Human periosteum cell osteogenic differentiation enhanced by ionic silicon release from porous amorphous silica fibrous scaffolds.

Current synthetic grafts for bone defect filling in the sinus can support new bone formation but lack the ability to stimulate or enhance osteogenic healing. To promote such healing, osteoblast progenitors such as human periosteum cells must undergo osteogenic differentiation. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that degradation of porous amorphous silica fibrous (PASF) scaffolds can enhance human periosteum cell osteogenic differentiation.

Overview and recommendations for medical screening and diagnostic evaluation for postdeployment lung disease in returning US warfighters.

Objective: To review inhalational exposures and respiratory disease risks in US military personnel deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and to develop consensus recommendations for medical screening and diagnostic referral.

Methods: A Working Group of physicians and exposure scientists from academia and from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs was convened in February 2010.

Results: Despite uncertainty about the number of people affected and risk factors for adverse pulmonary outcomes in this occupational setting, the Working Group recommended: (1) standardized approaches to pre- and postdeployment medical surveillance; (2) criteria for medical referral and diagnosis; and (3) case definitions for major deployment-related lung diseases.

The impact of incomplete vaccination schedules on the magnitude and duration of protective antigen-specific IgG responses in recipients of the US licensed anthrax vaccine.

Using a cross-sectional analysis design, we measured serum anti-protective antigen (PA) concentrations in individuals receiving six or fewer US licensed anthrax vaccinations. Samples were collected from 363 individuals with a mean of 29.6+/-8.

Evaluation of field dental equipment in a deployment environment.

Dental officers and technicians must have reliable, durable, well-performing field dental equipment to enable them to provide dental care to deployed troops in operational environments. Unfortunately, no organized program exists to test such equipment before its purchase and use in the field. This article presents the results of a project conducted by the Naval Institute for Dental and Biomedical Research and the Air Force Dental Evaluation and Consultation Service to evaluate commercially available field dental equipment through laboratory testing and clinical-user evaluations in theater.

Interactions of the DNA intercalator acridine orange, with itself, with caffeine, and with double stranded DNA.

Caffeine (CAF) inhibits the intercalation of acridine orange (AO) into cellular DNA. Optical absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy were employed to determine the molecular interactions of AO with itself, with CAF, and with double stranded herring sperm DNA (dsDNA). AO dimerization was observed at concentrations >2 micromol.

Caffeine and other xanthines as cytochemical blockers and removers of heterocyclic DNA intercalators from chromatin.

Caffeine (CAF) and other xanthines non-covalently bind with the cationic fluorescent dye acridine orange (AO) and with other heterocyclic mutagens and carcinogens that are known to intercalate into double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). Fluorescence microscopy and spectrofluorometry studies were employed to test the ability of caffeine and certain other methyl substituted xanthines, with different binding affinities for AO, to inhibit and to reverse the intercalation of AO and other heterocyclic agents from intercalation with the DNA of nuclear chromatin of air-dried cells. Results indicated that xanthines with binding affinity for AO greater than 150 m(-1) block the AO molecule in a concentration dependent manner and comply with mass action kinetics.