Mineral trioxide aggregate-induced AMPK activation stimulates odontoblastic differentiation of human dental pulp cells.

Aim: To investigate the role of autophagy in MTA-induced odontoblastic differentiation of human dental pulp cells (HDPCs).

Methodology: In MTA-treated HDPCs, odontoblastic differentiation was assessed based on expression levels of dentine sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) and dentine matrix protein 1 (DMP1), alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) activity by ALP staining and the formation of mineralized nodule by Alizarin red S staining. Expression of microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain3 (LC3), adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling molecules and autophagy-related genes was analysed by Western blot analysis and Acridine orange staining was used to detect autophagic lysosome.

Evaluation of the BD Phoenix M50 Automated Microbiology System for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing with Clinical Isolates in Korea.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the performance of the BD Phoenix™ M50 system with two antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) panels against clinical isolates in South Korea and the accuracy of determining carbapenem and colistin susceptibility compared with reference methods. A total of 825 nonduplicated clinical isolates were included in this study. Bacterial identification was performed using Bruker Biotyper and 16S rDNA sequencing.