Wear and fracture of curettes due to sharpening and scaling processes.

Objectives: To examine the wear occurring in a group of new Gracey curettes due to the sharpening and scaling processes and record the number of service cycles before breakage.

Methods: This study included 592 working ends of Gracey curettes that were subjected to cycles of sharpening and scaling. Three-dimensional measurements of the blades and the status of the working ends were recorded before and after each process.

The role of the JAK-STAT pathway in neural stem cells, neural progenitor cells and reactive astrocytes after spinal cord injury.

Patients with spinal cord injuries can develop severe neurological damage and dysfunction, which is not only induced by primary but also by secondary injuries. As an evolutionarily conserved pathway of eukaryotes, the JAK-STAT pathway is associated with cell growth, survival, development and differentiation; activation of the JAK-STAT pathway has been previously reported in central nervous system injury. The JAK-STAT pathway is directly associated with neurogenesis and glia scar formation in the injury region.

Effect of icarisid II on diabetic rats with erectile dysfunction and its potential mechanism via assessment of AGEs, autophagy, mTOR and the NO-cGMP pathway.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a major complication of diabetes mellitus. Icariin has been shown to enhance erectile function through its bioactive form, icarisid II. This study investigates the effects of icarisid II on diabetic rats with ED and its potential mechanism via the assessment of advanced glycosylation end products (AGEs), autophagy, mTOR and the NO-cGMP pathway.

Icarisid II, a PDE5 inhibitor from Epimedium wanshanense, increases cellular cGMP by enhancing NOS in diabetic ED rats corpus cavernosum tissue.

The aim of this study was to explore the effects and mechanisms of Icarisid II (ICA-II) on enhancing the cellular cGMP in rat corpus cavernosum tissue (RCCT). Diabetes mellitus Wistar rats were induced by streptozotocin, and diabetic ED rats were selected for the RCCT culture by apomorphine. ICA-II was extracted and purified from Icariin (ICA) by enzymatic method.