Recent progress in regenerative therapy for damaged salivary glands: From bench to bedside.

Objective: For functional restoration of salivary glands (SGs) injured by radiation therapy or Sjögren's syndrome (SS), various experimental approaches, such as gene therapy, tissue engineering, and cell-based therapy, have been proposed. This narrative review summarized recent progresses in research using cell-based therapies, including promising trials that could lead to bench-to-clinic applications.

Methods: A literature review based on PubMed publications in the last two decades was performed to summarize progresses in cell-based therapies for SG dysfunction.

Immunomodulatory Macrophages Enable E-MNC Therapy for Radiation-Induced Salivary Gland Hypofunction.

A newly developed therapy using effective-mononuclear cells (E-MNCs) is reportedly effective against radiation-damaged salivary glands (SGs) due to anti-inflammatory and revascularization effects. However, the cellular working mechanism of E-MNC therapy in SGs remains to be elucidated. In this study, E-MNCs were induced from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) by culture for 5-7 days in medium supplemented with five specific recombinant proteins (5G-culture).

Effective-mononuclear cell (E-MNC) therapy alleviates salivary gland damage by suppressing lymphocyte infiltration in Sjögren-like disease.

Sjögren syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune disease characterized by salivary gland (SG) destruction leading to loss of secretory function. A hallmark of the disease is the presence of focal lymphocyte infiltration in SGs, which is predominantly composed of T cells. Currently, there are no effective therapies for SS.

Fatigue Properties of Hot-Dip Galvanized AISI 1020 Normalized Steel in Tension-Compression and Tension-Tension Loading.

Since hot-dip galvanizing causes a heat effect on cold-worked steel substrate and produces a coating layer comprised of distinct phases with varying mechanical properties, the fatigue mechanism of hot-dip galvanized steel is very complex and hard to clarify. In this study, AISI 1020 steel that has been normalized to minimize susceptibility to the heat effect was used to clarify the effect of the galvanizing layer on the tensile and fatigue properties. The galvanizing layer causes a reduction in the yield point, tensile strength, and fatigue strength.

Telomere Length of Human Adult Bronchial Epithelium and Bronchogenic Squamous Cell Carcinoma Measured Using Tissue Quantitative Fluorescence in situ Hybridization.

Background: Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences located at the ends of chromosomes. Chromosomal and genomic instability due to telomere dysfunction has been known to play an important role in the carcinogenesis of some organs.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between smoking and the telomere length of human bronchial epithelial cells in individuals with and without lung cancer.