Periodontitis is one of the most prevalent bacterial diseases affecting man with up to 90% of the global population affected. Its severe form can lead to the tooth loss in 10-15% of the population worldwide. The disease is caused by a dysbiosis of the local microbiota and one organism that contributes to this alteration in the bacterial population is Prophyromonas gingivalis. This organism possesses a range of virulence factors that appear to contribute to its growth and survival at a periodontal site amongst which is its ability to invade oral epithelial cells. Such an invasion strategy provides a means of evasion of host defence mechanisms, persistence at a site and the opportunity for dissemination to other sites in the mouth. However, previous studies have demonstrated that invasion of the mammalian cells in a population by P. gingivalis is heterogenous, with some cells becoming heavily invaded while others harbour no or only a few bacteria. An understanding of this heterogeneity may throw light on the mechanisms involved and we hypothesised that the phase of the host cell cycle may explain this phenomenon. In an attempt to study the factors influencing P. gingivalis invasion and the cell response to that invasion, a standard antibiotic protection assay was employed and an oral keratinocyte cell line, H357. The results showed that P. gingivalis NCTC 11834 invasion was significantly increased with increasing time of exposure to the cells and the cell density. This may reflect an increased host cell surface area available for bacterial attachment. No effect on invasion of P. gingivalis invasion was observed by the bacterial growth phase, H357 cell passage number or whether cells were pre-incubated with P. gingivalis lipopolysaccharide. Epithelial cells did, however, respond to the presence of P. gingivalis in a number of ways. For example, the mRNA expression of endothelin-1 and urokinase receptor were upregulated with increasing P. gingivalis infection time, suggesting that these proteins could act as inflammatory mediators and possibly as useful markers of the severity of periodontal disease or in the diagnosis and treatment of periodontitis. iii Secondly, in an attempt to investigate the reason for the observed heterogeneous P. gingivalis invasion of H357 cell populations, the effect of cell cycle phase on P. gingivalis invasion was investigated. H357 cells were synchronized by serum starvation. On re-introduction of serum, characterisation of cell cycle phase distribution was performed by flow cytometry following staining with propidium idodide (PI) or by immunofluorescence using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), which specifically identifies cells in S-phase. The effect of cell cycle phases on P. gingivalis invasion was measured using the antibiotic protection assay, immunofluorescence and flow cytometry and these were correlated with gene and surface expression of the urokinase receptor and the α5-integrin subunit, which is thought to mediate P. gingivalis invasion. Results showed that the percentage invasion was enhanced with increasing serum re-introduction time, and positively correlated with the number of cells in S-phase. In addition, flow cytometry data showed that the highest association of fluorescent P. gingivalis was with PI positive S-phase cells. Moreover, BrdU positive S-phase cells were 3 times more likely to be invaded and contained 10 times more P. gingivalis than cells in other phases. Also, α5-integrin was more highly expressed in cells in S-phase than other phases, which could explain the mechanism underlying this enhanced invasion. Data presented here have suggested that P. gingivalis targeting of cells in S- phase could, in vivo, allow preferential invasion of the junctional epithelial cells which turns over rapidly. The data presented in this thesis suggest that P. gingivalis invasion is greatly dependent on several factors attributed to the host, the bacteria itself, and to the environment which the bacteria reside in. The invasion occurs within a population of host cells in a heterogeneous fashion, and is dependent on the cell cycle phase, specifically S-phase. This novel finding, in addition to the previously reported mechanisms of P. gingivalis invasion, increases our understanding of this virulence trait and suggests that such a strategy is a highly organised process which the bacteria can follow to ensure its survival within the host. Furthermore, knowledge of these mechanisms could provide novel approaches to treatment of periodontal diseases.
