Introduction: The mental foramen is present on either side of the body of the mandible bone. This foramen
transmits mental vessels and nerves. In forensic anthropology, mental foramen may be important for
differentiating sex, estimating age and identifying various races based on morphology. The main aim of the
present study was to determine the position, shape and diameter of the mental foramen according to sex,
age and race by postmortem computed tomography in the Malaysian population.
Materials and Methods: A total of 79 dentulous patients (48 males, 31 females) from 3 age groups (18-30 years, 31– 50 years, 51-74
years) were selected for this study, and ten parameters were observed for each mandible. The parameters
were divided into two morphological and eight morphometric parameters. The morphometric parameters
were measured by using Osirix MD Software 3D Volume Rendering.
Results: Results showed that mandibular
body length and height were significantly greater in males than in females by independent t-test. (p< 0.05).
However, the mandibular body height was found to decrease significantly with age in both sexes by one-way
Anova. It was observed that the shape of mental foramen was 45.6% oval and 54.4% rounded. About 44.3% of
them were in line with the longitudinal axis of the second premolar tooth.
Conclusion: It was concluded that
mental foramen may be used for identification purposes, particularly for sex, age and race determination.
This study was aimed to determine the effect of polysaccharide from guava fruit on paracetamol (PCM)-induced liver injury. Aqueous extract of Psidium guajava fruit was treated with 95% ethanol to collect the water soluble polysaccharide precipitates. Thirty-eight male Sprague Dawley rats were divided into control (C), PPG400, PCM, PPG200+PCM and PPG400+PCM. The control and PCM groups received 0.9% normal saline orally while the rest were given 200 and 400 mg/kg of freeze-dried polysaccharide (PPG) per oral for fourteen days. At day 15, the animals were orally received PCM (2 g/kg) except the control and PPG400 groups which received 5% dimethyl sulfoxide. At day 16, the blood was collected to determine serum liver enzymes such as transaminases (AST and ALT). The liver tissue was harvested for determination of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH), tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6(IL6), microscopic changes and glycogen content. The PCM group showed significant higher level of AST, ALT, TNF-α and IL6 than those of group C. The PCM group showed glycogen depletion, vacuolisation, loss of cell membrane, inflammatory cells infiltration and distorted hepatocelluar cords and narrow sinusoidal spaces. However, those PCM-induced alterations were attenuated by the PPG supplementation. Therefore, the polysaccharide of Psidium guajava possesses hepatoprotective activity and can be used as a dietary supplementation for protection of liver.