The Osteopontin Level in Liver, Adipose Tissue and Serum Is Correlated with Fibrosis in Patients with Alcoholic Liver Disease

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Osteopontin (OPN) plays an important role in the progression of chronic liver diseases. We aimed to quantify the liver, adipose tissue and serum levels of OPN in heavy alcohol drinkers and to compare them with the histological severity of hepatic inflammation and fibrosis.</p> <h3>Methodology/Principal Findings</h3><p>OPN was evaluated in the serum of a retrospective and prospective group of 109 and 95 heavy alcohol drinkers, respectively, in the liver of 34 patients from the retrospective group, and in the liver and adipose tissue from an additional group of 38 heavy alcohol drinkers. Serum levels of OPN increased slightly with hepatic inflammation and progressively with the severity of hepatic fibrosis. Hepatic OPN expression correlated with hepatic inflammation, fibrosis, TGFβ expression, neutrophils accumulation and with the serum OPN level. Interestingly, adipose tissue OPN expression also correlated with hepatic fibrosis even after 7 days of alcohol abstinence. The elevated serum OPN level was an independent risk factor in estimating significant (F≥2) fibrosis in a model combining alkaline phosphatase, albumin, hemoglobin, OPN and FibroMeter® levels. OPN had an area under the receiving operator curve that estimated significant fibrosis of 0.89 and 0.88 in the retrospective and prospective groups, respectively. OPN, Hyaluronate (AUROC: 0.88), total Cytokeratin 18 (AUROC: 0.83) and FibroMeter® (AUROC: 0.90) estimated significance to the same extent in the retrospective group. Finally, the serum OPN levels also correlated with hepatic fibrosis and estimated significant (F≥2) fibrosis in 86 patients with chronic hepatitis C, which suggested that its elevated level could be a general response to chronic liver injury.</p> <h3>Conclusion/Significance</h3><p>OPN increased in the liver, adipose tissue and serum with liver fibrosis in alcoholic patients. Further, OPN is a new relevant biomarker for significant liver fibrosis. OPN could thus be an important actor in the pathogenesis of this chronic liver disease.</p> </div

Accuracy of citrulline, I-FABP and d-lactate in the diagnosis of acute mesenteric ischemia

Data availability: Research data are not shared.Supplementary Information oi available online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-98012-w#Sec14 .Early diagnosis of acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) remains a clinical challenge, and no biomarker has been consistently validated. We aimed to assess the accuracy of three promising circulating biomarkers for diagnosing AMI—citrulline, intestinal fatty acid-binding protein (I-FABP), and D-lactate. A cross-sectional diagnostic study enrolled AMI patients admitted to the intestinal stroke center and controls with acute abdominal pain of another origin. We included 129 patients—50 AMI and 79 controls. Plasma citrulline concentrations were significantly lower in AMI patients compared to the controls [15.3 μmol/L (12.0–26.0) vs. 23.3 μmol/L (18.3–29.8), p = 0.001]. However, the area under the receiver operating curves (AUROC) for the diagnosis of AMI by Citrulline was low: 0.68 (95% confidence interval = 0.58–0.78). No statistical difference was found in plasma I-FABP and plasma D-lactate concentrations between the AMI and control groups, with an AUROC of 0.44, and 0.40, respectively. In this large cross-sectional study, citrulline, I-FABP, and D-lactate failed to differentiate patients with AMI from patients with acute abdominal pain of another origin. Further research should focus on the discovery of new biomarkers.Grants from MSD-Avenir and APHP funded the SURVIBIO study; Alexandre Nuzzo received Ph.D. Grants from “Fondation de l'Avenir” and the French Gastroenterology Society (SNFGE)

Produtividade, adaptabilidade e estabilidade fenotípica de cultivares de tomateiro sob diferentes condições de ambiente Productivity, adaptability and phenotypic stability of tomato cultivars grown under different environmental conditions

O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar o desempenho produtivo, adaptabilidade e estabilidade fenotípica de seis genótipos de tomateiro na região de Marília, SP. Os experimentos foram conduzidos em nove ambientes (seis sob condições de cultivo protegido e três sob condições de céu aberto), com seis genótipos (Carmen, Diva, Donador, Graziela, Vita e HE-295), em blocos casualizados, com quatro repetições. Ocorreram diferenças significativas entre ambientes, e a média geral dos cultivos protegidos superou a dos cultivos a céu aberto quanto à produtividade, apesar de a média geral dos cultivos a céu aberto ser superior quanto ao peso médio de frutos. As cultivares, à exceção de HE-295, demonstraram alta estabilidade, merecendo destaque as cultivares Carmen, Donador e Vita, que tiveram rendimento médio superior ao da média geral, adaptabilidade geral e comportamento previsível em todos os ambientes estudados. Quanto ao peso médio dos frutos, as cultivares Diva e Vita foram as únicas que mostraram ampla adaptabilidade a todos os ambientes, comportamento previsível, além de apresentarem peso médio do fruto superior ao da média geral.<br>The objective of this work was to evaluate productivity, adaptability and phenotypic stability of six tomato genotypes in Marília, SP, Brazil. The experiments were carried out at nine environments (six of them under conditions of protected cultivation and three under open air conditions), with six genotypes (Carmen, Diva, Donador, Graziela, Vita and HE-295), in a randomized block design, with four replications. There were significant differences among environments, independent of cultivation system. General average of protected cultivations overcame free cultivations considering yield, although the general average of free cultivations was overcame for mean fruit weights. All genotypes, except 'HE-295', showed high stability, with prominence for cultivars Carmen, Donador and Vita, which showed higher mean yield, and general adaptability and stability in all environments studied. For mean fruit weights, cultivars Diva and Vita were the only ones that showed wide adaptability for both environments and highly predictable behavior, with mean fruit weights superior to general average