No abstract

3D soft tissue analysis provides additional information on the sagittal position of the jaw bases and on intermaxillary sagittal relations. Further studies are needed to integrate 3D soft tissue analysis in future treatment planning and assessment as a supportive diagnostic tool.

The presented novel method is a noninvasive technique in treatment of infants with UAO.

No abstract

Oral squamous cell carcinoma develops continuously out of predamaged oral mucosa. For the physician and pathologist, difficulties arise in distinguishing precancerous from cancerous lesions. MAGE-A antigens are tumor antigens that are found solely in malignant transformed cells. These antigens might be useful in distinguishing precancerous from cancerous lesions. The aim of this study was to verify this assumption by comparing MAGE-A expression in benign, precancerous, and cancerous lesions of the oral mucosa. Retrospectively, biopsies of different oral lesions were randomly selected. The lesions that were included are 64 benign oral lesions (25 traumatic lesions (oral ulcers), 13 dental follicles, and 26 epulis), 26 oral lichen planus, 123 epithelial precursor lesions (32 epithelial hyperplasia found in leukoplakias, 24 epithelial dysplasia found in leukoplakias, 26 erythroplasia with oral epithelial dysplasia, and 41 carcinomas in situ in erythroleukoplakias). The lesions were immunohistochemically stained with the poly-MAGE-A antibody 57B, and the results were compared. Biopsies of oral lichen planus, oral ulcers, dental follicles, epulis, and leukoplakia without dysplasia showed no positive staining for MAGE-A antigens. Leukoplakia with dysplasia, dysplasia, and carcinomata in situ displayed positive staining in 33%, 65%, and 56% of the cases, respectively. MAGE-A antigens were not detectable via immunohistochemistry in benign lesions of the oral mucosa. The staining rate of dysplastic precancerous lesions or malignant lesions ranged from 33% to 65%. The MAGE-A antigens might facilitate better differentiation between precancerous and cancerous lesions of the oral mucosa.

3D soft tissue analysis provides information about vertical skeletal parameters, allowing assessment of vertical craniofacial morphology. Further investigation will be required so that 3D soft tissue diagnosis can be integrated into treatment planning and assessment as a supportive diagnostic tool in the future.

In reconstructive medicine, the clinical use of cryopreservation techniques depends on the absence of infectious agents such as prions. Therefore, we investigated the viability and differentiation of human osteoblast-like cells during replacement of fetal bovine serum in vitro. The aim of the present study is to replace the potentially infectious supplement fetal bovine serum during the cryopreservation procedure in order to perform future clinical trials. We used a cryopreservation technique with Me₂SO for human osteoblast-like cells of iliac cancellous bone. In the cell culture of cryopreserved and fresh osteoblast-like cells, we substituted Dulbecco’s modification of Eagle’s medium (DMEM)/Ham’s F12 plus 1% penicillin/streptomycin with autologous serum, human serum albumin and Biseko® for fetal bovine serum. For the fourth treatment group, we removed fetal bovine serum without replacing it. DMEM/Ham’s F12 plus 1% penicillin/streptomycin with fetal bovine serum served as the control group. After 4, 7, 14 and 21 days of culture for the cryopreserved and noncryopreserved cells, we performed cell counting, a WST-1 test, ELISA for collagen type I, and osteocalcin. The activity of alkaline phosphatase was also measured. The best results were obtained for the group with autologous serum as a supplement after thawing, exceeding the other groups with regard to proliferation rate. Most viable cells were observed with no replacement before freezing and after thawing of the cells. With regard to differentiation, the cultures with autologous serum after thawing of the cells showed little concentration of the differentiation markers, probably due to early contact inhibition of the cells in vitro. With regard to effort and outcome, the most promising group for cryopreservation was the one with DMEM/Ham’s F12 plus 1% penicillin/streptomycin alone before freezing, especially when osteoblast-like cells were cultured in medium with autologous serum after thawing. This is important, as this in vitro setting resembles the in vivo situation when cryopreserved bone is transplanted. These findings indicate that, for clinical purposes, fetal bovine serum can be removed for cryopreservation of iliac cancellous bone with minor loss of viability.

A sheep animal model was used to investigate the clinical behavior of autologous bone transplants after cryopreservation. The aim of the present study was to compare fresh, cryopreserved and deep-frozen bone transplants in terms of their osseointegration. We used a serum-free cryopreservation protocol with DMSO as cryoprotectant for the bone transplants, which were harvested from the iliac crest of the sheep. The bicortical iliac bone grafts were either cryopreserved or immediately frozen to –80°C for 4 weeks. Four, 8, 12 and 16 weeks after the autologous transplantation of the cryopreserved, fresh or deep-frozen bone transplants to the contralateral iliac crest, the animals were sacrificed and the bone specimens were evaluated clinically, by staining for hematoxylin/eosin and for tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase, by quantified computed tomography, immunohistochemistry (Ki67) and polychrome sequential labeling. The best results were obtained for the fresh specimens with 83% bone healing compared with 75% (cryopreserved bone) and 50% (deep frozen bone). All parameters indicate that bone formation and remodeling processes take place in fresh and cryopreserved transplants. The deep-frozen specimens displayed no fluorochrome uptake in the sequential labeling. These findings indicate that osseointegration of the fresh transplants was the most successful and that osteogenic effects in fresh and cryopreserved transplants are located in the surface area, whereas only the osteoconductive effects are important in the center of the transplants. Thus, cryopreservation is a useful method for the clinical routine because it keeps the osteogenic cells viable, making it superior to deep freezing of abundant bone.