Preclinical randomized controlled trial of bilateral discectomy versus bilateral discopexy in Black Merino sheep temporomandibular joint: TEMPOJIMS – Phase 1- histologic, imaging and body weight results

3D Printed Poly(𝜀-caprolactone)/Hydroxyapatite Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering: A Comparative Study on a Composite Preparation by Melt Blending or Solvent Casting Techniques and the Influence of Bioceramic Content on Scaffold Properties

“…Following previous valuable works on PCL/HA scaffolds with promising outcomes [13,44,[46][47][48][49], this work intended to further analyse the impact of different proportions of HA content, as well as the application of two different fabrication processes for the incorporation of HA nanoparticles in PCL matrices, on the mechanical, physical, chemical, and in vitro outcomes of the scaffolds. Moreover, it is also important to highlight the aim of achieving controlled, reproducible and well-defined 3D structures fabricated by a previously developed 3D printing system [8][9][10]12,22,[24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

“…PCL, through its melt processing, allows 3D porous scaffolds with highly interconnected porous network and with high reproducibility to be obtained by using commercialised [21] and novel biomanufacturing systems [5,[8][9][10][11][12][22][23][24]. PCLbased scaffolds have been produced by these newly developed equipments and have been tested in vitro and in vivo with good cell viability, osteogenic differentiation promotion and improved bone tissue regeneration outcomes, both in vitro and in vivo [5,8,11,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”

“…In this work, in addition to the incorporation of a ceramic amount of 20 and 40 wt% on PCL, we analyse the influence of the two mixture techniques (solvent casting (SC) and melt blending (MB)) on the properties of PCL and PCL/HA composites. Following this, the six different groups considered (PCL SC, PCL MB, PCL/HA 80:20 SC, PCL/HA 80:20 MB, PCL/HA 60:40 SC and PCL/HA 60:40 MB) are 3D printed through an extrusion-based technique, using a previously developed biomanufacturing system [8][9][10]12,22,[24][25][26][27][28][29], and their physicochemical properties are further analysed. Further in vitro assays are taken, applying mesenchymal stem cells so as to evaluate the regenerative potential of the produced scaffolds.…”

Clinical Assessment of Anti-inflammatory Activity of 940 Nanometer Low Level laser Therapy on Carrageenan Induced Arthritis in Temporomandibular Joint in Wistar Albino Rats

“…Induction of arthritis was made using the most common method used to evaluate the effects of different types of treatment protocols on inflammatory arthritis which is induction of arthritis using carrageenan solution injected directly into TMJ, carrageenan is polysaccharide obtained from sea weed, it have potent pro-inflammatory effect in animal joint when injected into the joint space 11 , previous studies had proof the carrageenan effectiveness in arthritis induction in TMJ of rats 19,20,24,25 . Pilot study revealed massive edema into TMJ area and decrease amount of food intake by rats suffering from arthritis comparing to normal rats and apparently that decrease in food consumption caused these rats look thinner, thus we made an attempt to evaluate these clinical findings caused by inducted TMJ arthritis and the effect of treatment protocol on head circumference changes caused by edema and weight changes caused by decrease food consumption due to loss proper function of inflamed TMJ.According to our knowledge there was no similar articles available that used head circumference and/or weight changes as clinical parameters for evaluating treatment protocol in induced arthritis, although several authors were report relations between similar parameters and pan-arthritis or joint arthritis (other than TMJ) in human studies as well as animal experimental studies including studies on rats, Vierboom et al, reported significant relation between weight changes and several diseases including arthritis in observational study in human 26 , Leech et al, found relation between lower extremities arthritis with weight and growth in human study 27 , Borb‫י‬ly et al, mentioned significant weight loss in mouse after induction of experimental autoimmunity arthritis 28 ,in the same way Hasan et al, reported similar weight loss in induced paw arthritis inSprague-Dawley rats using complete Freund's adjuvant 29 , identical weight loss secondary to induced arthritis were reported by several authors in Westar rats induced arthritis 21,22,30,32 , also there were several articles used body weight as parameter to assess TMJ function as secondary outcome depending on the fact that limited mouth opening would interfere with normal feeding such as the study of Angelo et al, and Richmond who did randomized clinical trial on Black Merino sheep temporomandibular joint andMiyamoto et al, who used body weight of mice as valuable index for evaluation TMJ diseases 33,35 . As mentioned above no specific head circumference measurement as parameter to evaluate TMJ edema was previously reported, but many authors used similar way to assess edema in arthritic joints by measuring diameters or volume changes, it's good to mention some examples of these techniques; Uttra et al, used Vernier caliper to measure paw diameter to evaluate paw induced arthritis in rats 31 , others relied on volume changes in paws to assess i n d u c e d a r t h r i t i s u s i n g d i s p l a c e m e n t plethysmometry 29,36,...…”

“…This laser dose didn't cause burning or negative impact to skin overlying the TMJ area. Typically, edema is caused by intensification in vascular permeability, fluid retention, extravasation of protein and other cellular component at the site of inflammation 41 , LLLT with suitable dosimetry can revert these effects by increasing blood supply, clearing inflammatory agent and downgrading inflammatory response 3,42,44 .Slowing the process of weight gain is caused by difficulty in eating due to induced arthritis followed by limited mouth opening 33 . Using the lower laser setting of 74 J/ cm 2 had led to nearly normal weight gain which was close to the negative control group.…”