Japanese Dental Science Review最新文献

Bone tissue provides structural support for our bodies, with the inner bone marrow (BM) acting as a hematopoietic organ. Within the BM tissue, two types of stem cells play crucial roles: mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) (or skeletal stem cells) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). These stem cells are intricately connected, where BM-MSCs give rise to bone-forming osteoblasts and serve as essential components in the BM microenvironment for sustaining HSCs. Despite the mid-20th century proposal of BM-MSCs, their in vivo identification remained elusive owing to a lack of tools for analyzing stemness, specifically self-renewal and multipotency. To address this challenge, Cre/loxP-based cell lineage tracing analyses are being employed. This technology facilitated the in vivo labeling of specific cells, enabling the tracking of their lineage, determining their stemness, and providing a deeper understanding of the in vivo dynamics governing stem cell populations responsible for maintaining hard tissues. This review delves into cell lineage tracing studies conducted using commonly employed genetically modified mice expressing Cre under the influence of LepR, Gli1, and Axin2 genes. These studies focus on research fields spanning long bones and oral/maxillofacial hard tissues, offering insights into the in vivo dynamics of stem cell populations crucial for hard tissue homeostasis.

Guided tissue regeneration (GTR) has been widely used in the periodontal treatment of intrabony and furcation defects for nearly four decades. The treatment outcomes have shown effectiveness in reducing pocket depth, improving attachment gain and bone filling in periodontal tissue. Although applying GTR could reconstruct the periodontal tissue, the surgical indications are relatively narrow, and some complications and race ethic problems bring new challenges. Therefore, it is challenging to achieve a consensus concerning the clinical benefits of GTR. With the appearance of stem cell-based regenerative medicine, mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) have been considered a promising cell resource for periodontal regeneration. In this review, we highlight preclinical and clinical periodontal regeneration using MSCs derived from distinct origins, including non-odontogenic and odontogenic tissues and induced pluripotent stem cells, and discuss the transplantation procedures, therapeutic mechanisms, and concerns to evaluate the effectiveness of MSCs.

Computer-aided design-computer-aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) systems have been widely used as a fabrication method for restorations because of their high efficiency and accuracy, which significantly reduces fabrication time. However, molars with insufficient clearance or short clinical crown lengths require retention holes or grooves on the preparation, making it difficult to replicate the shapes with the CAM milling system. In these cases, restorations using the lost-wax method are selected. This article focuses on one-piece endodontic crowns (endocrowns) fabricated with a CAD-CAM system (CAD-CAM endocrowns), in which their posts and crowns are integrated. Articles from July 2012 to August 2023 were searched in PubMed with the keyword "endocrown". This review discusses the application of CAD-CAM endocrowns to molars from the viewpoint of model experiment (fracture resistance, adaptation) and clinical research. This technique, which allows margins and internal gaps to be set within the clinically acceptable range, is reported to be an effective way of restoring molars with high survival rates in clinical research.

Unreasonable medical fees can cause problems such as increased medical costs, greater medical disparities, decreased medical standards, and physician shortages. To prevent such problems, it is important to set appropriate medical fees, ensure their proper use, and improve the efficiency of medical care. The treatment of patients with maxillofacial defects is generally more expensive compared with general prosthodontic treatment because it involves more materials and requires more frequently follow-ups for longer period. However, the actual time required for maxillofacial prosthetic treatment is unclear. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to clarify the amount of time spent treating maxillofacial prosthetic patients. We analyzed clinical data from patients undergoing routine maxillofacial prosthetic treatment, irrespective of difficulty level, at 8 university hospitals and 2 dental clinics. We also collected data from maxillofacial prosthodontists on the treatment time required for various Japanese health insurance items, including the fabrication of maxillofacial prostheses. The results revealed that some aspects of maxillofacial prosthetic treatment may take longer to perform and are more costly to perform than previously thought, suggesting the need for some adjustments to the health insurance reimbursement system. Maintaining an appropriate balance between expenditures and fees will greatly benefit patients and physicians, ensuring positive health outcomes and a healthy society.

This study presents the results of systematic reviews on adjunctive tools in screening and diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) and to determine if the current literature supports their use as either an adjunctive tool or replacement of gold standard techniques. Systemic reviews and meta-analysis that evaluated adjunctive tools including chemiluminescence, tissue autofluorescence, tissue fluorescence spectroscopy, vital staining and cytology techniques were systematically examined using AMSTAR II. Twenty-seven systematic reviews were included. Five studies had a low quality of evidence, and nine studies had a critically low quality of evidence. This review found limited evidence to recommend chemiluminescence, tissue autofluorescence tools and vital staining as diagnostic tools, but only serve as clinical adjuncts to conventional oral examination. Cytology techniques and narrow-band imaging may be utilised as a non-invasive diagnostic adjunctive tool for the detection of OSCC and the malignant transformation of OPMD. In conclusion, this paper provides evidence on several types of adjunctive tools and provides recommendations on their use in clinical practice. These tools are considered useful as clinical adjuncts but there is insufficient evidence for their use as a diagnostic tool to replace gold standard conventional oral examination and surgical biopsy.

A preceding viral infection of the respiratory tract predisposes the host to secondary bacterial pneumonia, known as a major cause of morbidity and mortality. However, the underlying mechanism of the viral-bacterial synergy that leads to disease progression has remained elusive, thus hampering the production of effective prophylactic and therapeutic intervention options. In addition to viral-induced airway epithelial damage, which allows dissemination of bacteria to the lower respiratory tract and increases their invasiveness, dysfunction of immune defense following a viral infection has been implicated as a factor for enhanced susceptibility to secondary bacterial infections. Given the proximity of the oral cavity to the respiratory tract, where viruses enter and replicate, it is also well-established that oral health status can significantly influence the initiation, progression, and pathology of respiratory viral infections. This review was conducted to focus on the dysfunction of the respiratory barrier, which plays a crucial role in providing physical and secretory barriers as well as immune defense in the context of viral-bacterial synergy. Greater understanding of barrier response to viral-bacterial co-infections, will ultimately lead to development of effective, broad-spectrum therapeutic approaches for prevention of enhanced susceptibility to these pathogens.

