Purpose: To test the effect of menthol extract on the oral hygiene status of dental students of Faculty of Dentistry, AlMustansiriya University, Baghdad, Iraq. Methods: A solution (18 mg %) of menthol was prepared by dissolving menthol crystals in absolute ethanol. Chlorhexidine (CHX, 0.2 %) and deionized water were used as positive and negative controls, respectively. Menthol was examined for ...

Gliding motility is critical for normal development of spore-filled fruiting bodies in the soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. Mutations in mgl block motility and development but one mgl allele can be suppressed by a mutation in masK, the last gene in an operon adjacent to the mgl operon. Deletion of the entire 5.5 kb masABK operon crippled gliding and fruiting body development and decreased spo...

Eugenol has been used as an analgesic in dentistry. Previous studies have demonstrated that voltage-gated Na channels and high-voltage-activated Ca channels expressed in trigeminal ganglion (TG) neurons sensing dental pain are molecular targets of eugenol for its analgesic effects. However, it has not been investigated whether eugenol can affect T-type Ca channels, which are known to be detecte...

BACKGROUND/AIMS ICCs are the pacemaker cells responsible for slow waves in gastrointestinal (GI) smooth muscle, and generate periodic pacemaker potentials in current-clamp mode. METHODS The effects of menthol on the pacemaker potentials of cultured interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs) from mouse small intestine were studied using the whole cell patch clamp technique. RESULTS Menthol (1 - 10 μ...

Endocannabinoids function as retrograde messengers and modulate synaptic transmission through presynaptic cannabinoid CB1 receptors. The magnitude and time course of endocannabinoid signaling are thought to depend on the balance between the production and degradation of endocannabinoids. The major endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) is hydrolyzed by monoacylglycerol lipase (MGL), whic...

We examine various versions of oriented cohomology and BorelMoore homology theories in algebraic geometry and put these two together in the setting of an “oriented duality theory”, a generalization of Bloch-Ogus twisted duality theory. We apply this to give a Borel-Moore homology version MGL ∗,∗ of Voevodsky’s MGL-theory, and a natural map θ : Ω∗ → MGL 2∗,∗ , where Ω∗ is the algebraic cobordism...

The endogenous cannabinoids (endocannabinoids) are lipid molecules that may mediate retrograde signaling at central synapses and other forms of short-range neuronal communication. The monoglyceride 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) meets several criteria of an endocannabinoid substance: (i) it activates cannabinoid receptors; (ii) it is produced by neurons in an activity-dependent manner; and (iii)...

Carbohydrate-protein interactions govern many crucial processes in biological systems including cell recognition events. We have used the sensitive force probe optical tweezers to quantify the interactions occurring between MGL lectins and MUC1 carrying the cancer-associated glycan antigens mucins Tn and STn. Unbinding forces of 7.6 pN and 7.1 pN were determined for the MUC1(Tn)-MGL and MUC1(ST...

Individual lines of Vitis vinifera Barbera and Chardonnay were obtained by in vitro culture of axillary buds collected from phytoplasma-affected mother plants. The molecular assays did not detect the “flavescence dorée” (FD) phytoplasma in the 66 lines tested after 6-9 months of culture, while the “bois noir”-associated phytoplasma was detected in 22 out of 50 lines. Despite the observed ineffi...

Mg deficiency is considered as a risk factor of cardiovascular disorders like hypertension and atherosclerosis. MGH and MGL mice, selected for high and low Mg status, are animal models which present variations of Mg metabolism of genetic origin. The cardiovascular functions of these mice have never been studied. In this study, the arterial blood pressure of MGH and MGL strains was measured by p...