Gingival enlargement in pediatric organ transplant recipients in relation to tacrolimus-based immunosuppressive regimens.

Purpose: Tacrolimus, in contrast to cyclosporine, has not been found to be associated with gingival enlargement (GE) among adult transplant recipients. The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence of GE in relation to tacrolimus and cyclosporine-based immunosuppressive regimens among pediatric solid-organ transplant recipients, controlling for the use of calcium channel blockers (CCB) and the presence of supragingival plaque.

Methods: A standardized questionnaire was administered and a comprehensive oral examination was performed among pediatric renal and liver transplant recipients who were at least 6 months post-transplant.

Amelogenins in human developing and mature dental pulp.

Amelogenins are a group of heterogenous proteins first identified in developing tooth enamel and reported to be present in odontoblasts. The objective of this study was to elucidate the expression and function of amelogenins in the human dentin-pulp complex. Developing human tooth buds were immunostained for amelogenin, and mRNA was detected by in situ hybridization.

Statistical analysis of sediment toxicity by additive monotone regression splines.

Modeling nonlinearity and thresholds in dose-effect relations is a major challenge, particularly in noisy data sets. Here we show the utility of nonlinear regression with additive monotone regression splines. These splines lead almost automatically to the estimation of thresholds.