Qin Zhou

Periodontitis is a prevalent chronic inflammatory disease characterized by gingival inflammation and progressive alveolar bone loss. The NLRP3 inflammasome functions as a molecular mediator that drives its pathogenesis. Bergapten (BeG), a natural furanocoumarin, exhibits anti-inflammatory properties and bone-protective effects. This study demonstrates that BeG alleviates experimental periodontitis in mice by inhibiting the NLRP3 inflammasome. Mechanistically, BeG does not affect NLRP3 priming, dispersed trans-Golgi network (dTGN) localization, or oligomerization; instead, it induces mitophagy by inhibiting the AKT–mTOR axis and consequently suppresses the mtROS-dependent NEK7–NLRP3 interaction. Notably, BeG also suppressed cytosolic release of oxidized mitochondrial DNA (ox-mtDNA), a known endogenous ligand for NLRP3. This effect was attributed to BeG-mediated inhibition of NLRP3 activation, likely via blockade of GSDMD-NT mitochondrial localization. These findings deepen our understanding of the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of BeG and position it as a promising candidate for periodontitis treatment.

As a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by periodontal tissue destruction, periodontitis has a pathogenesis that remains incompletely understood. T

Background: Robot‐assisted surgery is widely used in implant dentistry; however, the specific effects of implant site and bone quality on its accuracy require further elucidation. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of implant site and bone quality on the accuracy of a single robotic‐assisted implant placement method. Methods: This retrospective analysis included 83 patients who received 173 implants via a robot‐assisted system. Implants were categorized by site into upper‐anterior (UA), upper‐posterior (UP), lower‐anterior (LA), and lower‐posterior (LP) regions and by bone quality into Type I–II and Type III–IV. Postoperative accuracy was assessed by comparing the planned versus actual implant positions, measuring lateral coronal deviation (LCD), vertical coronal deviation (VCD), and global coronal deviation (GCD); lateral apical deviation (LAD), vertical apical deviation (VAD), and global apical deviation (GAD); and angular deviation (AD). Results: When analyzed by implant site, the UA region demonstrated significantly larger vertical deviations (VCD and VAD) compared to the LP region (VCD: 0.99 ± 0.46 mm vs. 0.25 ± 0.53 mm, p < 0.05; VAD: 0.95 ± 0.46 mm vs. 0.24 ± 0.53 mm, p < 0.05). AD did not differ significantly among the various implant sites. Regarding bone quality, however, implants in Type III–IV bone exhibited significantly greater vertical deviations than those in Type I–II bone (VCD and VAD: 0.67 ± 0.56 mm vs. 0.27 ± 0.49 mm, p < 0.05). Moreover, a trend toward a larger AD was also noted in Type III–IV bone (1.53 ± 1.09° vs. 1.18 ± 0.80°). Conclusions: Both implant site and bone quality were found to influence the accuracy of the single robotic‐assisted system.

This study aims to evaluate the accuracy of Level of Autonomy 2 (LOA2) robotic-assisted implant placement by dentists with varying experience, analyze lear

The oral microbiome is essential to human health, yet its de novo ecological succession and microevolutionary dynamics remain poorly understood due to the absence of tractable in vivo models. Dental implants provide a unique opportunity to investigate these processes by establishing a defined time-zero for initial bacterial attachment. In this cohort study, we performed shotgun metagenomics on 95 subgingival plaque samples from 19 participants, including peri-implant sites at weeks 1-4 after crown placement and adjacent teeth as controls. Peri-implant and adjacent periodontal microbiomes exhibited distinct taxonomic and functional profiles. Even the same taxa had different functional potential across the two sites. These findings indicated that oral microbiome development is a niche-specific process with selective colonization rather than passive microbial translocation from adjacent sites. Longitudinal analysis identified three microbial community modules driving the succession of oral microbiome, including pioneer colonizers, constitutive species, and late commensals. Each module followed distinct temporal abundance patterns and played unique ecological roles throughout the succession process. Strain-level resolution revealed divergent microevolutionary trajectories: pioneer colonizers and late commensals exhibited higher cumulative mutation rates and greater strain heterogeneity overtime, with enrichment of nonsynonymous single nucleotide variants in genes related to virulence and metabolism, whereas constitutive species remained evolutionarily stable by contrast. Our study reveals that the development, succession, and microevolution of the oral microbiome is structured, niche-dependent, and modulated by inter-species facilitation and selective genomic adaptation. These findings advance the understanding of oral microbiome ecology and provide a conceptual foundation for manipulating microbial succession in health and disease.