Oral neutrophil levels: a screening test for oral inflammatory load in pregnancy in a medical setting.

Background: A multitude of studies suggest an association between periodontal disease and adverse birth outcomes, but the findings have been equivocal. Although the evidence is controversial, it is biologically plausible, and the key link may be inflammation. Because periodontitis is at times either active or inactive, trying to correlate the presence of pockets, for example, to adverse outcome of pregnancy might be preordained to failure or at least confusion.

Quantifying oral inflammatory load: oral neutrophil counts in periodontal health and disease.

Background And Objective: Neutrophils are the primary white blood cells that are recruited to fight the initial phases of microbial infections. While healthy norms have been determined for circulating blood neutrophil counts in order to identify patients with suspected systemic infections, the levels of oral neutrophils (oPMNs) in oral health and in the presence of periodontal diseases have not been described. It is important to address this deficiency in our knowledge as neutrophils are the primary immune cell present in the crevicular fluid and oral environment and previous work has suggested that they may be good indicators of overall oral inflammation and periodontal disease severity.

Histological results after maxillary sinus augmentation with Straumann® BoneCeramic, Bio-Oss®, Puros®, and autologous bone. A randomized controlled clinical trial.

Objective: This investigation focused on a comparison of clinical and histological characteristics after sinus floor augmentation with biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP, Straumann BoneCeramic(®) ), anorganic bovine bone (ABB, Geistlich Bio-Oss(®) ), mineralized cancellous bone allograft (MCBA, Zimmer Puros(®) ), or autologous bone (AB).

Materials And Methods: Thirty consecutive patients with a posterior edentulous maxillary situation and a vertical bone height less than or equal to 4 mm were included in this study. A two-stage procedure was carried out.

Bio-Oss® blocks combined with BMP-2 and VEGF for the regeneration of bony defects and vertical augmentation.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the bone formation rate and osseointegration of Bio-Oss(®) blocks combined with rhBMP-2 and rhVEGF in bony defects and after vertical augmentation.

Material And Methods: Bio-Oss(®) blocks plus rhBMP-2 (BMP), Bio-Oss(®) blocks plus rhVEGF (VEGF), or Bio-Oss(®) blocks plus rhBMP-2 and rhVEGF (BMPVEGF) were inserted in "critical size defects" (CSD) in the calvariae of adult pigs. Control defects were filled with collagen carrier (Lyostypt(®) ) plus growth factors and untreated Bio-Oss(®) blocks (CO).

Use of the systems approach to determine the fate of Escherichia coli O157:H7 on fresh lettuce and spinach.

Lettuce and spinach inoculated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 were processed and handled in ways that might occur in commercial situations, including variations in holding times before and after product cooling, transportation conditions and temperatures, wash treatments, and product storage temperatures and times. Populations of background microflora and E. coli O157:H7 were enumerated after each step in the system.

Developmental and food-access-dependent changes in effector systems activated by leptin.

In small mammals leptin reduces fat stores not only by inhibiting food intake but also by disinhibiting metabolic cold defense. Presuming that postnatal age and feeding regime set the conditions for either mode of leptin action, we compared the caloric equivalents of changes in fat mass, metabolic rate (MR) and food intake (FI) induced by 10-day treatments with leptin, in rats treated from postnatal days 7, 15, 25 onward and in adult mice that were free-feeding or food restricted. Whereas MR changes are known to dominate from postnatal days 7-16, changes in MR explained only about 50% and 30% of the leptin-induced changes in fat mass between days 15-24 and days 25-34, respectively.

The behavior of linear alkylbenzenesulfonate in different soils: a comparison between field and laboratory studies.

The behavior of linear alkylbenzenesulfonate (LAS) in soils (i.e., degradation, percolation, and sorption) was investigated in field and laboratory tests.