The mouth of America: the oral microbiome profile of the US population.

Importance: The oral microbiome is increasingly recognized to play key roles in human health and disease; yet, population-representative characterizations are lacking.

Objective: Characterize the composition, diversity, and correlates of the oral microbiome among US adults.

Design: Cross-sectional population-representative survey.

The oral microbiome and all-cause mortality in the US population.

Importance: Poor oral health, including periodontal disease, is associated with oral microbiome changes and increased mortality risk. However, no large studies have evaluated whether the oral microbiome is directly associated with mortality.

Objective: To evaluate whether measures of the oral microbiome is prospectively associated with all-cause mortality.

Public Willingness to Engage With COVID-19 Contact Tracing, Quarantine, and Exposure Notification.

Objectives: We conducted a survey to understand how people's willingness to share information with contact tracers, quarantine after a COVID-19 exposure, or activate and use a smartphone exposure notification (EN) application (app) differed by the person or organization making the request or recommendation.

Methods: We analyzed data from a nationally representative survey with hypothetical scenarios asking participants (N = 2157) to engage in a public health action by health care providers, public health departments, employers, and others. We used Likert scales and ordered logistic regression to compare willingness to take action based on which person or organization made the request, and we summarized findings by race and ethnicity.

Digital Tools Adopted by Public Health Agencies to Support COVID-19 Case Investigation and Contact Tracing, United States, 2020-2021.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, public health agencies implemented an array of technologies and digital tools to support case investigation and contact tracing. Beginning in May 2020, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials compiled information on digital tools used by its membership, which comprises 59 chief health officials from each of the 50 states, 5 US territories, 3 freely associated states, and the District of Columbia. This information was presented online through a publicly available technology and digital tools inventory.

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Biospecimen Program: NHANES III (1988-1994) and NHANES 1999-2014.

Background: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey's 9NHANES) biospecimena program was formed to manage the collection of biospecimena (including serum, plasma, urine, and DNA) from NHANES cycles, the storage of biospecimens in NHANES biospecimens, accessing of biospecimens by researchers and the providing of resulting data to future researchers. Data from biospeceimen research can be combined with existing NHANES data.

Objective: This report provides background on the development of NHANES biorepositories and describes the collection, processing, and storing of biospecimens; ethical considerations and informed consent; and the proposal process for accessing biospecimens and resulting data.

Association between variants in or near PNPLA3, GCKR, and PPP1R3B with ultrasound-defined steatosis based on data from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Background & Aims: A genome-wide association study associated 5 genetic variants with hepatic steatosis (identified by computerized tomography) in individuals of European ancestry. We investigated whether these variants were associated with measures of hepatic steatosis (HS) in non-Hispanic white (NHW), non-Hispanic black, and Mexican American (MA) participants in the US population-based National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III, phase 2.

Methods: We analyzed data from 4804 adults (1825 NHW, 1442 non-Hispanic black, and 1537 MA; 51.

Blood lead levels, ALAD gene polymorphisms, and mortality.

Background: Previous analyses from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) have found that elevated blood lead levels may be associated with cardiovascular mortality, cancer mortality, and all-cause mortality. The 5-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) G177C genetic polymorphism (rs 1800435) affects lead toxicokinetics and may alter the adverse effects of lead exposure. We examined whether the ALAD G177C single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) affects the relationship between lead and mortality.

TNF-alpha mediates diabetes-enhanced chondrocyte apoptosis during fracture healing and stimulates chondrocyte apoptosis through FOXO1.

To gain insight into the effect of diabetes on fracture healing, experiments were carried out focusing on chondrocyte apoptosis during the transition from cartilage to bone. Type 1 diabetes was induced in mice by multiple low-dose streptozotocin injections, and simple transverse fractures of the tibia or femur was carried out. Large-scale transcriptional profiling and gene set enrichment analysis were performed to examine apoptotic pathways on total RNA isolated from fracture calluses on days 12, 16, and 22, a period of endochondral bone formation when cartilage is resorbed and chondrocyte numbers decrease.

High levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha contribute to accelerated loss of cartilage in diabetic fracture healing.

Diabetes interferes with fracture repair; therefore, we investigated mechanisms of impaired fracture healing in a model of multiple low-dose streptozotocin-induced diabetes. Microarray and gene set enrichment analysis revealed an up-regulation of gene sets related to inflammation, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signaling in the diabetic group, when cartilage is being replaced by bone on day 16, but not on days 12 or 22. This change coincided with elevated osteoclast numbers and accelerated removal of cartilage in the diabetic group (P < 0.

Transcriptional analysis of fracture healing and the induction of embryonic stem cell-related genes.

Fractures are among the most common human traumas. Fracture healing represents a unique temporarily definable post-natal process in which to study the complex interactions of multiple molecular events that regulate endochondral skeletal tissue formation. Because of the regenerative nature of fracture healing, it is hypothesized that large numbers of post-natal stem cells are recruited and contribute to formation of the multiple cell lineages that contribute to this process.