Gastroenterology
Chapters
page 1 of 3 pages | next »Cryptosporidium and Bile Duct Injury
Xian-Ming Chen and Nicholas F. LaRusso
Cryptosporidium causes selflimited diarrhea in immunocompetent subjects and potentially life-threatening syndromes in immunocompromised individuals, primarily those with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). AIDS-cholangiopathy, an important biliary disorder resulting ...
ABC Transporters, Organic Solute Carriers and Drug Metabolising Enzymes in Bile Duct Epithelial Cells
Peter L.M. Jansen
The sodium-dependent bile salt transporter ASBT in the apical domain of cholangiocytes allows the reabsorption of bile salts in intrahepatic bile ducts. MRP3, a transporter of glucuronide-conjugates and of bile salts, and t-ASBT, a truncated form of ASBT, are expressed in the basolateral domai...
Acute Fatty Liver of Pregnancy
Jerry Angdisen and Jamal A. Ibdah
Acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP) is a serious maternal illness occurring in the third trimester of pregnancy with significant perinatal and maternal mortality. Till recently, it has been considered a mysterious illness. In this chapter we review the recent advances in understanding the pa...
Apoptosis of Biliary Epithelial Cells
Natalie J. Török and Gregory J. Gores
Apoptosis, or programmed cell death is a regulated event, which plays a major role in maintaining homeostasis in the biliary epithelium. The disruption of normal apoptotic pathways can result in different disease states: (1) increases in apoptosis result in decreasing number of biliary e...
Aquaporin-Mediated Water Transport in Intrahepatic Bile Duct Epithelial Cells
Anatoliy I. Masyuk and Nicholas F. LaRusso
Cholangiocytes, the epithelial cells that line the intrahepatic bile ducts, express water channel proteins [i.e., aquaporins (AQPs)], which are increasingly recognized to be important in ductal bile formation. In this chapter we focus on AQPs expressed in cholangiocytes, their topography...
Bile Acid Interactions with Cholangiocytes: Bile Acid Interactions
Gianfranco Alpini, Shannon Glaser, Heather Francis, Marco Marzioni, Julie Venter and Gene LeSage
Bile acids interact with cholangiocytes numerous ways. A specific bile acid transporter (ASBT) is localized on the apical membrane posed to absorb biliary bile acids. On the basolateral membrane three transport systems have been identified (t-ASBT, MDR3 and an anion exchanger system). Studies ...
Biliary Atresia
David H. Perlmutter
Extrahepatic biliary atresia is a disorder of infancy in which there is obliteration of the hepatic or common bile ducts resulting in irreversible end-stage obstructive liver dis ease. Hepatic portoenterostomy (“Kasai procedure”) has permitted long-term survival in approximately 20% of patients...
Calcium Signaling in Cholangiocytes
Erick Hernandez and Michael H. Nathanson
Cytosolic Ca2+ is an important second messenger in virtually all cells and tissues. Ca2+ regulates a range of cell functions, from contraction to secretion to gene expression. Moreover, Ca2+ is able to regulate multiple cellular functions simultaneously. Evidence suggests that Ca2+ is able to reg...
Cholangiocyte Ion Channels: Targets for Drug Development
Greg Fitz
Transepithelial transport of Cl- ions contributes importantly to the formation of bile by cholangiocytes, the epithelial cells that line the lumen of intrahepatic bile ducts. This response is mediated in part by opening of Cl- channels in the apical membrane. Recent...
Cholestasis and Fibrogenesis
Massimo Pinzani
The precise relationship between cholestasis, in its broad meaning, and liver tissue fibro- sis is still poorly defined. The aim of this chapter is to identify and discuss the factors that may associate these general phenomena. For reasons of clarity, we will focus on clinical and experimental ...
Cytokine Regulation of Cholangiocyte Growth
Yoko Yamagiwa and Tushar Patel
Cytokines are mediator molecules which coordinate communication between different cell types and tissues. Recent studies have shown that cholangiocytes can produce as well as respond to cytokines. Several cytokines such as Interleukin-6, Transforming Growth Factor beta and Tumor Necrosis Facto...
Diet, Immunity and Functional Foods
Lesley Hoyles and Jelena Vulevic
Functional foods (specific nutrient and/or food components) should beneficially affect one or more target functions in the body. The use of functional foods as a form of preventive medicine has been the subject of much research over the last two decades. It is well known that nutrition plays a vital...
Drug-Induced Vanishing Bile Duct Syndromes
Tania A. Roskams and Valeer J. Desmet
Various drugs have been implicated in the development of a particular form of liver damage, predominantly involving the bile ducts. Bile duct damage can be mild, but can also result in progressive ductopenia, posing the differential diagnostic problem with other vanishing bile duct syndromes like...
