Purpose. This study investigated the long-term resin-dentin bond strength of dentin biomodified by proanthocyanidin-rich (PA) agents. Materials and Methods. Forty molars had their coronal dentin exposed, etched, and treated for 10 minutes with 6.5% grape seed extract (GSE), 6.5% cocoa seed extract ethanol-water (CSE-ET), 6.5% cocoa seed extract acetone-water (CSE-AC), and distilled water (CO). ...

The current, sharp decline in interest in computer science and engineering (CSE) motivates our investigation of why beginning undergraduates reject CSE as a major. We present a thematic analysis of 14 semi-structured interviews with pre-major undergraduates newly enrolled in the first introductory CSE course (generically referred to as “CS1”) at a large, public research university. Our findings...

BACKGROUND Convulsive status epilepticus (CSE) is the most common neurological emergency in childhood and is often associated with fever. In sub-Saharan Africa, the high incidence of febrile illnesses might influence the incidence and outcome of CSE. We aimed to provide data on the incidence, causes, and outcomes of childhood CSE in this region. METHODS Between March, 2006, and June, 2006, we...

BACKGROUND Although individuals exposed to cigarette smoke are more susceptible to respiratory infection, the effects of cigarette smoke on lung defense are incompletely understood. Because airway epithelial cell responses to type II interferon (IFN) are critical in regulation of defense against many respiratory viral infections, we hypothesized that cigarette smoke has inhibitory effects on IF...

Cigarette smoking is the single most important epidemiological risk factor for bladder cancer but it is not known whether exposure of urothelial cells to the systemic soluble contents of cigarette smoke is directly causative to bladder cancer and the associated epigenetic changes such as tumor suppressor gene hypermethylation. We undertook this study to investigate if long-term treatment of hum...

Complement-derived anaphylatoxin C5a is a glycopolypeptide important in the regulation of inflammation. Previously, we have shown that C5a receptors (C5aR) are constitutively expressed on human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs) grown in culture. We have also shown that the expression of C5aR is increased upon exposure of HBECs to 5% cigarette smoke extract (CSE), and that this subtoxic dose of...

Angiogenesis is an integral part of both the pulmonary inflammatory response to chronic exposure to cigarette smoke and the lung tissue remodeling associated with cigarette smoke-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To investigate the role of angiogenesis in the pathogenesis of COPD, we evaluated the effect of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) on angiogenesis of pulmonary artery en...

Atherosclerotic plaques are classically divided into stable and vulnerable plaques. Vulnerable plaques are prone to rupture with a risk for infarction. High intraplaque microvessel density predisposes to plaque vulnerability. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a proangiogenic gasotransmitter which is endogenously produced by cystathionine γ-lyase (CSE), and is believed to have vasculoprotective effects....

BACKGROUND Caffeoyl shikimate esterase (CSE) was recently characterized as an enzyme central to the lignin biosynthetic pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana. The cse-2 loss-of-function mutant shows a typical phenotype of lignin-deficient mutants, including collapsed vessels, reduced lignin content, and lignin compositional shift, in addition to a fourfold increase in cellulose-to-glucose conversion ...

We investigated the effect of a nicotineand tar-free cigarette smoke extract (CSE) using an experimental metastasis mouse model which was intravenously injected with B16-BL6 mouse melanoma cells. Three-hour pretreatment of cells with various concentrations of CSE (0%, 0.1%, 0.3%, and 1%) dose-dependently reduced the number of lung metastatic nodules 14 days after tumor injection. To elucidate t...