Non-contrast based approach for liver function quantification using Bayesian-based intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion weighted imaging: A pilot study.

Purpose: Liver cirrhosis disrupts liver function and tissue perfusion, detectable by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Assessing liver function at the voxel level with 13-b value intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted imaging (IVIM-DWI) could aid in radiation therapy liver-sparing treatment for patients with early impairment. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of IVIM-DWI for liver function assessment and correlate it with other multiparametric (mp) MRI methods at the voxel level.

TRAV26-2 T-Cell Receptor Expression Is Associated With Mucosal Lymphocyte Response to Wheat Proteins in Patients With Functional Dyspepsia.

Introduction: An association between functional dyspepsia (FD) and wheat-containing foods has been reported in observational studies; however, an adaptive response has not been demonstrated. We examined whether antigens present in wheat could provoke a response from FD duodenal lymphocytes.

Methods: Lamina propria mononuclear cells (LPMCs) were isolated from duodenal biopsies from 50 patients with FD and 23 controls.

Type 2 and type 17 effector cells are increased in the duodenal mucosa but not peripheral blood of patients with functional dyspepsia.

Background: Functional dyspepsia is characterised by chronic symptoms of post-prandial distress or epigastric pain not associated with defined structural pathology. Increased peripheral gut-homing T cells have been previously identified in patients. To date, it is unknown if these T cells were antigen-experienced, or if a specific phenotype was associated with FD.

Defects in NLRP6, autophagy and goblet cell homeostasis are associated with reduced duodenal CRH receptor 2 expression in patients with functional dyspepsia.

Functional dyspepsia (FD) affects up to 15% of the population and is characterised by recurring upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms occurring in the absence of clinically identifiable pathology. Psychological stress is a key factor associated with the onset of FD and locally acting hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis hormones have been implicated in GI motility and barrier dysfunction. Recent pre-clinical work has identified mechanistic pathways linking corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) with the innate epithelial immune protein NLRP6, an inflammasome that has been shown to regulate GI mucus secretion.

Hepatocyte free cholesterol lipotoxicity results from JNK1-mediated mitochondrial injury and is HMGB1 and TLR4-dependent.

Background & Aims: Free cholesterol (FC) accumulates in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) but not in simple steatosis. We sought to establish how FC causes hepatocyte injury.

Methods: In NASH-affected livers from diabetic mice, subcellular FC distribution (filipin fluorescence) was established by subcellular marker co-localization.

Pharmacological cholesterol lowering reverses fibrotic NASH in obese, diabetic mice with metabolic syndrome.

Background & Aims: We have recently showed that hyperinsulinemia promotes hepatic free cholesterol (FC) accumulation in obese, insulin-resistant Alms1 mutant (foz/foz) mice with NASH. Here we tested whether cholesterol-lowering drugs reduce stress-activated c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation, hepatocyte injury/apoptosis, inflammation, and fibrosis in this metabolic syndrome NASH model.

Methods: Female foz/foz and WT mice were fed HF (0.