Practice and challenge of age-friendly functional restoration of stomatognathic system based on the strategy of functional tooth loss.

Geriatric oral health care encounters significant challenges with the increase in the proportion of older individuals. Age-related changes in the dentition, muscles, and joints result in a decline in objective masticatory function, subjective restoration requirements, and acceptability among the elderly population, with individual variations influenced by systemic health. Considering functional requirements, the adaptability of stomatognathic and systemic health conditions, health economics and other factors, the authors believe that it should not be limited to the conventional "one-to-one" strategy for replacing missing teeth in geriatric prosthodontics.

TAM-Derived Exosomes Promote EMT by Upregulating lncRNA MIR4435-2HG in Head and Neck Cancer.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the impact of tumor-associated macrophage (TAM)-derived exosomes on epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and the underlying mechanisms involved.

Subjects And Methods: Exosomes were isolated and characterized using transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticle size analysis, and western blotting. The effect on EMT in HNSCC cells was assessed using wound healing, transwell invasion, and EMT marker assays.

Functional Property and Regulatory Mechanism of Macrophages in Complementary and Alternative Medicine: From Bench to Clinic.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) includes a wide range of treatments that are gaining acceptance among the public. It is increasingly being recognized as a viable option for treating various diseases with minimal side effects. Common avenues of this therapy include herbal medicine, acupuncture, physical exercise, aromatherapy, dietary therapy, and homeopathy etc.

Plunging Ranula Presenting as a Giant Anterior Cervical Cystic Mass: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Plunging ranula, a subtype of ranula, commonly presents as a submandibular or submental cystic mass without oral counterpart, and its clinical management remains challenging. Herein, the authors report an extremely rare case of 30-year-old female patient with plunging ranula involving the root of the left anterior neck.

Lichen planus pemphigoides induced by anti-PD-1 antibody: A case only involved in oral mucosa with excellent topical treatment efficiency.

Lichen planus pemphigoides (LPP) is a rare autoimmune subepidermal disease that can occur in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors. Its clinical manifestations are combined with the characteristics of lichen planus with bullous pemphigoid that can occur on either skin or oral mucosa. It should be noted that oral LPP is very rare.

Significant efficacy of short-course, low-concentration betamethasone mouthwash therapy for severe erosive oral lichen planus: a randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: To evaluate the short-term efficacy of low-concentration betamethasone mouthwash for severe erosive oral lichen planus (EOLP).

Materials And Method: In this randomized, investigator-blind, positive-controlled trial, OLP patients with erosive lesions received betamethasone mouthwash (0.137 mg/mL) or dexamethasone mouthwash (0.

Down-regulation of DNA key protein-FEN1 inhibits OSCC growth by affecting immunosuppressive phenotypes via IFN-γ/JAK/STAT-1.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) escape from the immune system is mediated through several immunosuppressive phenotypes that are critical to the initiation and progression of tumors. As a hallmark of cancer, DNA damage repair is closely related to changes in the immunophenotypes of tumor cells. Although flap endonuclease-1 (FEN1), a pivotal DNA-related enzyme is involved in DNA base excision repair to maintain the stability of the cell genome, the correlation between FEN1 and tumor immunity has been unexplored.

Tailoring biomaterials and applications targeting tumor-associated macrophages in cancers.

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play a critical role in supporting tumor growth and metastasis, taming host immunosurveillance, and augmenting therapeutic resistance. As the current treatment paradigms for cancers are generally insufficient to exterminate cancer cells, anti-cancer therapeutic strategies targeting TAMs have been developed. Since TAMs are highly heterogeneous and the pro-tumoral functions are mediated by phenotypes with canonical surface markers, TAM-associated materials exert anti-tumor functions by either inhibiting polarization to the pro-tumoral phenotype or decreasing the abundance of TAMs.

TGF-β signaling in the tumor metabolic microenvironment and targeted therapies.

Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling has a paradoxical role in cancer progression, and it acts as a tumor suppressor in the early stages but a tumor promoter in the late stages of cancer. Once cancer cells are generated, TGF-β signaling is responsible for the orchestration of the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) and supports cancer growth, invasion, metastasis, recurrence, and therapy resistance. These progressive behaviors are driven by an "engine" of the metabolic reprogramming in cancer.

Functional Properties of Cancer Epithelium and Stroma-Derived Exosomes in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Stroma-cancer cell crosstalk involves a complex signaling network that contributes to tumor progression, including carcinogenesis, angiogenesis, migration, invasion, and therapy resistance in cancers. Exosomes, as extracellular membranous nanovesicles released by almost all types of cells, including tumor cells and stromal cells, play a critical role in signal delivery and material communication, in which the characteristics of their parent cells are reflected. The tumor or stroma-derived exosomes mediate cell-cell communication in the tumor microenvironment by transporting DNA, RNA, proteins, lipids, and metabolites.

Therapeutic Approaches Targeting Proteins in Tumor-Associated Macrophages and Their Applications in Cancers.

