Interfacial behaviour of human bile and its substitution for in vitro lipolysis studies.

This study examined the interfacial evolution of individual bile salts (BSs) and their blends with phosphatidylcholine (BS/PC) to simulate the complex behaviour of human bile (HB) during lipolysis at the triglyceride/water interface. Using adsorption and desorption cycles, mimicking exposure to small intestinal fluids, we demonstrate that the interfacial behaviour of real HB can be replicated using simple mixtures of BSs and PC. Interfacial tension (IFT) measurements after lipolysis and desorption showed no significant differences (P > 0.

Quality of Life and Clinical Outcomes of Endosonography-Guided Biliary Drainage in Patients with Malignant Biliary Obstruction: A Single-Center, Prospective Analysis.

Endosonography-guided biliary drainage (EUS-BD) serves as a rescue treatment modality for patients with malignant biliary obstruction when endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) fails. This study explores the effects of EUS-BD on liver function and quality of life (QoL). Patients with malignant biliary obstruction and failed ERCP were enrolled to undergo EUS-BD.

Antimicrobial glycoprotein 2 (GP2) in gallstones, bile fluid and peribiliary glands of patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis.

Background: Glycoprotein-2 (GP2) IgA is a predictor of disease severity in primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). We examined GP2's occurrence in the biliary tract, the site of inflammation.

Methods: GP2 was analyzed using ELISA, immunoblotting, mass spectrometry, and immunohistochemistry.

Importance of Bile Composition for Diagnosis of Biliary Obstructions.

Determination of the cause of a biliary obstruction is often inconclusive from serum analysis alone without further clinical tests. To this end, serum markers as well as the composition of bile of 74 patients with biliary obstructions were determined to improve the diagnoses. The samples were collected from the patients during an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP).

The bile salt content of human bile impacts on simulated intestinal proteolysis of β-lactoglobulin.

The gastrointestinal hydrolysis of food proteins has been portrayed in scientific literature to predominantly depend on the activity and specificity of proteolytic enzymes. Human bile has not been considered to facilitate proteolysis in the small intestine, but rather to assist in intestinal lipolysis. However, human bile can potentially influence proteins that are largely resistant to gastric digestion, and which are mainly hydrolysed after they have been transferred to the small intestine.

Marginally reduced maternal hepatic and splenic ferroportin under severe nutritional iron deficiency in pregnancy maintains systemic iron supply.

The demand for iron is high in pregnancy to meet the increased requirements for erythropoiesis. Even pregnant females with initially iron-replete stores develop iron-deficiency anemia, due to inadequate iron absorption. In anemic females, the maternal iron supply is dedicated to maintaining iron metabolism in the fetus and placenta.

Unresectable malignant obstructive jaundice: a 2-year experience of EUS-guided biliary drainage.

Objectives: Endoscopic biliary drainage is a first-line treatment in patients with unresectable malignant biliary obstruction. In most cases the drainage is conducted using endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). Percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage or endosonography-guided biliary drainage (EUS-BD) represents therapeutic options after unsuccessful ERCP.

Colloidal transport of lipid digesta in human and porcine small intestinal mucus.

Small intestinal mucus transport of food-derived particulates has not been extensively studied, despite mucus being a barrier nutrients need to cross before absorption. We used complex dispersions of digesta obtained from simulated, dynamic gastrointestinal digestion of yogurt to examine the penetrability of human and porcine mucus to the particles formed of lipolysis products. Quantitative, time-lapse confocal microscopy revealed a sieve-like behaviour of the pig jejunal and ileal mucus.

Comparing the permeability of human and porcine small intestinal mucus for particle transport studies.

The gastrointestinal mucus layer represents the last barrier between ingested food or orally administered pharmaceuticals and the mucosal epithelium. This complex gel structure plays an important role in the process of small intestinal absorption. It provides protection against hazardous particles such as bacteria but allows the passage of nutrients and drug molecules towards the intestinal epithelium.

Role of the kidneys in the redistribution of heme-derived iron during neonatal hemolysis in mice.

