Background: Geographic tongue and fissured tongue are both common oral mucous membrane diseases relatively. The treatment of this disease is typically causative therapy because of the unknown etiology, and other afflictions. Gastrointestinal disease is one of the factors that induce geographic tongue with a fissured tongue. As an adjuvant drug that can inhibit the growth of Helicobacter pylori, the most common pathogen of chronic gastritis, Lactobacillus is widely used in clinic. However, there are seldom studies about Lactobacillus used in the treatment of geographic tongue and fissured tongue. Therefore, this case we used typically causative therapy with Lactobacillus as adjuvant to treat patient with a geographic tongue and fissured tongue with gastrointestinal disease and explore the effectiveness for further application. Case Description: A 33-year-old female patient presented with a geographic tongue and fissured tongue with dysgeusia. At the first visit, there were smooth red lesions on the back of the tongue with the hyperplasia of the surrounding filiform papilla. The cracks in the middle of the tongue had a crack of about 2.5 cm long and 0.8 cm deep, and 5–6 light cracks on the tip of the tongue. The patient reported a history of chronic gastritis for 1 year, often with soft stool and gastroesophageal reflux disease. We administered drug treatment, including sodium bicarbonate tablets, Kangfuxin solution, compound chlorhexidine solution, and stomatitis spray. In addition, we suggested the patient use a yogurt machine to make and drink fresh yogurt with Lactobacillus as adjuvant everyday day and suggested a daily regimen of a light diet with no stimulating food, regular work, and sufficient rest. Ten days after the first visit, the symptoms were obviously alleviated. Twenty days after the initial diagnosis, the geographic tongue lesions had disappeared and the cracks had basically healed. The patient reported that the gastric symptoms had improved, and there was no soft stool or stomach discomfort. Conclusions: This study used Lactobacillus as the adjuvant with typically causative therapy in the treatment of geographic tongue and fissured tongue.

Background: Allergic contact stomatitis (ACS) is common among people with allergic constitution and who have allergy reaction to specific allergen such as drugs, food, and materials because of immune dysfunction. With the development of materials science, the increasing diversity of cosmetics and food additives has gradually raised the incidence rate of ACS. Now systemic and local therapy are adopted in the therapy of ACS. However, the systemic therapy would drop the drugs’ concentration after it reaches the treatment area through the layers of human barriers, while the locally-used drugs such as collutory may not be suitable for patients with skin lesion. Kangfuxin contains a variety of biological extracts which is anti-inflammatory and curative and can produce connective tissues whether it's skin or mucous membrane. It can be used not only in non-oral diseases such as gastric ulcer or gynecological diseases, but also in the treatment of recurrent aphthous ulcer and many kinds of stomatitis and has shown good anti-inflammatory and curative effects. This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of Kangfuxin solution as a local-used adjuvant drug to treat ACS. Case Description: We present a 22-year-old male with ACS whose complaint at the first visit was severe pain, accompanied by salivation, tongue enlargement, bleeding, tonsil enlargement, and symptoms of difficulty in eating, fatigue, and dizziness. After the physical and laboratory examination, we found no abnormalities other than a history of eating the kiwi fruit, which is a common allergen. Thus, he was diagnosed as ACS. In this case, we provided a pharmacologic therapeutic intervention of chlorpheniramine (one tablet, three times a day) and Kangfuxin solution (gargle for 15 min, three times a day) with advice that no exposure to the allergen. On the third day, the patient felt no significant relief of symptoms, while one week after the first visit, the symptoms had obviously alleviated and most of the red lip erosion disappeared. The patient recovered completely with no discomfort in ten days after the initial visit. Conclusions: This study investigated the therapeutic effect of Kangfuxin solution combined with chlorpheniramine on ACS.