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) promote tumor proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis, stemness, therapeutic resistance, and immune tolerance in a protein-dependent manner. Therefore, the traditional target paradigms are often insufficient to exterminate tumor cells. These pro-tumoral functions are mediated by the subsets of macrophages that exhibit canonical protein markers, while simultaneously having unique transcriptional features, which makes the proteins expressed on TAMs promising targets during anti-tumor therapy.

TGF-βRII regulates glucose metabolism in oral cancer-associated fibroblasts via promoting PKM2 nuclear translocation.

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are highly heterogeneous and differentiated stromal cells that promote tumor progression via remodeling of extracellular matrix, maintenance of stemness, angiogenesis, and modulation of tumor metabolism. Aerobic glycolysis is characterized by an increased uptake of glucose for conversion into lactate under sufficient oxygen conditions, and this metabolic process occurs at the site of energy exchange between CAFs and cancer cells. As a hallmark of cancer, metabolic reprogramming of CAFs is defined as reverse Warburg effect (RWE), characterized by increased lactate, glutamine, and pyruvate, etc.

Fundamental and Clinical Applications of Materials Based on Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in Cancers.

Cancer stromal cells play a role in promoting tumor relapse and therapeutic resistance. Therefore, the current treatment paradigms for cancers are usually insufficient to eradicate cancer cells, and anti-cancer therapeutic strategies targeting stromal cells have been developed. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are perpetually activated fibroblasts in the tumor stroma.

Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Facilitate Squamous Cell Carcinoma Lung Metastasis in Mice by Providing TGFβ-Mediated Cancer Stem Cell Niche.

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have been shown to enhance squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) growth, but it is unclear whether they promote SCC lung metastasis. We generated CAFs from mouse SCCs. RNA expression analyses demonstrated that CAFs had enriched transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ) signaling compared to normal tissue-associated fibroblasts (NAFs), therefore we assessed how TGFβ-enriched CAFs impact SCC metastasis.

Ionizing radiation-induced "zombie" carcinoma-associated fibroblasts with suppressed pro-radioresistance on OSCC cells.

Objectives: This study was to investigate the effect of ionizing radiation (IR) on oral carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and to further explore subsequent effects of IR-induced "zombie" CAFs on oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells.

Materials And Methods: Three primary CAFs and one primary normal-associated fibroblasts (NAFs) were separated from human OSCC and normal oral mucosa tissues, identified by immunocytochemistry. Cells were exposed to IR by X-ray irradiator under different doses.

Signaling pathways in cancer-associated fibroblasts and targeted therapy for cancer.

To flourish, cancers greatly depend on their surrounding tumor microenvironment (TME), and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in TME are critical for cancer occurrence and progression because of their versatile roles in extracellular matrix remodeling, maintenance of stemness, blood vessel formation, modulation of tumor metabolism, immune response, and promotion of cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and therapeutic resistance. CAFs are highly heterogeneous stromal cells and their crosstalk with cancer cells is mediated by a complex and intricate signaling network consisting of transforming growth factor-beta, phosphoinositide 3-kinase/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin, mitogen-activated protein kinase, Wnt, Janus kinase/signal transducers and activators of transcription, epidermal growth factor receptor, Hippo, and nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells, etc., signaling pathways.

The hypothesis of tumor-associated macrophages mediating semi-phagocytosis of cancer cells in distant metastasis.

Tweetable abstract Tumor-associated macrophages might promote the distant metastasis of tumor cells by semi-phagocytosis. The authors propose that this newly discovered process occurs in tumor-associated macrophages and may lead to a novel approach for blocking cancer metastasis.

A case of Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome with endocrine disorders: Extraordinary efficiency of hydroxychloroquine and mechanism hypothesis.

Background And Purpose: Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome (MRS) is a rare neuro-mucocutaneous disease. In addition to the traditional clinical triad, there is also a diversity of clinical signs, and it may be related to other systemic diseases.

Methods: In the present study, we report a case of MRS with endocrine disorders that exhibits extraordinary therapeutic efficiency by using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), explore whether there is an internal connection between MRS and endocrine disorders, and discuss the mechanism of the therapeutic efficiency of using HCQ.

Tacrolimus 0.03% ointment treatment in exfoliative cheilitis: A randomised controlled clinical trial and monitoring blood concentration.

Background: Tacrolimus has been used to treat various inflammatory skin diseases, but its safety for topical application on the oral mucosa is unknown. Exfoliative cheilitis (EC) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the lips characterised by repeated scaling; it is difficult to manage. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of tacrolimus 0.

Macrophage-derived exosomes in cancers: Biogenesis, functions and therapeutic applications.

Macrophages are fundamental to promote tumorigenesis, tumor development and metastasis, and chemotherapy resistance through modulating tumor microenvironment and cancer cells. Recently, increasing studies have shown that exosomes could play a crucial role in orchestrating the crosstalk between macrophages and cancer cells. Exosomes, as one of the extracellular vehicles, deliver a diverse cast of molecules including lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids, etc.