Integrating the Patient Perspective to Validate a Measure of Disease Severity in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Online Survey of Patients and Their Physicians.

Background: The patient perspective is essential for assessing disease severity, but it is not always adequately considered. We describe how a comprehensive clinical disease severity index (DSI) for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) correlates with patient global self-assessment (PGSA).

Methods: In an individually linked parallel online survey, physicians provided the DSI, and patients provided self-assessed severity using a global question and visual analog scale (0-100) (PGSA).

Sugar concentrations and expression of SUTs suggest active phloem loading in tall trees of Fagus sylvatica and Quercus robur.

Phloem loading and sugar distribution are key steps for carbon partitioning in herbaceous and woody species. Although the phloem loading mechanisms in herbs are well studied, less is known for trees. It was shown for saplings of Fagus sylvatica L.

Correction: Serum anti-glycan-antibodies in relatives of patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Serum anti-glycan-antibodies in relatives of patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Background: Serum anti-glycan antibodies are a promising tool for differential diagnosis, disease stratification and prediction of Crohn's disease (CD). To investigate possible heritability of the markers we assessed the presence of serum anti-glycan antibodies in affected and unaffected relatives of patients with CD.

Methods: Serum samples of 169 IBD patients of the German inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) network (140 CD & 29 Ulcerative colitis (UC)), 349 relatives of CD patients, 63 relatives of UC patients and 46 healthy controls were tested for the presence of anti-glycan antibodies by ELISA in a blinded fashion.

Galactose metabolism and toxicity in Ustilago maydis.

In most organisms, galactose is metabolized via the Leloir pathway, which is conserved from bacteria to mammals. Utilization of galactose requires a close interplay of the metabolic enzymes, as misregulation or malfunction of individual components can lead to the accumulation of toxic intermediate compounds. For the phytopathogenic basidiomycete Ustilago maydis, galactose is toxic for wildtype strains, i.