Evaluation of optimal biopsy location for assessment of histological activity, transcriptomic and immunohistochemical analyses in patients with active Crohn's disease.

Background: The appropriate location for biopsy procurement relative to an ulcer in active Crohn's disease is unknown.

Aim: To explore the relationship between biopsy location, histological disease activity, proinflammatory gene expression and the presence of inflammatory cells.

Methods: Fifty-one patients with Crohn's disease and ulcers >0.

Sex differences in the development of hepatic steatosis in cafeteria diet-induced obesity in young mice.

The present study was planned to improve our understanding about sex differences in the development of hepatic steatosis in cafeteria diet-induced obesity in young mice. Female (FCaf) and male (MCaf) mice fed a cafeteria diet had similar body weight gain and adiposity index, but FCaf had a more extensive steatosis than MCaf. FCaf livers exhibited a higher non-alcoholic fatty liver disease activity score, elevated lipid percentage area (+34%) in Sudan III staining and increased TG content (+25%) compared to MCaf.

Bile acid receptor agonists INT747 and INT777 decrease oestrogen deficiency-related postmenopausal obesity and hepatic steatosis in mice.

Unlabelled: Menopause is often followed by obesity and, related to this, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Two bile acid (BA) receptors, farnesoid X receptor (FXR) and G-protein-coupled receptor TGR5, have emerged as putative therapeutic targets for obesity and NAFLD.

Aim Of This Study: to evaluate the efficacy of selective agonists INT747/obeticholic acid (FXR) and INT777 (TGR5) as novel treatments for the metabolic effects of oestrogen deficiency.

Dietary Marine n-3 PUFAs Do Not Affect Stress-Induced Visceral Hypersensitivity in a Rat Maternal Separation Model.

Background: Although never evaluated for efficacy, n-3 (ω-3) long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs) are commercially offered as treatment for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Objective: This study was designed to investigate, in a mast cell-dependent model for visceral hypersensitivity, whether this pathophysiologic mechanism can be reversed by dietary LCPUFA treatment via peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARG) activation.

Methods: Maternally separated rats were subjected to hypersensitivity-inducing acute stress at adult age.

Hepatic Notch2 deficiency leads to bile duct agenesis perinatally and secondary bile duct formation after weaning.

Unlabelled: Notch signaling plays an acknowledged role in bile-duct development, but its involvement in cholangiocyte-fate determination remains incompletely understood. We investigated the effects of early Notch2 deletion in Notch2(fl/fl)/Alfp-Cre(tg/-) ("Notch2-cKO") and Notch2(fl/fl)/Alfp-Cre(-/-) ("control") mice. Fetal and neonatal Notch2-cKO livers were devoid of cytokeratin19 (CK19)-, Dolichos-biflorus agglutinin (DBA)-, and SOX9-positive ductal structures, demonstrating absence of prenatal cholangiocyte differentiation.