The decrease of serum levels of human neutrophil alpha-defensins parallels with the surgery-induced amelioration of NASH in obesity.

Background: Innate immune system participates actively into inflammatory processes, with immune cells and liver secreting a number of immune peptides. Among them, both soluble CD14 receptor (sCD14) and human neutrophil alpha-defensins (HNDs) may represent serum markers of necro-inflammation in obese patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Methods: To verify this hypothesis, we investigated changes in circulating levels of sCD14 and HNDs in 11 severely obese young women following surgery-induced weight loss (bilio-pancreatic diversion).

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in children.

In view of the epidemic obesity in childhood, facing the disease and its associated morbidities early at this age becomes crucial for public health researchers and care givers. The present review focuses on pediatric Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) among co-morbidities, being the disease yet under diagnosed and under treated despite a prevalence growing exponentially. Evidences suggest that the environmental background for the development of NAFLD may be established in early life, and that the duration of the disease affects probably the likelihood of progression to more severe disease (necro-inflammation or Non Alcoholic SteatoHepatitis, also termed, NASH; fibrosis and cirrhosis).

Performance of ELF serum markers in predicting fibrosis stage in pediatric non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Background & Aims: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most frequent chronic liver disease in children and adolescents in industrialized countries. It is important to accurately determine the stage of fibrosis in these patients. The enhanced liver fibrosis (ELF) test has been validated for staging liver fibrosis in adult patients with chronic liver diseases, including NAFLD.

CD34 human hematopoietic progenitor cell line, MUTZ-3, differentiates into functional osteoclasts.

Objective: CD14(+) monocyte cell lines can differentiate into an osteoclast (OC)-like lineage. However, the identification of human cell lines with stem cell characteristics, capable of differentiating into OCs, would provide a tool for the study of the molecular mechanisms regulating their commitment, differentiation, and function. Since the human acute myeloid leukemia cell line MUTZ-3 contains both CD34(+) stem cell and CD14(+) cell populations, we investigated the capacity of the stem/progenitor CD34(+) population to differentiate into functional OCs.

KCNJ11 activating mutations in Italian patients with permanent neonatal diabetes.

Permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus (PNDM) is a rare condition characterized by severe hyperglycemia constantly requiring insulin treatment from its onset. Complete deficiency of glucokinase (GCK) can cause PNDM; however, the genetic etiology is unknown in most PNDM patients. Recently, heterozygous activating mutations of KCNJ11, encoding Kir6.