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This study aims to preliminarily evaluate the feasibility of autologous transplantation of tooth tissues cryopreserved with vitrification, by investigating the influence of cryopreservation with vitrification on human dental root, regarding the morphology, microhardness, cell apoptosis, proliferation and differentiation. Freshly extracted human permanent premolars were collected with crown removed. Dental roots were cryopreserved using a commercial vitrification medium (Kitazatousa). After six-month storage in liquid nitrogen, cryopreserved roots were thawed, and then evaluated using histological and immunohistochemical methods. Microhardness of dentine was measured with a Vickers indenter. Cells in periodontal ligament and dental pulp tissues were isolated and characterized. The proliferation, immunophenotype, apoptosis and differentiation ability of cells isolated from cryopreserved roots were evaluated. The data was analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Student's t-test. The gross and histological morphology of dental roots was not significantly changed after vitrification and thawing. A few tiny cracks were found in 3 of all 10 cryopreserved samples. No obvious changes were found in microstructure of dentine under SEM observation. Dental pulp cells and periodontal ligament cells were successfully isolated from tissues of cryopreserved human dental roots. There were also no significant differences of those periodontal ligament cells in the two groups regarding morphology, immunophenotype, viability, proliferation and apoptosis. The osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation capability of periodontal ligament cells was maintained by cryopreservation with vitrification. In the conditions of this study, cryopreservation with vitrification preserves cell survival, hardness and structural integrity of dental roots. Vitrification can be a potential way to preserve tooth tissue for future auto-transplantation and autologous cell therapy.

The emergence of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a serious global public health problem. The mystery around the causative agent was revealed on 7 January 2020 when the pathogen was isolated by Chinese scientists and named as novel coronavirus-2019 (2019-nCoV). With quicker reaction to the contagion, the number of scholarly research publications have increased exponentially, which calls for bibliometric analysis and review of the incipient studies. Therefore on 7 Feb 2020, the English language and Chinese publications on COVID-19 were retrieved from PubMed and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure). A retrospective bibliometric analysis was performed to gauge the output, language, document type, journal, authorship, geographical distribution, research focus, resulting in a total of 154 papers comprising 100 papers in English and another 54 in Chinese. There were 30 journals published at least 2 papers, and the Journal of Medical Virology published the most papers (11). China and USA were the most productive countries, and there were 24 international collaborative papers. Fudan University contributed the most papers. Isaac I. Bogoch, Kunling Shen, Xingguang LI, Hongzhou Lu were the most active authors as first authors, with 2 papers respectively. Among the 154 publications, 35 were opinions papers, and 30 were research articles. Papers were categorized by research areas, and five research foci were identified. Our study offers an overview of the incipient publications and quantitative information for future research on coronavirus. Besides, Chinese publications were also retrieved for an integrated data analysis and diversity comparison.

article i nfo Objective: To investigate maternal and perinatal outcomes in cases of fulminant viral hepatitis in late preg- nancy (FVHILP). Methods: A multicenter retrospective study was conducted. The records of 40 patients with FVHILP were retrieved from 3 hospitals in China. To analyze the influence of mode of delivery on mater- nal and perinatal outcomes, women were allocated to the cesarean delivery group or the spontaneous vaginal delivery (SVD) group. To study the relationship between maternal outcome and perinatal outcome, patients were allocated to the maternal survival group or the non-survival group. Results: There were no significant differences between the cesarean group and the SVD group in clinical manifestations or laboratory indices before delivery, or in fatality rate (P>0.05 for all), whereas there were significant differences in newborn weight, 1-minute Apgar score, and incidence of severe perinatal asphyxia between the maternal survival group and the non-survival group (Pb0.05 for all). Conclusion: Maternal and perinatal outcomes in cases of FVHILP were not influenced by mode of delivery, whereas perinatal outcome significantly correlated with maternal outcome.

Objective To analyze factors contributing to the prognosis of patients with fulminant viral hepatitis in pregnancy (FVHP). Methods A retrospective study was conducted among 90 patients with FVHP who were admitted between January 1994 and August 2008 in 9 Chinese hospitals with expertise in the treatment of FVHP. Results Different clinical types of FVHP presented with different fatality rates; the acute type showed the highest fatality rate and the chronic type showed the lowest fatality rate. Serum albumin (Alb), total cholesterol (Tch), total bilirubin (Tbil), prothrombin activity (PTA), creatinine (Scr), white blood cell count (WBC), the phenomenon of “bilirubin-transaminase separation”, and intractable complications correlated with the prognosis of FVHP. The fatality rate increased with decreasing Tch and PTA, increasing WBC, the appearance of “bilirubin-transaminase separation”, and complications such as hepatic encephalopathy, hepatorenal syndrome, hemorrhage, and infection. The above indices were all significantly different between survivor and non-survivor groups. Conclusion The clinical type of fulminant hepatitis, Alb, Tch, PTA, TBIL, Scr WBC, phenomenon of “bilirubin-transaminase separation”, and intractable complications are important factors associated with prognosis of patients with FVHP. Dynamic monitoring of these indicators and active treatment of complications are key to the improvement of outcomes in patients with FVHP.