Ductal Bicarbonate Secretion in Human Cholestatic Liver Diseases
Juan F. Medina and Jesus Prieto
Primary bile is formed by the secretion to the canalicular lumen of biliary lipids, organic anions, glutathione, ions and water. Along the biliary tract canalicular bile undergoes a process of fluidification and alkalinization that is influenced by several factors including hormones, neuropept...
Effects of Cytokines and Nitric Oxide on Bicarbonate Secretion by Cholangiocytes
Carlo Spirlì, Lajos Okolicsanyi and Mario Strazzabosco
The hallmark of cholangiopathies (i.e., diseases of the intrahepatic biliary ducts) is a chronic progressive cholestasis. Cytokines and other inflammatory mediators play a central role in the pathophysiology of cholangiopathies through stimulation of apoptotic and proliferative responses, acti...
Effects of Microbiota on Gi Health: Gnotobiotic Research
Doug Wagner
The complex interactions between the GI tract microbiota and the immune system can be simplified for study using gnotobiotic animal models. The importance of cytokines, such as IFN-γ, TNF-α, TGF-β, Interleukin-2, IL-4 and IL-10 in the host response to intestinal bacteria has been eval...
Estrogen Regulation of Cholangiocyte Proliferation
D. Alvaro, G. Alpini, P. Onori, A. Franchitto, M.G. Mancino, S. Glaser, V. Drudi-Metalli, A. Gigliozzi, A. F. Attili and E. Gaudio
Recent data demonstrate that estrogens and their receptors play an important role in modulating cholangiocyte proliferation. Rat cholangiocytes, in fact, express estrogen receptors (ER)-a and -bsubtypes, which are overexpressed in cholangiocytes proliferating after bile duct ligation (BDL) in ...
Fas-Mediated Cholangiopathy in a Murine Model of Graft-Versus-Host Disease
Yoshiyuki Ueno
Bile-duct injury, or cholangiopathy, observed in hepatic graft versus host disease (GVHD) is regarded as an immune-mediated injury, although its precise mechanism is unclear. However, recent studies have suggested the involvement of Fas (CD95) -mediated cell death in this immune-mediated chola...
Functional Heterogeneity of the Intrahepatic Biliary Epithelium
Shannon S. Glaser, Heather Francis, Marco Marzioni, Silvia Taffetani, Jo Lynne Phinizy, Gene LeSage and Gianfranco Alpini
In this book chapter, we discuss the latest findings related to the concept that the bile duct system is heterogeneous regarding: (i) morphological characteristics; (ii) physiological response to gastrointestinal hormones/peptides; (iii) apoptotic and proliferative activity in response to liver i...
Hormonal Regulation of Cholangiocyte Secretion
Alessandro Gigliozzi, Flavia Fraioli and James L. Boyer
Cholangiocyte bicarbonate secretion is highly regulated by hormones, peptides and nerves since it contributes significantly to the total bicarbonate requirement for digestive functions and is the major determinant of alkalinity and hydration of hepatic bile. During digestion secretin induces a du...
Host‑Microbe Communication within the GI Tract
Christopher A. Allen and Alfredo G. Torres
The gastrointestinal tract is a biologically diverse and complicated system which carries out essential physiological functions that support human health, while at the same time maintaining itself as an isolated environment to prevent infection and systemic disease. To maintain homeostasis in the gu...
Host‑Microbe Symbiosis: The Squid‑Vibrio Association‑A Naturally Occurring, Experimental Model of Animal/Bacterial Partnerships
Margaret McFall-Ngai
Many, if not most, animals have specific symbiotic relationships with bacterial partners. Recent studies suggest that vertebrates create alliances with highly complex consortia of hundreds to thousands of prokaryotic phylotypes. In contrast, invertebrates often have binary associations, i.e., relati...
Human Liver Stem Cells: Recent Developments
Alastair J. Strain
Regeneration of the liver begins with growth activation of the primary hepatocyte population. Although in the adult, hepatocytes are normally quiescent and fully differentiated, they retain the capacity to proliferate on demand. The other cell types in the liver, including biliary epithelium, sinu...
Hyperemesis Gravidarum and Maternal Liver Disease
William M. Outlaw, Jamal A. Ibdah and Kenneth L. Koch*
Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is the most severe form of illness within the spectrum of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP). HG affects millions of pregnant women annually, imparts significant cost to society, and places mother and her unborn child at risk. The nausea and vomiting characteristic...
Immunopathogenesis of Vanishing Bile Duct Syndromes
John M. Vierling, Marius Braun and Haimei Wang
Vanishing Bile Duct Syndrome is a term used to describe progressive loss of small intra- hepatic ducts in a variety of different diseases. It is increasingly clear that immunopathogenetic mechanisms involving innate and adaptive immune responses contribute to ductopenia in most of these disease...
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