Oral treatment for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome / 华西口腔医学杂志

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a common clinical disease with high incidence and low treating proportion, difficult evaluation, and complicated nosogenesis. OSAS can cause systematic impairments. Various treatment methods were applied in clinical setting with the tendency of cross-disciplinary promotion. Oral treatment plays an exceedingly important role in OSAS research and therapy. This study reports the oral treatment involving OSAS therapy.

The preliminary study on transforming growth factor-beta 3, activin receptor-like kinase 5 expression in 2, 3, 7, 8-tetrachloro-p-dibenzodioxin and dexamethasone induced palatal cleft in mice / 华西口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish a good animal model of cleft palate and confirm whether 2, 3, 7, 8-tetrachloro-p-dibenzodioxin (TCDD) and Dexamethasone (DEX) induced palatal cleft in mice is related to the fold change of transforming growth factor-beta 3 (TGF-beta3) and activin receptor-like kinase 5 (Alk5).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Pregnant mice were treated with oral medication of TCDD and intraperitoneal injection with DEX on GD10-12 in experimental group while the control group without any treatment. Then embryos were examined on GD17.5 under stereomicroscope for calculating the incidence of cleft palate and palatal shelves were dissected from the staged embryos respectively for RNA extraction on GD13.5, GD14.5 and GD15.5. At last the real-time PCR and SYBR Green I detection were used for RNA relative quantification.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Cleft palate could be induced 100% in C57BL/6J fetal mice with TCDD and DEX, thus established a stable animal model for further molecular studies of cleft palate. There were no significant difference in expression level of TGF-beta3 and Alk5 on GD13.5 among the groups, but the differences were statistically significant on GD14.5 and GD15.5 (P < 0.05). On the contrary, the expression level of Alk5 were significantly higher in experimental group (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Combined effects of TCDD and DEX could induce a stable formation of cleft palate and down-regulated mRNA of TGF-beta3 and up-regulated Alk5 may contribute to the occurrence of cleft palate.</p>

Effect of decoction of Radix glycyrrhizae on the growth and acid-production of Streptococcus mutans in vitro / 华西口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the antibacterial activity of decoction of Radix glycyrrhizae against Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) in vitro.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The decoction of Radix glycyrrhizae was prepared by boiling particles of Radix glycyrrhizae, the diameter was 0.2-3.2 mm. In distilled water and filtered, the filtrate was collected for study. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the decoction against S. mutans were detected using double dilution. The effect of decoction on growth and acidogenic profile of S. mutans were investigated by detecting the Abs of bacteria suspension and the pH value of medium at definite time intervals(0, 3, 7, 12, 23, 40 h) during cultured.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The MIC determined for decoction was 50 mg x mL(-1) and there was no bactericidal effect when concentration of decoction lower than 100 mg x mL(-1). The decoction inhibitted multiplication of bacteria significantly and the effects became stronger with concentration increasing. The decoction also inhibitted S. mutans producing acid and the effect became stronger with concentration increasing. The most efficient inhibition were observed when incubated 12 hours.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The decoction of Radix glycyrrhizae can inhibite the growth and acid-production of S. mutans in vitro.</p>

Study on protein extraction methods for Streptococcus mutans / 华西口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish an efficient and stable method for protein extraction of Streptococcus mutans.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The collected bacteria were treated by freeze-thaw and ultrasonic (method 1), ultrasonic (method 2), boiling (method 3), boiling and ultrasonic (method 4), respectively. The index such as state of bacteria broken, concentration of extracted protein and SDS-PAGE of protein were employed to evaluate the effects of above four methods.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Beside the method 3, the other three methods could break the bacteria effectively, of which ultrasonic was the key factor. The pattern of SDS-PAGE which treated by method 1, method 2 and method 4 was almost same, but method 1 resulted in the best abundance. There was significantly difference among the four protein concentration extracted by four methods (P < 0.05). All methods exhibited good stability and reproducibility.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Method of freeze-thaw and ultrasonic resulted in an efficient proteins extraction of Streptococcus mutans which demonstrated good stability and reproducibility and easy to handle.</p>