Glial growth factors, proteins that are mitogenic for Schwann cells, and several ligands for the p185erbB2 receptor, are products of the same gene. Alternative splicing of the messenger RNA generates an array of putative membrane-attached, intracellular and secreted signalling proteins, at least some of which are expressed in the developing spinal cord and brain. These factors are probably important in the development and regeneration of the nervous system.

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A major purpose of this study was to examine inhibitory effect of the catechin derivatives from Japanese green tea Camellia sinensis on collagenase activity. The crude tea catechins, which contain (+)‐catechin (C), (−)‐epicatechin (EC), (+)‐gallocatechin (GC), (−)‐epigallocatechin (EGC), (−)‐epicatechin gallate (ECg), and (−)‐epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg), were tested for their ability to inhibit the prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell derived collagenase activities. Among the tea catechins tested, ECg and EGCg showed the most potent inhibitory effect on collagenase activity when an optimal concentration of tea catechins (100 μg/ml) was added to reaction mixture containing collagenase and collagen. Preincubation of collagenase with tea catechins reduced the collagenase activity as well. In contrast to ECg and EGCg, the other four tea catechins (C, EC, EGC, and GC) did not show any collagenase inhibitory effect. Our results suggest that the steric structure of 3‐galloyl radical is important for the inhibition of collagenase activity. The collagenase activity in the gingival crevicular fluid from highly progressive adult periodontitis was completely inhibited by the addition of tea catechins. These results demonstrated that tea catechins containing galloyl radical possess the ability to inhibit both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell derived collagenase. J Periodontol 1993; 64:630–636.

In this study, we applied cognitive behavioural intervention to subjects who had painful limited mouth opening, with or without posture correction in daily life. The efficacy of non-intervention control was then compared with it in order to study the effectiveness of posture correction as part of a biobehavioural therapy. The visual analogue scale (VAS) value of pain intensity at maximum mouth opening and disturbance in daily life sharply declined in the group which received only cognitive behavioural intervention and those who received it together with posture correction in daily life compared to the non-intervention control group although there was little difference between the intervention groups. Moreover, pain-free unassisted mouth opening was restored earlier in the group which had added posture correction. This suggests that posture correction in daily life has a positive effect in alleviating myofascial pain with limited mouth opening.