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This study aimed to analyze how the physical consistency of the diet affects the bone quality at the mandibular condyle.Sixty-three Wistar rats were randomly assigned to three groups. Twenty-two animals composed each group and they were fed with either a liquid, soft or hard diet. Seven animals were sacrificed from each group at days 7, 20, and 40 respectively. Their mandibles were removed and scanned at the postero-superior area of the condyle with a micro-CT scan.showed a statistically significant difference for the bone mineral density (p0.01) and total mineral density (p0.01), when comparing the hard against the liquid group after seven days. After 20days both, the soft and the liquid diet groups, computed a statistically significant difference demonstrating a significant decrease in the measured values for bone mineral density, bone mineral content, total mineral density, and total mineral content. At day 40, the values stayed lower for the soft and liquid diets, even though they did not reach a significant difference.This study supports the idea that a soft or liquid diet has a negative impact on the bone quality of the mandible, particularly during the periods of more active growing.

Background Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the world. It has been implicated in the pathogenesis of pulmonary, oral and systemic diseases. Smoking during pregnancy is clearly a risk factor for the developing fetus and may be a major cause of infant mortality. Moreover, the oral cavity is the first site of exposure to cigarette smoke and may be a possible source for the spread of toxins to other organs of the body. Fibroblasts in general are morphologically heterogeneous connective tissue cells with diverse functions. Apoptosis or programmed cell death is a crucial process during embryogenesis and for the maintenance of homeostasis throughout life. Deregulation of apoptosis has been implicated in abnormal lung development in the fetus and disease progression in adults. Caspases, are proteases which belong to the family of cysteine aspartic acid proteases and are the key components for the downstream amplification of intra-cellular apoptotic signals. Of the 14 caspases known, caspase-3 is the key executioner of apoptosis. Fetal rat lung fibroblasts but not PDL viability is reduced by exposure to CSE. In addition Caspase 3 activity is elevated after CSE exposure in fetal lung fibroblasts but not in PDLs. Expression of caspase 3 is induced in CSE exposed lung fibroblasts but not in PDLs. Caspase 3 was localized to the cytoplasm in both cell types.