Background: Circular RNAs participate in the development of periodontitis. The present work aims to reveal the role and mechanism of circ_0087199 in human periodontal ligament cell (PDLC) injury during periodontitis.Methods: PDLCs were treated with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) to establish a periodontitis cell model. Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the expression of circ_0087199, miR‐527, toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4). Western blot analysis assay was performed to assess protein expression. Cell viability, proliferation, apoptosis and inflammation were investigated by cell counting kit‐8, EdU assay, flow cytometry and enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. Oxidative stress was evaluated by malondialdehyde assay kit and superoxide dismutase activity assay kit. The interaction between miR‐527 and circ_0087199 or TLR4 was confirmed by a dual‐luciferase reporter assay.Results: Circ_0087199 and TLR4 expression levels were significantly increased, while miR‐527 was decreased in the periodontal ligament tissues of periodontitis patients and LPS‐stimulated PDLCs when compared with controls. LPS treatment inhibited cell viability and proliferation but induced cell apoptosis, inflammation and oxidative stress, whereas these effects were attenuated after circ_0087199 knockdown. Circ_0087199 bound to miR‐527 and regulated LPS‐caused PDLC damage by targeting miR‐527. Additionally, the overexpression of TLR4, a target gene of miR‐527, rescued miR‐527 mimic‐mediated effects on LPS‐treated PDLCs. Further, the regulation of circ_0087199 toward TLR4 involved miR‐527.Conclusion: Circ_0087199 knockdown attenuated LPS‐induced apoptosis, inflammation and oxidative stress of PDLCs by regulating the miR‐527/TLR4 pathway.

Loneliness is a significant public health issue in China, particularly among the older population. This study sought to explore differences in the incidence of loneliness among older adults in urban versus rural regions and to quantify the contribution of relevant influencing factors. This study assessed data from 13,735 older adults derived from the 2018 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). The chi-squared test was employed to examine the distribution characteristics of relevant indicators among older adults in the two regions. Logistic regression was utilized to explore the factors affecting loneliness in older adults across different areas. Additionally, the Fairlie decomposition analysis method was applied to quantify the four categories of influencing factors—demographic characteristics, sociological characteristics, personal lifestyle, and health status—that contributed to differences in loneliness and to estimate their respective contributions among urban and rural older adults. A total of 26.79% of older adults reported feeling lonely, with a higher proportion of rural older adults (27.77%) experiencing loneliness than their urban counterparts (24.27%). In rural regions, risk factors for loneliness included a body mass index (BMI) of < 18.5 kg/m², being widowed, and other marital statuses, as well as self-reported local income status as “rich.” Conversely, protective factors included being male, having an educational level of 1–6 years or ≥ 7 years, self-reported local income status as “average,” alcohol consumption, engaging in exercise, and self-reported health (SRH) as “good.” In urban areas, risk factors included being widowed or in other marital statuses, as well as self-reported local income status as “rich.” In contrast, protective factors comprised being ≥ 100 years old, engaging in exercise, having sleep durations of 6.0–7.9 h, 8.0–9.9 h, or ≥ 10 h, and self-rated health as “good.” The Fairlie decomposition analysis revealed that 95.38% of the disparity in loneliness symptoms stemmed from observable factors, whereas the remaining 4.62% was attributed to urban–rural differences. Factors such as gender, educational attainment, marital status, living conditions, self-reported local income level, alcohol consumption, physical exercise, sleep length, and SRH played a significant role in explaining the disparities in loneliness symptoms between the two groups. Older adults residing in rural regions exhibited a greater prevalence of loneliness than their counterparts in urban areas. This difference is mainly caused by gender, educational level, marital status, living status, self-reported local income status, drinking, exercise, sleep duration, and SRH. Addressing these influential factors of loneliness would aid in developing targeted and more precise intervention strategies specifically tailored to enhance the mental wellness of high-risk older adults. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-026-26639-3.

Chronic periodontitis (CP) is a multifactorial inflammatory disease. Growing evidence links dysregulated serum metabolites to CP pathogenesis, yet their causal roles in disease progression remain poorly defined. We performed bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to evaluate causal relationships between 486 serum metabolites and CP. Inverse-variance weighted, MR-Egger, and weighted median methods were employed to mitigate research bias. Sensitivity was evaluated via the Cochran Q test, MR-Egger, and leave-one-out analysis. Metabolic pathway analysis (based on metabolomics data) was carried out via the MetaboAnalyst 6.0. We analyzed RNA-seq data to identify genes and mechanisms involved in serum metabolite regulation of CP development. Bidirectional MR identified 22 metabolites associated with CP risk, with 6 metabolites exhibiting protective effects and 16 linked to risk-increasing associations. Sensitivity analyses confirmed robustness across multiple MR methods, and reverse MR excluded reverse causality. Caffeine metabolism and lysine degradation emerged as the core pathways. Nineteen overlapping genes were identified via transcriptomic integration as key mediators. Enrichment analysis highlighted FoxO signaling and p53-mediated signaling. This study deepens the understanding of metabolic crosstalk and its role in CP pathogenesis, revealing novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets that inform diagnostic precision and therapeutic innovation. However, limitations such as sample size constraints should be noted. Future research could validate these findings in larger populations and explore the underlying biological mechanisms linking these metabolites to CP.