Journal of dental research
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Biography Historical Article
The discovery of surgical anesthesia: discrepancies regarding its authorship.
The suppression of pain during surgical interventions has been a major achievement for humankind. Chronologically, in 1842, William E. Clarke, a chemist in Rochester (NY), provided Elijah Pope with ether for the purposes of tooth extraction. ⋯ These events gave rise to several disputes among their users (who are not very well-known today), who strove to claim that they had been the discoverers of surgical anesthesia, with a view to obtaining a series of patents and state sinecures. This article attempts to clarify certain discrepancies about the authorship of surgical anesthesia. The evidence suggests that surgical anesthesia first began to be applied in the field of dentistry.
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Prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) plays important roles in the bone resorption of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and periodontitis via specific prostaglandin receptors (i.e., EP1-EP4). In this study, the authors examined whether Prevotella intermedia regulates PGE(2) production and EP expression in human periodontal ligament fibroblasts (hPDLs); they also explored the potential signaling pathways involved in PGE(2) production. P. intermedia induced PGE(2) production and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression in a dose- and time-dependent manner. ⋯ Specific inhibitors of extracellular signal-regulated kinase, c-Jun N-terminal kinase, p38, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, and protein kinase C--but not c-AMP and protein kinase A--significantly attenuated the P. intermedia-induced COX-2 and PGE(2) expression. P. intermedia reduced EP1 expression in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. The results indicate that the COX-2-dependent induction of PGE(2) by P. intermedia in hPDLs is mediated by multiple signaling pathways.