This paper deals with one of the most important issues in a foreign language teaching and learning, i.e. speaking test assessment. After giving a survey of literature written on the meaning and definition of a speaking test assessment, two sections have been devoted to tackle the most important issues in this topic. Section one, which is the theoretical part of this paper, sheds light on the basic definitions of the term ‘speaking assessment’ which are, according to the researcher’s point of view, sufficient to cover the area of the study. This section based on applied linguistic theories and researches in order to enhance our understanding of the what is meant by «a speaking test assessment«In addition,it explains the most importan
... Show MoreThe study aims to integrate the visually impaired people into the art connoisseur community through producing special print artworks to enable the visually impaired people to use their other senses to feel artworks by using artistic printing techniques through adding some prominent materials to the printing colors or making an impact that visually impaired people can perceive using their other senses. This study also aims to set up art exhibitions that display tangible works that can enable visually impaired people to feel artwork and understand its elements to enable them to feel it through other senses.
The study follows the experimental method, through using artistic printing techniques, which allow printing with prominent textur
The research dealt with the effect of the tax examiner's efficiency in detecting tax evasion, as the research problem dealt with tax evasion, especially in Iraq, for many reasons and factors, including those related to tax administration represented in administrative corruption and the complexity of procedures in the tax accounting process and failure to achieve justice in the tax treatment, including the taxpayer himself, as he tries to evade for reasons Related to the level of tax awareness, loss of confidence in the tax administration, and reasons related to the state's inability to manage the services file well and its ability to achieve the set goals, This reflected negatively on the emergence of some of the consequences of
... Show MoreThe Strait of Malacca is one of the waterways of strategic, political, and economic importance. This strait has an increasing importance to its neighboring countries. The Strait of Malacca is very important for China, especially in the field of energy supply security, as the vast ma jority of energy supplies come to China through this strait. China seeks to ensure its security, especially in light of the cooperation of countries that look forward to this strait as well as the United States, and what the United States may cause to China, as many of them are at war with China over the China Sea, not to mention the countries that overlook it. The importance of the research emerges from the basic idea that the strategic importance of the Strait
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The aim of the research is to demonstrate the impact of the salary localization service in enhancing banking competitive advantage. In order to achieve this goal, salary localization was chosen as an independent variable and its impact was studied on the dependent variable, which is the competitive advantage. The research problem lies in the fluctuation of the salary localization service from one bank to another and the impact of this on the competitive advantage. The study sample included five private Iraqi banks, namely (the National Bank of Iraq, the International Development Bank, Assyria International Bank, Al Khaleej Commercial Ban
... Show MoreThe research addresses a fundamental Islamic jurisprudential Purposeful issue, which is (Sharia), and to indicate the impact of this on Islamic jurisprudence, deriving rulings and extracting purposes, and to repel the illusion that this issue is only doctrinal, and clarifying the aspects of similarities and links between them by explaining the origin of deriving the purposes of Islamic Law (Sharia) through the meanings and wisdom learned from the texts and the explanation of the rulings. The rulings of Islamic Law (Sharia) have urged bringing benefits and repelling harms, and that the path to do so is reason and its production. I began the research by defining the purposes of Islamic Law (Sharia), then defining the rule of rational right
... Show MoreThe diversity of cultures is still the title of an Iraqi specificity that gave the society a diversity and this is reflected in the journalistic reality with the changing of the political system generate a new political and ideological life that differs from what is prevailed during the decades. However, its exacerbation of the degree of division is an additional duty for the press as a cultural platform and a knowledge bridge that contributes to the process of dialogue, addressing the differences, establishing a politically homogeneous structure through the state and socially by uniting all components of society and working to raise public awareness of the importance of national belonging to build a modern state. Cultural diversity is a
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In this work, porous silicon gas sensor hs been fabricated on n-type crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers of (100) orientation denoted by n-PS using electrochemical etching (ECE) process at etching time 10 min and etching current density 40 mA/cm2. Deposition of the catalyst (Cu) is done by immersing porous silicon (PS) layer in solution consists of 3ml from (Cu) chloride with 4ml (HF) and 12ml (ethanol) and 1 ml (H2O2). The structural, morphological and gas sensing behavior of porous silicon has been studied. The formation of nanostructured silicon is confirmed by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement as well as it shows the formation of an oxide silicon layer due to chemical reaction. Atomic force microscope for PS illustrates that the p
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