Upfront Alcian Blue-periodic acid Schiff stain for the assessment of upper gastrointestinal disorders

Multi-omics analysis of the effects of dietary changes and probiotics on diet-induced obesity

The consumption of a healthy diet is critical for maintaining and promoting human health. In the context of the rapid transformation from a high-fat diet (HFD) to a Mediterranean diet (MD) leading to major systemic changes, we explored the necessity of a transitional standard diet (TSD) between these two varied diets and the adjuvant effect of probiotics. HFD-fed mice were used for studying the changes and benefits of a dietary intervention and probiotic treatment. By measuring multiple systemic alterations such as weight (group B vs. group E, P < 0.05), liver function (AST, group C vs. group E, P < 0.001), and histopathology, we found that an MD, TSD and Bifidobacterium longum all contribute to alleviating lipid deposition and liver injury. The downregulation of IL-17 (group B vs. group E, P < 0.01) and MIP-1α (group B vs. group E, P < 0.001) also demonstrated the anti-inflammatory effects of the TSD. Moreover, we performed multi-omics analysis combined with the 16S sequencing, transcriptome and metabolome results and found that the TSD increased the abundance of the Lactobacillus genus (group C vs. group E, P < 0.01) and effectively lowered lipid accumulation and systemic inflammation. Furthermore, B. longum played an important role in the synergistic effect. The results showed that a TSD might be useful for HFD-induced obesity before drastic dietary changes, and probiotics were also beneficial.

The Meaning of Incidental Goblet Cells at the Gastroesophageal Junction

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

The causes for the occurrence of goblet cells at the gastroesophageal junction (GEJ-GC) are unknown. The aim of our study was to compare the concurrent histologic changes of the stomach in (1) patients with GEJ-GC, but without Barrett's esophagus (BE) to those in (2) patients with BE and in (3) controls without GEJ-GC or BE.

METHODS

We used an electronic database of histopathologic records from 1.3 million individual patients, who underwent esophago-gastro-duodenoscopy (EGD) in 2009-2018. We compared the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori-positive gastritis (HpG), gastric intestinal metaplasia (G-IM), chronic inactive gastritis (CIG), and reactive gastropathy (RG) among the 3 patient groups, using odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS

Of all EGD patients, 4.0% harbored BE and 2.4% GEJ-GC. The average age of patients with GEJ-GC (60 ± 14) was significantly younger than the age of patients with BE (63 ± 12) and significantly older than the age of controls (55 ± 17). Female subjects were more common among GEJ-GC (54%) than BE (37%), but less common than among controls (63%). The 3 gastric histopathology changes associated with H. pylori were significantly more common in GEJ-GC than BE (for HpG 2.42, 2.29-2.56; for G-IM 1.82, 1.73-1.92; for CIG 1.31, 1.22-1.41). The corresponding differences between GEJ-GC and controls were less striking (for HpG 0.97, 0.93-1.01; for G-IM 1.15, 1.11-1.19; for CIG 0.90, 0.85-0.95). RG was slightly less common in GEJ-GC than BE (0.89, 0.86-0.92) and controls (0.94, 0.91-0.96).

CONCLUSIONS

With respect to its demographic and histopathologic features, GEJ-GC likely represents gastric intestinal metaplasia as opposed to BE and should prompt gastric intestinal metaplasia screening and management.