Unified Interpretations of Two Kinds of Needle-Shaped Precipitates Using Transmission Electron Microscopy and Small-Angle Neutron Scattering in Aged Al-MgSi(-Cu) Alloys.

This study investigates the nanostructural properties of pseudo-binary Al-1.0MgSi (mass%) alloys with and without 0.5Cu using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS).

Intermittent hypoxia inhibits mandibular cartilage growth with reduced TGF-β and SOX9 expressions in neonatal rats.

Intermittent hypoxia (IH) has been associated with skeletal growth. However, the influence of IH on cartilage growth and metabolism is unknown. We compared the effects of IH on chondrocyte proliferation and maturation in the mandibular condyle fibrocartilage and tibial hyaline cartilage of 1-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats.

Intermittent hypoxia induces turbinate mucosal hypertrophy via upregulating the gene expression related to inflammation and EMT in rats.

Purpose: Chronic intermittent hypoxia (IH) plays a pivotal role in the consequences of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). It has been demonstrated that IH impairs nasomaxillary complex growth to reduce nasal airway cavity size in rodent models. Although turbinate dysfunction with inflammatory mucosal hypertrophy is related to OSA, the role of IH in turbinate hypertrophy with inflammation-driven fibrosis is unknown.

Intermittent hypoxia retards mandibular growth and alters RANKL expression in adolescent and juvenile rats.

Objectives: Chronic intermittent hypoxia (IH), a common state experienced in obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), retards mandibular growth in adolescent rats. The aim of this study was to elucidate the differential effects of IH on mandibular growth in different growth stages.

Materials And Methods: Three-week-old (juvenile stage) and 7-week-old (adolescent stage) male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent IH for 3 weeks.

Development of a biaxial tensile testing machine for pulsed neutron experiments.

A biaxial tensile testing method has been used to get macroscopic information on elastoplastic deformation of a thin steel specimen and improve the accuracy of plastic processing of steel materials. We newly developed a biaxial tensile testing machine for pulsed neutron experiments (BTM-NEU) to provide the microscopic crystallographic information of steel materials under biaxial load and correlate it with the macroscopic mechanical properties of the materials. The performance of the BTM-NEU was experimentally evaluated with cold-rolled mild steel and hot-rolled high-tensile-strength steel materials and compared with that of a standard biaxial tensile testing machine (BTM-std) as follows.

Differential growth of craniofacial and tibial bones to sympathetic hyperactivity-related hypertension in rats.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity on craniofacial skeletal growth in growing spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs).

Design: Craniofacial skeletal growth was compared between male SHR and Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKR) using linear measurements on lateral and transverse cephalometric radiographs at the age of 12 weeks. Tibia length was measured as an index of whole body growth.

A novel IkB kinase inhibitor attenuates ligature-induced periodontal disease in mice.

Backgrounds And Objectives: IMD-0354 is a novel I kappa-B kinase (IKK) inhibitor, which regulates inflammation. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the reagent on bone loss for ligature-induced periodontitis.

Material And Methods: We ligated around the upper right second molars of 8-week-old C57BL/6J mice in the split-mouth model.

A Novel Bioabsorbable Sheet That Delivers NF-κB Decoy Oligonucleotide Restrains Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Development in Rats.

For the suppression of inflammation in the aneurysm development, we focused on inhibition of an important transcription factor, nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), using a decoy strategy. We newly developed a novel bioabsorbable sheet that delivers NF-κB decoy oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN).We treated 5-week-old SD rats that were induced with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) using 0.

Increased Oral Porphyromonas gingivalis Prevalence in Cardiovascular Patients with Uncontrolled Diabetes Mellitus.

The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between periodontopathic bacteria and diabetes mellitus (DM) status in cardiovascular disease (CVD) subjects.DM is associated with the progression of periodontitis. Several epidemiological studies have suggested that periodontitis may be a risk factor for CVD.

Impact of Pathogenic Variant Types on the Progression of Aortic Disease in Patients With Marfan Syndrome.

Background: Marfan syndrome can cause life-threatening aortic complications. We investigated the relationship between genotype and severe aortopathy (aortic root replacement, type A dissections, and related death).

Methods: We evaluated 248 patients with pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants.

Myocardial perfusion reserve quantified by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is associated with late gadolinium enhancement in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) with cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging has demonstrated the capability of stratifying hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Stress perfusion test of CMR can quantify myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR), but its clinical role is not determined. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between MPR and LGE in patients with HCM.

Japanese Cardiovascular Disease Patients with Diabetes Mellitus Suffer Increased Tooth Loss in Comparison to Those without Diabetes Mellitus -A Cross-sectional Study.

Objective Tooth loss is an irreversible condition that reflects the end-stage of oral diseases, including periodontitis. Although periodontitis is a major factor in the progression of diabetes mellitus (DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD), no previous studies have compared tooth loss in CVD patients with and without DM. Methods The subjects included CVD patients with (n=94) and without (n=145) DM who attended Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital.

The chemokine receptor type 4 antagonist, AMD3100, interrupts experimental tooth movement in rats.

