Ectopic canine tooth: a rare cause for maxillary antral mucocoele.

A 40-year-old female presented with a 10 year history of left sided facial pain and occasional purulent nasal discharge, refractory to antibiotics. Dental examination showed 3 missing teeth in left maxilla one of which had no history of extraction. X-ray paranasal sinus showed a bony opacity in the maxillary sinus but nasal endoscopy was normal. C.T. scan revealed a radio-opaque shadow arising from medial wall of left maxillary sinus with a large maxillary mucocoele. Caldwell-Luc procedure was done and an ectopic canine tooth was seen arising from the medial antral wall. Extraction of the tooth with excision of mucocoele resulted in relieving of the symptoms.

Cell surface hydrophobicity and its relation to outer membrane proteins of Serratia marcescens.

Cell surface hydrophobicity measurement of S. marcescens and its two mutants, one having capacity of overproducing the red pigment prodigiosin, while another carrying no pigment, showed that the hydrophobicity, which always increased with ageing of the cells, was not totally due to the pigment present on the surface. The mutant having no pigment always exhibited higher hydrophobicity than that of two pigmented cells, irrespective of whether the experimented cells were of early log phase or static phase. The outer membrane proteins were isolated and characterized by SDS-polyacrylamide gel. The non-pigmented cell outer membrane showed an extra band of protein (approximately 40 K Da molecular weight) besides the other bands common to those of other two pigmented cells. This extra protein of outer membrane may be responsible for higher surface hydrophobicity of non-pigmented mutant of S. marcescens.