31 Studies in patients who received liver transplant demonstrated that ALD has been well tolerated without deleterious effects on liver

function tests.32 Patients taking ALD and diagnosed with primary biliary cirrhosis did not present significant hepatic effects regarding biochemical parameters of liver disease.33 Our study also revealed significant inhibition of TALP serum levels after 11 days of periodontitis in animals receiving either saline or ALD. This inhibition may be due to the reduction of the bone isoform, since BALP represents about 90% of the TALP.16 We also observed that ALD prevented neutrophilia LY294002 nmr and lymphomonocytosis. These findings are in accordance with a previous report in which ALD treatment induced a significant decrease in total white Enzalutamide cell line blood cell, neutrophil and lymphocyte counts, in patients with Paget’s disease.34 The reduction in neutrophil count may effect neutrophil migration and activity, once it was seen that ALD decreased on neutrophil influx using a carrageenan-induced peritonitis model and reduced myeloperoxidase activity as well.20 In addition, the reduction

in peripheral mononuclear cells, which includes monocytes and lymphocytes, was also an important finding considering that circulating monocytes can migrate and differentiate locally on osteoclasts, thereby exerting bone resorption activity.22 Thus, the reduction of mononuclear cells Tolmetin may contribute to the bone-sparing effect of ALD in this model. In summary, our results demonstrated that ALD prevented BALP reduction and ABL, and reduced inflammatory infiltrate, without causing systemic alterations. This work was supported by Brazilian grants from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Grants 471407/2009-7), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento

de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and Fundação Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (FUNCAP, Grants 247.01.00/09). None declared. The experimental protocols were executed following ethical principles for laboratory animal use in accordance with the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes, and they were approved by Institutional Ethical Committee of Animal Research (Process No. 101/2009). “
“Theoretical models of degenerative temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disease predict that mechanical overloading is the major direct cause of condylar cartilage breakdown.1 Biomechanical factors such as loss of posterior teeth and unilateral chewing have been implicated in the aetiology of degenerative TMJ disease through absolute or relative overloading of joint structures.2 However, this assumption is usually based on autopsy and skull studies where ageing was a confounding factor, since tooth loss and signs of osteoarthritis increase with age.