Moderate intravascular hemolysis is a common condition in newborns. It is followed by the accumulation of bilirubin, which is a secondary product of the activity of heme oxygenase-1, an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of heme released from disrupted erythrocytes and taken up by hepatic macrophages. Although these cells are a major site of enzymatic heme breakdown in adults, we show here that epithelial cells of proximal tubules in the kidneys perform the functions of both heme uptake and catabolism in mouse neonates.

Atp7a and Atp7b regulate copper homeostasis in developing male germ cells in mice.

The maintenance of copper homeostasis is critical for all cells. As learned from mice with disturbed copper metabolism, this trace element is also important for spermatogenesis. The experiments conducted in yeasts have demonstrated that appropriate copper level must be preserved to enable meiosis progression; however, increased copper level is toxic for cells.

Dietary hemoglobin rescues young piglets from severe iron deficiency anemia: Duodenal expression profile of genes involved in heme iron absorption.

Heme is an efficient source of iron in the diet, and heme preparations are used to prevent and cure iron deficiency anemia in humans and animals. However, the molecular mechanisms responsible for heme absorption remain only partially characterized. Here, we employed young iron-deficient piglets as a convenient animal model to determine the efficacy of oral heme iron supplementation and investigate the pathways of heme iron absorption.

A drastic superoxide-dependent oxidative stress is prerequisite for the down-regulation of IRP1: Insights from studies on SOD1-deficient mice and macrophages treated with paraquat.

Iron regulatory protein 1 (IRP1) is a cytosolic bifunctional [4Fe-4S] protein which exhibits aconitase activity or binds iron responsive elements (IREs) in untranslated regions of specific mRNA encoding proteins involved in cellular iron metabolism. Superoxide radical (O2.-) converts IRP1 from a [4Fe-4S] aconitase to a [3Fe-4S] "null" form possessing neither aconitase nor trans-regulatory activity.

Copper therapy reduces intravascular hemolysis and derepresses ferroportin in mice with mosaic mutation (Atp7a): An implication for copper-mediated regulation of the Slc40a1 gene expression.

Mosaic mutant mice displaying functional dysfunction of Atp7a copper transporter (the Menkes ATPase) are an established animal model of Menkes disease and constitute a convenient tool for investigating connections between copper and iron metabolisms. This model allows to explore changes in iron metabolism in suckling mutant mice suffering from systemic copper deficiency as well as in young and adult ones undergone copper therapy, which reduces lethal effect of the Atp7a gene mutation. Our recent study demonstrated that 14-day-old mosaic mutant males display blood cell abnormalities associated with intravascular hemolysis, and show disturbances in the functioning of the hepcidin-ferroportin regulatory axis, which controls systemic iron homeostasis.

Misregulation of iron homeostasis in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Iron is essential for all mammalian cells, but it is toxic in excess. Our understanding of molecular mechanisms ensuring iron homeostasis at both cellular and systemic levels has dramatically increased over the past 15 years. However, despite major advances in this field, homeostatic regulation of iron in the central nervous system (CNS) requires elucidation.

Mice Overexpressing Both Non-Mutated Human SOD1 and Mutated SOD1(G93A) Genes: A Competent Experimental Model for Studying Iron Metabolism in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by degeneration and loss of motor neurons in the spinal cord, brainstem and motor cortex. Up to 10% of ALS cases are inherited (familial, fALS) and associated with mutations, frequently in the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) gene. Rodent transgenic models of ALS are often used to elucidate a complex pathogenesis of this disease.

Urinary Hepcidin Levels in Iron-Deficient and Iron-Supplemented Piglets Correlate with Hepcidin Hepatic mRNA and Serum Levels and with Body Iron Status.

Among livestock, domestic pig (Sus scrofa) is a species, in which iron metabolism has been most intensively examined during last decade. The obvious reason for studying the regulation of iron homeostasis especially in young pigs is neonatal iron deficiency anemia commonly occurring in these animals. Moreover, supplementation of essentially all commercially reared piglets with iron entails a need for monitoring the efficacy of this routine practice followed in the swine industry for several decades.