that periodontal ligament and gingival fibroblasts when challenged by LPS from P. gingivalis with 24 h may play a critical role in producing TGF-β and IL-8 but not IL-10.

Pesquisa em seres humanos: aspectos médicos, jurídicos, psicológicos e religiosos / Research in humans: medical, legal, psychological and religious aspects

A sociedade moderna assiste a um progresso tecnológico e científico jamais imaginado. A evolução da medicina, em parte, pode ser atribuída à pesquisa em seres humanos, mas muitas vezes esta pode interferir de uma maneira prejudicial para os sujeitos da pesquisa. Alguns fatos tiveram grande impacto histórico, impondo a necessidade de discussões de cunho ético, como as experiências atrozes realizadas pelos cientistas com os prisioneiros na última grande guerra, o que motivou a edição do Código de Nuremberg, que estabeleceu, pela primeira vez, regras a serem observadas na pesquisa em seres humanos. A partir disto, surgiram mais normatizações em resposta às atrocidades cometidas em pesquisa, com princípios inerentes a qualquer código de ética ou deontológico. Porém, os valores morais diferem de uma sociedade para outra, gerando dilemas que envolvem revolução tecnológica, biológica, crenças e teologia. Assim, os eticistas obrigaram-se a considerar disciplinas para além de suas especificidades, estabelecendo fronteiras com diversos campos do conhecimento, pois os progressos até aqui alcançados levantam questões éticas em que, muitas vezes, o próprio conhecimento não apresenta respostas satisfatórias. Este trabalho aborda os vocábulos da ética e moral sob o enfoque médico, religioso, jurídico e psicológico de um modo prático, procurando delinear suas diferenças e similitudes.

Modern society is witnessing unprecedented technological and scientific progress. The development in medicine can partly be attributed to research in human beings, but this can frequently interfere in a manner that is harmful to the research subjects. Several factors had a great historical impact, and imposed the need for discussions of an ethical nature, such as the atrocious experiments conducted by scientists in prisoners during the last World War, which motivated the publication of the Nuremberg Code, which for the first time, established rules to be observed in research involving human beings. From this, other regulations appeared in response to the atrocities committed in research, with principles inherent to any ethical or mandatory code. However, moral values differ from one society to another, generating dilemmas that involve technological, biological, belief and theological revolutions. Thus, ethicists have been obliged to consider disciplines beyond their specificities, in order to establish frontiers with various fields of knowledge, as the progress achieved up to now, has raised ethical questions to which knowledge itself frequently has no satisfactory answers. This study examines the words of ethics and morality with a medical, religious legal and psychological focus, in a practical manner, endeavoring the delineate their differences and similarities.