Background: Cigarette smoking is a significant risk factor for periodontal disease. It also causes pigmentation of oral mucosa. The present study was aimed to assess the effects of smoking on lip and gingival pigmentation and periodontal status and the relationship between pigmentation and periodontal parameters. Methods: A total of 109 smokers and an equal number of non-smoker controls (mean a...

BACKGROUND Hyperthyroidism is very common in older cats, but the etiopathogenesis is poorly understood. Decreased risk of hyperthyroidism has been reported in certain colorpoint breeds, and this observation previously has been hypothesized to result from relatively greater tyrosine availability for thyroid hormone production because of limited ability to convert tyrosine to melanin pigment. How...

In domestic camelids, fleece color is an essential characteristic because it defines the direction of production. Variants were determined in MC1R gene that showed a relationship with coat alpacas and llamas at level coding region. This report sequenced from 290 (142 white, 84 black, 50 brown, 14 light fawn), five brown llamas, nine vicuñas, three guanacos to analyze association between among S...

The injection of an antagonistic anti-murine c-kit monoclonal antibody ACK2 during mouse embryonic development produced three distinctive pigmentation patterns on the coat of the offspring. Pattern 1 consisted of pigmentation in craniofacial and caudal regions and was induced by an ACK2 injection between 9.5 and 11.5 days post coitum (dpc). In pattern 2, the entire coat was unpigmented and was ...

The child of Western-trained engineers, Lin He grew up in a Beijing very different from today's skyscraper megalopolis. She recalls the freedom of the outdoors, the remnants of ancient city walls, and the fl ying kites. Like many others born in that era, He aspired to become an important scientist like the mathematicians and technologists who were then China's national heroes. Having long plann...

The dominant phenotype of greying with age in horses, caused by a 4.6-kb duplication in intron 6 of STX17, is associated with a high incidence of melanoma and vitiligo-like skin depigmentation. However, the progressive greying and the incidence of melanoma, vitiligo-like depigmentation, and amount of speckling in these horses do not follow a simple inheritance pattern. To understand their inher...

Thermoregulation is the capability of an animal to maintain its core internal temperature by homeostasis. Small ruminants like sheep and goats acclimate different environmental changes often perform better during heat stress than other ruminants. Adapting small exceptional weather events occurs through behavioral, genetic, physiological, morphological mechanisms. can mitigate consequences therm...