Increased serotonin transporter immunoreactivity intensity in the ileum of patients with irritable bowel disease.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common chronic gastrointestinal disorder, which represents an economic burden to society and considerably reduces the quality of life of patients. In a previous study, the density of serotonin cells in the ileum of IBS patients was lower compared with control subjects. The present study aimed to further investigate the immunoreactivity intensity of serotonin and serotonin‑selective reuptake transporter (SERT) in the ileum of IBS patients.

Evaluation of the usefulness of colonoscopy with mucosal biopsies in the follow-up of TNBS-induced colitis in rats.

Animal models are required for research regarding the pathogenesis and efficacy of anti-inflammatory agents in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colitis closely mimics Crohn's disease. The present study was undertaken in order to determine the reliability of following the inflammatory course of TNBS-induced colitis using colonoscopy together with biopsy samples obtained during the examination.

Serotonin and serotonin transporter in the rectum of patients with irritable bowel disease.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common chronic gastrointestinal disorder, which considerably reduces the quality of life of patients and represents an economic burden to society. In previous studies, the density of serotonin‑expressing cells in the rectum of IBS patients did not differ from that of control subjects. The present study was undertaken to investigate the immunoreactivity intensity of serotonin and serotonin‑selective reuptake transporter (SERT) in the rectum of IBS patients.

Colonoscopy with mucosal biopsies in young rats: a model for experimental gastroenterology.

Endoscopy is an important tool in the diagnosis, follow-up and management of several gastrointestinal diseases. In experimental studies, the course and progression of gastrointestinal lesions are followed by sacrificing animals at specific time intervals and the disease is usually assessed postmortem. This approach has several disadvantages, including the requirement of a large number of experimental animals and the inability to evaluate and follow the progression of the same lesion.

Reduced chromogranin A cell density in the ileum of patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common disorder that considerably reduces the quality of life and productivity of patients. Chromogranin A (CgA) is a common marker for endocrine cells. CgA cell density has been reported to be reduced in the duodenum and colon of IBS patients.

Automated tracking of nanoparticle-labeled melanoma cells improves the predictive power of a brain metastasis model.

Biologic and therapeutic advances in melanoma brain metastasis are hampered by the paucity of reproducible and predictive animal models. In this work, we developed a robust model of brain metastasis that empowers quantitative tracking of cellular dissemination and tumor progression. Human melanoma cells labeled with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) were injected into the left cardiac ventricle of mice and visualized by MRI.