4, 5 Thus, the hepatoprotective function of IL-22 likely plays an important role in inhibiting liver fibrosis in these models. It has been reported that hepatic IL-22 selleck inhibitor levels are elevated in viral

hepatitis patients; but, the effect of IL-22 on liver injury and fibrosis in these patients remains obscure. We have previously shown that the number of IL-22+ lymphocytes positively correlates with the grade of inflammation and serum ALT or aspartate aminotransferase levels in viral hepatitis patients.13 Interestingly, a recent study has shown that hepatic IL-22 expression inversely correlates with the histological activity index and fibrosis stage in hepatitis B virus patients.14 These findings suggest that elevated hepatic IL-22 levels may play a compensatory role in preventing liver injury and fibrosis in viral hepatitis patients. The authors thank Dr. Michitaka Ozaki (Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan) for providing the caSTAT3 adenovirus and also Drs. Mingquan Zheng and Jay K.

Kolls (Louisiana State University, New Orleans, LA) for providing IL-22 adenovirus; and also thank Dr. Scott Friedman (Mount Sinai School check details of Medicine, New York) for providing the LX2 cells. They thank Dr. Howard Young (National Cancer Institute at Frederick, National Institutes of Health) for editing the manuscript for this article. Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article. “
“Lactase non-persistence is common in India. We evaluated: (i) frequency of lactase gene (C/T-13910 and G/A-22018) polymorphisms in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and healthy controls (HC), (ii) association between these polymorphisms and IBS-subtypes and symptoms. A total of 150 IBS patients (Rome-III criteria) and 252 age and gender-matched HC were evaluated for C/T-13910 and G/A-22018 genotypes using polymerase chain reaction-restriction

fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Totals of 79 (52%), 52 (35%) and 19 (13%) patients had diarrhea-predominant IBS (D-IBS), constipation predominant IBS (C-IBS) and alternating diarrhea and constipation IBS (A-IBS), respectively (Rome-III). Frequency of C/T-13910 [genotypes: CC 102 (68%), CT 43 (29%), TT 5 (3%) vs CC 155 (61%), CT 83 (33%), TT 14 (6%), P > 0.05] Isotretinoin and G/A-22018 [GG 97 (65%), GA 41 (27%), AA 12 (8%) vs GG 154 (61%), GA 78 (31%), AA 20 (8%), P > 0.05] were similar among IBS and HC. Patients with D-IBS more often had C/T-13910 and G/A-22018 genotypes than C-IBS (CC 71 [90%], CT 6 [8%], TT 2 [2%]) versus (24 [46%], 25 [48%], 3 [6%]), A-IBS (7 [39%], 12 [63%], 0, [0%]) and HC (155 [61%], 83 [33%], 14 [6%]), P < 0.0001 and (GG 69 [87%], GA 6 [8%], AA 4 [5%]) vs (22 [42%], 24 [46%], 6 [12%]) vs (6 [32%], 11 [58%], 2 [10%]), P < 0.0001. IBS with CC and GG genotypes more often had abdominal pain (P = 0.005), distension (P = 0.031) and higher stool frequency (P = 0.003) and reported symptoms following dairy products than non-CC (P < 0.0001).