Patients’ postoperative facial swelling following third molars extraction may have both biological impacts and social impacts. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of artificial neural networks in the prediction of the postoperative facial swelling following the impacted mandibular third molars extraction. The improved conjugate grads BP algorithm combining with adaptive BP algorithm and conjugate gradient BP algorithm together was used. In this neural networks model, the functional projective relationship was established among patient’s personal factors, anatomy factors of third molars and factors of surgical procedure to facial swelling following impacted mandibular third molars extraction. This neural networks model was trained and tested based on the data from 400 patients, in which 300 patients were made as the training samples, and another100 patients were assigned as the test samples. The improved conjugate grads BP algorithm was able to not only avoid the problem of local minimum effectively, but also improve the networks training speed greatly. 5-fold cross-validation was used to get a better sense of the predictive accuracy of the neural network and early stopping was used to improve generalization. The accuracy of this model was 98.00% for the prediction of facial swelling following impacted mandibular third molars extraction. This artificial intelligence model is approved as an accurate method for prediction of the facial swelling following impacted mandibular third molars extraction.

Bone and cartilage regeneration is an area of tremendous interest and need in health care. Tissue engineering is a potential strategy for repairing and regenerating bone and cartilage defects. Hydrogels are among the most attractive biomaterials in bone and cartilage tissue engineering, mainly due to their moderate biocompatibility, hydrophilicity, and 3D network structure. Stimuli-responsive hydrogels have been a hot topic in recent decades. They can respond to external or internal stimulation and are used in the controlled delivery of drugs and tissue engineering. This review summarizes current progress in the use of stimuli-responsive hydrogels in bone and cartilage regeneration. The challenges, disadvantages, and future applications of stimuli-responsive hydrogels are briefly described.

Exosomes are extracellular membranous nanovesicles that mediate local and systemic cell‐to‐cell communication by transporting functional molecules, such as proteins, into target cells, thereby affecting the behavior of receptor cells. Exosomes originating from adipose‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) are considered a multipotent and abundant therapeutic tool for tissue injury. To investigate ADSC‐secreted exosomes and their potential function in tissue repair, we isolated exosomes from the supernatants of ADSCs via ultracentrifugation, characterized them via transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticle tracking analysis, and Western blot analysis. Then, we determined their protein profile via proteomic analysis. Results showed that extracellular vesicles, which have an average diameter of 116 nm, exhibit a cup‐shaped morphology and express exosomal markers. A total of 1,185 protein groups were identified in the exosomes. Gene Ontology analysis indicated that exosomal proteins are mostly derived from cells mainly involved in protein binding. Protein annotation via the Cluster of Orthologous Groups system indicated that most proteins were involved in general function prediction, posttranslational modification, protein turnover, and chaperoning. Further, pathway analysis revealed that most of the proteins obtained participated in metabolic pathways, focal adhesion, regulation of the actin cytoskeleton, and microbial metabolism. Some tissue repair‐related signaling pathways were also discovered. The identified molecules might serve as potential therapeutic targets for future studies.

Journal of Medical Internet Research - International Scientific Journal for Medical Research, Information and Communication on the Internet #Preprint #PeerReviewMe: Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint. Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn. Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period. Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author). Background: Problem-Based-Learning （PBL）is a widely accepted student-centered medical education. WeChat is the most popular communication service application (APP) in China. We introduce WeChat as a new mode for an on-line PBL in the dental pratical clerkship. Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the feasibility of the on-line PBL based on WeChat (WeChat-PBL) in the dental practical clerkship and investigate its features, advantages and shortcomings. Methods: Seventy-two students participated in this study. Six to eight students with a trained faculty tutor were randomly assigned to the same WeChat group. The group members performed PBL by sending and receiving texts, pictures, voice, videos, and documents anytime and anywhere instead of discussing in a traditional classroom setting. In addition, the group members conducted real-time discussion by video conferencing function. Especially, the students themselves were able to discuss a real clinical case that they were experiencing immediately in the WeChat-PBL. After a throughout discussion of each PBL case, the group members evaluated the process via WeChat. The long-term evaluation was obtained by questionnaire survey. Results: There were 45 real clinical cases being raised in the WeChat-PBL. Thirty cases involved multidisciplinary team approach. It took 3-5 days (in a mean of 4.2 days) for one PBL case. The results in analyzing the questionnaire indicated that WeChat-PBL had achieved positive effects, and almost all the students (98.61%) were satisfied with the WeChat-PBL during their dental practical clerkship. Conclusions: The WeChat-PBL is a recommended ideal mode for PBL education in the dental practical clerkship. This new mode ensures a flexible schedule, widens ways of gaining knowledge and promotes efficiency in problem solving. In addition, Wechat-PBL improves the students’ learning motivation and practical ability. Although there are still certain limitations in WeChat-PBL, we are able to find solutions during the actual process.

Exosomes, a specific subgroup of extracellular vesicles that are secreted by cells, have been recognized as important mediators of intercellular communication. They participate in a diverse range of physiological and pathological processes. Given the capability of exosomes to carry molecular cargos and transfer bioactive components, exosome-based disease diagnosis and therapeutics have been extensively studied over the past few decades. Herein, we highlight the emerging applications of exosomes as biomarkers and therapeutic agents in the craniofacial and dental field. Moreover, we discuss the current challenges and future perspectives of exosomes in clinical applications.