Necessity of transnasal gastroscopy in routine diagnostics: a patient-centred requirement analysis.

Introduction: Numerous indications require regular upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (oesophagogastroduodenoscopy; EGD) in outpatients. In most cases, peroral gastroscopy is performed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the need of transnasal gastroscopy (nEGD) in outpatients.

Azithromycin does not improve disease severity in acute experimental pancreatitis.

Acute pancreatitis is a severe systemic disease triggered by a sterile inflammation and initial local tissue damage of the pancreas. Immune cells infiltrating into the pancreas are main mediators of acute pancreatitis pathogenesis. In addition to their antimicrobial potency, macrolides possess anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties which are routinely used in patients with chronic airway infections and might also beneficial in the treatment of acute lung injury.

p8 deficiency leads to elevated pancreatic beta cell mass but does not contribute to insulin resistance in mice fed with high-fat diet.

Background: p8 was initially described as being overexpressed in acute pancreatitis and encoding a ubiquitous stress protein. Analysis of insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in p8-knockout and haplodeficient mice revealed counterintuitive results. Thus, we determined glycemic control of p8 in mice fed with standard (SD) and high-fat diet (HFD).

Immune dysregulation in patients with PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome: Analysis of FOXP3 regulatory T cells.

Background: Patients with heterozygous germline mutations in phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) experience autoimmunity and lymphoid hyperplasia.

Objectives: Because regulation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is critical for maintaining regulatory T (Treg) cell functions, we investigate Treg cells in patients with heterozygous germline PTEN mutations (PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome [PHTS]).

Methods: Patients with PHTS were assessed for immunologic conditions, lymphocyte subsets, forkhead box P3 (FOXP3) Treg cell levels, and phenotype.

Loss of Bace1 in mice does not alter the severity of caerulein induced pancreatitis.

Context: Beta-site alpha-amyloid protein cleaving enzyme1 (BACE1) plays a key role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Additional to its moderate expression in the brain, high levels of BACE1 mRNA were found in the pancreas. Murine Bace1 has been immunohistochemicaly detected at the apical pole of acinar cells within the exocrine pancreas of mice and Bace1 activity was observed in pancreatic juice.

Autoimmunity, intestinal lymphoid hyperplasia, and defects in mucosal B-cell homeostasis in patients with PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome.

The Phosphatase And Tensin Homolog Deleted On Chromosome 10 (PTEN) regulates the phosphoinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)-AKT signaling pathway. In a series of 34 patients with PTEN mutations, we described gastrointestinal lymphoid hyperplasia, extensive hyperplastic tonsils, thymus hyperplasia, autoimmune lymphocytic thyroiditis, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, and colitis. Functional analysis of the gastrointestinal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue revealed increased signaling via the PI3K-AKT pathway, including phosphorylation of S6 and increased cell proliferation, but also reduced apoptosis of CD20(+)CD10(+) B cells.