Background: Barrett's esophagus, a risk factor for esophageal adenocarcinoma, is associated with reflux disease. The aim of this study was to assess the expression of bile acid receptors in the esophagus (normal, esophagitis, Barrett's esophagus and adenocarcinoma) and to investigate their possible function.
Results: the expression of the bile acid receptors FXR and VDR in esophageal biopsies from patients with a normal mucosa, esophagitis, Barrett's esophagus or adenocarcinoma (n = 6 per group) and in cell lines derived from Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma, was assessed by real time Q-PCR and immunohistochemistry. The effect of guggulsterone, an antagonist of bile acid receptors, on apoptosis of Barrett's esophagus-derived cells was assessed morphologically, by flow cytometry and by measuring caspase 3 activity. The expression of FXR was increased in esophagitis, Barrett's esophagus and adenocarcinoma compared to normal mucosa by a mean of 44, 84 and 16, respectively. Immunohistochemistry showed a weak expression in normal esophagus, a strong focal reactivity in Barrett's esophagus, and was negative in adenocarcinoma. VDR expression did not significantly differ between groups. In cell cultures, the expression of FXR was high in Barrett's esophagus-derived cells and almost undetectable in adenocarcinoma-derived cells, whereas VDR expression in these cell lines was not significantly different. In vitro treatment with guggulsterone was associated with a significant increase in the percentage of apoptotic cells and of the caspase 3 activity.
Conclusion: the bile acid receptor FXR is significantly overexpressed in Barrett's esophagus compared to normal mucosa, esophagitis and esophageal adenocarcinoma. The induction of apoptosis by guggulsterone in a Barrett's esophagus-derived cell line suggests that FXR may contribute to the regulation of apoptosis.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-4598-5-48 | DOI Listing |
Am J Gastroenterol
January 2025
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Background And Aims: We sought to develop a minimally-invasive, robust, accessible nonendoscopic strategy to diagnose Barrett's esophagus (BE), esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), and its immediate precursor lesion, high-grade dysplasia (HGD) based on methylated DNA biomarkers applied to a retrievable sponge-capsule device in a cohort representative of the BE population (i.e., mostly short-segment, non-dysplastic BE, NDBE).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMed Phys
January 2025
Netherlands Cancer Institute - Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital, NKI-AvL, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment modality clinically approved for several oncologic indications, including esophageal and endobronchial cancers, precancerous conditions including Barrett's esophagus and actinic keratosis, and benign conditions like age-related macular degeneration. While it is currently clinically underused, PDT is an area of significant research interest. Because PDT relies on the absorption of light energy by intrinsic or administered absorbers, the dosimetric quantity of interest is the absorbed energy per unit mass of tissue, proportional to the fluence rate of light in tissue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer Med
January 2025
Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Background: In the UK's National Health Service (NHS), there is specific psychosocial care offered to people with genetic cancer risk conditions but not morphological cancer risk conditions. As researchers develop new ways to diagnose morphological risk conditions, including precancers and in situ cancers, it is important to consider the psychosocial care that those diagnosed might require.
Objectives: This study compares the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's guidelines for BRCA1/2, which are genetic risk conditions, and Barrett's oesophagus (BO), a morphological risk condition.
Aliment Pharmacol Ther
January 2025
Department of Gastroenterology, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, Hertfordshire, UK.
Background: Acid reflux is a common presentation in primary care leading to a high volume of referrals to endoscopy that are often normal.
Aims: To determine whether a non-endoscopic capsule sponge biomarker test could triage patients with low-risk reflux symptoms, reduce endoscopy waiting lists and identify Barrett's oesophagus in a real-world setting.
Methods: Patients with reflux symptoms on NHS endoscopy waiting lists who were offered a capsule sponge (test group) between February 2021 and August 2022 were included in this national multicentre prospective cohort study and compared with eligible patients on the standard endoscopy pathway (counterfactual group).
Pathol Res Pract
January 2025
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Penn State Health Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, United States. Electronic address:
Our understanding of predictors of progression in Barrett's esophagus (BE) remains incomplete. To address this gap, we evaluated histological features and biomarkers that could predict dysplastic/neoplastic progression in patients with BE. We conducted a retrospective study to identify eligible BE patients and classified the cases into two groups: cases with BE progression (n = 10; progressing to high-grade dysplasia or carcinoma within five years of initial diagnosis) and cases without BE progression (n = 52; without progression to high-grade dysplasia or carcinoma within five years).
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