Objective: The aim of this study was to clarify the role of the stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1)/C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) axis in osteoclast accumulation, and the influence of orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) under mechanical force application to periodontal tissues, by administration of the CXCR4 antagonist AMD3100.

Design: The upper right first molar (M1) of rats was moved mesially with a 10-g force titanium-nickel closed coil spring. Rats were treated with phosphate-buffered saline or AMD3100 (5mg/kg), which is a SDF-1 antagonist.

Ultrasound microbubble-mediated transfection of NF-κB decoy oligodeoxynucleotide into gingival tissues inhibits periodontitis in rats in vivo.

Periodontitis is a chronic infectious disease for which the fundamental treatment is to reduce the load of subgingival pathogenic bacteria by debridement. However, previous investigators attempted to implement a nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) decoy oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) as a suppressor of periodontitis progression. Although we recently reported the effectiveness of the ultrasound-microbubble method as a tool for transfecting the NF-κB decoy ODN into healthy rodent gingival tissue, this technique has not yet been applied to the pathological gingiva of periodontitis animal models.

Detrimental effects of specific Periodontopathic bacterial infection on tachyarrhythmia compared to Bradyarrhythmia.

Background: Tachyarrhythmia (TA) and bradyarrhythmia (BA) are cardiac rhythm disorders that result in the decline of quality of life. While patients with periodontitis are at a high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), little causal information between TA and BA has been provided to date. To assess the relationship, periodontal bacterial infection in patients with TA or BA was evaluated.

Porphyromonas Gingivalis Elevated High-Mobility Group Box 1 Levels After Myocardial Infarction in Mice.

High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a nuclear protein released from necrotic cells, inducing inflammatory responses. Epidemiological studies suggested a possible association between periodontitis and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Due to tissue damage and necrosis of cardiac cells following myocardial infarction (MI), HMGB1 is released, activating an inflammatory reaction.

Novel Concept of a Heart-Gut Axis in the Pathophysiology of Heart Failure.

Patients with heart failure (HF) have structural and functional changes of the gut as a result of microcirculatory disturbances. A disrupted gut epithelial barrier may lead to translocation of microbial products into systemic circulation, possibly aggravating HF by inducing inflammatory responses. Gut microbiota play an essential role in the maintenance of host homeostasis because large quantities of their gene products complement host physiological processes.

Prolonged but non-permanent expression of a transgene in ependymal cells of adult rats using an adenovirus-mediated transposon gene transfer system.

Ependymal cells have been considered one of prime targets for gene therapy in the central nervous system as they can secrete proteins directly into the cerebrospinal fluid. In this study, we have explored the probability of permanent exogenous gene expression using a combined adenovirus/transposon system. To this end, we created three adenoviruses; adenovirus #1 containing a CAG promoter-driven enhanced green fluorescent protein tagged with a palmitoylation site (palEGFP), whose DNA sequence was flanked by two different Tol2 ends, #2 containing a human FoxJ1 promoter-driven T2TP transposase, and #3 containing an EF-1 alpha promoter-driven T2TP transposase.

Specific periodontopathic bacterial infection affects hypertension in male cardiovascular disease patients.

Hypertension (HT) is a systemic disorder that results in the decline of quality of life and death. While patients with periodontitis are at a high risk of HT, little causal information has been provided to date. To clarify the relationship, periodontopathic bacterial infection in cardiovascular patients with or without HT was evaluated.

Periodontitis deteriorates peripheral arterial disease in Japanese population via enhanced systemic inflammation.

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a common manifestation of arterial stenosis of the extremity that reduces arterial flow. While patients with periodontitis are at a high risk of PAD, little causal information has been provided to date. To clarify the relationship, we conducted this cross-sectional study.

A new approach to transfect NF-κB decoy oligodeoxynucleotides into the periodontal tissue using the ultrasound-microbubble method.

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of the ultrasound-microbubble technique in nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) decoy oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) transfection in the gingival tissue in mice. The 6-FAM-labeled scrambled decoy ODN with microbubbles was applied to the periodontal tissue in 8-week-old male C57BL/6J mice by ultrasound radiation at low (LUM-Sc) and high (HUM-Sc) intensities to optimize the transfection condition of the ultrasound-microbubble method. Histological inspections were performed two hours after transfection to compare the expression with that in the sham-operated group without ultrasound radiation (A-Sc).

Angiotensin II Peptide Vaccine Protects Ischemic Brain Through Reducing Oxidative Stress.

Background And Purpose: Medication nonadherence is one of major risk factors for the poor outcome in ischemic stroke. Vaccination is expected to solve such a problem because of its long-lasting effects, but its effect on ischemic brain damage is still unknown. Here, we focused on vaccination for renin-angiotensin system and examined the effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) peptide vaccine in permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion model in rats.

Dysbiosis and compositional alterations with aging in the gut microbiota of patients with heart failure.

Emerging evidence has suggested a potential impact of gut microbiota on the pathophysiology of heart failure (HF). However, it is still unknown whether HF is associated with dysbiosis in gut microbiota. We investigated the composition of gut microbiota in patients with HF to elucidate whether gut microbial dysbiosis is associated with HF.