Neither antioxidants nor COX-2 inhibition protect against esophageal inflammation in an experimental model of severe reflux.

Background: Reflux-induced injury and oxidative stress result in esophageal inflammation and the potential for progression to intestinal metaplasia and adenocarcinoma. Proton-pump inhibitors represent the standard medical approach, but anti-inflammatories and antioxidants offer novel therapeutic possibilities.

Materials And Methods: Six weeks after an esophagojejunostomy reflux procedure, female Wistar rats (n = 100) were randomized to receive either an antioxidant (vitamin C, 8 mg or 28 mg/day), a cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor (rofecoxib, 1 mg/day), or no therapy.

Neither antioxidants nor COX-2 inhibition protect against esophageal inflammation in an experimental model of severe reflux.

Background: Reflux-induced injury and oxidative stress result in esophageal inflammation and the potential for progression to intestinal metaplasia and adenocarcinoma. Proton-pump inhibitors represent the standard medical approach, but anti-inflammatories and antioxidants offer novel therapeutic possibilities.

Materials And Methods: Six weeks after an esophagojejunostomy reflux procedure, female Wistar rats (n = 100) were randomized to receive either an antioxidant (vitamin C, 8 mg or 28 mg/day), a cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor (rofecoxib, 1 mg/day), or no therapy.

Comparative assessment of two indices of drug induced permeability changes in the perfused rat intestine.

In the present study, two indices of acute intestinal permeability changes were investigated as measurements of drug induced intestinal damage. The first method was based on 14C-polyethylene glycol (PEG) 4000 permeability assessment and the second was based on histological evaluation of the intestine. The test compounds were ibuprofen, ketoprofen and naproxen and the alanine, glycine and phenylalanine amide derivatives of ibuprofen.

Passive immunisation of hamsters against Clostridium difficile infection using antibodies to surface layer proteins.

Clostridium difficile is a major cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea and the primary cause of pseudomembraneous colitis in hospitalised patients. We assessed the protective effect of anti-surface layer protein (SLP) antibodies on C. difficile infection in a lethal hamster challenge model.

Detection of a tyrosine phosphatase LAR on intestinal epithelial cells and intraepithelial lymphocytes in the human duodenum.

Studies of tyrosine phosphorylation in the human duodenum have indicated that proliferating cells in the middle portion of the duodenal crypt were devoid of this feature, suggesting that tyrosine kinase activation is not a dominant factor in crypt cell proliferation, and that consequently tyrosine phosphatase activity may be a more critical factor in crypt cell development. We investigated the expression of the leukocyte common antigen-related receptor (LAR) family of tyrosine phosphatases. A flow cytometry system was used to examine cells from the surface, mid-portion, and lower part of the crypt.

Distinct MHC class I and II alleles are associated with hepatitis C viral clearance, originating from a single source.

The role of cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses, restricted by human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I alleles, is recognized as highly significant in the successful clearance of hepatitis C virus (HCV). The frequency of class I alleles in females inoculated with HCV genotype 1b from a single source was examined for an association with outcome. Class I typing was performed using polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific primers in 227 female subjects: 141 had chronic infection and 86 had viral clearance.