Monthly Archives: July 2018

Tennessee is currently in the middle of a growing hepatitis A outbreak, centered primarily within Davidson County. The outbreak started in December 2017 and to date there have been 80 cases reported. Continue reading →

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is effective for treating recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), but there are concerns about its long-term safety. Understanding the mechanisms of the effects of FMT could help us design safer, targe… Continue reading →

Mitochondria regulate hepatic lipid metabolism and oxidative stress. Ultrastructural mitochondrial lesions, altered mitochondrial dynamics, decreased activity of respiratory chain complexes, and impaired ability to synthesize ATP are observed in liver … Continue reading →

Although treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has improved, the prevalence of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) has been increasing, so we need an updated estimate of the burden and etiology-specific mortality of chronic liver diseases. We studie… Continue reading →

Over the last decade, clinical experiences and research studies raised concerns regarding use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) as part of the diagnostic strategy for eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). We aimed to clarify the use of PPIs in the evaluation … Continue reading →

Agents designed to block or alter cytokinesis can kill or stop proliferation of cancer cells. We aimed to identify cytokinesis-related proteins that are overexpressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells and might be targeted to slow liver tumor gro… Continue reading →

Among sessile serrated adenomas (SSAs) with identical histologic features, some never progress whereas others become dysplastic and develop into invasive cancers. Development of the CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) is a feature of SSA progression; we examined the CIMP status of 448 SSAs and examined the association with patient outcomes. Overall 190 SSAs were CIMP positive. CIMP positivity was associated with older patient age (P<.001) and proximal polyp site (P<.001), but not with patient sex (P=.94) or polyp size (P=.34). Continue reading →

Immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a chronic relapsing multi-organ fibro-inflammatory syndrome of presumed autoimmune etiology. It is characterized by increased serum levels of IgG subclass 4 (IgG4) and tissue infiltration by IgG4+ cells. I… Continue reading →