The publication status of dental journals in Japan was examined, with a focus on metrics such as Journal Impact Factor (JIF), Eigenfactor, Article Influence Score, and percentage of open access. A total of 18 journals published by Japanese dental organizations were identified in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), with JIF values ranging from 0.4 to 6.6. The highest JIF was observed in The Japanese Dental Science Review. Additionally, 16 journals were not listed on the JCR. The authors explored the implications of these findings on the visibility and impact of Japanese dental research, and discussed the potential benefits of embracing open-access publications for greater global dissemination. This study highlighted the opportunities for journals to enhance their international recognition by meeting the criteria for JIF inclusion and embracing open-access publications. By adopting effective publication strategies, the dental community in Japan will be able to contribute to the advancement of dentistry globally, ensuring broader accessibility and recognition of its research contributions.

Oral cancer became a very common condition. WHO estimates that there are 4 cases of lip and oral cavity cancer for every 100,000 people worldwide. The early diagnosis of cancers is currently a top focus in the health sector. Recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses have identified promising biomarkers for early detection in several original research investigations. However, it is still unclear the quality of these evidence and which biomarker performs the best in terms of early detection. Therefore, the objective was, to map the methodological and reporting quality of available oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) or head/neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) systematic reviews and meta-analysis. Secondly, to evaluate diagnostic accuracy of salivary biomarkers for common craniofacial cancers and to compare the diagnostic value of different salivary biomarkers.

PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase and Cochrane Library electronic databases were used to map the methodological and reporting quality of the systematic reviews and meta-analysis conducted on the HNSCC, OSCC using the AMSTAR-2 checklist. The inclusion criteria were systematic reviews and meta-analysis published in the topic of HNSCC and OSCC biomarkers. Exclusion criteria were no animal studies; original primary studies, due to limitation of competency in other languages articles with language other than English were excluded. The sensitivity and specificity were calculated for salivary biomarkers and ranked according to network meta-analysis principles.

A total of N = 5893 patients were included from four meta-analysis studies. All together, these included n = 37 primary studies. n = 94 biomarkers were pooled from these four meta-analyses and categorised into the stages at which they were detected (I-IV). In OSCC, Chemerin and MMP-9 displayed the highest sensitivity, registering 0.94 (95% CI 0.78, 1.00) and a balanced accuracy of 0.93. Phytosphingosine closely followed, with a sensitivity of 0.91 (95% CI 0.68, 0.99) and a balanced accuracy of 0.87.

For HNSCC, the top three biomarkers are Actin, IL-1β Singleplex, and IL-8 ELISA. Actin leads with a sensitivity of 0.91 (95% CI 0.68–0.99), a specificity of 0.67, and an overall accuracy of 0.79. Subsequently, IL-1β Singleplex exhibits a sensitivity of 0.62 (95% CI 0.30–0.88), a specificity of 0.89, and an accuracy of 0.75, followed by IL-8 ELISA with a sensitivity of 0.81 (95% CI 0.54–0.97), a specificity of 0.59, and an accuracy of 0.70.

In conclusion, there was highest sensitivity for MMP-9 and chemerin salivary biomarkers. There is need of further more studies to identify biomarkers for HNSCC and OSCC.

High viscosity glass ionomer cement (HVGIC) has been employed as a restorative material for Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART). As residual caries persist after caries removal in ART, the antibacterial activity of HVGIC gains importance. Organic and inorganic substances with antibacterial properties have been incorporated into HVGIC over the years, and their effects on the antibacterial and physical properties have been studied. The objective of this paper is to review the various alterations made to HVGIC using organic compounds, their effect on the antibacterial activity, and the physical properties of the cement. Various in vitro investigations have been conducted by adding antiseptics, antibiotics, and naturally occurring antibacterial substances. Most of these compounds render superior antibacterial properties to HVGIC, but higher concentrations affect physical properties in a dose-dependent manner. However, some naturally occurring antibacterial substances, such as chitosan, improve the physical properties of HVGIC, as they enhance cross-linking and polysalt bridging. There is potential for clinical benefits to be gained from the addition of organic antibacterial compounds to HVGIC. In-depth research is required to determine the optimum concentration at which the antibacterial effect is maximum without affecting the physical properties of the cement.

The prevalence and severity of periodontitis are increased and advanced in diabetes. Severe periodontitis elicits adverse effects on diabetes by impairing insulin actions due to systemic microinflammation. Recent studies unveil the emerging findings and molecular basis of the bidirectional relationship between periodontitis and diabetes. In addition to conventional mechanisms such as hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and chronic inflammation, deficient insulin action may play a pathogenic role in the progression of periodontitis under diabetes. Epidemiologically, from the viewpoint of the adverse effect of periodontitis on diabetes, recent studies have suggested that Asians including Japanese and Asian Americans with diabetes and mild obesity (BMI <25 kg/m2) should pay more attention to their increased risk for cardiovascular diseases. In this review, we summarize recent findings on the effect of diabetes on periodontitis from the viewpoint of abnormalities in metabolism and insulin resistance with novel mechanisms, and the influence of periodontitis on diabetes mainly focused on micro-inflammation related to mature adipose tissue and discuss future perspectives about novel approaches to interrupt the adverse interrelationship.